• How to create meaningful purpose in the company or organization you lead
• Culture, Customer Loyalty, and Profit are all connected- regardless of the business, we’re in the people business
• In the call center business, health care, “Patient Experience” company
• What’s most important in Paul’s view is to protect the culture he has built, passed on opportunities to sell because of the mismatch of culture
• Found a partner that valued the culture they had built
• The real perception about culture that matters are those on the front lines- not the Executive Managers
• “Culture IQ”- 10 questions (rate 1-10)
• 1. “Our core values are deeply intregrated into our decision-making process”- are your Core Values impacting your organization’s decisions or are they simply a plaque on the wall?
• 2. “We have fun at work”- how connected are people to each other in and out of work? Create environments where people, families, and employees can do life together
• 3. “We have a system in place to show that we care about the personal lives of employees”- Do we care about the personal lives of our employees? We can institutionalize culture in our organizations. Intranet can be used to track major events in our team’s lives- births, weddings, funerals, graduations, anniversary dates- have a system to follow-up
• 4. “Our employees get personally involved in our community service activities” – Give our team, give up revenue, and lead in our actions that we genuinely care about people
• 5. “We hire for fit, in addition to skill” -  Are you screening to make sure people fit in your organization? The key is patience. We are going to make sure it’s not about the resume. Put them through multiple interviews, divide and conquer by having some people focused on interviewing for skill and some for fit. You may need to get rid of whiners, losers, or jerks.
• 6. “We quickly and appropriately move the wrong people out of the organization” -  Not moving the wrong people out has a negative impact on morale. Often people will self-select themselves out. People will step up to help fill the gap for someone you have to let go.
• 7.  “We regularly measure employee engagement, create action plans, and communicate results” – Randomly connect with various people and simply ask them, “How are you doing?”  Find a good survey to track annually, Paul uses a 70-question survey they run annually. Have a culture committee.
• 8. “We have a robust reward and recognition program.” – Money is one thing but people really want to feel valued. Simply ask people what they want to do. Find creative ways to say thank you and recognize people.
• 9. “We regularly demonstrate our commitment to growing and training our employees”
• 10. “Our employees feel like they are here for a purpose beyond just their job”  How are you making the world a better place? Recommends the Jim Collins process of finding your purpose.

10 Keys to Leadership:

• 1. You’re in the relationship business. Elevate conversations beyond the service- build relationships with clients. It’s hard to treat your client well if your organization is not “well”.
• 2. Hire superstars.
• 3. Focus on the small things. Be mindful of first impressions- how are you
• 4. Never be a bottleneck. You should never be the one people are waiting on- focus on an empty inbox to your team. Set the example of rock star service. Be the first responder.
• 5. Your organization is a reflection of you. 50% of the business is a reflection of the owner- what are you reflecting? What do you need to change?
• 6. Do what you say you’re going to do. Be accountable and keep your promises. If you’re not going to meet a deadline, give your team a heads-up.
• 7. Your direction, their voice. Give people the opportunity to fail. Delegate and step back.
• 8. Weed the garden. You’ll never have the perfect team, there is a regularly “weeding” process that needs to occur- sometimes people can’t adjust to the change or growth that occurs over time.
• 9. Get out of the zone. Spend time with people, not in the weeds.
• 10. Understand the personal vision of employees and customers. Never worry about people leaving your company- focus on adding value to their purpose and their lives. If someone leaves but is thanking you for adding to their life- you’ve accomplished what matters.

Other notes:

• One of the challenges that comes with building a culture is that you’ll have some people with a sense of entitlement. Address this with tough love but press forward- don’t be discouraged by a few apples that don’t “get it”.
• Building a culture will take time when starting out because you have to build trust, time will demonstrate it’s not a gimmick, work a plan and be consistent.
• “Small Giants”- companies that choose to be great instead of big… Recommended book.

10X Leaders:

• Thrive “in” chaos, not “on” chaos
• Observe what works, find out why it works, and build upon that successful foundation
• Accept full responsibility for their fate or performance and don’t point to outside circumstances
• Level 5 ambition- Are ambitious but ultimately for a purpose bigger than themselves (building a great company, changing the world, etc)
• Deflect attention away from themselves and give the praise to others
• Build an organization so that it can be great without them
• Exercise Fanatical Discipline, Empirical Creativity, and Productive Paranoia

Fanatical Discipline

• Inner will to do whatever it takes to achieve a great outcome no matter how difficult
• Create a 20-mile march, elements of a 20-mile march:
• Has performance markers on the lower bound (minimal acceptable performance) and an upper-bound (healthy constraint to growth)
• Lies largely in your control to achieve, you shouldn’t need “luck” to achieve your 20-mile march
• Must be achieved with great consistency, good intentions do not count
• Should be imposed and designed within the organization, not by outside pressures
• Timeframe for the march should not be too short (subject to volitility) or too long (loses impact)
• Can be non-financial measures/activity as well
• Need to stay with it long enough to let results come through an interative process
• 20-mile marchers thrive in times of chaos as they are much more disciplined than their rivals- You can be successful without discipline for awhile or during good times but you’ll be in trouble during the tough times

Empirical Creativity- Take risks with observed, empirical information- don’t just wing it on simply opinions

• Shoot bullets, not cannonballs
• Intel’s #1 core value is not innovation or creativity- it’s discipline
• “The great task, rarely achieved, is to blend creative intensity with relentless discipline so as to amplify it rather than destroy it. Operating Excellence + Innovation = 10x Creativity
• A bullet is a low cost, low risk, and low distraction test/investment to see if it hits the desired target- shoot these until your target is hit- then align the cannonballs to your target
• A cannonball is a big bet, best investment- uncalibrated can be dangerous, calibrated (after confirming a bullet has hit the target) has a much larger change at success and lower the risk component in an organization (this is what 10x companies do)
• Firing cannonballs uncalibrated that happen to success reinforces bad process and can lead to firing more uncalibrated cannonballs…. Cannonballs that miss come at a great cost and can even sink an organization
• Progressive Insurance limited any new business to 5% of its revenue until it proved sustainable profitability
• Caution: If you only fire bullets but never commit to an audacious objective- you’ll never do anything great

Productive Paranoia

• Live with a healthy sense of the many dangers right around the corner- avoid Hubris of Success
• #1: Build cash reserves and buffers so you’re prepared for unexpected events and bad luck before they happen
• 10x companies carried 3-1o times the ratio of cash to assets
• Some financial theory says hoarding cash is irresponsible in the deployment of capital- in a safe world, that would hold true but our world is not stable, predictable, or safe and it never will be
• #2 Bound risk, death line risk, asymmetric risk, and uncontrollable risk- manage time based risk
• Spot risks early and then determine how much time you have before the risk factor changes- use that time to make the best decision rather than a hasty decision (Use as much time as what may be allowed to analyze what you can)
• #3 Practice “Zoom Out” to be able to see the big picture, risk assessments, and how much time you have to respond- then “Zoom In” and push for perfect execution and adjust to changing conditions

10x Companies Develop a SMaC (Specific, Methodical, and Consistent) Recipe:

• “A set of durable operating practices that create a replicable and consistent success formula”
• A blend of durable precepts and specific practices that would rarely change (typically specific practices change often but in a SMaC recipe, work to find the enduring)
• Do the same thing you are already doing well and do it over and over again
• Easy to understand, follow, and know what to do and what not to do
• Not the same as core values, strategy, culture, purpose, or tactics
• They can contain “not to do” items: (Amgen:”Do not hype. Better to make people angry by underestimated your next success than by overestimating.)
• Having a SMaC recipe wasn’t the diffentiator, it was the level they adhered to it. When results declined, they first look at what part of their SMaC recipe they have strayed from rather than assuming they need to change the recipe and react
• “The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change, the signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.”
• If you really want to be mediocre… keep changing, morphing, leaping, and transforming yourself all the time and to everything that hits you
• Amend the recipe only when the conditions truly call for a change, bullets have been shot to validate the new recipe- view it like the Constitution.
• Great question to ask, “If we were replaced and new management came in, what would they do?”
• Organizations succeed with a blend of Consistency + Productive Evolution

Luck:

• For the 10x companies, it wasn’t that they were lucky, it was the “ROL”- Return on Luck that made the biggest impact- they were prepared to act in accordance with their recipe when it showed up
• Who is your best luck? People. Having the right mentor, leader, co-worker, talent, fanatic, or researcher can yield a great return on luck. Are we creating an environment to attract the people we want and desire?
• Companies with a lack of discipline miss out on luck when it shows up people they execute poorly with it
• 10x’ers take bad luck and turn it into a challenge, Ray Bourque, “Goals live on the other side of obstacles and challenges.”
• Great companies are able to be successful without luck which builds a deep confidence in that success
• The point? Be great, be exceptional- it’s far better to be great than lucky

“Take away the best 20 people and I tell you Microsoft would become an unimportant company.”- Bill Gates 1992

The company I’ve been a part of for 5 1/2 years, Pinnacle, was acquired by Advanced Imaging Solutions, Inc.

• Fear is not your friend. In the midst of any change, it’s normal to have anxieties and concerns about the future: will I have a job, who will I report to, is my compensation and/or benefits going to be impacted, what responsibilities will I have, etc. Playing completely safe rarely adds much value and worry usually leads to more unproductive behavior which is the last thing one wants to do.
• Be real. This should be our “M.O.” all the time, but when engaging with a new team, new contacts, and new challenges… pretending to be something you’re not will only hurt us in the future. We should continue to focus on our strengths, communicate truth, and look to add value in those areas.
• Avoid Politics. This is nauseating in any setting but especially in a time of acquistion- don’t be “one of those” people. Build up others, be real about other people’s strengths and areas you see they can add great value in the new organization, and simply focus on building new relationships with the new team.
• Serve Others. This is an unsettling time for scores of people. Look for opportunities to encourage others, answer questions where you can, and help them to remain focused on productive behaviors.
• Don’t Gossip. This is another area that should simply be a way of life, but the water cooler talk, social media chatter, and text messages about others only tears down, it does not build up.
• Don’t make hasty decisions. Some people simply look to run during these times or judge people or plans too quickly. Usually, time will be on your side to assess with more information and see how the dust settles in upcoming weeks and months. In six months, you may find there are several actions or statements you’re thankful you didn’t make once you learned more of the scoop.
• Focus on the next right thing. There is so much to be done and there are a lot of unknowns at this time- it can be overwhelming. In these times, centering on the “next right thing to do” is more important now than ever. What do our clients need to know? Are we maintaining our service level in the transition? What do people need to have communicated? What financial decisions need to be made? What can wait? Keep a list but knock out one big need at a time.
• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. With new people, new teams, new personalities, unknowns, fear, and decisions that need to be made- this is a time to share more, ask the extra question, get accurate updates and news out as soon as you can, and don’t assume people know what’s in your head.
• People Matter. At the end of the day, it’s people that matter. Not the spreadsheets, not the strategic plan, not the position, and not the massive task list. What’s normal is to be “me-focused” during a time like this- focus on others, build relationships, look for strengths, serve where you can, and lock arms with your old and new team.
• Where is My Security? Our job, our position, our title, our status, and our paychecks can look like our security and far too often I can confuse these things as the most important. If that is where I put my focus, I tend to lose focus on others, avoiding politics, and simply become distracted in a false foundation. Yes, there is a hard reality of having to pay bills at home and provide for a family but if I believe what I believe, my Faith is my foundation first, not my wallet.
• Choose to be Positive. The glass half-full and glass half-empty attitudes tend to come to the surface in times like this. Negatively, doom and gloom, complaining, worry, and despair will not help you or the people around you. Grab a paddle, start rowing, be productive, and see where the boat takes you.

I am completely jazzed about this new season of challenges, new relationships, and stepping into the unknown. I really appreciate a comment from our new CEO, Steve Klatt when he said, “I ask that you trust me until I give you a reason not to trust me, and I’ll do the same with you.” That is a fair way to press into our new future. I now get to “do life” with 130 co-workers for 50 hours out of every week. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

• To be considered in the top half of the wealthy in our world, you would need to have $2,200 (US) in assets – yep, that’s about a laptop, IPhone, TV, and the spare change jug in the corner of your bedroom.  (Source: World Institute for Development Economic Research)
• The poorest 5% of Americans are wealthier than approximately 68% of the rest of the world- Great post here summarizing a section from the book “The Haves and Have Nots” by Branko Milanovic
• The average square footage of a US home has increased from 1974 (1695 square feet) to 2380 square feet today.  Even with the potential size of home dropping down a tad to 2150 square feet (National Association of Home Builder’s)- this represents a 26.8% increase in the size of the home while the number of people in the home has decreased from 3.1 people to 2.6.

Go ahead, say it.  I am rich.  When over 2/3 of the world would trade spots with your in a heartbeat, we need to keep it real….   So what’s our problem?

While I love several aspects of our free capitalistic society (hard work, ingenuity, pursuing a dream, and literally thousands of opportunities to explore), we’re also in a kayak of a strong rushing river being bombarded by 2000-5000 advertising messages a day hammering us with discontent.  The truth is, we’ve taken the bait whether we like to admit it or not.  The average US household wastes $8,000 a year.

We have a choice, we can keep running the rat race where we live with the tension of “if I just made a little bit more…”  Studies have shown that most Americans say they would be happy if they made 10% more than what they currently make.  The problem is, this continues no matter what your income…

What are the potential consequences of a life of discontentment and drive to simply make more?  Increased stress, health issues, time away from kids, depression, cynicism, greed, diminished character choices, and simply missing life as it happens before our eyes.

How do we dump this ridiculous cycle?

• Shift your focus.  Turn your eyes from those who have more than you to those who are much less fortunate.  Meditate on what you DO have, your health, the food you have, the access to health care, clean water, and most importantly, the people in your life.
• Shift your thinking.  What we think affects the way we feel, what we feel affects the way we act.  Stop thinking that you “don’t have” or that “you’re not rich”-  Think, “I’m blessed, I’m wealthier than over 70% of the world, I don’t need more…”
• Tune out the bombardment and pressure of keeping up, the ads you see, the people that pull you into “stuff” thinking.  Quit being a sucker to the messages you hear on a daily basis.  They are lies.
• Give and serve to those in need in an sector you are passionate about.  You may only have $16 left at the end of a month, but invest in something you really care about.  (Helping young kids learning how to read, homeless, food pantries, high school kids, your local church).  But more than simply writing a check, dive in- be all in to something to make another life better and to help someone else feel loved.  Giving and serving breaks the spell of “more”, the lies of “discontent”, and our whining.

Is money evil? No.  Is hard work and wanting to build a great business bad?  Of course not.  The question to ask is Why?  Why are you doing it?

A dollar applied to yourself is only a dollar.  A dollar applied to others can have returns of twenty, fifty, and a hundred fold in your life.  Which will you choose?

Leadership Challenge:  What would you need to accomplish in your leadership to be remembered 2000 years from now and to have millions celebrate your birthday?

Why is there a Chicago?  No one knows.

Personal note:  How often do we completely miss the incredible impact of Jesus in our world, in all facets, in all places of society?  It’s amazingly vast.  Religion is a mess.  Christ should be the focus.

More on John Ortberg.   Book:  Who is this Man?

I Samuel 15:34-16:1  Story of Saul and Samuel

His pastor’s church grew tremendously- over 50,000 people and became a denomination…

• He came part of the board, one of the first decisions they had to make was to have the original pastor resign
• They made the mistake of keeping his pastors moral failure a secret and restore his marriage.  The pastor instead caused more problems and created factions within the church
• In the end, finally, the pastor gave his resignation but a division was brewing in the denomination
• Mario came into leadership in a hostile environment (1995)- he didn’t want the call and having to move… but felt it was what God was asking of him
• The original pastor was a very close friend (similar to Saul and Samuel)- but the original pastor refused to repent
• Mario had to choose…. be with God or be with man?
• After 17 years, he has rarely seen his old pastor friend- when values differ, life’s road begins to pull people apart…
• Many people feel like Mario failed his friend, it was a tremendously difficult process.  Samuel had to do the same thing…
• Denial is the first step in the process.  Samuel could not accept the fact that Saul would no longer be king.  Everything happened so quickly.  He expected God would change his mind in the last moment- but God’s decision was final.  Samuel was experiencing uncontrollable grief.
• The second phase… depression.  The depression that triggers and understanding of his difficult duty but we’re left with no options.  Saul was not who he thought he was… there was no turning back.  Integrity lost cannot fully be restored.  This led Samuel to a deep, deep depression.  Samuel hoped for other options.
• Third phase…. The Process of Acceptance.  Samuel had to come to terms that Saul would no longer be king. He felt alone and desolate.  If not Saul, then who would be king?  As a prophet of God, Samuel would have to appoint a new king despite the fact Samuel was the one who appointed Saul and the conflict this created.  Eventually, Samuel heard a voice, “How long will you grieve over Saul?  Be on your way Samuel!”
• Fourth phase…  Action and Moving Forward.  Samuel had to move on and annoint the new king.
• Leaders are defined by the ongoing decisions they make.  Are you facing a tough decision today?  Are you allowing your personal bias to influence your decision?  Maybe you’re going through you’re own grieving.
• Leaders need to make the tough decisions.  Give yourself permission to walk through these steps but don’t give yourself the option to stay stuck- leaders must act.  Trust God, He has more in store for you.  This is the best choice.
• Every right decision a leader makes will strengthen his/her influence.  You will never regret doing the right thing.  History will decide and demonstrate the path of integrity of the life you’ve lived.

My thought:  Tough right decisions, sometimes with people we like and have cared for, are often very, very difficult.  “Punting” tough decisions will only allow the seeds of dysfunction to grow.  Powerful truths.

Hybels:  Trustworthiness Audit:  Is there any area of trust going on in the relationships, finances, grey in legality, sexual transgression or addiction, or any other hidden issue unresolved in your heart and/or in your organization?  Pray for the strength to make it right, do the right thing.

Secondly, is there anyone in your organization you feel there is a trustworthiness factor that needs to be addressed?  Are you avoiding the tough conversations?  Are we failing anyone by simply being a “chicken” to have a conversation?

About Pranitha

Pranitha’s story reminds me of Bill Hybels talk on a “tough call”- her life is at risk, she’s on the front lines, and it puts my risks in a new (smaller) perspective.  Wow.