A630.7.4.RB - Mastering the Art of Corporate Reinvention

In the video, Bonsignore talks about the importance of communication and how vital it is to be truthful on all levels of the organization.  This means being completely honest with your employees.  If you keep them involved in what is going on with the company they will deal with the hardships better if they know that management is being open and honest with them and that there is light at the end of the tunnel if things are not going well.  I believe that this is a big part of what will make Honeywell successful because he sees the importance of communicating what is going on with the company.  When you can motivate your employees by showing them that the success of your company depends on them they will feel that they are truly part of the process.  Employees who do not want to be a part of change will bring down motivation of an organization so they either need to get on board or be let go.

Companies have to be adaptable, have credibility and be able to communicate with employees as well as customers.  If a company cannot adapt to changes in technology, product growth will go nowhere.  With technological changes comes a depersonalization of the simple processes such as customer service.  Customers want to speak to a human being to get their questions answered.  So be sure you have a personal touch so that your customers know you care about them and that they are not just a number to you.  If you don’t get feedback from your customers you won’t know where you need to make improvements.  When you set expectations for your company and you can’t follow through with it, own up to that by being honest with your public as well as your employees.  If your company takes success for granted complacency can take over.  This is when mistakes can happen.  A swift kick in the rear will get you moving again.  The speed at which things are changing these days is ever increasing so you must be ready to change and adapt in order to grow.

Getting a good sense of what is expected of the company on all levels from the janitor to the CEO is by having strategic business plans in place that are both short term and long term. This way success is measurable.   It also gives the employees have a clear idea of how to get from point A to point B and how they can be a part of that.  This gives them a purpose and creates a corporate culture of being part of the solution.  One of the things Bonsignore talked about was thinking in terms of what is good for me and good for the company.  In other words you should think about the big picture, not only how it affects you but the company.

Listening to the video it was great to see that both Bethune and Bonsignore admit that mistakes happen and the best thing to do is to own up to those mistakes and move forward from it.  You have to be able to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and figure out where you went wrong and what you can do to try to avoid making the same mistakes again.  The best successes usually come from failing at something.  Set expectations and be sure to get feedback.  For me I can use all of these things in my job currently.  Because there are so many changes to regulations we always have to adapt to changes that are happening.  For example, I already know that there will be more changes to how we perform verifications for the next academic year.  I would like to get some forms together and have a committee of students who review them for usability to see where we may be missing the ball on communicating what is needed.  Are the forms understandable?  Does it make sense?  Do the awarding letters break down the important information such as terms financial aid is awarded, where to find information regarding policies and such?  I think it would be great to get a survey together to see how students feel about financial aid and what can be done to improve how we do business.  This I feel will help communication and how we work our processes.

A630.6.4.RB 50 Reasons Not to Change/The Tribes We Lead

“Why change its working ok”, “it’s too much trouble to change”, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, “I don’t like it”, “We have always done it this way”, “it’s too complicated”.  These are just some of the things I have heard when it was announced a couple of years ago that we would be switching to a new software system at my organization.  Change this big may understandably bring some of these comments because changing your habits of how you do things can be a scary thing. But what about small changes, how does that affect us.  Perhaps it’s a change in how we perform a task or when we do it or even not having to do it again.  When I hear these types of comments what I hear is fear.  Fear of the unknown, fear of not being able to keep up with the change and fear that one may not like the new changes. 

I have even heard some new reasons not to change; “we need to win the lottery so we don’t have to learn the new system”, “we will have just as many issues with the new system”.  These come from people who have been through a change before and saw the issues and problems it created.  Why do we fear change though?  Look around and you will see that things have changed, nothing stays the same and if it did there would be no progress made.  Ever.  No man on the moon, no cell phones, no internet, no modern modes of transportation.  Technology is evolving at a much faster pace these days so what worked just a year ago may be obsolete now.  Change is going to happen whether we want it to or not.

Change is inevitable and it is better to embrace it and learn to adapt to transform.  I don’t think I ever used any of these excuses when it comes to change.  For me I ask more questions about the change.  “How will this affect how I do things”, “how quickly can we get it up and running”, “will there be training on how to use all aspects of the new product”.  Asking questions and learning how changes will affect you, your work and your organization you can overcome any thoughts or fears of how you will manage with new processes.  We must understand that we must change in order to move forward.  It not only helps us to understand things better but with this change we may find a better way to do things, a way to improve the way we work.  Who doesn’t like that?

Seth Godin spoke about tribes and how we may be a part of one whether it is the people we work with, groups we belong to or ideals that we feel strongly about.  It takes one person to say this is what I think and this is what I am going to do about it, come along if you want to.  There was a YouTube video posted on the announcement board a couple of weeks ago showing one random man dancing by himself to the music at some outdoor festival.  There were plenty of people around him, many walked by, some stopped to watch his unique style of dancing.  Then something amazing happened.  Someone else joined him.  And then another and another, pretty soon people were running not walking to be a part of this man’s journey of dance.  He didn’t shout for people to join him but without doing anything else other than what he was enjoying he formed a tribe.

            Seth offered three questions about tribes and change. The first one, who exactly are you upsetting seems pretty clear.  You stand for something and you want to be heard.  If it is not a big deal to you it won’t be a big deal to anyone else either.  You have to make yourself heard because this is how you change things, make them better, bring attention to wrong doings.  The second one, who are you connecting, makes you think about who you want to connect to.  Why are you connecting?  What are you going to get out of it?  I have recently started to run 5ks with a coworker of mine.  It did because she asked me to go because she thought I would like it.  I have just completed my 4^th 5k in the last 3 months and I am beginning to see a lot of the same people.  I am making connections with this group, this tribe. These runs are more than just about beating my own time; they help different organizations and individuals. 

The third one, who are you leading, is to me the most important one.  The focus is on who we will lead as this is where change is going to happen.  We make people think and want to do more.  My daughter is now interested in doing a 5k with me because she sees how happy it makes me knowing that I did something for someone else.  This is bringing another person in to help push change.  It can be as small as getting out there and doing it.  It doesn’t matter what the time on the clock says it is about making a difference in someone else’s life.

In my department I maintain a positive outlook even when change may affect how I do my work.  I focus on how to make it better not dwell on how unfair it will be.  Recent events in my area would make some people mad or frustrated but for me I will continue to do what I do and strive to make lasting changes that will better my department as well as me as an individual.  That is what makes me a good leader and perhaps propel me into a great one.

A630.5.4.RB - NASA Culture Change

Why did NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe address NASA employees to describe the plan to bring about proposed changes to NASA's culture? After the tragedy with space shuttle Columbia, an assessment was done by BST to see what may have cause the accident.  Where were the weaknesses within the organization?  O’Keefe talked about the assessment that was done and how it applies to all of them and all that they do and every aspect of the organization.  The assessment brought to light that it wasn’t just one department, one area of the organization; it is much broader than that. 

He made it known that though there were many aspects of what NASA has done that adds to the culture of NASA but there were many areas that demanded improvement.  By addressing the employees directly and taking questions as well he is making a point that it involves everyone in the organization.  He even told them that it needed to start with leadership including him because it is not as good as it should be.  He said that it needs to be thought of as constructively about what can be done to strength the culture of NASA.

Was he believable? Is it important whether he appeared to be believable?  He appeared to be believable as he continued to talk.  I found it interesting that when he first started talking and the video scanned the audience one member was smirking and appeared to have a look that said he didn’t quite believe what O’Keefe was saying.  As the talk went on and the video scanned the same person again it appeared that he was actually listening to what O’Keefe had to say.  I think that it is very important that he appeared believable because if they don’t believe what he has to say they will be less likely to want to make the needed changes since leadership doesn’t believe it either.

Why did he talk about NASA values?  O’Keefe pointed out was that though NASA had many of the values already in place there was definitely room for improvement.  The assessment from BST made it clear that change was needed.  He touched on some interesting points that he thought were vital to the cultural change with NASA.  One of them was respect for each other professionally to carry out tasks.  He said this is an area that needs more work.  There has to be respect for one another and their views.  Another area was safety and that the view in concept that safety is not bad but it is not good enough.   He pointed out that “We don’t act it quite the same way we say it” in regards to safety. One can preach about safety all day but it is more than just talking the talk NASA must walk the walk.  There should be no fear to speak up about problems. He suggested that we get leadership up out of their offices and walking around.  This shows that they are committed to making the working environment a better place for everyone.

What I can take away from this exercise that that you will not know what is working or not working in your department if you don’t ask.  Right now my director has asked each of us to put together a list of things that we feel will increase the quality of our jobs.  Though she may not be able to give us a pay increase, she can make little changes that will improve the overall quality of how we do our jobs from larger monitors and more comfortable chairs to holding team building retreats to bring feel cohesiveness to our department.  

A630.4.4.RB - How Companies Can Make Better Decisions

Listening to the video, How Companies Can Make Better Decisions, Faster, everything Marcia had to say kind of made the light bulb go on for me as far as understanding a bit better on how some companies have great success whereas others not so much.  Employee engagement and how it relates to decision effectiveness can be as simple as decisions that are made that are sound and well thought out but not drawn out.  When leaders make clear and concise decisions employees will feel that leaders are making these decisions with them in mind and it makes for a better working environment as well.  Making decisions should be easier not harder and this in turn will make for a more interesting place to work. 

If you have a board or committee of leaders who make the decisions for the organization as a whole and they can’t seem to agree or be on the same page or they want to involve too many people, it slows down progress across the organization.  It makes you wonder what is going on.  I experienced this when I was on a board last year and we had 10 people on the committee and our job was to make the verification process smoother and the forms more user friendly.  The problem was that there were about 6 people too many on this committee and 4 of them had not done a verification in many years if at all, so the changes they wanted to implement would actually make the process harder for the employees and less user friendly for the students and parents.

In the end the employees were frustrated because they were not asked their thoughts on the forms and there should have been at least one counselor on the committee to help since they are on the front lines every day with students and parents answering questions.  If a decision is made quickly and effectively everyone will feel that they are being heard and processes can be implemented faster and the flow is smoother which leads to more productivity for everyone involved.

Some impediments to good decision making that Marcia listed in the video include not having the right talent in key decision roles and leadership behavior getting in the way because there is no open and constructive debates before the decision is made.  So if you have leaders who just want to implement decisions and do not take a little bit of time to actually think about how these decisions can affect the bottom line, there may end up being more talk after the decision has been implemented and doesn’t work. This cause more issues such as a possibility of going back to the drawing board, retracting that decision which may have customers, employees, board members, etc. questioning the leadership ability or the company’s strategy.  Marcia also pointed out that companies are becoming more complex with more companies evolving to reach more markets so they become more complicated.  Organization charts look more like road maps these days so it is hard to keep it simple sometimes.

            In addition to the 4 elements that Blenko suggests (quality, speed, yield and effort) I would add strategy, alternatives, reasoning, and feedback.  Strategy is important because as companies evolve and change, products improve or customer demands change it becomes important that your strategy is well thought out and you are prepared for changes that will happen.  Alternatives would be great to have in place if a decision is made and for some reason it doesn’t work or needs to be tweaked you have back up plan.  So if Plan A doesn’t work then Plan B can be put into play.  This would work well in the planning part of the decision making. Reasoning is important for the simple fact of asking ourselves why we are doing this.  What is the reason we need to make these decisions?  Why didn’t it work before?  Feedback would go well with Alternatives because if you can get feedback on what worked and what did not you can then make necessary changes that are needed in order to implement more effective decisions.

            What I can take away from this exercise is that decisions affect each department as well as the organization as a whole so these decisions need to contain the 4 elements that Blenko mentions such as quality, speed, yield, and effort as well as incorporating the ones I listed.  Our department is smaller and it is easier to have everyone involved to hear ideas and thoughts on how implementing new processes will affect the students as well as the counselors.  Some decisions are out of our control as they come from changes with Federal Regulations however we can be sure that we are getting that information out to our students and parents in a timely manner and that it is done in a way that makes sense and encourages them to ask questions.  

A630.3.3.RB - A Day in the Life of the Culture Committee

Southwest Airlines (SWA) is known as the low fare carrier that delivers more than just a ‘welcome aboard’ speech.  Ask most anyone who has flown Southwest and chances are you will find someone who has experienced their company culture.  From smiling faces and silly songs as you taxi to the gate, you don’t just feel like a number to them you feel like a part of their company.  A part of this always cheerful attitude is in how the employees are treated by each other and by management.  In the video one of the major comments that stuck out for me was the flight attendant explaining the Culture Committee.  She said it was employees appreciating employees.  How many employees can say that about where they work?  This statement is what makes SWA a great place to work because they are all about that culture.

Having the Culture Committee is a big part of establishing the cultural norms of SWA.  Giving the flight attendants a small break by cleaning the plane for them and giving them small snacks is just one way to say thanks for all the hard work.  It is a way to give back to make everyone feel appreciated in every way.  Their enthusiasm and positive attitude plays a big role in this.  You could tell in the video how surprised and happy the flight attendants were to see the Culture Committee greeting them when they opened the airplane door.

By focusing on making happy employees, SWA makes its customers happy as well.  It is like a domino where one piece falls into place and then the rest follow as well.  "They have to practice the golden rule every day - first with each other, and then with our passengers," Barrett said. "They have to serve because they want to. They have to smile because they want to, not because they have to" (CBS News, 2009).  So it is about how you feel and how you interact with each other as well as the customers.  When you love what you do and why you do it the rest is easy.  I feel this is a big part of why the Culture Committee does what it does.

Having the Culture Committee in place not only shows employees how much they are each appreciated by each other but how valuable team work is and perhaps a big reason employees stay and how SWA continues to stay successful.  Part of this success is the key difference in how employees treat each other.  “Kelly says the difference between his company and others is simple: "People working together, people lovin' each other, people respecting each other" (CBS News, 2009).

If I were to try to put together a Culture Committee for my department I would probably focus on the little things first like bringing in breakfast for everyone as small token of appreciation.  We function very well as a team and we all jump to help each other out so there isn’t one thing that one person does that another doesn’t.  If I had to start my list I would say picking two counselors and telling them that they don’t have to work their queue for a day that everyone else will work it for them.  Then pick something different for another counselor like returning phone calls, or answering tickets.  To be able to give each counselor a small break to be able to work on one area without having to worry about getting behind in another would be a huge help the department as a whole.

What I can take away from this exercise is that if you have to have the culture within your employees, make sure you find out what makes them happy while keeping with your standards of the company.  Planning retreats or enrichment seminars for the department to attend can help to shape that more positive culture.  As we saw on the video doing just one small thing for your fellow employee can go a long way and creating an environment that everyone wants to be a part of.  Changing the culture from one that is negative (be it employees or the organization) to positive takes hard work but it can be changed for the better.  It takes patience, understanding and the ability to bring out the best in everyone.

References:

Something Special About Southwest Airlines - CBS News. (2009, February 11). Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-3221531.html