If I had a dollar for every email I have gotten over the years telling me they can “teach” me how to build a winning and game changing culture, I’d be set for life. I’m sure you have gotten these as well. If you are a leader of any kind you have gotten one of these messages and were probably promised the same thing…someone can teach you how to build an awesome culture…the kind every company dreams about. They can’t.
I already know I will probably get bombarded with some hate mail from all the coaches out there claiming it can be taught…but that’s OK…I’ll take the heat just to share what I (and many other leaders) think about this crazy idea. But before you decide to shoot off one of these not so pleasant emails to me, let me share with you why I feel this way and maybe, just maybe, you’ll see my side and actually agree with me.
Culture isn’t a course…like teaching project management or marketing. There aren’t lots of check boxes you need to go through to learn about it and then just go back and implement it. You don’t get certified for being a highly trained culture manager…at least I don’t think those are out there…would be fun to actually see if this exists. No, culture doesn’t fit into this type of box. It isn’t like all the other disciplines we “teach” to our teams where after the course they are trained and ready to execute our new culture.
Culture is a group of values-based components that are demonstrated by how you live every minute of every day and do it because it’s the right thing to do.
This was illustrated to me (again) a few weeks ago from some work I’m doing with a company. We are doing Customer Experience Mapping (one of the 3 components to helping them get there) as part of helping them be a Customer Obsessed organization…(you just got my marketing pitch for the day, now we can move on). As we were going through this process (with employees of the organization…not leadership) of creating some amazing experiences they could deliver to their customers, the employees were making some unsolicited, yet very powerful comments. Comments that caused me to pause and talk about these in greater detail. Here were a few to give you a flavor for what was happening here…
What is happening here? There was no one from the leadership group involved in any of these situations. This was CULTURE AT WORK. This was CULTURE BEING DEMONSTRATED. There was no class or training on any of this. This was “home grown” by the employees after truly seeing their purpose and their core values and how important they were to live, not just have in a book or on the wall somewhere.
If employees don’t understand your “purpose” and your “core values,” you have no shot at building a culture you want in your company. A “culture” will just show up on its own and it most likely won’t be the one you want.
Employees have to have purpose to create a culture. If they don’t see the purpose shared by leadership and demonstrated by leadership, they’ll go rogue and create the one they want, not the one you might want. EVERY COMPANY HAS A CULTURE…it just might not be the one you want. But that can be changed by going back to Purpose and Values. When employees clearly know the purpose of the organization and what values the organization has at its core, culture change can happen.
Since I’m in the world of helping every organization be Customer Obsessed, putting their core focus around making the customer the center of their universe, leads them to demonstrate this to their customers. The way the employees treat their customers is paramount…critically important…an absolute necessity.
Customer Obsession isn’t just a set of nice words, it’s a culture…it’s the DNA of an organization. It only works when the employees start saying, “That’s just how we do things around here, our customer always comes first in everything we do and in all our decisions.”
If you want a different company, take another look at your purpose and your core values…I can guarantee the answer is hidden somewhere inside of these. A vague or “corporate purpose” (one that no one really understands but sounds good) is never internalized by employees.
What do your values and purpose statements say about your company? Here’s a simple test to see if your purpose passes the “simplicity test.” Ask them to write down the answer to this one question on the sheet of paper, “When you see our Vision, Mission, Purpose, and Values statements, what do they mean to you personally?” Make a copy for every employee and hand it out. Tell them this is their own, not to be discussed or shared with anyone else. Write down what it means to them…a word, a sentence, a paragraph. Once you get all of these, read through them to see what your employees think is their purpose and to see how much alignment (or lack thereof) there is among the responses. You’ll be shocked!
The answer to this question will tell you immediately what your employees believe the culture of the company truly is…not what’s written in the employee handbook. It will tell you how they have internalized these words, and of course, how they are living them out in your company. But even more important than just what the words mean to them is “how much alignment” do you have from employee to employee? I generally find very little alignment…which translates to an inconsistent culture. It is like herding cats, there is no common direction, they are just going the way they want.
One of the most common statements I hear from employees is, “I see the words of our Vision, Mission, and Values but really don’t understand what they mean.” Is it any wonder why employees don’t embrace the great work leadership is doing in constructing these sentences and statements? I have been in countless strategy meetings where there is lots of discussion about the right wording for these various areas. Unfortunately, often times the wording is something “well crafted” but not “easily understood.” There is a big difference between something written well and something that is written to be understood.
No one can demonstrate what they don’t understand.
Companies, like Zappos, figured this out and use the simplest, shortest phrases possible so EVERY person in the company gets it and can internalize it. This is mission critical from my perspective. Zappos is one of the best at making this “dirt simple” so that anyone, anywhere, can get what their purpose is and understand who they are and what values drive their culture.
Customer Obsession helps to resolve this issue…so do other methods. Their purpose is to help get two things to happen…
When this happens, the answers to the question above is in alignment and employees are working toward a common cause, goal…purpose. It’s one of the reasons I’m so insanely passionate about Customer Obsession because it gives employees a common rally cry around the one person that writes us checks and pays our salaries…the customer. There are other areas as well…such as a noble and important cause and others. But the key is the same…alignment.
When employees and leadership…essentially everyone in the organization…are in alignment, amazing things happen. NOW…everyone in the company is DEMONSTRATING their culture…the holy grail for a company to really be a wonderful place to work and for customers to love working with your employees. No one is trained…yet everyone is focused on the same thing…how awesome is that!!
What To Do Next...
Did this post cause you to sit back and about the culture in your organization? Did it cause you to think about where your customer is in your culture? Did you cause you to think whether or not your employees are in alignment when it comes to your culture? If any of your answers caused you to think a bit differently about your culture, your employees, or your customers, then you’ve started to make the transition into the world of Customer Obsession. My goal is to always help you think a bit differently in an attempt to help you and your organization be the best it can be.
Everything starts with understanding where you are, so you know what you need to do to get where you want. Making an honest assessment of where you are is always the start to change. I’ve given you some insight into how you can figure this out inside your own organization to better understand where you are today. This is the first (and most) critical step to getting a handle on building more trust and not taking it for granted.
Not sure you can do this as I described? I’m happy to help you out with this if you need a boost to get started. Lots of ways to do this so that you can run with it going forward. Or if you just want to talk through it a bit more, let’s grab coffee (or lunch) sometime. The coffee (or lunch) is on you…the education and information is on me. My goal is to help save you TIME in the process if you are interested in being Customer Obsessed and becoming “REMARK”able in the process...which is my passion and goal for every company on the planet. Big goal…but it starts with one.
The only question that remains is, “Are you ready to be Customer Obsessed and become “REMARK”able?”
