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.

Three Reasons Employees Leave Their Jobs

March 25, 2019 By // by Andrew Shaffer

It is the last week of March, and spring is officially here (although it’s not warm enough for me). Watching the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, I really appreciate the effort and challenges the coaches have every year. Because the athletes have only a limited number of eligible years to play, and that can be reduced if a player gets hurt or is eligible for the NBA, coaches are constantly dealing with player turnover. Coaches are always recruiting talent, developing talent, and building a team. While that is unavoidable in the college sports profession, it is a profit killer for businesses. Today I am going to talk about the top three reasons employees leave, and how you can defend yourself against it.

Three Reasons Employees Leave Their Jobs

Last week I came across this fascinating LinkedIn Blog about the top three industries with the highest turnover (is your industry on the list?). I was glad to see that they took the next step and identified WHY people leave. When you know why, you can put actions in place to prevent unnecessary turnover.

Turnover is costly, in fact according to Josh Bersin, Deloitte, the costs can be up to two times the annual salary! With this in mind, it makes sense to have a system in place that minimizes turnover. Competitive pay, competitive benefits, or even an amazing reward system might not be enough. Here are some things you should include in an employee retention strategy to be successful.

Career Development

Focusing on employee development is ALWAYS a good idea. After you’ve hired someone, the time and money you invest in developing them will only benefit your company. If you want to have the best employees, that give you a competitive edge, it is much better to develop talent from within.

While I am a firm believer that the responsibility for career development ultimately belongs to the employee, the leader or manager must be a guide and a mentor in the process. Most employees are looking to grow and develop. They want to know that their work is meaningful and that there is a career path for them. And if they are happy with the status quo, you might want to consider why they are on the team to begin with.

Managers can and should have regular career development discussion with their employees. I recommend monthly. These meetings should be structured, and result in definite actions. When the manager and the employee co-create a career development plan, and meet regularly to evaluate progress of the plan, employee productivity, then morale increases.

By investing the time for career discussion with our employees, they will know that they are making progress towards the next step. And, they will be less likely to look outside the company for their next promotion.

Management

People don’t quit their job, they quit their boss. At least that is how the saying goes. An employee’s direct manager has the biggest impact on the employee’s experience at your company. The direct supervisor is who has the most contact with the employees. They are often the face of the company, in terms of communicating and implementing policy. The direct supervisor is often responsible for merit increases and promotion opportunities.

A bad manager can kill morale, motivation and productivity. Eventually the pain becomes too great and people leave.

Some of the common mistake’s managers make (especially new managers) are:

Micromanaging
Relying on authority
Lack of leadership

Managers and supervisors need to be trained and understand that their job is to coach and develop talent. Leaders inspire others to take action. They inspire others to give that extra discretionary effort that sharpens your competitive edge.

Culture

I have been focusing on culture all month. Culture is simply the paradigm of any particular group. It is basically a combination of morale, company habits, and is reflected in how people treat each other, productivity, and profits. It is what makes each company unique, and why some people fit in at one company better than another company. Because culture encompasses so many different aspects, and penetrates the very fabric of your company, it is often the hardest to change.

So, there are two reasons culture can drive turnover. The first is sometime people just don’t fit. In the book The Great Game of Business, the author created a certain culture within his company that focused on certain metrics and team buy in. The author admitted that some people weren’t on board, so they left. This is also evident when companies merge or one company buys another company. There is always shift in culture and some people will just leave because of it.

The second reason culture can drive turnover is when the culture is toxic. If the culture cultivates distrust, favoritism, or discriminates against others (intentional or unintentional), these issues need to be fixed immediately and change must come from the top down.

It goes without saying, but a company needs to have an inclusive culture. Where people are free to create, risk, suggest, try, fail and succeed. Your business isn’t an open lab for everyone to work when and how they want. Set guidelines and boundaries, enforce them, but encourage people to bring new ideas to the table. Setting the right culture from the top down, will have a noticeable impact on your companies’ turnover rate.

This Week’s Challenge

Do an evaluation at your company. Do you have a system (not policy) in place to minimize the impact of employee turnover? Does it focus on career development, management and culture? If your system is lacking or needs help in any of these areas, get to work on making necessary changes to help minimize the negative impacts of turnover in your company.

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.

culture