Strategies for Culture Change

April 8, 2019 By // by Andrew Shaffer

Last week, I was talking to a fellow consultant about change management in business. He actually thought most of his business would come when companies were in a state for turmoil, as opposed to steady consistent atmosphere. This week I decided to share with you some reasons why change is so difficult in a company and introduce a better way to implement a culture change.

Strategies for Culture Change

At every company I ever worked for, there was always a push for continuous improvement. Companies spent time and money looking for process improvements or new software that could streamline a process. How do we do it faster, cheaper, better? Great question! Who doesn’t want to do more with less?

The Hard Way

The trouble with new processes or software is they don’t always improve efficiency. People are creatures of habit. To understand this, we need to understand what a habit is. A habit is an automatic response to a trigger. It’s noon (trigger) – time for lunch (response). My alarm is buzzing (trigger) – time to get up (response).

Companies spend a lot of money working on infrastructure updates, new tools, systems and processes, in order to achieve more efficiency. Then when a new system is in place, they spend even MORE money training employees to learn the new system. After all this money is spent, they don’t see the efficiencies they had hoped to see! WHY!?!

In the work place we are still humans, and still creatures of habit. We receive an email (trigger), we respond (response). And on it goes. When there is a change to a process, or a new piece of software is added to the mix, people are being asked to respond differently to the same trigger. This creates confusion and disrupts their habits. It is essentially the same as setting your alarm clock when it is time to go to sleep! You wouldn’t expect someone to have a completely different reaction to the sound of an alarm clock! Why expect them to change responses to the same trigger in the work place?

People will resist this kind of change, complain about the new software or process. It may take longer to accept the change, or people may go back to doing it the old way. That is more comfortable, and after all, it’s worked for so long already!

Process Improvements are Necessary

I know what you are thinking, process improvements are necessary. The new software is needed because the old stuff isn’t sustainable anymore. How do I get people to adopt to new processes?

The Better Way

Just like any change in habit, change the trigger. At one point in a former career, I was being reassigned. It was requested that I train my replacement during a transition period. The reasoning behind this was that I could smoothly transition my tasks to my replacement. This caused some issues with the team, and the confusion slowed the transition.

As long as I was there, the team would look to me for answers and direction. This was what they had done since the project started. The team looked to me to run the staff meetings and a whole host of things I normally did. In this case, my presence was the trigger. They came to me with status and problems as the response. It wasn’t until I removed the trigger (stopped attending meetings) that the team started relying on my replacement and made the transition.

Accept that Failure is Possible

Process improvements can’t be about changing responses. That is ineffective. It just doesn’t work. If you really want to maximize the benefits of improved systems and processes the key is to identify and change the triggers. Replace an existing trigger with a new trigger, and then you’ll get people to have a different response without the struggle of changing habits.

This Week’s Challenge

Find one area where you know you can be more efficient. Identify the trigger to change the response, and see your efficiency improve!

The challenge this week is to find one process habit to change to your team more efficient.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Is Culture Hurting Your Profits?

March 18, 2019 By // by Andrew Shaffer

To continue with this month’s theme of the impact culture has on company growth, I will discuss ways culture can be hurting your profits. Every time there is a group of people a culture is formed. It could be a company, private club, church, or civic group. They all develop a unique culture. Last week we talked about how culture can help you through external challenges, this week, I am going to talk about ways to determine if your culture is hurting your profits.

Culture is Hurting Your Profits

We all know that ultimately you need employees to make and deliver your products and services. It doesn’t matter how great your strategies are, your processes and technology can be world class, but eventually you will have to rely on people to make money. When you have employees, a corporate culture will develop. Your corporate culture is simply the way it’s done at any given company. The trouble with a corporate culture is it is embedded into the fabric of your company, and impacts everything from productivity, employee loyalty, customer satisfaction and PROFITS. Here are some things to look for that can indicate you are in need of a desperate culture shift before you find yourself unable to maintain your competitive edge.

Complacency

I touched on challenging the status quo earlier this month, but it is so important that I feel it warrants a second discussion. The idea that “this is how we do it here,” can be deadly. I have seen companies try to break this attitude of complacency by hiring outside people to fill in leadership positions. The theory is they will give an outside perspective and improve profits. The struggle is, culture can be so pervasive and the new leader meets so much resistance, the company quickly goes back to business as usual.

Complacency hurts, because when individuals become complacent, they no longer create and innovate. You either grow or die! Innovation and creativity is what gave you a competitive edge and what kept you in business. I can promise you this, if you have a culture of complacency and your competition doesn’t it is just a matter of time before you are losing market share.

Us vs. Them

Us versus Them is one of the most dangerous culture issues I have seen. This can manifest in a few different ways. It could be individual contributor vs. management, management vs. executives, or department vs. department. In the end, it results in excuses and a lack of accountability. People tend to blame outside circumstances or people for any shortcomings. When this gets to the point where there is an us vs them attitude, internal to the company, it breeds distrust.

Unfortunately, when this type of culture occurs it is extremely difficult to overcome. Once a lack of trust is established, there is no quick fix to reestablish trust. This requires new leadership at several levels, perhaps a management restructure, and time. Recognizing when trust is breaking down is the time to address the situation before it goes too far. How often does your organization, evaluate employee engagement and trust? If you are doing it on an annual basis, you probably are not doing it enough.

Decision Making

Who likes to be micromanaged? Rhetorical question, but just in case, NOBODY! Micromanagement is a sign of a weak culture. The reason a manager would micromanage is a lack of trust. They don’t trust their employees to do their jobs, or don’t trust them to make decisions, or they lack confidence in their own ability to lead.

Managers should be empowering members of their team to make decisions. Lead them to make the right decisions, and trust that they will do what is expected. Now this can’t be blind trust, there has to be some level of accountability, and follow up. But if employees do not feel they are empowered to make decisions, they will become resentful. It is always a good practice to push decision making down to the lowest level possible. Don’t believe me? Well it works for the Ritz Carlton!

This Week’s Challenge

Take stock in your company and do an honest evaluation of your culture. Look for signs of complacency, unhealthy rivalries or micromanagement. Each of these can hurting your profits.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Use Culture to Gain a Competitive Edge

March 4, 2019 By // by Andrew Shaffer

I had the privilege of sitting down with my friend Ben from Global Harvest Networks to share ideas on how to help companies grow. When I first met Ben, his story of growth in his company inspired me, and he hasn’t stopped growing. When Ben and I were talking, he shared that he is always amazed at how his team is willing to step up and take on new challenges. His company has developed a culture that gives him a competitive edge. In light of this conversation I thought I’d share with you how you can use culture to gain a competitive edge!

Use Culture to Gain a Competitive Edge

There are two things I know about your business. First, if you are not making money, you are going to go out of business. Second, your business cannot operate without people. Businesses either grow or die.

According to aei.org: only 12% of the Fortune 500 companies in 1955 were still a Fortune 500 company in 2015. It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is, or how your proprietary information gives you an edge. Without people to sell, develop, and produce the product or provide the service, nothing will get done.

The other little secret, your product or service can be the absolute best today, but if you don’t continuously improve, you’ll soon be left behind. Need proof? Remember the Motorola Razor phone? What happened to Motorola? When I was a kid, everyone in the neighborhood had an Atari 2600 game console. Atari isn’t even in business anymore. Not to mention the number of airlines, car companies, and electronics companies that no longer exist.

Last month we discussed the importance of developing proactive leadership. To take this discussion to the next level, your leaders should be creating a culture that gives you a competitive edge!

Challenge the Status Quo

When you find something that works stick with it. Right? I mean that sounds like good advice. My dad used to tell me, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This advice was probably sound, when my dad saw me taking a screw driver to the VCR because I wanted to “see how it works” but this mentality can be detrimental to a business.

I have met business owners that have done a decent job of building themselves a profitable business. However, after several years, they find they can’t increase revenue or market share, and sometimes they are even losing revenue. They call in consultants (like me), and when I suggest making changes to the business model, I get immediate resistance. They built their business doing it a certain way and come hell or high water, that is the way it will be done. In the meantime, their competitors have found a way to solve the same problem cheaper, faster and smarter. Who is going to stay in business longer? Create a culture that is as proactive as your leaders.

Develop Friendly Competition

Anther struggle I see in businesses is a culture of cut-throat competition. I mean that culture where everyone is out for themselves and not for the company? Friendly competition is fine, fun, and productive. It is when the competition is mean, undermining, and counterproductive that it becomes toxic to a company.

Let’s use a manufacturing company as an example. This company runs three shifts a day to produce their product. Management decides to help motivate the production floor, that they’ll have a competition over the next month to see how may products each shift can make. In a culture of friendly competition, each shift would work hard and try to produce the greatest number of products. They would get creative to find more efficient and effective ways. Ideally, each subsequent shift will do this. Each team wins, because they learn how to be more effective and efficient. One team may win a prize (or bragging rights), and the company benefits from improved productivity and profitability.

Now, if you have a cut-throat type culture, the results will be extremely different. Here you may have one shift trying to sabotage the next shift. They could damage or “lose” material. They certainly wouldn’t be creative and find innovative ways to be more productive. In this type environment each shift would be out for themselves, and may even hinder production on the other shifts if they thought it would give them an edge.

This Week’s Challenge

This week I have given a couple examples how a culture can help your business gain a competitive edge. By developing a culture that challenges the status quo. What are you doing well today, and how can you make that better? Develop opportunities for friendly competition. This can be in sales, marketing, manufacturing, wherever. Create a culture that encourages innovative and creative thinking, and watch your competitive edge sharpen!

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

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