Month: June 2009

Dogs don’t know what they did wrong yesterday!

As Leaders we must be vigilant about our culture and when changes are needed or confrontation over beliefs or behaviors needs to occur – they need to occur as close to the behavior as possible – this is not a once a year employee review type thing.

Most people have difficulty when it comes to confrontations. When it comes to confronting beliefs it can seem even more so. They refuse to confront something immediately and allow it to build and fester until it or they blow up. They use anger as a method for emotional strength to deal with something that should have been dealt with all through the year and not just at the review. (As you can tell – I’m not a fan of the yearly review)

Without discussing the pro’s and con’s of social plurality, let me just say when it comes to business teams – we can’t have 16 dogs pulling in 16 different directions – or even 2. We need everyone pulling in one direction – one purpose, one goal, one team.

To that end (our ‘Burled Arch’) we are going to need to solidify a unified, positive and purposeful culture (again – beliefs and behaviors). To gain this focus – it’s just a fact that not every belief and behavior is going to line up and that we’re going to need to discuss this with the individual team member(s).

So how do we do it:

1. Understand the specifics of where we believe they are off the trail.
2. Take the mindset that most people have honest intentions
3. Ask them to talk about their lens (belief/perspective) on that particular issue.
4. Help them back on the trail

When you seek first to be very specific about the issues, to get their perspective and to give people the benefit of the doubt – it helps keep the confrontation on topic. Many people view correction or confrontation as an assault or a rejection of them as a person. This immediately backs that team member into a corner and we can all see the picture of a cornered dog, right? For self preservation they will almost always come out fight for self preservation.

For years I’ve taught on using the ‘sandwich method’ for confrontation – where you affirm the person (bread), deal with the issue (meat), affirm the person, their contribution / value (bread) and set points of accountability and clarity around future behavior.

For most team members – your sharing your lens and the desired lens of the future will be enough will be enough for them to see a different perspective and start the change process. If a team member continues to engage in divisive behaviors or continues to hold onto beliefs that are contrary to the team and harmful to progress then we’ll need to increase the intensity and frequency of the confrontation. If it comes to it – you may even, ultimately, recommend that they run for a different team and that’s ok too – not our first choice – but we have to value the mission, we have to value the other players on the team – and we have to guard the culture!

Shorter post for today – leaving time for your Friday comments – have a great day and weekend!

All along the way from Anchorage to the ‘Burled Arch’ of Nome there are checkpoints and veterinarian staff to help the Musher take care of His / Her team but the honest truth is that care of the dogs takes place more so between the checkpoints and on the trail then at the designated stops.

Leaders have to monitor the health of each individual member AND the health of the team as a cohesive unit. At times, individual behaviors are addressed and at time Leaders have to dive into the team dynamics to correct the pack’s behavior. All done under the watchful and purposeful eye of the Musher and viewed from the vantage point of the musher’s position in the sled.

When it comes to purposeful culture, purposeful ‘beliefs and behaviors’ and turning around cultural challenges here are some thoughts:

Create the ‘Cultural Burled Arch’

Being able to recognize where your team is off the trail starts with knowing where the trail is and what it looks like – the more specific the better.

Know where you are now / Listen to the Metaphors

When you’re out on the trail and you want to “get a feel” of the surroundings, sometimes you have to still yourself and just listen. Listen to how people feel, listen as they reveal their ‘beliefs’, and listen for telling metaphors. If your team is saying things like, “we’re the runts of the litter” or “we’re the cast offs from other teams” or “our department gets thrown all the scraps.” These are telling metaphors that reveal the departmental or personal ‘sub-culture’. At other times, you may need some external help (call them business veterinarians) to partner with you and diagnose the issues in the team.

Engage key ‘Swing Dogs’

Bring ‘Swing Dogs’ (see May 19 post) in on the front end, gain their involvement/buy-in, and then let them be the influencers that they are.

Trail Map, Checkpoints, and Training Runs

Once you know where you are, where you want to go, and have the influencers on board – start running the ‘Training Runs’. The second part of the definition of ‘Culture’ is: development and improvement through education or training. If we want the team to ‘Behave’ a different way – we’re going to need them to think (Believe) a different way. This starts with creating new and more desirable metaphors, introducing the new mindset and then working through a consistent process to get them to accept, adopt, and own it. (Digest, assimilate, energize, run!)

Leverage Technology

Leveraging the ‘Swing Dogs’ is powerful, leveraging technology and the Swing Dogs – incredible. Create a social network, a company blog, leverage Twitter, consistently reinforce the message – create a tight knit ‘Pack’ of true believers wanting change, develop and communicate with them via these technologies and then leverage all of it to create the groundswell or ‘avalanche’ of change.

Dogs don’t know what they did wrong yesterday!

As Leaders we must be vigilant about our culture and when changes are needed or confrontation over beliefs or behaviors needs to occur – they need to occur as close to the behavior as possible – this is not a once a year employee review type thing. (I’ll write more on this tomorrow)

Keep on, Keeping on.

Cultural change can take place quickly or it can take decades depending on the size of the organization and a number of other factors. Know the real picture of what your up against – but don’t allow the size of the ‘Race’ to discourage you. Take it one step, one checkpoint at a time and realize you are on the road to a better culture.

Remember: It’s not the size of the Dog in the Fight, It’s the size of the Fight in the Dog! (Mark Twain)

Sled Dogs will run with or without you! This is, exactly, why Rule #1 of mushing is, “Never Let Go of the Sled!”

The culture of an organization is the same way. Whether by Default or by Design – it will continue right on down the trail. As the musher – It’s Your Sled and Your Team. The choice we have as leaders is to either ‘Own’ the culture or ‘Abandon’ the culture and like the middle of the Iditarod race – there’s not a lot in between.

The culture of an organization, again, comes down to Integrating each player into an effective team and adapting, effectively, to the trail conditions (external environment) in order to survive. Over time as the team finds solutions to problems and experience ‘daily running’, they build up patterns of basic assumptions about how to operate and how to relate. These ‘Patterns’ or ‘Beliefs’ are then transmitted to each new team member as they are brought into the team. The ‘Patterns’ are created and recreated until they become engrained ‘Behaviors’ with deep seeded ties to the ‘History’ of the Team. The question is not if this will occur – the question is will it occur by Design, on purpose? And since they become deep seeded, I suggest taking hold of the Sled Handle and becoming purposeful.

As you start to ‘Design’ your team’s Culture, here are some thoughts. Start with the basics of:

• Who we are.
• What we do.
• How we do.
• How we interact. With ourselves. With others
• How we measure success

This can start the process of development:

Who we are.

This is our organizational DNA and desired future DNA: Stories from the Trail (Organizational or departmental history), Values (stated and unstated) – our ‘Unique Team Genetic Code’ and the source for our Organizational Pride

What we do.

This is our offerings, our product, our ‘niche’ and can be similar to the production side of the Vision / Mission Statement. (ie, we make quality products for a fair price for the Widget industry)

How we do.

The How is important to Race Performance. Without clarity around ‘How’ the race is to be run then our people are left to make assumptions. This can be what my friend, Jeremie Kubicek, calls our ‘Secret Sauce’. It, also, sets the boundaries and the ‘Race Rules’ and acceptable and unacceptable performance methodologies. This area contains very specific, ‘Roles, Methods, Metrics’ and can be so innovative that it creates ‘Competitive Space’ allowing us to run on a clean trail, in clean air.

How we Interact.

Every team needs a ‘code of conduct’. Rules for interaction and communication both inside the team and to our customers, vendors, investors, public, etc. The components of how the dogs are treated are under constant scrutiny from Animal Rights activists and speaking from my experience, the musher’s deeply care for their dogs. In addition, they have rules for those that work with their dogs. But just as important are how the dogs will treat each other, other teams within our kennel, race officials, veterinarians, etc. Key pieces here Teamwork, communication, and employee relations!

How we measure success

This is so key to effective performance and to the ‘beliefs and behaviors’ of the group. Consistent communication around what we measure, how we measure, and constant reports from the trail relating to our performance and if we are ‘winning’ – whatever that means to us.

Like I said yesterday – we could easily spend a year or more on the topic – but we have more trail of our own to run today and so do you!

Run with purpose and ON purpose!