Are Core Values Uncovered or Assigned?

I often get asked by executives how we come up with the words when we start the Vision, Mission, and Core Values process. Or, as one executive asked, “Do you already have this stuff written down somewhere, and you’re just making us go through these exercises?”

The short answer is no; we don’t already have predetermined answers. We work hard to uncover and discover the values within each company.

There are two types of organizational drivers to consider when thinking of crafting core behavior language:

Start-Ups and Assigning Values

It would be a mistake to say you assign values to new companies. You don’t, really, because companies are started by people with prior experience. And that experience is a launching point for the future company’s core behaviors.

If we’re working with executives starting a company, we dig deep to understand their vision for the future and what kinds of people can help them reach their goals. Similar to working with existing companies, we ask founders to describe the best people they’ve worked with in the past. Many founders may have a tough time articulating pithy strategy and value statements, but most can give you an idea of the kinds of behaviors they think will help their company and brand stand out in the marketplace.

Those behaviors rarely sound like, “We’d like people with integrity, who are accountable, and who feel empowered to do smart things.” Why? Because everything I just mentioned is common sense and fairly obvious. Stating the obvious isn’t differentiating.

Many startups need to have a speedboat mentality. They need to be nimble, responsive, able to take action quickly, try new ideas, and adjust on the fly. And so their core behaviors should reflect those needs to help ensure they recruit the kinds of people who embrace that kind of culture.

As a new company grows, founders need to demonstrate the behaviors in how they operate and treat people each day; then, new employees can embrace the core behaviors as simply part of the operating system. The key here is demonstration. If it’s just leaders telling people how to behave, that’s worst case assigning (imposing) values … and it rarely goes well.

Uncovering Values in a Change Initiative

Vision, Mission, and Core Values are standard fare in many organizational change initiatives. A trick here is understanding what’s driving the company to change. Are you fixing a problem? Restructuring? Changing business strategy? Coming out of a merger or acquisition?

If we’re starting from a positive position, uncovering the positive values can be a simple experience. We unpack the behaviors of the best employees, compare those to the behaviors of the worst employees, factor in executive goals and company vision, and articulate the values already present in the company.

If we’re starting from a negative position, we first have to understand how broken the culture is. Some cultures need to be healed before the new language can be introduced. If negative behaviors have been the norm for a while, no amount of positive thinking and well-crafted attributes will stand a chance. So, we fix the culture while talking about the behaviors that would set the company up for success.

In this case, it can be helpful to get the employees involved in discussions of the kind of culture they want to be a part of, how they’d like people to act, and how they’d like to be treated. By engaging employees and not just executives, people at varying levels within the organization can play a role in the change initiative.

Then, when the new core behaviors are introduced to the company, they won’t feel like something assigned to everyone out of the blue. It’s worth saying again: if the company culture has been broken, it MUST be mended before new language can be introduced. Otherwise, management is asking for a rebellion.

Values aren’t something to be assigned or imposed—they emerge from the lived experiences, aspirations, and demonstrated behaviors within an organization. Whether working with a speedboat company needing values that enable rapid innovation, or an established tanker organization, the key is uncovering and articulating authentic behaviors that will drive success. This requires careful attention to context and alignment between stated values and demonstrated behaviors, between leadership actions and company culture, and between the organization’s past experiences and future aspirations. When this alignment is achieved thoughtfully and authentically, values become a powerful force for positive change.

Core Values or Core Behaviors. What's the difference?

Back in 1994, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras identified core values as fundamental beliefs and guiding principles that helped the best companies keep everyone on the same page. But did they really?

A 2020 MIT Sloan Review study found that more than 80% of large companies published their core values online. Other studies place the number of companies with stated core values as high as 92%. This simply says that companies embraced the concept of stated core values.

But employee satisfaction scores tell a story of broken cultures. A Fond study of HR execs found that "only 22% responded that 60% or more of their employees know their company’s core values." A Gallup poll found that "just 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they can apply their organization’s values to their work, and only 27% strongly agree that they “believe in” these values." And a Leadership IQ study showed that "only 20% of respondents say their company always hires people who fit well with their company values."

If people can’t articulate what the values are, how can they be expected to be influenced by those values?

If leaders don’t demonstrate the desired behavior, why would they expect employees to act any differently?

This is why I believe that one-word values don’t resonate with people. They’re empty words. No one needs another poster with an eagle soaring over a canyon with the word “Respect” in giant Times New Roman. I’m pretty certain that no one has ever walked down a hall thinking disrespectful thoughts, seen a poster, and then changed their way of thinking.

Random statements don’t help, either. One company I worked with had a core value of “Fly Your Freak Flag.” What they meant, I think, was for everyone in the company to be themselves, uniquely, and build a better culture through intellectual diversity. That’s not what they got. When they asked employees to write their “freak flag” on large cards that could be hung outside offices, one male leader wrote, “I like to pee sitting down.” Another wrote, “I can burp in three different languages.” Funny, but I’m sure HR couldn’t use any of that for cultural enrichment.

Here are some examples of companies that have gone beyond one-word core values to create more nuanced and actionable core behaviors:

Zappos:

• Deliver WOW Through Service

• Embrace and Drive Change

• Create Fun and A Little Weirdness

• Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded

• Pursue Growth and Learning

• Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication

• Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit

• Do More With Less

• Be Passionate and Determined

• Be Humble

Google:

• Focus on the user and all else will follow

• It’s best to do one thing really, really well

• Fast is better than slow

• Democracy on the web works

• You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer

• You can make money without doing evil

• There’s always more information out there

• The need for information crosses all borders

• You can be serious without a suit

• Great just isn’t good enough

Zillow:

• Customers Are Our North Star

• Turn On the Lights.

• Do the Right Thing.

• Own It.

• ZG Is a Team Sport.

• Include and Empower.

• Think Big, Move Fast.

• Deliver Quality on Time, Every Time.

Tesla:

• Do the impossible

• Constantly innovate

• Reason from “first principles”

• Think like owners

• We are all in

These examples stand out in their simplicity and ability to inspire while clarifying the kind of culture the company wants. Employees can understand what the company wants from them. Executives can model the behaviors. HR can recruit individuals who WANT to live these values.

If you’d like help discovering the core behaviors within your organization and crafting the language, let’s talk.

What’s wrong with your core values?

Thinkhaus Idea Factory works with companies each year to define their vision, mission, and core values. Almost immediately, someone steps forward with a list of one-word values they found after a quick Google search.

You've seen them: integrity, accountability, empowerment, inclusion, passion, teamwork, respect ... the list can go on for a while. What's wrong with these?

For starters, they're vague. How do you define when someone has made an integrity breach? You'd have no problem firing an employee who padded their expense report by $500. But would you fire another employee for taking a couple of company legal pads and pens home for their kids? Both are technically stealing from the company. If you'd fire one but not the other, "integrity" is on a sliding scale at your company.

One-word values can be ambiguous and interpreted differently by different people. When that happens, you get inconsistent applications across the organization.

They're also hard to represent in hiring and firing decisions. Would you hire someone who doesn't act with integrity? Of course not. Do you want your employees to feel empowered? Probably. But empowered to what degree?

Let me give you a quick example of why one-word values are challenging. Enron, one of the poster children for organizational dysfunction, unethical practices, and accounting fraud, had four simple core values: Communication; Respect; Integrity; and Excellence. You could argue that some people in the company used these as behavior guides. But leadership clearly didn't.

A method I was taught early in my career is still one of my favorites: working with leadership, unpack the behaviors of the best people in the company. You know, those you'd hire in bunches if they were available. What do they do that makes them stand out? How do they act? How do they treat clients and teammates? Conversely, do the same exercise on the behaviors of the worst employees. What gets them on the bottom of the list? Why?

When you go through this exercise, you rarely end up with single-word answers. Instead, you'll hear things like, "I can count on her to do the right thing even when no one else is around," or "He lifts others up around him so the team becomes stronger," or "She's action-oriented and gets things done."

All of these can be used to represent Core Behaviors that will help with recruiting and evaluations and will ultimately help the organization stand out among its competition.

What do you think? What's your favorite example of a core value statement? Which one stands out as the worst?

Healthy Arguments Can Lead to Healthy Companies

How good is your organization at having healthy arguments? If you're like most companies, the answer is probably not that great. And that's probably a bad thing.

I've worked with dozens of leadership teams to define their company purpose, vision, mission, organizational strategies, and more. And almost all of them were bad at having healthy arguments. Much more common was bullying behavior and passive-aggressive stabs at the other executives, especially after key meetings instead of during them.

I believe healthy arguments start with a healthy executive culture, where executives feel free to express their honest opinions without punishment. Wait. Shouldn't executives already feel free to express their ideas? Yes. But too many company cultures allow executive cliques, or a CEO plays favorites and has "untouchables" who can do no wrong even as they torch the business.

In a healthy executive culture, executives have the freedom to express their ideas and are encouraged to challenge norms. They must have protection from the cliquish trolls. They must be encouraged, to a person, to bring something new to the table and argue for and against the merits of the ideas.

It takes time and patience, and it takes courage from the C-suite. But building a culture where healthy arguments can take place can positively change the trajectory of any company.

If you need help with organizational health and strategy, let's talk.

Want more resources? Check out this MIT Sloan article

How a Backyard Treehouse Can Teach Us to be Better Leaders

Remember when you were eight years old and wanted a treehouse in your backyard more than anything in the world? You pleaded with your dad, your mom, your grandfather, your uncle, and anyone who would listen. You had seen one at a friend's house, or on the television, and a ‘fort’ was the answer to all of your dreams.

Now if you grew up in a solidly middle-class or lower family, you knew there was no custom-built treehouse in the budget. If, after much pleading and all the sales acumen a preteen could offer, you got approval for said treehouse, you got to work. You would start scrounging the neighborhood for scrap 2X4s, milk crates, old plywood, anything that could be used to build your dream. You promised that you would do a myriad of chores to make as much money as possible: clean your room, feed and walk the dog, take out the neighbor’s trash each week, leave your sister alone, not fight with your little brother … whatever it would take.

When the day finally arrived for the building to start, you were there for every nail, helped with every measurement, sometimes even twice, and tried to cut every board. You and your father/grandfather/mother/uncle spent countless hours, countless weekends making sure your treehouse was just the way you wanted. It might not have been the best treehouse ever built, but it was yours and you helped build it.

As you played with friends in your treehouse over the next few weeks, fighting mock battles, sleeping below the stars, or just enjoying the wind blowing and the tree swaying back and forth, you first understood what it meant to make a dream come to life. 

The lessons you learned in the building of that treehouse apply to your business life.

1. Dream big. Jim Collins called it the BHAG, or Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Treehouses are big dreams. Kids can dream big. Get back in touch with that ability.

2. Do your research. Find out what else is out there that you can model. Once you knew you were getting a treehouse you looked at every treehouse-related concept you could find and made notes on what you liked about some, and what didn’t work about others. You learned early on what you could live with and without.

3. Plot your plan of action. As with the building of the treehouse, this is about bringing your dream to life. What supplies do you need? Who do you need to help you make it happen? What are your biggest barriers and how can you overcome them?

4. Choose your team. No one wants to be in a treehouse by themselves. It takes a crew to make a treehouse come to life, hoist the baskets of snacks, defend against intruders, and keep watch over the area. Your treehouse crew was made up of friends you could trust. They watched out for you, you watched out for them, and everyone was better off for it. You need the same in business: people you can trust and who share your passion for achieving and living your dream.

5. Build and adjust along the way. When you were a kid building a treehouse you built the best you could at the time. You didn’t build the perfect treehouse. That would have taken too long and cost money you didn’t have. You built and adjusted as you learned what worked for you. The same holds true in business. Don’t let perfection get in your way. Build and adjust.

6. Celebrate the lessons and successes. Treehouses are easy to enjoy. Sometimes we forget that business can be enjoyable as well. Once you’re done, even if just done with a stage, celebrate the progress, invite others to the party, and keep the positive energy going.

As kids, we’re hardwired to use our imaginations and chase dreams that seem too big. Somewhere along the way many of us learn to tamper our creativity and keep our ideas to ourselves. Maybe it’s time for you to get back in touch with that kid with the imagination and the willingness to fight to make the dream a reality. Chances are you’ll be a better leader, a better teammate, and have things you’re proud to share as a result. 

How is your treehouse these days? Let’s start a conversation.

If You Do Only One Thing, Do Great Work!

The one unifying aspect of affecting your current situation or enabling you to change for the better comes down to three simple words: Do Great Work!

Over the past few weeks I've had conversations with college near-graduates, recent hires, people searching for what's next in their current situation, a few people who have lost or left jobs, and a couple who are ready to jump shops. With very rare exception, the theme remains the same: do great work!

Vince Lombardi once said "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." Which is exactly the point, though it's not what people really want to hear. Let's break this down.

Do great work where you are
Almost every manager and employer wants and needs impassioned employees who throw all of who they are in to what they do. Look around the typical work space and you'll find loads of people wading through their day, shuffling paper or moving widgets from one shelf to the next. These same people tend to be the ones who complain that they never get noticed, they never get promoted, they never get a raise or a bonus or the good office or (fill in your choice of frustration here).

Want to get noticed? Get a raise? Get a bonus or a good office or a better shot at doing what you really want to do? Do great work! Take the initiative and make a difference. Understand how to compromise without settling for forgettable. Upper management is looking for people who rise above. You can do that. Do that.

What if no one notices you where you are? Do great work, and network. You may very well be in a space where people just can't see the value in what you do. But someone will. And someone else will be glad to have you on their team doing exactly what you're doing.

Fear losing your job? Do great work!
In times of tight economies and business fluctuations, tough decisions have to be made on who stays and who goes. If you really want to be one of the ones who stay, you need to do great work. It's the differentiator. No company wants to see the best talent walk out the door, and if it comes down to you versus your neighbor, the one who's getting it done most often gets to stay.

Sure there are exceptions, so let's say you do find yourself in the firing line. I've been there a number of times. It's not fun. But here's a key nobody ever seems to talk about: it's incredibly hard to join a new company and kick into a higher gear if you left your last job stinking up the place. Your next employer is going to evaluate you based on where you've been and what you accomplished while there. Do great work!

If you get laid off and have an amazing track record of successes, you're already in a better position than the next guy who coasted and got laid off, too. There are other companies that need someone like you. Do great work!

Bad bosses are out there. I've known a few. Even if you're the top performer in the company you could be fired. Fine. Chances are good that your next interviewer had a bad boss or two as well. You have an excellent track record of successes that will play out very well in your interview. And they need someone like you. Do great work!

Newly hired? Do great work!
Once you land that new role, assess the landscape and the people around you, join the community, find others who want to make a difference in the world and do great work together. Seriously. Pour your passion into what you do and make it count.

I challenge people to find one thing each month that they worked on that makes them proud. One thing. You'd be amazed at how many people struggle to find one. I then ask them to identify the top one or two things they accomplished for each quarter. For the calendar challenged, that's three months of effort that far too often blows by us because we get caught up in doing work, but not great work. Break that habit!

Make it a point to find at least one thing each quarter that stands out for you. One per quarter is just four per year. Stay at your job for three years and you'll have twelve great stories to tell in your next interview. Every HR manager on the planet will tell you that number puts you ahead of the game. And every HR manager is looking for people who do great work.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to one simple idea: Do great work!

You'll make a difference where you are and could seriously impact where you're going. It takes effort. It takes courage. It takes looking at the world in whole new ways. But the world is looking for people willing to make a difference, for people who will change the trajectory. The world needs you to do great work.

Times of crisis call for rethinking top-heavy organizations.

There's an old story of two trees in a field, one a large, majestic oak with a sturdy trunk and broad branches. Not far away is a small, thin, and wiry willow. The mighty oak boasts of its strength and size and reminds the willow of all the ways the oak is superior to the willow. The willow is quiet. In time a heavy rain starts. The oak boasts of its ability to absorb so much water. The willow is quiet. After a while the winds pick up and grow in intensity, howling through the night. It's so dark and loud that the willow can't see or hear anything as it is battered in the wind. Eventually, the wind dies down and the sun rises. The willow looks around to see the once-mighty oak has been toppled in the storm. What made it such a formidable being in good weather led to its demise in the bad. The willow stretches to the sun. The oak is quiet.

In good times, it's easy for top-heavy organizations to rationalize their imbalance and boast of the number of vice presidents and executives in the system. As COVID-19 has reminded us, big and rigid isn't always better. Efficiency is.

Efficient organizations are nimble, agile, and flexible. They're able to see challenges and respond quickly to win.

So what should companies do to fix the problem?

1. Flatten the organization. Managers are not only expensive. If their roles are mostly to manage people and processes, they move further away from understanding the customers and adding value that can be directly connected to sales.

2. Increase the staff-to-manager ratio. It’s not uncommon to find a ratio of 4–1 or 5–1 in large companies. A big challenge here is that while this can help each employee think they get a lot of personal attention from their boss, this ratio can lead to incredible bloat. And since every level of management earns incrementally more than the people who report to them, senior managers and executives may spend most of their time managing managers. Increasing the ratio to 20–1 or, in some organizations, depending on roles, as high as 100–1, removes a tremendous amount of expense and process creep. Of course, this means every employee won’t get 30 minutes to an hour each week with their manager, but many employees don’t require or desire this level of interaction, anyway.

   For more information on this, read “How to identify the right span of control for your organization” by McKinsey & Company.

3. Trim the number of supervisors. This feeds off step 2 here but becomes a line item in the to-do list. As the ratios are adjusted, some supervisory roles are no longer necessary.

4. Trim the admin staff. Every executive probably doesn’t need a personal admin, much less a group of administrative people at their direction.

Tankers and Speedboats: Is your innovation program solving the right problems?

What's the balance between your tankers (people who excel at keeping the train on the track and dialing up efficiencies), and your speedboats (people looking to move fast and find what's next)?

Most companies need both. Too many speedboats and you can new idea your company out of existence. Too many tankers and the world will pass you by. With innovation, it's often best to let your speedboats race out to the front.

I'll use the Peloton bike as an example. (https://lnkd.in/e3DJd-W) In your typical company, the challenge goes out to build a better spinner bike, so the tankers get on it. They hyper-analyze materials, components and electronics, adding and honing to build the ultimate self-contained unit, like bikes have always worked.

But the Peloton team are speedboats. They combined a love of cycling, problems with scheduling rides and the isolation of working out alone, and came up with a better experience in general. Now you can be a part of a group experience—at home. Log in, ride, sweat and win alone and yet still with others. Brilliant.

Tankers can now fine tune the machine while the speedboats run ahead.

Tankers and Speedboats: Checking the box versus solving the issue.

Every company has check-the-box employees. These are people who keep their heads down and move through a steady list of to-do items.

Sometimes these are the tankers who were hired to keep the machine going. I have also found this in tankers disguising themselves as speedboats. These people like to check LOTS of boxes every day to show how busy they are.

But we need people who lift their heads up to identify and solve issues.

Take, for example, the lowly highway stripe. Before 1911, roads had no dividing lines to help people know when they'd strayed too far over. Maybe this wasn't a big problem on straight roads, but there were countless wrecks around curves as people drifted around the turn.

Check the box people don't see or solve this problem. But a guy named Edward Hines, who was a Michigan county road commissioner, saw the problem for what it was—solvable. He had his crews add lines to the center of the roads, and thereby changed the way we navigate highways around the world.

It wasn't a crazy invention or expensive idea.

But it wasn't anyone's job to solve this issue, either.

Tankers and Speedboats: Are you over-engineering the solution?

The average tv remote control has 40+ buttons. Most people use about six on a regular basis and stretch to 10 in a crunch. So why do remote controls have the extra 30+ buttons? Because they can. But should they?

This is a classic tanker paradox. Instead of stopping with clean and simple, tankers are driven to add and build until all that extra space is filled.

I found this in an innovation program with a client a number of years ago. Market and consumer insights said consumers really wanted a product that did ONE particular job very well and came in reasonably priced. The tankers in the organization skewed the data to show that what people really wanted was a product that did a VARIETY of things.

We sketched ideas on a continuum and went back to consumers to double check things before heading further in product development. Sure enough, the simple ideas came out on top.

At this point the client took over the rest of the product development. What hit the market was a convoluted mess. The tankers won. And the product failed.

I've found healthy teams balance their tankers with speedboats who have the power to say no to over-engineering.

It's time we give each other a break.

I've worked with hundreds of companies, executives and cultures over the years. The issue that comes up time and time again is a concept psychologists call the FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR.

It's that moment when someone blows through a red light and you think "What an idiot! They're reckless and are going to kill someone?"!!?

But you have no idea what's happening in that car or in the life and mind of the other driver.

On the other hand, YOU run a red light and give yourself a pass: "I'm late to a meeting. My kid just spilled her shake in her lap and is screaming. I looked down for a second and didn't realize the light changed."

It's easy to forgive ourselves for issues that seem SITUATIONAL. We're not bad people, we just found ourselves in a situation that caused us to do something bad.

However, we far too often assign those same issues to other people as part of their PERSONALITY. They ARE bad, stupid, ignorant, uncaring ... and their mistake is simply a manifestation of all that is wrong with them.

This week, challenge yourself and your team to see the GOOD in people. See that they ARE trying—that they ARE working to solve the problem.

It's hard enough out there. Let's give each other a break. #teamspirit

Is the ad agency model dead?

A year after launching a start-up agency built on filling the gap between in-house creative groups and traditional agencies, I get asked almost weekly if I think the traditional agency model is dying. The answer? Maybe. But the reasons are far simpler than people think.

1. Too expensive: This always has been an issue. Agencies that can't prove their value will die.

2. Too slow: I think this goes to responsiveness. Not everything can be done quickly. But much of it can. Time still equals money.

3. Too many people: Agencies still bring five people to meetings when two will do. And clients recognize that only two are actually doing the talking. Yet all five are billing $200 an hour. That's a logic problem.

4. Too full of themselves: The condescending, insular personalities who can't be bothered by the business challenge are just not relevant in a world that needs to find ways to solve problems faster and build better relationships.

5. Too much jargon: Can we give "proprietary processes" a rest? Many companies would be happy to forego the bloated process for faster, smarter work. Those processes are rarely proprietary, anyway.

In the end I think it's about solving problems efficiently and humbly.

Does anyone really care about core values?

I work with clients every year on vision, mission, core values and culture challenges. When we get to articulating core values, executives often defer to a standard list of behaviors like Integrity, Accountability, Responsiveness, Empowerment, etc. But this random list doesn't do anything for anybody.

Enron's core values were Communication, Respect, Integrity and Excellence. Most would agree that these values were anything but core to the company.

The culture was corrupt. And that's where I find executives get confused. Your core values emerge from the culture. They don't drive it.

If your culture is dysfunctional, it doesn't matter how many core values you list or how you word them. If the leadership doesn't demonstrate the kinds of behaviors you want, TELLING your employees how to act will fall on deaf ears.

Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way: “What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying”

So, no, core values don't matter. Core behaviors do.

If you want to change a company, or help guide an organization to a positive new future, focus on the behaviors. Start at the top and cascade down. Once the leaders get it right you can consider making posters and t-shirts. Until then, no. You're just asking for trouble.

What if hope actually is a strategy?

Over the last few years of working with executives to help establish their business foundations and reset their company cultures, I have heard the phrase "hope is not a strategy" enough to have a gag reflex.

People bring it up when we talk about missions and values, when we get to employer branding and company culture, and when we discuss marketing plans. It seems like a go-to drop the mike kind of phrase for people who want to kill a conversation.

One major issue is that hope is EXACTLY what's missing from many company cultures today.

Executives must lead from the front in uncertain times. They must prove that even when it's tough they, the leaders, have some idea of what a positive future looks like and are willing and able to help the company achieve success. They must give the people in the organization hope that tomorrow will be okay.

Great leaders get this innately. Weak leaders struggle with it and as a result their companies die from within.

Hope is not only a strategy. It is one of the key factors in resetting struggling companies, blending cultures in mergers and acquisitions, and bolstering healthy companies looking to take on greater challenges.

Regardless of what your company values say, people need hope.

You are undeserving!

Try that phrase again and remove the "un". You are deserving.

Or this way: You. Are. Deserving.

When I work with companies with unhealthy cultures I often find people who have been beaten down over time and feel like their best their ideas have been killed by the system. When this happens often enough, people simply lose faith in who they are, what they can do and why they come to work each day.

Management's job isn't to beat people into submission. It's to lead them with a focus on a greater good, a bigger goal that will require everyone on the team bringing their best ideas every day. You deserve to have your best ideas heard.

You deserve to be recognized for contributing to the greater good. You deserve to know you have value in your role every day and that the company you're in is better because you are there.

You. Are. Deserving.

It's tough out there. Making a difference takes a lot of work. We need you to bring all the goodness that makes you uniquely you. And you deserve a company that will celebrate you. You are deserving.

Why You Need Change Management Bread Crumbs

In the classic tale of Hansel and Gretel, two small children are led out into the woods to fend for themselves and with expectations that they won’t survive the night. However, the kids have the evil plan all figured out and leave a trail of pebbles and bread crumbs to find their way back home so they can eventually slay the witch.

Managers Are Evil Until Proven Otherwise

For many employees involved in change management initiatives, the story of Hansel and Gretel is far too close to their own experience, minus the bread crumbs. We hear it all the time: employees feel like they’re being led into the woods to certain doom while senior managers feel like they’ve done their jobs in telling their staff that big change is coming, that they shouldn’t be worried and that everything is under control.

These broad and vacuous statements do nothing but reinforce the idea that upper management is trying to “change” employees right out of a job.

Upper management must understand that the prevailing attitude with line employees is that change is going to end badly for them. It’s survival mentality. In his book Leaders Eat Last, author Simon Sinek discusses at length how the brain fires up a dose of the hormone cortisol when we sense danger. The human body doesn’t wait until we can see the danger, it takes care of business ahead of time. Cortisol helps focus our attention on getting out of dangerous situations.

In change management initiatives, employees tend to sense that change is happening even if nothing has been announced in the company. Keep in mind that bad news travels faster and is, frankly, more exciting than good news. So given the chance to leap to conclusions, most of us leap the wrong way. Managers have a responsibility to their direct reports and to their companies to over-communicate what’s happening and help overcome human nature. No shady language, no duplicity, no dodging the hard questions.

This steady stream of communication can be considered the bread crumbs out of the woods for employees. The biggest difference here is that the trail leads to a new, hopefully even better, destination instead of back to the original starting point.

Error Increases With Distance

It’s easy for managers to be lulled into complacency when communicating change issues. Many believe that since they delivered a clear message once or twice, then everyone should be on the same page. Others believe that since they heard a message from their managers then everyone else must be getting the same message. This isn’t even close to reality. With one client, we found up to 10 degrees of separation from line employees to the C-suite, which made those at the senior executive level appear to live above the clouds. They were for all intents and purposes untouchable to the average employee.

But the CEO leading the change worked very hard to shorten the distance between his office and the people making products every day. He communicated clearly to his senior leaders and expected them to help cascade the same language, using the exact same terms, to the people below them. And he got regular reports on who was doing the communicating and how the messages were being received.

This seems like such a simple concept, but many of us forget that with every level in the organization comes a greater chance for error, for key messages to be twisted and altered to fit the personality or agenda of the messenger.

Whenever possible, we suggest that senior leaders shorten the gap between the top of the company and the bottom. Deliver messages directly and in person to the broadest range of employees. Expect managers to do the same, and measure both participation and impact. This enables executives to manage the chaos before stories get too far off the desired path.

Go Far Together

One African proverb says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” The same is true of change management.

Change doesn’t happen fast nor should it, in most cases. It takes time and planning to get the messages right and help everyone get on board. Organizational change is about setting up the company to go the distance. You can’t do that by racing alone.

Build a solid platform, communicate the end goal and how the company plans to get there, and recognize that most of the workforce won’t believe the messages until they see them lived out in and through management. With these bread crumbs the rest of the organization will make their way back to safety and join the rest of the company in reaching new goals.

Are Middles getting in the way of your progress?

It’s been my experience that many of the major blocks to change, growth, innovation, and more are tied to Middles: middle class and middle management.

The problems of having just enough

Middles tend to have just enough, so they fear risk that might cause them to lose what they have. Rags to riches stories don’t come from Middles. This group has a hard time seeing the potential gain because the potential loss is so overwhelming. You rarely hear Middles saying they are willing to risk it all. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I’m a huge fan of small bets and what Jim Collins described as firing bullets before cannon balls. But Middles can struggle even with firing off bullets unless those bullets are fired in incredibly safe territory.

Middles also can’t afford bigger bets, so the adage of “it takes money to make money” serves as a roadblock. Because risk is such a major inhibitor, Middles can have problems taking the steps they need to make a major impact in their communities, churches, businesses, etc. When you have enough to be comfortable, but not enough to be carefree, comfortable is like living within giant walls covered in razor wire surrounded by a moat filled with crocodiles. No one is getting in, but no one is getting out, either.

Don’t screw it up!

Middle managers who share this risk aversion can kill progress in companies. They often live by the mantra “just don’t screw it up!” So they passively block innovative thinking, change within the company and new people with new ideas. The Middles don’t like new. They like big, comfortable, proven and safe.

We’re not in a safe economy. With innovation being the buzz word for companies of all sizes, having a culture filled with the Middles mindset can passively kill whatever progress upper management has in mind.

The absence of yes

One of my favorite statements related to the passive aggressive behavior of Middles came from a 2015 episode of the TV series The Good Wife. I’ll spare you the details of the show, but the line “The absence of ‘yes’ times time equals no” is a brilliant representation of the Middles code of compliance.

Think about it. You’re in a company that desperately needs to change to stay relevant and gain the best new talent, plus you need to innovate and offer up something new for your audiences. Upper management develops new foundations with a vision, mission, values, purpose, building a positive culture, etc. The Middles don’t say “no” to the change. They just don’t say “yes”, either.

Then it’s time to get innovative. Upper management is now under the belief that their teams are on board. Since they didn’t get much push back on the change initiatives, they believe everyone on the boat is rowing in the same direction and now will embrace innovation as well. The absence of no does not mean yes. Middles don’t like to say no, partly because saying no means they will have to defend their reasoning—and their reasoning may mostly be centered around the fact that they don’t like change. Especially in a culture where upper management is driving to a new destination, Middles don’t want to be seen as the boat anchors.

But don’t think for a minute that Middles agree with or support the progress. The absence of yes can be seen as passive agreement. That would be a mistake. Middles know that when it comes to organizational change and innovation, usually they just have to outlast the idea of the hour and then they can get back to managing their comfortable worlds. Thus, the absence of yes times time equals no.

So what can you do? Here are five suggestions for dealing with Middles and the Middles mindset.

Overcoming the Middles

1. Use Middles to strengthen the core. Middles aren’t all bad. They just don’t like risk and change. Middles might be excellent at managing the core of any organization and keeping the company on track. Embrace their strengths and focus on strengthening the middle.

2. Don’t ask Middles to lead change and innovation. In his excellent book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”, author Clayton Christensen recommended moving disruptive innovation outside the core of the company. Why? Partly because the Middles often treat innovation like a virus that needs to be attacked, passively or actively, by the body. Do your organization a favor and let the Middles focus on their strengths while enabling the Innovators in the organization room to move and grow.

3. Help Middles see the future. Middles need time to embrace change. Middles want the company to continue doing what it’s always done and, in some cases, get back to the glory days the company once enjoyed with its legacy products and services. Because they tend to not be early adopters, this is going to take more time than most organizations want to recognize. Understand this. Schedule time, training and work to get buy-in before all the decisions have been made so the Middles can see themselves as part of the future.

4. Get verbal agreements. If you’ve ever sat in an exit row on an airplane you’ve been asked by a flight attendant to give him or her your verbal acknowledgement that you know you are in an exit row and have the ability to manage the exit door in an emergency. They don’t take a chance that you might be able to do the job, because if the plane goes down, you managing that exit door could be a matter of life or death. You need that same kind of agreement within the company to know everyone will do what you think they will when the time comes. Don’t let the Middles passively kill progress with an absence of yes.

5. Be willing to make the change they can’t. Just as important as getting the right people on the bus is helping the wrong people find a different ride. Once the vision and expectations are set, the coaching managed and programs initiated, it’s time to keep an eye on progress. If key metrics aren’t being met—and this tends to be consistent over time—and team frustration grows, it may be time to help some Middles find new roles inside or outside the company. In some cases this is just a factor of the company taking a new direction and needing new skill sets, so coaching people out of the organization doesn’t mean they are damaged goods, simply that they may not fit the future as well as they did the past.

The truth is we need both Innovators and Middles in most organizations. Just know that they can cancel each other out and see each other as the problem. Knowing where the company needs/wants to go will help, but things can’t end there. Upper management has to keep an eye on progress and people who are truly part of the program. Embrace those who join the efforts to move forward. Coach those on the fence. Help the others find success somewhere else.

7 Reasons Why You Should Fire Yourself

Don’t wait for someone else to evaluate your performance. Do it yourself. Then either make the necessary changes or fire yourself and improve your life.

Too many people want to blame their issues on the system, on a manager who is out of touch, on a company that just doesn’t understand them or have programs that meet their needs. If this is you, do the world a favor and fire yourself. Quit and go do something you know and love. Use all your energy to have a positive impact on the world and make a difference somewhere. Go ahead, the world will be a better place for it and no one will miss your whining at the place you left. Trust me on this.

Not ready to take that step?

Let’s do a little personal inventory on whether you should stay or go.

1. You don’t take your work seriously.

This is an easy one. Have a blast at work. Be happy. But do your work. Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile and independent researcher Steven Kramer, noted in their heavily researched book The Progress Principle, that happy employees do, in fact, work harder, do better work and create what the authors call a “positive spiral.” If you’re on the downward slide and it’s affecting your work, you should seriously consider a change of heart or workplace.

2. You complain. A lot. And often.

No one likes a whiner. It’s a toxic trait, it’s contagious and habit forming. So, if you’re the first one to complain about every little thing in the office, especially while never being part of any solution, it’s time for you to go.

3. You don't contribute to the company culture.

We’ll consider that you’ve already addressed the issues in number 2 so you’re no longer a whiner. But what else have you done for the culture? Those company values you like to make fun of ... how many of those have you embraced and brought to life? And what about helping your teammates achieve their goals? Zig Ziglar made a career out of helping people see how “you can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” All you have to do is keep in mind that this world is not about you. You're important, but so are the others around you. Don’t agree with me? Fire yourself.

4. No one is dying to have you in the room for the big challenges.

Are you a problem solver? Someone who rolls up their sleeves and tackles the hard challenges? Didn’t think so. Those big challenges require taking risks and calculated jumps. You don’t like to do that. But that’s what the company needs right now. If you’re not going to be one of the people willing to do what it takes to get us to where we need to go, you’re taking up precious space. It might be time to fire yourself and go find an easier job. We’d love to have you here, but that’s your choice.

5. If there’s a problem, somehow your name is always attached, and never in a good way.

Yeah, I know, you’ve just had an incredible streak of bad luck. I get it. I also know that you need to fix that or you won’t be here to extend your streak. Refer to the previous issues and become a positive force in the company, someone known for solving problems and getting stuff done. If you do this, you won’t have to fire yourself.

6. You’re not accountable to anyone, including you.

Pointing a finger is fine as long as you point one at yourself first, make the change and then move around the room. Do like Michael Jackson and start with the man in the mirror. Hold yourself accountable for your thoughts, words and actions. Be an adult. If this is hard for you and you’re unwilling to grow up, hand yourself a pink slip, if you can.

7. You have nothing to show for your time at the company.

This is a company built on results—positive results and, well, you don't have any of those that we can find. That means you are probably coasting and picking up a pay check. We don’t really need those kinds of people here because we’re looking to make a difference in the world. We believe you have it in you but if you don’t believe that as well it’s probably best if you move on.

Or ... hire yourself every day

Do you remember how you felt on your first day at your new job? Chances are you were filled with excitement, with all kinds of energy and ideas on how awesome this job was going to be. You didn’t join to be a slug. You didn’t set out to coast. No, you were going to make it to the top.

That’s a choice you get to make every day. So start with a good, hard look at who you are, where you are, and what you want to be. If you’ve drifted, get back on track. If you’ve slipped into a funk, get back on solid ground. If you can't get back on your own seek help ... and then get out there and make a difference.

What do you think? What did I miss?

The Goose Code: Lead, Follow and Encourage the Whole Journey

In the world of geese flight everyone has a shot at being a leader, all are followers at some point, and everybody is expected to cheer.

My house is apparently in a flight zone. Let the weather turn even slightly cool and geese fly over in any number of formations, from long lines to deep Vs. I see them and think of all the motivational posters I’ve seen and speakers I’ve heard who used the geese in formation analogy to talk about teams. I may be piling on here, but after a discussion with some students a few weeks ago, I thought it might be worth repeating.

Leaders Wanted
It’s interesting to see a flock of geese take to the skies. At first the group can seem disorganized and chaotic. But soon enough a pattern emerges with one goose in front and the others taking up the various positions behind. In his excellent book Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek discusses how people are hardwired to let the Alphas lead, giving them the best of the spoils with the expectation that those same individuals will provide protection and assistance when needed. I don’t know if that’s exactly what happens in the goose world, but it’s clear someone has to step up and lead the way. Without this leader, the whole flock is doomed to chaotic and inefficient travel, which could jeopardize the community.

The same thing is needed in organizations all over the world. Even if everyone in the group doesn’t believe fully in the exact path to the goal there needs to be some alignment that someone will lead and others will take up positions behind to help the group get there. Intel invokes their Disagree and Commit slogan to signal that once the decision has been made to move, it’s time to get moving.

Your Turn!
I worked in an agency once that liked to use team analogies. A lot. But they were almost always focused on being the ideal leader, or being the perfect soldier behind a great leader. I knew when I got criticized as a senior manager for not always having the winning idea that it was time to leave.

Geese have a better grasp on this leader and soldier rotation concept. They recognize that the lead goose is taking the full force of the wind in order to make life a little easier for the rest of the flock. But they also recognize that being in front wears on a guy. So when the time comes to give the lead goose a breather, he or she is able to coast back in to formation and recharge so he or she can lead again when the time comes.

It’s irresponsible to think that any leader can always have the best idea, and all the answers. It’s much healthier for the organization to surround the leader with a strong team that can step in and give the leader time to recharge.

Honk. You’re Doing Great! Keep it Up!
I don’t speak goose, but those who study these things say that one of the fundamental reasons geese honk during flight is to encourage each other, from the guy in back trying to keep up to the lead goose setting the pace. Their constant pep talk helps the whole group do a better job. When’s the last time you worked in that kind of organization?

It’s much easier to sit behind the leader and criticize. When you’re not getting beaten by the wind, when you don’t face the same pressures every day, it’s easy to judge the person ahead of you. Don’t. Find the leader guilty of doing well. Send her a note. Tell her you appreciate what she’s doing. Don’t do to it to suck up to her, that won’t help anyone. But you benefit when she does well. And when your time comes, you have every right to expect her to be your biggest supporter.

I talk to company leaders all the time who tell me how isolated they feel at the top—because people guard their words, both good and bad. In healthy organizations, a foundation of trust means anyone in the building can give a honk out to the leaders around them. And when those leaders need bit of a breather they should expect that people won’t hyper analyze the pause as failure, but only a respite in a long journey.

Lead, Follow and Encourage the Whole Journey
What is your team’s approach? Are you celebrating the best of each member and encouraging people to lead in their moments? Or do you burn through leaders when they’re not perfect at all jobs? Do you welcome new leaders and new ideas? Or push out whomever and whatever doesn't conform?

One last thought: migrating geese set big goals to reach destinations far beyond the reach of one or two birds. Yet when they work together, encourage each other, and let each bird lead when he or she is in peak form, the whole community reaches the goal.

Maybe it’s time we finally recognize that we are better together. You lead, I’ll encourage. Then I’ll lead, and while you rest a bit, how about giving a few honks every now and then?