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Toxic phrases that have no place in the workplace

How often do you hear those words around your organization?

Wasn’t it only last month that a senior manager blocked a new employee’s suggestion with that exact phrase, adding: ‘”You just don’t understand how we do things around here”. Or even worse: “We tried it that way once and the guy who suggested it is no longer here”.

If all this sounds overly familiar, it is time to seriously examine the way in which your organization operates in today’s rapidly changing environment. Now a day no one has the luxury of remaining at status quo.

Organizations are forced to reinvent and innovate to survive. There is nothing called a fool proof sustainable formula for a continuous success or even to survive in the marketplace.

A true culture of continuous improvement

To move past an “event focused” culture to a true culture of “continuous improvement”, each individual must be aligned to the company’s vision and goals and also be equipped to act upon ideas to reach those goals.

The exchange of ideas must focus on the gap between the current state and the target condition, which is the framework for idea generation.This exchange helps create a picture of how we want the business to look in the future, orienting all problem solvers to focus on the vision, target or need identified for that area. Without a stated target condition, new ideas will be misaligned or too vague to create impact within the organization.

A culture of continuous improvement rests on the exchange and implementation of ideas. Companies often stop at the event-based model, only seeing improvement when a formal team is gathered to focus on an area. However, to build a true continuous improvement, you must build it into the core DNA of the company.

Creating a great company culture implies being open to new ideas and new changes – no fear factor. In creating space and engagement for the culture of continuous improvement there is also manifestation of increased capacity and increased willingness for change as well.

Anyone can copy your strategy

The most important thing about culture is that it’s the only sustainable point of difference for any organization. Anyone can copy your strategy, but nobody can copy your culture. So don’t leave it untended!

Good luck!

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Many companies as they get larger tend to get into a monoculture mentality – but living in a bubble is one of the biggest mistakes executives can make. Why? Because one of the surest ways of losing touch with real customers’ needs and getting outsmarted by competitors is to enforce a monoculture in your organization, where competitive products are banned and employees only come into contact with your own offerings.

Living in a bubble is one of the biggest mistakes executives can make

In a talk to employees, fromer Nokia CEO Stephen Elop asked a question that many were probably afraid to answer truthfully, given how Nokia is struggling to combat the iPhone. When he asks how many people in the crowd use an iPhone or Android device, few hands go up:

That upsets me, not because some of you are using iPhones, but because only a small number of people are using iPhones. I’d rather people have the intellectual curiosity to understand what we’re up against.

This is refreshing statement – many executives would have berated their employees for not keeping the faith while a company faced its biggest crisis. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is faced with a lot of challenges – changing old habits among employees are just one of them.

Don’t “contribute” to a organizational monoculture

As Apple launched the iPhone a couple of years ago Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was laughing about the launch in an interview with CNBC :

Five hundred dollars? Fully subsidized with a plan? That is the most expensive phone in the world. And it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good e-mail machine

Two years later, the iPhone is a huge success and has much more market share than Microsoft in the smartphone segment.

I fully recognize that Steve Ballmer isn’t going to say Microsoft’s products “are not that good”. Part of his role is to help market his companies products so of course he should be publicly say they are good. But as CEO of a public company, he probably should have taken a more measured approach in his answers.

Ballmer could have taken a more diplomatic tone and said something more along the lines of “We recognize Apple as a strong competitor and industry leader like ourselves. We feel our years of experience in the smartphone industry and strong partnerships will continue to help us deliver great products to our customers and be successful in the industry. Competition is great for everyone and spurs innovation – so we look forward to seeing how Apple does. But I think we’re well positioned for the future”. Did Steve Ballmer that way “contribute” to a monoculture mentality in Microsoft?

In an recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Sony Ericsson President and CEO Bert Nordberg made an interesting statement about the iPhone:

We should have taken the iPhone more seriously when it arrived in 2007

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The comfortable trap – avoid an organizational monoculture

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Nokia was once the dominant force in the cell phone world

The company was founded nearly 150 years ago and it went through a number of iterations before it became the cell phone giant most of us think of now. But now Nokia is no longer a cell phone company.

Nokia’s devices and services business has moved over to Microsoft as part of a deal worth more than $7.5 billion. The deal values Nokia’s handsets division at around $5 billion, which is obviously a painfully small fraction of what it was once worth.

The cell phone maker’s failure to react when Apple first launched the iPhone back in 2007 led directly to the company’s collapse. Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition is a sobering reminder that even the strongest companies can fall.

It is time to say goodbye – Now culture integration starts

But the story about Nokia is not over jet. Now the big challenge comes: How well do the two companies fit together?

Why is it so difficult to merge two cultures into a cohesive and coherent whole? Why is it so important for leaders of a merger or acquisition to focus on leading cultural change proactively and carefully?

Studies show that most mergers, 70% or more, fail to deliver their intended benefits and destroy shareholder value in the process. In fact, one well-regarded study has shown that only 21% of mergers actually return anything to stockholders, and the rest are neutral or negative. Another study shows that no more than one-third of mergers or acquisitions are a clear success; one third are clear failures, and the remaining third demonstrate no benefit at all from the transaction.

Post-merger and acquisition activities often fall short of putting in place the most important element to effectively executing the intended business strategy contemplated by the combination in the first place: that is working with the culture of the organization.

To mitigate risks during mergers and acquisitions, cultural integration should begin well before the deal closes.

 Organizational culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner

#1 – Understand the acquired culture

Identify the power centers in the acquired company, how they communicate, what they reward and how they make decisions etc.

• What should stay? Write down the aspects of the organizational culture that should be preserved
• What should go? Write down the aspects of the organizational culture that must die
• What is missing? Write down aspects of the organizational culture that seem to be missing or weak.

#2 – Put a cultural integration plan in place

It’s difficult to start this process with your counterparts prior to a deal going through, but that time is critical. The strategic plan is always a part of the process, but rarely is one focused on cultural integration. By collectively identifying the strengths of the two companies, you will be able to identify where the biggest risks lie and to put plans in place to help mitigate.

#3 – Evolve culture

Many times, the expectation of the acquired company is that they have to conform. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for people to change. Instead of insisting that new employees conform, take the time to focus on the “new” culture. Educate both parties to overcome the immediate and justifiable “us and them” mentality. Shifting toward a culture that leverages components of both sends the message of “we”.

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Strategy or culture: Which is more important?

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, a phrase originated by Peter Drucker and made famous by Mark Fields, President at Ford, is an absolute reality! Any company disconnecting the two are putting their success at risk.

However, while many studies show there is a direct correlation between a healthy, productive culture and a company’s bottom line, the majority of companies spend little time thinking, let alone doing anything about, this topic – even when they’re spending lots of time thinking about their business strategy.

Strategy, capabilities and culture need to be aligned

There is a powerful triumvirate in corporate transformations – Strategy, capabilities and culture. All three need to be designed together, aligned and enabling of each other to create true organisational transformation.

Strategy, capabilities and culture leadership is about a series of related choices about “where we going to play”, “how are we going to win and differentiate”, “what capabilities need to be in place to execute”, “what are the cultural imperatives to enable differentiation and execution”?

Given strategy is typically viewed from a 3-5 year time horizon and refreshed every few years, capabilities and culture also need to be reviewed at the same time and as one process.

This does not mean changing the values of the company, it means in the context of the strategy, business model, brand positioning … what capabilities are required and what are the critical few cultural capabilities required to enable and drive success?

How to cultivate organisational culture?

Corporate culture is a hard thing to get right. It’s a moving target that means something different to everyone. It grows and evolves over time and is the result of action and reaction. It is the lingering effect of every interaction. How to cultivate organisational culture?

Don’t forget culture when drafting corporate strategies

Culture change is complex and most efforts fail to meet expectations. This is in part because it is often approached separately from strategy and capabilities and becomes an “HR Thing”, and/or it is approached too broadly.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast … you can’t get any stronger message than that … unfortunately a message that is all too often forgotten when drafting corporate strategies.

The thing I have learned at IBM is that culture is everything – Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. former CEO IBM

Strategy or culture

Maintaining cultural coherence across a companies portfolio should be an essential factor when determining a corporate strategy. No culture, however strong, can overcome poor choices when it comes to corporate strategy. The impact of culture on a companies success is only as good as its strategy is sound.

Don’t let culture eat strategy for breakfast. Have them feed each other.

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Organisational culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/lop

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Organizational culture change in a digital age

When the talk falls on social media in organizations it is typically with the focus on the external environment and customers. There is nothing wrong with that, but too often leaders take for granted another key stakeholder they should be communicating to, the internal customers, the employees.

The questions every leader constantly have to are “What experience do we create for the employees?” And, “Is it aligned with the culture we want in the organization?” Social media and how we use it as an organization can have a great impact in creating experiences that impact the culture.

Top 10 ways social media can facilitate change management

How people think and act in the organization on a daily basis

The culture of an organization is simply how people think and act in the organization on a daily basis. It’s important for leaders to realize the impact they have over the thoughts and actions people are having and taking every single day in the organization.

Experiences create culture – Social media creates experiences

Leaders need to recognize that all experiences create culture and their culture is either working for them or against them.

Social media creates experiences, period. The experiences employees are having, both by external and internal communication, in organizations greatly impact how they think and act at work and if they are truly engaged or not.

Social Media provides a very powerful, viral experience that can help accelerate the needed cultural changes internally.

Don’t just jump on the bandwagon

But don’t just jump on the bandwagon – do the necessary homework:

Seven basic change management questions to consider

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Organizational culture change in a digital era — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/dmx

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For many businesses, corporate value statements are little more than vague motherhood statements that sound nice but bear little relation to way business is done.

Recent high-profile scandals and crises have made it clear that many businesses do not properly or openly communicate their values.

Just look at how The News of the World phone-hacking scandal has exposed News Corp. to accusations over the company’s values and the efficacy of its leadership. Had the company more openly communicated what it stands for and the moral compass its employees follow, it likely would not have been vilified so thoroughly in the press. Despite numerous protestations from Rupert Murdoch and his top lieutenants that the company’s values align perfectly with the public’s best interests, the damage has been done. The public is left questioning what, if anything, does this company stand for?

Even NewsCorp. purports to have values, but like many other companies it fails to effectively communicate them to the outside world. Having strong corporate values is admirable, but values without proactive employee communication of their importance might as well not exist.

Corporate value statements have become real business drivers

But that’s not that case in every business. For a number of companies, corporate value statements have become real business drivers that help their companies stand out in a crowded market. They say values aren’t just window dressing, they attract customers and help retain staff.

Just ask Tony Hsieh, the American entrepreneur who founded the e-tailer Zappos which was sold of Amazon in 2009 for $928 million in stock. In a space of just 10 years, Zappos had grown from almost no sales to more than $ 1 billion in annual revenue. This was driven primarily by repeat customers and word of mouth.

Zappos has 10 core values:

In an interview Hsieh said that the values were important to keep the company focused as it grew.

When we moved the company to Vegas, we were hiring a lot of people very quickly due to our rapid growth. It wasn’t scalable for us to be involved with every new hire decision, but the problem was that because we had so many new employees, not everyone knew exactly what we were looking for when we said we were looking for a culture fit.

Someone from our legal department suggested that we come up with a list of core values to serve as a guide for managers to make hiring decisions. I thought about all the employees I wanted to clone because they represented the Zappos culture well, and tried to figure out what values they personified. I also thought about all the employees and ex-employees who were not culture fits, and tried to figure out where there was a values disconnect.

Even though our core values guide us in everything we do today, we didn’t actually have any formal core values for the first six or seven years of the company’s history. It’s my fault that we didn’t do it in the early years, because it was something I’d always thought of as a very “corporate” thing to do. I resisted doing it for as long as possible.

I’m just glad that an employee finally convinced me that it was necessary to come up with core values – essentially, a formalised definition of our culture – in order for us to continue to scale and grow.

What can businesses do to better communicate their values? A few key ideas to keep in mind:

#1 – Establish core values across the company, not just within management

If management sets values, who would own them? You need buy-in from employees; they have to feel a certain ownership over value creation.

#2 – Words mean different things to different people

Words mean different things to different people. Therefore, it is important that the words used to define the values be simple, clear, and easily understood by the constituents and are not jargon. This leaves no room for creative (mis)interpretation of the values and avoids using words that have different meanings or can’t be translated in other languages.

#3 – Teach employee what the values mean

This must come from the top. Credibility is truly at the core of building a values-driven culture.

Employee communications has to be at the forefront of your value-setting agenda; too often, executives fail to proactively seek employee input and buy-in before values are put in place. This leads to antipathy and resentment among those employees who don’t feel a company’s values align with their personal and professional aspirations.

#4 – Your values must be non-negotiable

The moment you make one exception, you’re doomed.

#5 – Live your values

Embrace the corporate values and be mindful of them in every decision you make – both in good and bad times. Never forget that actions speak louder than words.

#6 – Make values a primary filter for performance evaluations

There is no stronger lever for promoting a culture than tying adherence to its values to individual compensation.

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Organisational alignment requires compatibility between the strategic and cultural \’paths,\’ and consistency within them.

There’s no doubt about it – building organisational alignment is a big challenge. Creating the right organisational alignment is not something that happens by chance and often a great deal of effort and thought goes into the process.

The most important thing about organisational culture is that it’s the only sustainable point of difference for any organisation. Anyone can copy your strategy, but nobody can copy your culture. Culture trumps strategy every time. One could argue that culture in fact is more important than strategy.

Build organisational alignment #1 – How does your strategy looks like in action

Organisational alignment is built on your business strategy so you must begin here. Your business strategy must clearly define your primary value proposition, your future results destination, and the values and behaviors that will guide your actions on the journey to business results achievement.

While this content is important, it is also critical to describe the actions, in the form of strategic objectives, your company must focus on to get from the present to the future destination.

Build organisational alignment #2 – Build an awareness of culture

Organisations often start by clarifying some of the key challenges they have as an organization. Think about frustrations about “the way things work around here” that are holding your organisation back from reaching its potential. It also helps to define strengths you need leverage in support of your strategy as you understand how to further improve your culture.

Build organisational alignment #3 – Measure your culture

Some organisations think they may be covering this measurement through an engagement, climate, satisfaction or other survey but they are actually only evaluating a fraction of the overall culture. Engage your organisation in the process to move from the fog of opinions and lack of clarity about your culture to a clearly defined picture of what you are all about. You’ll understand the overall culture and how it varies by department, division, level, geography or other key sub-groups.

Build organisational alignment #4 – Communicate your strategy

Your organisation/peoplecan’t align with your business strategy if they don’t know what it is. Strategy communications are a critical, ongoing requirement in the drive to build organisational alignment. Communication must be frequent and two-way at all levels of the organization using multiple communication vehicles and a variety of targeted messages. It is important to remember that there is no such thing as over-communication or too much business leader involvement when you are striving to create an aligned organisation.

Build organisational alignment #5 – Cascade your strategy

It is important to cascade strategy vertically and horizontally across your company and define the local actions and contributions each area of your organisation must make to achieve business success.

Build organisational alignment #6 – Define key culture improvements

Engage the organisation in feedback and prioritization to define key culture improvements. Utilize feedback and prioritization techniques to understand your culture assessment results and to identify the top improvements to leverage strengths and improve weak areas that are holding you back. Many organisations obtain feedback but then employees are left wondering what will happen next. The key is prioritization as a team and not just more feedback. It may take voting, debate, focus groups or another simple surveys but prioritization as a team is the key so the organisation feels clearly engaged in the process to define the priorities.

Build organisational alignment #7 – Link all work activities with your strategy

It is necessary to take an inventory of key business processes and projects and determine whether they link to and support the elements of your business strategy. When non-strategic projects and processes are identified, business leaders must seize the opportunity to stop doing them and re-invest organisational work capacity into more strategic work. Making decisions about the strategic value of the work completed in your organisation can make the difference between a more efficient, high performance organisation and one that wastes effort unnecessarily.

Build organisational alignment #8 – Link all employees with your strategy

Alignment at the employee level begins by helping them see how their work links with the business strategy – this makes strategy more meaningful to everyone in your organisation. Next, it is important to let employees know what they need to do in their work to contribute to the overall results. Do this by creating individual goal plans that have clear linkages with your business strategy and provide performance guidelines that will help them move the business forward. Finally, give employees the opportunity to generate and share their insights and ideas on local ideas for improvement that could have a big impact on your business strategy. All of this plays a critical role in solidifying organizational alignment at the employee level.

Build organisational alignment #9 – Measure progress

It will be important to monitor key measures related to the top priorities since culture clearly impacts performance. There will need to be regularly scheduled feedback and prioritization routines to identify and build on what’s working and to adjust actions that aren’t having the desired impact.

Build organisational alignment #10 – How to build a strong culture

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How to build organisational alignment and improve employee performance

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Culture creates the foundation for strategy

Culture creates the foundation for strategy and will either be a company’s greatest asset or largest liability. While culture has many aspects and manifestations, its core should include a clear sense of purpose and shared values that guide decision making across the company.

Corporate values shape the culture and define the character of the company.

Great company culture starts with core values – An increasingly important component in strategic planning

Corporate values represent the guiding principles of the organization’s culture, including what guides members’ priorities and actions within the organization. Values are an increasingly important component in strategic planning because they drive the intent and direction of the organization’s leadership.

First step is to define a set of values that are clear, realistic, and hopefully not copied from someone else.

Then, develop a metric to measure the culture and see if the real values are consistent with the stated values:

• Knowledge – Do people understand the values and can they identify behaviors linked to them?
• Perceptions – What are people’s perceptions about the real values of the organization versus the stated ones?
• Behavior – Count instances of behavior and decisions that are consistent or inconsistent with the values
• Process – Assessment of policies, practices, and work/leadership processes that are consistent or inconsistent with the values
• Outcomes – Awards/recognition, people fired or demoted for behavior inconsistent with values, image, audit findings, etc.

Corporate values shape organizational culture – Talkline core value wall

Just focusing on the superficial side of values will not generate change

It is not enough to give Core Value Statements. Rather, it is much more useful to obtain examples of specific behavior examples. Storytelling can be great a vehicle for that! This can be best summarized with the phrase… “you can’t change a company with a memo”.

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Creativity has become the currency of success

As most of the tangible advantages of the past have become commodities, creativity has become the currency of success.

A study of 1,500 CEOs indicated that leaders rank creativity as number one leadership attribute needed for prosperity:

Creativity is the most important leadership quality, according to CEOs. Standouts practice and encourage experimentation and innovation throughout their organisations.

Facing a world becoming dramatically more complex, it is interesting that CEOs selected creativity as the most important leadership attribute. Creative leaders invite disruptive innovation, encourage others to drop outdated approaches and take balanced risks. They are open-minded and inventive in expanding their management and communication styles, particularly to engage with a new generation of employees, partners and customers.

Mind the innovation gap

Unfortunately, many companies fail to unleash their most valuable resources: human creativity, imagination, and original thinking. They lack a systematic approach to building a culture of innovation, and then wonder why they keep getting beaten to the punch.

The hidden barriers to innovation

Obstacles that will need to be addressed if you expect to establish a sustainable culture of innovation:

1. Lack of a shared vision, purpose and/or strategy
2. Short-term thinking/focus
3. Lack of time, resources or staff
4. Lack of “spec time” to develop new ideas and opportunities
5. Innovation not articulated as a company-wide commitment
6. Lack of ownership by senior leaders
7. Leadership expects payoff sooner than is realistic
8. Lack of a systematic innovation process
9. Management incentives are not structured to reward innovation
10. No reward and recognition programs
11. Constantly shifting priorities
12. Belief that innovation is inherently risky
13. Lack of systematic innovation process
14. Internal process focus rather than external customer focus
15. Inadequate understanding of customers
16. Focus on successes of the past rather than the challenges of the future
17. Unwillingness to change in the absence of a burning platform
18. Unwillingness to acknowledge and learn from past “failures”
19. Politics – efforts to sustain the status quo to support entrenched interests
20. Rewarding crisis management rather than crisis prevention
21. Hierarchy – over-management and review of new ideas
22. Micromanagement
23. Under-funding of new ideas in the name of sustaining current efforts
24. Fear that criticizing current practices and commitments is a high-risk activity
25. Risk aversion
26. Addiction to left-brained, analytical thinking
27. Absence of user-friendly idea management processes
28. Innovation not part of the performance review process
29. Lack of skillful brainstorm facilitation
30. No creative thinking training

How to overcome barriers to innovation?

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30 key obstacles to innovation — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/let

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Top 30+ key obstacles to innovation

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Organizational culture is today’s major performance differentiator

This is something that has been observed over the years by organizations around the globe and ironically not many take it up seriously. Yes, its organizational culture!

Companies with a weak or broken culture struggle harder and are negatively affected by the deficit. This demonstrates what most leaders know or are learning: Culture is today’s major performance differentiator. Culture creates the foundation for strategy and will either be a company’s greatest asset or largest liability.

Don’t leave the organizational Pac-Man unattended

Culture is a relentless driver of employee behavior. Left to its own devices, it can potentially limit an organization. But if leaders work to define it, assess it, and understand it, culture can be used as a tangible business lever to directly achieve goals and improve performance. Perhaps most importantly, great company cultures are like great societies – they can expand human potential by empowering people to do exceptional things.

But time and again, companies have gotten caught in the undertow of their cultural norms. Organizations as diverse as Xerox, Kodak, and IBM have launched major change programs only to see their old cultural beliefs fight to reassert themselves. Most organizational cultural evolutions take much longer than most leaders expect.

Organizational culture the business game changer

Does culture eat strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner? The answer is YES! To strengthen a company’s culture get ready for a time of deep, reflective thinking.

But many senior executives don’t want to talk about organizational culture, preferring to focus on strategies, products or services and results. Better be like IBM’s former CEO Lou Gerstner, who said, “I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game – it is the game.”

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Is organizational culture change needed?

A study from Booz & Company: 96% think culture change is needed in their organization. Here are the “Cultures Role in Enabling Organizational Change”:

• 84 percent of respondents, believe that their organization’s culture is critical to business success
• 60 percent said culture is more important than the company’s strategy or operating model
• 96 percent said some form of culture change is needed within their organization
• 51 percent believe their organization is in need of a major culture overhaul
• 45 percent do not think their culture is being effectively managed
• 48 percent do not think they have the capabilities required to deliver lasting change

Corporate culture is clearly a powerful force

Corporate culture is clearly a powerful force. That powerful that Deutsche Bank had it on their annual press conference last year (New corporate values and cultural change):

The impact of the economic crisis has made a long-term change of corporate culture in the financial sector absolutely imperative and in addition to cultural change new corporate values are also needed. We understand the message: Responsibility has to be the focus of our actions. A combination of performance-based incentives with a long-term focus and value-based behavior contributes to delivering outstanding business performance in the long term and while also ensuring integrity.

Deutsche Bank concentrating on three dimensions in this context: integrity in client dealing, operational discipline and collaboration across functions. The goal is to

• Establish the values and beliefs which will form the basis for our culture in these areas
• Define the behaviors which exemplify these beliefs
• Define the metrics by which the bank can monitor the progress of cultural change.

But if culture is a contributing cause to the banking crisis, then it’s especially concerning, considering the survey where 96 percent of respondents felt culture change was needed in their organization and 51 percent felt a major culture overhaul was needed.

Take the steps to understand and effectively manage organizational culture

Sure – major system transition, personnel changes, reorganizations, new strategies, etc. – are all important, but leaders needs to priorities organizational culture change or face the tragic consequences in an fast moving world.

Before an organization can change its culture, it must first understand the current culture, or the way things are now.

• What should stay? Write down the aspects of the organizational culture that should be preserved
• What should go? Write down the aspects of the organizational culture that must die
• What is missing? Write down aspects of the organizational culture that seem to be missing or weak.

Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast ……. But wait…can’t the two align?

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Is organizational culture change needed — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/mba

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Is organizational culture change needed

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Core values are what support the vision, shape the organizational culture and reflect what the company values. They are the essence of the company’s identity – the principles, beliefs or philosophy of values.

Making sure all employees know the core values

Ask a room full of employees if they know the core values of their company. The answer you receive will likely be a resounding, “No.” In many workplaces, core values are largely meaningless principles outlined somewhere near the beginning of the employee handbook, but are never celebrated – or even followed – on the average business day.

All too often, core values are written hastily in an altruistic effort to improve the workplace dynamic and are abandoned as soon as another important project comes up. The truth about a company’s core values is that if no one knows them, they aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

Promoting organizational values

There are many ways to promote organizational values. An interesting approach is the way Sydenergi does it: They use pictures of real employees to give their values (værdier) a personal touch.

Like many other companies TDC use a more traditional way of promotion their core values – writing on the walls:

How does your company promote the core values?

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Promoting organizational values

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Culture code – organizational guidelines

Company value statements typically have a tendency to be a bit vague and lacking instructions that tell employees what the most important guidelines are for the company.

There seems to be an tendency that more and more companies are “adding” culture codes to their value statements. The most prominent example is probably Netflix outlining  the organizations guidelines on 126 slides!

But it don’t have to be 126 slides – below the culture code (Leveregler) for an larger Danish company:

#1 – DARE TO MAKE MISTAKES AND ADMIT TO FAILURES

• We appreciate the willingness to take risks in order to continually improve our performance
• We always expect an honest status and provide constructive suggestions

#2 – KNOW OUR BUSINESS – ALSO IN THE “ENGINE ROOM”

• We understand the reasons for deviations – and have a plan to get on track
• We are able to execute every day in search of growth and value creation

#3 – TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ENTIRE BUSINESS

• We are ready to sacrifice our personal goals for the group
• We take responsibility – even outside our own area of responsibility

#4 – COMMUNICATE OUR MIND

• We communicate without concealing the actual nature or impact
• We would rather deal with conflicts than suppress frustrations
• We are never taking discussions to a personal level

#5 – ALWAYS SETTING THE STRONGEST TEAM – AND HAVE AN EYE FOR TALENT

• We recognize good performance and take the consequences of persistent non-performance
• We create opportunity for the individual to develop his or her potential and we create career paths for the talented
• We believe in diversity as a mean to create even better results

#6 – COMMON SENSE ALWAYS PREVAILS

• We make things simple, to provide maximum value for customers, employees and partners
• We give everyone the ability to act upon common sense when interacting with customers
• We fight internal policy and complexity – it kills the motivation and great customer experiences

#7 – MUST BE FUN TO PARTICIPATE

• We have an informal atmosphere with a straightforward tone and room for a good laugh
• We send each other home with more energy than we turned up with
• We believe that enthusiasm creates motivation and performance

Maybe culture code is best described as “the operating system that powers the organization”.

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Creating an organizational culture code — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/rkx

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It’s time to finally blow up the myth that feelings don’t matter at work

Research research conducted by neuroscientists Richard Davidson and V.S. Ramachandran and by psychologist Shawn Achor – increasingly points to a simple fact: Happy people are better workers! Those who are engaged with their jobs and colleagues work harder and smarter.

Corporate culture is becoming increasingly important

Corporate culture is becoming increasingly important for more and more companies – despite its intangible nature, its role is meaningful, affecting employees and organizational operations. And while culture is not the only factor guaranteeing success, positive cultures offer significant competitive advantages over rivals.

To build a more creative and high performance organization you need to encourage a fun corporate culture. Why? If your employees aren’t having fun, they’re probably not performing at their highest level.

And why not? Everyone is happier and more productive when they have fun together. And what some leaders don’t understand is that when people are not having fun, they’re tense. Then as a result of the paralysis, they can’t make decisions – and studies have shown that when you’re paralyzed, you’re incapable of being creative.

Top 10+ why happiness at work will increase performance

1. Do happy people work better with others? – Yes
2. Are happy people more creative? – Yes
3. Do happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them? – Yes
4. Do happy people have more energy? – Yes
5. Are happy people more optimistic? – Yes
6. Are happy people more motivated? – Yes
7. Do happy people get sick less often? – Yes
8. Do happy people learn faster? – Yes
9. Do happy people worry less about making mistakes? And making less mistakes? – Yes
10. Do happy people make better decisions? – Yes
    

Provide a model where people want to be involved

Provide a model where people want to be involved and can be themselves. Having a more positive corporate culture is about breaking down barriers of strict formality in such a way that people still have respect, loyalty, and trust, and are autonomous and uninhibited to do what they do best.

The successful organization of the future will have a corporate culture that offers supportive relationships, transformational leadership, and clear processes and objectives for innovation, as well as having leaders and workers who are adept at creative problem solving and idea generation.

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Top 10+ why happiness at work will increase performance — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/enx

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Top 10+ why happiness at work will increase performance

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Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg

In 1912 the Titanic was the largest ocean passenger liner of its time and was significant for many reasons. It was built in England for trans-Atlantic travel as well as being sanctioned as a carrier of the Royal Mail Service. It was a great innovation for the period it was built.

The Titanic was thought to be an unsinkable vessel. Yet it was not prepared for the ill fate it met on April 15, 1912; this passenger vessel sank after colliding with an iceberg.

Organizational culture is like an iceberg

An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice. It has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and floats freely in open waters. It can become stationary if it becomes frozen into pack ice that came into contact with the seabed.

Because the density of pure ice is much less than that of sea water, it is typical for only one-tenth of the iceberg to actually be above the water.

The fate of the Titanic have some similarity to a seemingly well-planned and structured organization. It seems quite ironic, that organizations are often not aware, or may choose to ignore the 90% of organizational attributes that are beneath the surface and not seen. Sometimes leaders make decisions only on the 10% that is visible to them!

Culture is like an iceberg, with most of its weight and bulk below the surface

Icebergs can be beautiful phenomenon. They can also be considered to be a force to be reasoned with, because of what may lie beneath the surface.

None of the visible elements can ever make real sense without understanding the drivers behind them and these are hidden on the bottom side of the iceberg, the invisible side. It is these invisible elements that are the underlying causes of what manifest on the visible side.

Don’t leave the organizational iceberg unattended!

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Organizational culture is like an iceberg — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/fcj

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Organizational culture is like an iceberg

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Taking the time to celebrate

When it comes to change management, people don‘t believe in a new direction because they suspend their disbelief. They believe because they‘re actually seeing behaviour, action, and results that lead them to conclude that the program works.

Organisational change initiatives can be frustrating and take a long time. It is therefore critical to celebrate milestones once they have been reached.

Taking the time to celebrate is important because it acknowledges people’s hard work, boosts morale, keeps up the momentum, and neutralizes skepticism about the change effort.

Celebrate your successes and, indeed, just about everything you would like to see happen again. Little victories – the things that had worked, ways they had delighted their customers, problems they had turned into successes.

“People’s Choice Awards” – based on different categories covering all kinds of things the company would like to see – Kieler Week

Takline celebrating a good fiscal year

Sunrise celebrating 250.000 customers

Verdo Tele celebrating 40% in market share

Success breeds success

Little victories inspire greater confidence, in part it’s because outsiders begin to notice and offer positive feedback, which creates even more commitment to keep going. When it comes to change, big victories are the results of lots of little wins.

High performance and success are not dependent on one simple factor or as a result of one or two things. The entire context you operate in greatly impacts your results.

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When it comes to organisational change – Pour champagne on it — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/eal

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When it comes to organisational change – Pour champagne on it

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Toxic organizational culture and business performance

Allowing your organizational culture to become polluted by toxicity is a death blow to your vision and strategy. How do you gauge if your culture is driving or damaging performance?

Watch out for these twelve surefire indicators of toxicity:

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Toxic organizational culture — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/ajt

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Toxic organizational culture

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Long-term success is dependent on a culture that is nurtured and alive. Culture is the environment in which a company’s strategy and brand thrives or dies a slow death. It’s one of the most important drivers that has to be set or adjusted to push long-term, sustainable success.

The organizational culture aquarium

Think about it like a nurturing habitat for success. Culture cannot be manufactured. It has to be genuinely nurtured by everyone. Ignoring the health of a companies culture is like letting aquarium water get dirty.

Keep the aquarium water clean

It wasn’t enough just to “let it happen” on its own. Just like companies maniacally built the product, they needed to do the same with organizational culture.

Communicate the values and culture code explicitly and continuously – employees must understand the culture, and why it’s important. Do this always and in tandem with every other culture initiative, or the culture will be merely hollow words on a mission statement. Done well, however, and the culture will bleed into employees who will spread the culture, whatever it may be.

Great organizational cultures don’t just happen. It takes creativity and a willingness!

Watch out for the iceberg

Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg – so pay attention to the organizational culture iceberg.

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The organizational culture aquarium — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/arp

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Organizational values

It’s one thing to have beliefs and values spelled out in a frame in the conference room. It’s another thing to have genuine and memorable beliefs that are directional, alive and modeled throughout the organization daily.

It’s important that departments and individuals are motivated and measured against the way they model the values. And, if you want a values-driven culture, hire people using the values as a filter.

If you want your company to embody the culture, empower people and ensure every department understands what’s expected.

Don’t just list your company’s values and culture in PowerPoints; bring them to life in people, products, spaces, at events and in communication.

Organizational culture code

Company value statements typically have a tendency to be a bit vague and lacking instructions that tell employees what the most important guidelines are for the company.

That’s way it make sense to add organizational guidelines – culture code, the operating system that powers the organization.

This can cover topics about what’s important for success, what to expect from each other and how the company really has to be operated – for example “We appreciate the willingness to take risks in order to continually improve our performance”, “We are able to execute every day in search of growth and value creation”, “We take responsibility – even outside our own area of responsibility” etc.

Revisit and revise

Revisit and revise your values and culture code every few years to keep them alive and relevant. They can too easily become stale, stifling, or just ignored.

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Living organizational values and culture code — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/vao

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Living organizational values and culture code

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People, workforce planning will become more important than financial planning

This is a statement from a TED talk by Rainer Strack on his interpretation of the workforce challenge. It sounds counter intuitive, but in the near future, many of the world’s largest economies will have more jobs than adult citizens to do those jobs.

In this data-filled – and quite charming – talk, Rainer Strack suggests that countries ought to look across borders for mobile and willing job seekers. But to do that, they need to start by changing the culture in their businesses.

The key is not about the changing workforce it is about the operational workforce transformation to a new workforce landscape of skill shortage, labor shortage and cultural and people change.

People are looking for recognition

The survey shows that the top four preferences – out of at list of 26 topics – of job seekers are around organizational culture:

1. Being appreciated for your work
2. Having a great relationship with colleagues
3. Enjoying a great work-life balance
4. Having a great relationship with the boss

Salary ranked eighth in importance.

The global workforce crisis becomes very personal. People are looking for recognition!

Companies will need a people strategy, consisting of four parts:

1. Plan for how to forecast supply and demand for different jobs and skills. Workforce planning will become more important than financial planning.
2. Plan for how to attract great people: generation Y, women, but also retirees.
3. Plan for how to educate and upskill them.
4. Plan for how to retain the best people with an appreciation and relationship culture.

Is your organization ready?

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Organizational culture is becoming increasingly important — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/sxp

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Organizational culture is becoming increasingly important