Walking the Talk - Corporate Culture by Carolyn Taylor

Innovation: How Honda ‘kicks out the ladder’

Carolyn Taylor — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:31:59 +0000

There is always a challenge for leaders to learn the specific management techniques and behaviors they can adopt in order to build the culture they want. You’ve defined your target culture, innovation is one of your top priorities, now what do you actually have to DO as a leader?

I found a good video made by Honda in which the CEO Takeo Fukua describes a technique he uses called ‘kicking out the ladder’, similar to the English expression ‘burning your bridges’. By setting up a situation where not innovating will cause the team to fail, or to lose face, innovation follows. Here is the video.

I am often asked whether fear is a good motivator. My answer is that some fear, that adrenelin rush associated with being on the edge, does motivate and focus, (Think of the impact a deadline has on you). Too much fear will paralyse, or cause individuals to operate in a dysfunctional manner. A lot depends on the culture within which the people are operating. A culture of punishment and intimidation will increase fear levels and make normal situations fear inducing. A culture of support and encouragement, combined with a demanding stretch, will enable a healthy level of adrenelin flow.

Take a look at the examples Honda gives on how they manage this. I think they do it pretty well.

We found this video in a blog written by a consulting firm called Innovate on Purpose, who seem to have other good things to say about innovation.

How Google fosters innovation

Successful companies build strong internal culture capability

Carolyn Taylor — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:46:45 +0000

In my many years of consulting to organizations who are actively managing their culture I discovered an unexpected fact. The organizations who were doing it best were doing it with only limited external help, or none at all. This was an uncomfortable truth, in the days where I worked for companies which made their money selling ‘consultant days’. “What, you mean the client doesn’t need us!” Building internal capability has to be a top priority for any organization that is serious about culture. The core drive and strength must come from inside. (My yoga teacher tells me the same thing!)

This capability needs to include the understanding of how to build the right culture; the capability to build and execute an on-going culture plan; the personal capability to challenge and to hold true to values. Ultimately, this capability needs to become a core leadership compentence, initially it can sit with a few line leaders and a strong OD/HR team.

Many organizations talk about their culture without having this capability. When this occurs there are a number of risks

Lack of alignment: There are lots of activities around culture, but there is not a core framework within which they all sit. As a result, the messages is diluted and employees get confused. When this occurs, the likelihood that anyone will actually change their behavior is significantly reduced.

Sporadic focus: When times get tough, an organization will cut back on those activities which it does not see as important. Culture is the pattern of beaviors that are encouraged or discouraged over time. Sporadic encouragement is not enough. So when the investment in culture is not constant, the investment that is incurred is wasted.

Too much to do: What are the most important levers to pull to change your culture? Or, if the culture you have is an asset, what are the critical elements which might be at risk as you grow? In any particular culture, how can you know which initiatives will have the biggest impact, and focus yourselves there?

Walking the Talk is making a contribution to building internal capability by offering tools and training programmes for HR/OD and key culture champions. As those people increase their know-how, they are able to design the best culture strategy for their organization. They may well choose to use external vendors to help them with specific activities. But they do so from a position of knowledge and strength, within a framework that their organization understands.

Mazda: Aligning external & internal culture messages

Leading by omission – Ricardo Semler

walkingthetalk — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:56:17 +0000

“Every one of us can send emails on Sunday night, but how many of us know how to go to the movies on Monday afternoon”? Asks Ricardo Semler, the CEO of Semco during this interesting seminar at MIT Sloan School of Management, he talks about the way Semco innovates by challenging the business formats that are basically legacies of military hierarchies, which neglect or deny the power of human intuition and democratic participation. The best piece we found in this presentation was from the minute 26:20 to 40:27.

Davos Annual Meeting 2010 – Rethinking Values in the Post-Crisis World

Why customers feel bullied

Carolyn Taylor — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 10:05:19 +0000

A recent study cited in the New York Times has shown that school children, if left without influence, tend towards bullying and other selfish behavior. And conversely, that it is quite possible to instil in a school values of teamwork, tolerance and support for each other. This study concluded that values have to be, and can, be taught. Fast forward 20 years and the child takes his or her place in the organization. How many organizations take responsibility for instilling the important values in their employees?

I have often wondered why it is that basically good, constructive individuals can become rude, unattentive and often bullies themselves when placed into the world of their organization. Unguided, organizational culture tends towards the lowest common demoninator. Some individuals are actively offensive, and most of the rest, lacking support to be otherwise, take steps down that same path in order to survive.

Instilling the right values is a key role of leaders. Some education occurs explictly through conversation, induction and training. Much occurs through role modelling. The rest occurs through the process of encouraging and discouraging behaviors when they are displayed in others. This process forms the foundation on which a culture is built naturally and over time. It is particularly obvious in companies with strong cultures in which they are proud. But there are many others which remind me of the school yard. Lots of focus on technical development, but very little on the development of values. And in these environments, the lowest common demoninator behavior tends to prevail. Selfish behavior inside the organization spills out to the outside world. The consequence is that customers and other stakeholders are bullied. The techniques used become more sophisticated, but the experience of the customer remains similar – helpless, co-erced, ignored, unappreciated.

When an organization wants to introduce new behavior and a new value, the natural evolutionary process is usually not enough. The leaders themselves need to change, as well as everyone else in the organization. In these circumstances a more proactive plan to build the desired culture is necessary to speed the process along. The same challenge occurs when, as an organization grows rapidly, the established, natural process of values instillation becomes strained by the sheer speed of growth.

Some techniques can help improve the values instillation process

Explicit expression of what the important values are
Explicitly link a good behavior to the value of which it is an example – (eg. “The way you are asking questions is exactly what I mean when I say we need to become an organization which challenges status quo”)
Setting standards and sticking to them – (eg.”We will not speak badly of someone behind their back unless we have also spoken to them directly”).

The values hierarchy

Carolyn Taylor — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:09:29 +0000

We use a great exercise in one our training programs in which participants select and then rank their own values. The ranking process is the part I like the most. I have found that it is the HIERARCHY of values which is the strongest determinant of an individual’s behavior, and that of an organization. Most of us will agree that we hold a set of principles to be important, that we value integrity, and accountability, team freedom and respect for others. Most organizations will describe their values as including care for the customer, safety of their employees, innovation and performance. But it is idealistic to believe that every action can fulfil all of these. We have to choose, and in doing so our values hierarchy is revealed.

When a choice has to be made, which comes first? The hierarchy of values is seen most clearly when there are limited resources, and we have to choose how they will be applied. In Walking the Talk methdology, these choices become Symbols of what is really valued.

Time – there is only a limited amount, how do you use it? What do you prioritize? In those choices you show your values in action

Money – also limited, how do you spend it? Personally? And in budget allocations at work? Values in action again

Selection of people – only one space to fill. Who do you choose? What does that say about your values hierarchy? Which qualities in the possible candidates did you prioritize in your selection?

Office, car park space – how do you assign it?

Often, when leaders want to change or develop their culture, what is required is a realignment of the values hierarchy. In the past, new customers (sales effort) was valued more than existing customers (retention effort). In the future, looking after existing customers needs to become more important. In the past, we valued safety, but sometimes we cut corners in order to push through production volume. In the future, we will never compromise safety. These changes represent a change in the values hierarchy, and in the choices that are made at critical moments where it is not possible to fulfil both.

Thinking about the desird change in this way makes it more do-able. Often it is not necessary to introduce a totally new value (difficult), but rather to give more weight to an existing one (easier).

Davos Annual Meeting 2010 – Rethinking Values in the Post-Crisis World

walkingthetalk — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:16:36 +0000

“Ethics”, says one of the speakers, “are the resistance of values under pressure”. “Tourists don’t vote” says another in relation to changing the power of short term shareholders’. A panel of world leaders debate whether we are learning from what has been happening.

How Google fosters innovation

walkingthetalk — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 11:15:09 +0000

If you want to build a culture of innovation, watch how the best do it. Douglas Merrill, CIO of Google describes some of the behaviors, symbols and systems of his company. Watch his passion and his curiosity, features of innovative cultures. See how clear he is about the beliefs and principles that underpin his company. How could you help people like Douglas thrive in your organization?

Google: Culture as competitive advantage

5 essentials to build a team culture

Carolyn Taylor — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:00:24 +0000

I could really not let this whole month go by without a reference to the World Cup. My sister-in-law tells me that what you need as a woman in business is to develop two very good sentences on every sporting topic. To introduce this blog I offer you mine on soccer.

As I watch different teams play, and read the commentaries in the newspapers which I get delivered each day to my Kindle, I remember the impact on performance that the culture of a team can have. France and Germany come to mind, for those of you watching the soccer. A lot of my attention is taken with working on the culture of larger organizations, but of course a team leader can create their own unique culture within their team. The team sits within the environment of a wider culture, and today the English newspapers have moved on to writing about the different cultures in the national football federations of England, and of Germany, who beat them soundly. They don’t use the word culture, but those readers familiar with the framework for building culture covered in my book will be able to spot the references to behaviors, symbols and systems. But, with the right leadership, individual teams can operate above and beyond the culture within which they sit.

So back to teams. What are the five essentials to build the culture you want in your team?

Set standards together and agree to be held to them. Standards need to be objective and observable. They can relate to behavior and to actions. ‘No interruptions’ is a standard. So is ‘Start and end all meetings on time’. ‘Be supportive to each other’ is not.
Point out examples when the standards are exceeded, and call it when they are breached. If people are not good at doing this, offer training. This is a learnable skill.
Line up the agendas of your meetings with the purpose of the team, which is the value the team adds as a team, over and above the value they add as individuals. If the primary purpose of the team is to share best practice, don’t spend most of the time reviewing last month’s performance results.
Select, promote and restructure team members with the team in mind. The culture of the team matters if it is delivering a value in excess of that which the individuals could add if you managed them one on one. A new team member whose behavior is out of line with the developing team culture can diminish the performance of the overall team.
Clear the air. Schedule time to resolve differences or unspoken resentments. Get help from outside the team if you need it. Internal Organizational Development people or external facilitators. This has symbolic as well as immediate impact. It shows that you value relationships as much as task.

If I had a third intelligent sentence to say on soccer, I would end this blog with a comment about the standards that I think England should have adopted. But I will have to leave that to you to work out.

Culture in a virtual team

Innovation: NVIDIA founder on why they chose innovation over opinion

walkingthetalk — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:01:38 +0000

NVIDIA is a 3D graphics company that was formed in 1993 at a time when 3D technology was an emerging field. In this interesting seminar at Stanford University, NVIDIA’s co-founder and CEO talks about why he chose to ignore industry wisdom and customer opinion when deciding about the future needs of the market. They stayed true to their belief that there was an “insatiable” desire for 3D technology, and had this lead their product design and strategy rather than the perceived wisdom of the day.

How Google fosters innovation

Customer-centric: Volcano led to new communication channels

walkingthetalk — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 02:45:52 +0000

The recent disruption of air travel caused by the Icelandic volcano created opportunities for airlines to communicate with customers in new ways using social media. Traditional avenues such as call centres and websites could not meet demand nor get up-to-the-minute details out to customers quickly. Find out which airlines led the way in keeping their customers informed as events occurred.

Customer Centric..really