Culture & engagement aren't soft, they're actually pretty hard

Employee engagement. Corporate culture. Those two terms – hot buzz terms in human resources, and business and finance journals alike – oftentimes make “serious” executives roll their eyes. Those so-called serious executives say they’re “soft” terms that are all touchy-feely and don’t really contribute to bottom line results.

These are the same guys that look at scientific research, polling and case studies, and if it doesn’t agree with their anecdotal opinions, long-held beliefs, and of course their wealth of experience, they discount it. The truth of the matter is that there are tremendous gaps – in all areas of business – between “what science knows and what business does” (I ripped that off from Daniel Pink. Check this out: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html).

There’s a certain amount of arrogance that needs to be set aside – on both sides – because, as with most things, the best solution probably lies somewhere between what science knows and what the serious executive does. The truth is that even if you really do know everything, chances are you don’t remember it all, so keep an open mind – there are other smart people out there with valuable insights that won’t always agree with our long-held opinions.

In an interview with Sean Silverthorne, Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus James Heskett talks about the issue of culture and his new book, The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance. Heskett says that, "organization culture is not a soft concept. Its impact on profit can be measured and quantified."

I’d also contend that unless a company deals in something that no other company deals in – something unique in the marketplace – the only real sustainable competitive advantage any company can have is it’s employees. A company with a strong corporate culture that recognizes the value of employees, and encourages innovation and input gets more from those employees – engagement.

Yep, they go hand in hand. Engaged employees are the ones that go the extra mile because they want to, not because they think it’ll get them brownie points. They actually care about their companies, because their companies have demonstrated it’s a reciprocal relationship.

Here’s another unsettling fact: Up to 75% of mergers and acquisitions fail. You know what the number one reason the leaders of those companies cite as the reason for that failure? You guessed it, the lack of attention to culture.

Research is pretty clear on the bottom line return of engagement too. Companies with engaged employees show a 22% improvement in net profit. 22%! That’s huge! You know what else they get? Less turnover and absenteeism – more huge savings for the company.

Here’s the kicker though: It IS a reciprocal relationship, and employees have to do their part too. Employees who sit and wait for the culture to come to them are going to miss the boat. It’s an active relationship that requires effort from both sides.

Remembering the Golden Rule

My youngest son, a friend of his and I drove down to Atlanta on Saturday to see the Braves take on the Mets in their last home stand of the season. We’ve been to a bunch of games at both Turner Field and the old Fulton County Stadium over the years, but it’s always tricky navigating downtown Atlanta.

We were in bumper-to-bumper traffic and trying to get into the left-hand lane. I motioned to the driver of a van beside/behind us and he waved us over. After sitting there, not making any progress getting through the intersection, this guy in the van pulls out from behind us and over to the passenger side and motions for us to roll the window down. He says if we’ll follow him through the intersection instead of trying to turn left, he’ll get us to the stadium. After 10 minutes of twisting and turning, sure enough he had us at a parking lot about a block from the stadium. We pulled alongside him and thanked him profusely, and he smiled and waved, and said, “No problem, enjoy the game.”

How about that? This guy had nothing to gain but the gratitude of some out-of-towners visiting his city. I was so happy that my son and his friend, who are both 14, were there to witness this man’s unsolicited graciousness. What a great example to follow.

I sometimes wonder how we lose sight of the value of the Golden Rule. It really is so much easier to be nice. You don’t have to think of clever things to say, or keep a running tally of who’s worthy and who’s not. And it makes your days more pleasant all the way around.

Have you ever looked back on a really good day? Wouldn’t it be great if all days could be like that? We had a great day on Saturday – the Braves won on a an RBI single by Chipper Jones in the bottom of the eighth – and it all started with that guy who went out of his way just to be nice.

If the Lions can do it, anyone can

I have an old Fox Trot cartoon strip I clipped from the newspaper about 20 years ago, where the guy is talking to his wife and says, “Can you feel it? The changing of the seasons … one season gradually coming to an end, another moving in to take its place” His wife says, “It’s summer, fall doesn’t start for another month.” He looks at her confused and says, “Summer? Fall? I’m talking baseball, football!”

I love this time of year. The MLB season always gets more interesting at this point with the pennant races heating up (of course it looks like my Red Sox are cooling down at just the wrong time!). The NFL season is getting cranked up with all the optimism only a new season can bring (all those “wait ‘til next year” guys are still blind).

Everyone starts out even supposedly, but some things are as certain as death and taxes: The Patriots will be one of the best teams in the league (Brady for 517 yards on Monday night, followed by 423 more on Sunday!), Rex Ryan will shoot his mouth off AND BACK IT UP – which is great(!), and the Lions will be pathetic. Right? Right? Well, not necessarily. Detroit’s off to a 2-0 start after dismantling the Chiefs 48-3 on Sunday.

Now in his third season as head coach of the Lions, Jim Schwartz has not only turned over the roster in his short time there, he’s doing something nobody else has been able to do in my lifetime (and that’s a while): Schwartz is changing the culture in Detroit. These guys look, talk and act like they expect to win. Whoa! The Lions expect to win? That’s cool. Changing a culture can be very hard to do, but Schwartz is doing it. He’s got the fans (who knew the Lions had fans?) believing and he’s even got the so-called experts believing.

It can be just as hard to change the culture of a company. If you’ve ever worked for an organization that’s experienced some kind of turmoil – restructuring/reorganization, merger/acquisition, or explosive growth – you know how those things can impact the culture, sometimes for good, sometimes for evil (you may know these guys too). Regardless of the circumstances, it can be very hard for employees to embrace a new culture (imagine how hard it would be if the organization also had fans that wanted to tell you how to do it better). It can be a difficult transition.

One thing that’s pretty consistent about the culture conversation is that two companies oftentimes make their way into the discussion: Southwest Airlines and Google. A lot of us use SWA when we travel and understand how they are different. Their flight attendants and pilots joke with passengers – that’s relaxing to a traveler. And their founder, Herb Kelleher was devoted to culture maintenance. In fact, in the September 2011 issue of Southwest’s Spirit Magazine, current Chairman, President, and CEO Gary Kelly talks about the importance of culture as they integrate with recently acquired AirTran.

Likewise most everyone who uses a computer uses Google – they’ve become a verb for god’s sake. (Whoever you are, if your name becomes part of the modern vernacular as both noun and verb, you HAVE arrived.) Google has amenities onsite for employees that are unbelievable – go to the website and snoop around a little, it’s really quite something. They have everything from on-site daycare and massages, to decompression chambers and an assortment of cafés throughout the complex – it’s ridiculous.

I’m always a bit dismayed though when I hear leaders and even frontline employees say, “yeah but we could never do that here.” Yes, you can. Maybe not to the extent Google does it (you’d need their incredible resources), and maybe not with the flair Southwest does it (some workplaces just aren’t conducive to that style), but you can create a culture that others look at and go “Wow, I’d love to work there.” It starts with the leadership, but the whole organization has to drink the Kool Aid in order for it to become interwoven into the fabric of the company.

In order to do this, a company needs to get its head out of the 19^th & 20^th century business model, and get with the 21^st century program. The workforce isn’t the same as it used to be, and technology has changed the game. Many workers no longer need the workplace to have access to the tools required to do their jobs. Autonomy is the name of the game, and real motivation can come from their ability to manage their own time and make a meaningful contribution to the organization’s success.

The truth is that if expectations are clear and the parameters are understood, everyone will be surprised at what employees are willing to give. Autonomy is a powerful motivator and people will rise to the expectations of the organization if that’s the culture that’s established.

It doesn’t happen overnight, and resistance along the way is to be expected – it can be a tough transition – but if Jim Schwartz can change the culture at a perennial loser like the Lions, it can be done anywhere.

The only real, sustainable competitive advantage any company has is its employees. Get involved, make a contribution and help make your organization a front-runner by being part of a culture that makes it a great place to work.

Take it from a Salmon

We went white water rafting on the Ocoee River over the Labor Day weekend. What a rush! Diving into those rapids in that rubber boat was like riding a roller coaster for an hour and a half.

It struck me as we were making our way down the river (during one of the calm transitions of course) how much it was like the workplace: Everything seems so much better when you’re working together, paddling in rhythm, taking cues from the guide as he shouted instructions above the din of the rushing water. And like the workplace, these elements were the foundation for our success.

Our guide, Salmon (interesting that we were going downstream, huh?), was like the company CEO. He was confident, articulate and unquestionably in charge. Before we got started on our adventure, Salmon addressed the group and basically laid out our “company’s” mission (to get safely to the end), strategy (to stay down the middle), and tactics (paddle together in rhythm). He laid out his communication strategy (commands he would bark out throughout the trip), and his expectations of performance (that we would all be capable of following his simple instructions).

So we had a clear understanding of our leader’s direction, and we were motivated to implement his vision. Like many workplaces all that went to hell in a handbag once the action started, but we were periodically reined in when we lost our way. The two paddlers in the very front of the raft are tasked with staying in rhythm so that those directly behind them can just follow that person’s paddle stroke. But there were times when the two lead paddlers were out of sync. So guess what? Yep, the whole team was out of sync. Oftentimes it works that way doesn’t it? A team leader gets off task and next thing you know the whole team is in disarray, working on something that is only vaguely related to the original project.

Fortunately, Salmon was quick and even-handed with his admonition that we stay in rhythm. Likewise he was liberal with praise throughout when we were in sync (which I’m proud to say was most of the time). It was the workplace in a microcosm – and very well run. And like a very well-run company where the expectations are clear, the boss communicates well, and everyone works as a team, we had a great time!

Isn’t that the ideal? To create a workplace where leadership is obvious, goals are clearly communicated, and motivation follows? Like the paddlers in our raft, everyone has a responsibility for the success of the group, and it certainly helps when your leader inspires the kind of confidence Salmon instilled in us.

Do your part to contribute to a great workplace culture: Be a team player, communicate well both horizontally and vertically, and have some fun while you’re at it. Life’s too short and we spend too much time at work for it to suck. The cool part is that when these all come together, productivity soars too!

Compromise, it's for grown ups

So I picked up yesterday’s Tennessean, and the headline, “Obama bows to Boehner on jobs speech” jumps off the page. Really? That’s what it’s become now: You didn’t compromise, you caved in.

Both sides contend differing points about how this whole jobs speech/GOP debate was supposed to go down. But in the end does anyone really come out ahead? What we really learn from this – another in a long line of examples – is that the two parties can’t agree on anything. And it really appears as though they look for points of contention just to keep the animus in full bloom.

The other big headline was for a story updating the breathless masses on the latest development in Titans running back Chris Johnson’s contract negotiations. This is another situation where compromise undoubtedly advanced the development of progress. Johnson, offensive tweets notwithstanding, is the uber-talented running back who has demanded to be paid as a “play maker” rather than within the confines of his position.

On Thursday, Johnson signed his new deal, a four year extension that puts the total value of his six-year deal at $53.5 million. Now that may seem like he “won,” but the Titans would probably argue that they won as well. They did retain one of the NFL’s marquee players for at least the next three years (yeah, that’s the true length of the deal – the six years is window dressing).

It’s really unfortunate that when you compromise nowadays, you have no backbone. When you change your mind, you’re a waffler. What if you got new/better information than you had before? Tough. You’re supposed to stand your ground.

The truth of the matter is that productive relationships of any kind are built on the ability to compromise, and to learn from each other. I know; I’ve been married for 22 years. I’ve compromised and I’ve learned a ton too.

Workplace relationships are no different. You have to be willing to compromise from time to time, and be open to new ideas and information. Enhance your workplace relationships by keeping an open mind. Be willing to compromise, and to accept the validity of other opinions.

That’s how we really get better with age.