Stories from the Field

Sparking WONDER
Sparking WONDER 1529 1071 SageRiver Consulting LLC

Does positive social change start with wonder? Denise McHugh, executive director of the Spark Community Foundation, suggests that it may. For the past 16 years, Denise has facilitated a large-scale collective impact initiative focused on reducing and preventing youth homelessness across rural Colorado. During SageRiver’s latest conversation about how wonder can inspire strategy and innovation, Denise shares the WONDERFUL tools and frameworks that are helping communities to spark change.

SageRiver (SR): Thank you for being part of our exploration of wonder. One of the topics that’s been very interesting to us—part of our wonderings—is  the concept of collective impact. So, could we start by asking you to explain what collective impact is?

Denise McHugh (DM): Collective impact is a structured way for organizations across sectors, such as government agencies, nonprofits, faith-based groups and others, to achieve equitable large-scale social change. The framework involves specific elements, such as a common agenda, ongoing communication, measurement and evaluation, and mutually reinforcing activities of the participating organizations. It also includes a shared management system, which I often referred to as the “backbone,” to support the overall efforts of the initiative.

SR: You’ve been involved in one collective impact initiative for more than a decade. Can you tell us about it?

DH:  Yes, it’s called the Colorado Rural Collaborative for Runaway and Homeless Youth. We started with about 13 communities and have grown to 40. Our common agenda is to prevent and reduce youth homelessness in rural Colorado. The project started with a grant through the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS). They had noticed that many rural youths became homeless when they left foster care. To get services, many runaway and homeless youth had to go to urban areas, which meant leaving behind whatever support networks they had. CDHS wanted to develop a system where rural youth could receive support, resources and housing within their home communities.

 

SR: So, you’ve found collective impact to be a dynamic, flexible model—and that’s our experience at SageRiver, too. What changes has your collective impact initiative adapted to over the years?

DH: With so many communities involved, we’ve learned to support different stages of readiness within each community. For example, a new or emerging community may start with prevention services, while a more established community may already have those services in place and be focused instead on expanding housing and aftercare options. When we look across all 40 communities, we can now say we have a full continuum of care in place for rural runaway and homeless youth.

More recently, we’ve added another component that I find inspirational. It’s a youth action board—called Youth MOVE Colorado—comprising youth from across rural Colorado. They provide insights and perspectives that we use to adapt our efforts to the lived experiences of youth in these communities.

SR:  As you look back, what lessons have you learned?

DH: I’d say one of the first is to have clear messaging. Collective impact as a concept is often hard for people to understand. In the beginning, we would look at people’s faces, and you could tell they didn’t understand what we were talking about. So, we’ve learned to translate the terminology of collective impact into everyday language and use graphics to paint the picture.

We also learned that it’s important to build on what already exists in the community. Every rural community has a human services department and school district, for example. It’s essential to understand what strengths the community already has and which organizations or people are most trusted by those you ultimately want to serve. Those organizations may be the best direct service providers or faces of the initiative, while others play behind-the-scenes roles.

Another big lesson is the importance of a common agenda. Everyone will say, “Oh, yes, we want to prevent and reduce youth homelessness.” But what does that really mean? And how does it play out in a community? We’ve learned to invest time up front to articulate a common goal and agenda. It’s the glue that holds everything together. Each community can tailor its efforts, but we have values and principles that are common across every community.

SR: You spoke earlier about a supporting management structure—or backbone—for the collective impact initiative. What does the backbone do?

 DH: One of the key functions is to help secure funding. In working with rural communities, for example, we’ve found that agencies rarely have grant writers on staff. So, we do a lot of fundraising support, as well as coordinate the distribution and reporting of monies in compliance with different funders’ requirements.

Our backbone organization also established key indicators and a shared measurement system to support ongoing learning and continuous improvement. We have an evaluator on staff who collects and synthesizes data and produces a monthly snapshot, as well as more in-depth quarterly reports. The data are gathered across the collaborative and shared at our monthly meetings. We also meet with individual sites to identify what they are doing well and where they might want to focus their efforts next.

Additionally, we provide much of the training and technical assistance, as well as pair sites so they can learn from each other. One site might be doing well at engaging youth living on the street, while another has successfully reunified families. Our sites serve as teachers for each other, which further strengthens relationships across the collaborative.

 

SR: That’s exciting! There’s so much to explore with this topic, but let me close with a question related to our theme for the year. How does wonder factor into collective impact?

DH: To be effective, you must ground the work in powerful questions and deep curiosity—or wondering—about the lived experiences and perspectives of others. What is it like to spend the winter living in an abandoned horse trailer because you don’t have any other shelter, for example? Who would you trust to offer help? What would you want—and what would really make a difference?

This is where our experience with the youth action board expanded our perspective. Youth are incredible, out-of-the-box thinkers, and they’ll share their ideas if they really believe someone is interested and willing to listen. But that collaboration starts with wonder—with a sense of humility and openness to other people and new ways of thinking. If we can help people and communities nurture their wonder, there’s no limit to what we can do.

***

If you’d like to learn more about how to map existing resources and connections for a collective impact initiative, take a look at the example below. (Click to enlarge.)

 

Activating WONDER
Activating WONDER 2068 1438 SageRiver Consulting LLC

As part of SageRiver’s study of how wonder can inspire strategy, SageRiver’s founder, Susan Heinzeroth, sat down with author and management consultant Judy Goldberg. Following a cancer diagnosis in 2017, Judy realized that skills she spent a lifetime developing were helping her effect positive changes despite the health challenges she faced.  Wanting to share those tools with others, she developed a newly published resource, titled “Wake Up and Wondershift: Five Themes and 50 Exercises Designed to Activate Wonder and Create Lasting Shifts.”

SageRiver (SR): Thank you for being with us, Judy. Let me start with a basic question. What do you mean by wonder?

Judy Goldberg (JG): When I speak of wonder, I’m referring primarily to the wonder within our own control or influence. My focus is on the wonder that runs through our bodies and gives us hints at what we should pay attention to next, or the wonder that challenges us to leave our comfort zones or bring new ideas to life.

SR: So, your book is about the personal shifts and personal wonder we can cultivate in ourselves?

JG: Yes, it’s about waking up to the wonder that’s within us. Because I believe it’s within all of us. We all have a voice that whispers, “I wonder if I…” or “I wonder when I can?” I want to help people wake up to that wonder and do something about it.

SR: The subtitle of your book suggests that activating wonder is essential to making lasting shifts. Why do you think we need to activate wonder?

JG: Because it’s linked to our goals and objectives and what we want out of life. At the same time, activating wonder requires intentionality. It means that we’re actively engaging in our experiences, situations and ideas in new ways. And if we’re not activating wonder, then we might be closing ourselves off to possibilities and going after the wrong goals and objectives.

SR: I couldn’t agree more. In fact, SageRiver’s tagline is Illuminating Possibility. Igniting Change. We chose that tagline because we want to help our clients see the larger landscape and imagine a broader range of capability. Do you find that it’s difficult for some people or teams to do that?

JG: Yes, and there are myriad reasons why. One is people will say there’s no time, right? Other people have a cognitive bias that relies on familiar patterns and experiences. I think people also have a fear of the unknown, or fixed mindsets or simply limited exposure to diverse experiences that enable them to imagine possibilities.

SR: So how do you help them break through those barriers?

JG: It needs to be intentional and incremental because there’s been so much research that shows that throwing people in a room and asking them to brainstorm on the spot is probably the worst thing you can do.

Instead, we need to help people practice creative thinking and expose them to new experiences. For example, I ask people to read different reviews on a topic and bring people together to then engage in a debate. That helps them shift their thinking into seeing two sides of a question. Another strategy I’ve tried is to take people on a field trip to somewhere they’ve never been. Little things like field trips can be eye-opening and help people imagine possibilities.

SR: Those are great suggestions. Within our own firm, we make it a practice to inspire and invest in the curiosity and wonder of our staff. Even if the connection to our work isn’t immediately obvious, we find that by following our wonder, we bring back new ways of thinking that infuse our strategy work.

JG: Exactly!

SR: You included the word “shift” in the title of your book. Can you briefly describe the five themes in your book that help us wake up to wonder and make positive shifts in our lives?

JG: I use S.H.I.F.T. as an acronym as well as an outcome. Each letter stands for a different theme that I explore in a section of the book.

  • S is for Shape, which is about the power of mindset in forming our lives.
  • H is for Harmony, which is about achieving inner harmony as well as harmony with others.
  • I is for Imagine. This is where we let loose and let our imaginations run wild.
  • F is for Focus, which is where we cut through the world of distractions and zoom in on what’s important to each of us.
  • T is for Team, which helps us curate the team we need to make the shifts we desire.

SR: That’s a wonderful blueprint, and I highly recommend the exercises within your book and the creative thinking they spark. Before we close, is there one thing you’d like people to take away from our conversation about the value of wonder?

JG: I’ll share one of my favorite quotes: “A year from now, you will wish you had started today. So cross that threshold because your wonder awaits.”

Seeing WONDER
Seeing WONDER 2000 1333 SageRiver Consulting LLC

As part of SageRiver’s study of how wonder can inspire strategy, we sat down with photographer Tom Riggs. He has built his career around exploring landscapes with wonder to find the story, emotion and meaning in the world around him. His insights can help leaders understand how to open their eyes more fully to see possibilities that would otherwise stay hidden.

Trillium Lake. Published by permission of Tom Riggs Photography.

SageRiver (SR): You’re known for your astounding landscape photography, and it’s often difficult to get to the locations you photograph. Why do you do it? Are these images for you? Or, are you taking them as a gift to others, in the hope the pictures will resonate with them?

Tom Riggs (TR): I take the photographs for myself and process them how I remember the scene. And if that resonates or strikes a chord or an emotion or a memory in someone else, then that’s just the joy of connecting with your audience through your work.

SR: How do you decide what you’re going to photograph?

TR: If I’m out in nature, I’ll have something already in mind that I want to use as my main subject. That will anchor the picture and be what draws you or me to that specific scene. As I look at that, I try to satisfy my need for why I was there in the first place. I make sure I satisfy that curiosity first, and then I’ll look for other things that you can’t see. I’ll look around and explore other angles or a different subject matter or perspective. I may get down on the ground or get an overhead view to capture an idea I was wondering about while I was traveling to that location.

SR: When you look at a scene, how do you compose the photos you take?

TR: Usually, when I come upon a scene, I’m immediately looking for some sort of composition. I don’t know if that’s something inherent or something that is trained, but it seems to come relatively easy to me. I just notice how the eye reaches and flows and focuses around a certain landscape item. I notice the scene itself, as well as how my eye responds to it.

SR: I’ve heard you speak about drawing attention to or eliminating information from the picture. Those feel like strategic choices, and I’m wondering if you can describe the process.

Sol Duc Forest, Olympic National Park. Published by permission.

TR: If I have a subject or an anchor for the photo, I want to decide where to put it in the picture. And it’s usually not smack dab in the middle. It’s usually best to begin with some of the general rules of photography, such as the rule of thirds. That means dividing your frame into horizontal and vertical thirds to create four points where those lines intersect. Typically, it’s a good idea to put your main subject in one of those four intersections. It doesn’t mean you’re locked into that. It just means that’s a good place to start.

Then, I consider how my eye moves around that frame. Do I need to crop out details that pull the eye away from my anchor? Or if I’m walking on a trail, for example, and it leads up to a mountain peak, my eye will naturally follow the trail. If I’m aware of that and use that detail in my composition, it will help give the photograph some depth that leads the viewer into the picture toward my main subject.

SR: Are you conscious about evoking emotion in your composition process?

TR: I think that’s the deepest part of a photograph for me. And the emotion might come from the entire experience I’ve had in capturing the photo. That might mean how I got to that location. It might mean that I waited out a storm for the clouds to clear, and then, miraculously, a beautiful scene reveals itself. Emotion to me is the very essence of a photograph.

SR: Can you tell me about an experience you’ve had like that?

TR: There was a time in Oregon when I wanted to photograph a remote mountain lake at sunrise (see the picture of Trillium Lake, pictured at top). So, I drove there and tried to sleep in my car overnight. I was rewarded with one of the most incredible sunrises—a crystal clear lake with a mirror image of the mountain in the background. It was pitch dark when I got there. I had no idea what the morning would bring. But I made the effort, and it was incredible.

There was only one other photographer there, and we just looked at each other with wonder. It was almost as if we were saying to each other, “I can’t believe we’re visualizing this incredible sunrise and nobody else is around.” The emotion comes out of the whole process. It doesn’t always work out the way I hope, but I have to be open to the possibility. The voice in my head always tells me, “Well, if you don’t go, you’ll probably miss the best sunrise that’s ever been made.”

SR: So, the lesson is to embrace all aspects of the experience as part of the wonder that you’re creating in your life through photography.

TR: Yes. I’d also say that you join a community through those experiences. Most photographers are happy to help with instructions and tidbits about what they’ve learned. Rarely do you find someone who is not forthcoming with helpful information.

SR: And the experience doesn’t stop after you snapped the picture, does it? You also have the opportunity to edit the photo to bring out the wonder of what you saw when you were in nature.

TR: Yes, and the individual expression you can bring to it. It’s interesting that you can have two people who are side by side taking the same photograph, but they will come up with completely different final images. That’s what makes it so exciting.

Ball Corporation Drives Progress Toward Real Circularity
Ball Corporation Drives Progress Toward Real Circularity 2560 1707 SageRiver Consulting LLC

In our “Stories from the Field” series, SageRiver sits down with senior leaders who are transforming their organizations for tomorrow. Our latest conversation is with Ball Corporation’s Mike Schaarschmidt, senior director of supply chain. As a leading supplier of aluminum packaging for beverage, household and personal care customers, Ball is focused on helping the world move toward a truly circular economy, where materials can be used again and again. Recently, Ball accepted a unique opportunity to further its mission by partnering with young strategists to market a more sustainable solution to plastic cups. The collaboration helped Ball double brand awareness and optimized an online sales distribution channel to drive increases of the new product sales.

It wasn’t how Mike Schaarschmidt expected to begin his new job at Ball Corporation.

“The day I started was the day we decided we were going to pivot,” he recalls. “It was June 2020, at the height of the pandemic, right when everyone realized that social distancing would last more than a few weeks.”

As the new supply chain leader, Schaarschmidt was part of a team charged with launching a breakthrough product via retail, online and foodservice channels. Called the Ball Aluminum Cup®, the product was infinitely recyclable and promised to significantly reduce plastic use and landfill waste.

Initial market research showed that the product tended to “sell itself forward,” meaning consumers would recommend it to friends and family once they’d experienced it themselves. With those findings in mind, Ball developed a launch strategy aimed at driving consumer sales through word-of-mouth marketing and social media virality. The strategy would center on sales to large venues—such as sports stadiums and concert venues—supported by advertising and celebrity-endorsed social media content.

But COVID restrictions threw a wrench in those plans, forcing the company to focus instead on retail sales through large distributors and stores such as CVS and Target. The Ball Aluminum Cup® found early success among older, more affluent consumers and larger businesses. But, the product hadn’t gained traction among younger consumers or smaller businesses and restaurants.

Enlisting New Strategists for Fresh Insights

Just as Ball was developing the next phase of its strategy, Schaarschmidt received an unexpected call from Susan Heinzeroth, founder of SageRiver Consulting and an adjunct faculty member at the CU School of Business. Heinzeroth had been inspired by Ball’s new infinitely recyclable product and suggested that a partnership with her strategy class might benefit Ball, as well as her students.

Schaarschmidt liked the idea—and his colleagues agreed.

After briefing the students on their existing marketing strategy and results, the Ball Corporation team identified four marketing strategy goals:

1. Grow overall awareness of the new brand
2. Educate consumers about the benefits of the product (i.e., that it was more than just a disposable cup)
3. Drive trial via a more expansive push into the foodservice market (especially restaurants)
4. Reach younger generations via a push into organic and paid social media

Four teams of student strategists were formed to focus on younger consumers or small businesses. With coaching from Heinzeroth, the teams conducted interviews, focus groups and surveys to understand the perceptions, needs and values of those audiences and then presented their recommendations to Ball.

Going Viral Via Lifestyle Content

The first teams targeted consumers in their late twenties to early forties. These consumers valued sustainable products and could afford a slightly higher price point than the red plastic cups they were accustomed to purchasing. These consumers were especially active on Tik-Tok and Instagram, and they liked engaging with content from social influencers and friends who shared their values and interests. Word-of-mouth marketing was an effective strategy with this group, and they liked the way the Ball Aluminum Cup® kept drinks cold in a sturdy container.

One challenge emerged with this audience, however. Younger consumers didn’t know much about Ball or understand the tagline that was being used for the product—Infinitely Recyclable. While this disconnect made them question the truth of the message, it also opened the door to educating consumers about Ball’s longstanding commitment to sustainability and the promise of aluminum, which can literally be recycled again and again without degrading.

“Most people don’t realize it, but 75 percent of all the aluminum that has been mined globally is still in circulation,” Schaarschmidt said.

The student team recommended that Ball create behind-the-scenes videos showing how the cups are made and recycled and share that content on social media. They also encouraged Ball to shift toward more authentic and timely content by giving influencers contractable freedom to jump on trending topics around sustainable products and integrate the Ball Aluminum Cup® into other activities and content. These messages, which would leverage Ball’s Colorado roots as part of an informal, outdoors-oriented culture, would position the Ball Aluminum Cup® as a lifestyle brand that was better for the environment.

Building New Avenues for Personalized, Convenient Sales

The other student teams focused on small, independent operators, including restaurants, breweries and bars, as well as corporate, wedding and catering services. While these audiences had diverse needs, they all wanted an easier way to purchase Ball’s product in smaller quantities, since they don’t order in bulk through large distributors. The students recommended that Ball establish an online store through Amazon, offer the cups in different sizes and drive small businesses to the Amazon store through search engine optimization and sponsored ads.

Most small operators also wanted the ability to personalize the Ball Aluminum Cup® with their own business or event logos. The students recommended that Ball leverage relationships with third-party vendors to explore labeling options for small quantity purchases. This would allow Ball to service the market without investing significantly in limited-run printing.

Telling a Larger Story

Ball has already implemented several of the students’ recommendations—and seen big results. Brand awareness has doubled from 20 to 40 percent, and the Ball Aluminum Cup® can now be purchased in multiple sizes through an online Amazon site that has significantly increased sales. Thanks to rising demand, Ball is now selling its cups through 35,000 retail stores and has gained distribution in 60 percent of retail chains as well.

Just as importantly, working with the students has reinforced how the Ball Aluminum Cup® can help the company tell a larger story.

“Every aspect of Ball—from aerospace to cups to cans—is truly about sustainability and the sustainable benefits of aluminum,” Schaarschmidt said. “When the students presented their recommendations, they told us what they learned about the product and about recycling in the United States. We need to take the whole country through the same journey.”

Luckily, Ball will have help from a passionate new group of brand ambassadors.

“It was rewarding to work with a company to help solve a real problem,” said Emilie Waggoner, who participated in the project before graduating. “I still talk about this project a year later, and now, my coworkers bring me Ball Aluminum Cups® because they know I love them so much!”

Adventuring Together: Life at Epic
Adventuring Together: Life at Epic 1052 789 SageRiver Consulting LLC

In our “Stories from the Field” series, SageRiver sits down with senior leaders who are transforming their organizations for tomorrow. Our latest conversation is with Mallory Heinzeroth, who leads the Asia Pacific region for Epic. A global leader in healthcare IT, Epic is known for its electronic medical records software and implementations. The company stays at the leading edge of healthcare technology by investing in a creative culture based on collective learning, adventure and fun.

The year was 1979. In a basement in Madison, Wisconsin, an unknown software engineer named Judith Faulkner decided to launch a business. She had a novel idea, but the road ahead was uncertain. Her goal was to develop software that would enable healthcare providers to improve patient care.

With 1-1/2 employees and a $70,000 investment, she established a company whose software now benefits 250 million people worldwide. She also helped create the electronic medical records industry, which revolutionized the way doctors and hospitals care for patients.

It’s the stuff of tech legends.

“Our philosophy is very simple: Do Good, Have Fun, Make Money—in that order,” said Mallory Heinzeroth “Our work affects both individuals and our societies at large, so we have a huge responsibility to do the right thing and help shape systems to improve patient care.”

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Known for its unique culture, Epic takes a “learners welcome” approach that fosters innovation and continuous improvement. The company doesn’t require employees to have healthcare technology experience and commits to train and develop them throughout their careers. Epic’s growth mindset extends far beyond on-the-job training and tuition reimbursement, however, as even a quick trip to its headquarters shows.

Located in rural Verona, Wisconsin, the Epic campus is a galaxy unto itself. (In fact, Epic refers to it as the “Intergalactic Headquarters.”) Whimsical artwork dots the landscape, and a treehouse often serves as a meeting spot.

All photos courtesy of Mallory Heinzeroth

Ad hoc employee groups—known as “Motley Crews”—can be seen playing board games, competing in sports or exploring other shared interests after work. Participation is voluntary and employee-led, but it’s all part of Epic’s commitment to fostering an engaging workplace.

“We’ve done a lot of research about what it means to have an enriching, productive environment that inspires people,” Heinzeroth said. “We allow space for people to be creative, have fun and try something new.”

To that end, Epic organizes a “Shark Day” to give employees the opportunity to learn together about topics outside their work. The company also enlists speakers and professors from the University of Wisconsin – Madison to lead classes and workshops. Epic employees teach seminars as well.

The activities build camaraderie and create an expectation of continual growth, Heinzeroth said.
“There’s always a new learning adventure, so it feels like something people do every day rather than something that is a set requirement. That’s an aspect of our culture that is unique in the business world.”

Iliads, Odysseys, Sabbaticals

The fun continues off campus through Epic’s adventure and exploration programs, which support experiential learning inside and outside the United States.

Each year, Epic plans Odysseys to far-flung—and often difficult-to-reach—locations. Any employee can sign up for these opportunities to join colleagues on a vacation, and friends and family members are welcome.

After two years with the company, employees who travel for work can earn an Iliad adventure underwritten by Epic. Employees can choose where they go and how they spend their time. The goal is to give them an opportunity to recharge and have fun.

Employees are also eligible for a paid four-week sabbatical every five years, which they can spend in the place and manner of their choosing. Some enjoy time at home exploring outside interests, while others travel internationally to volunteer or experience different cultures. Epic pays a portion of the costs.

Although these adventures have no direct connection to Epic’s work, employees post pictures online and return to the office with renewed energy and fresh learnings.

Mallory Heinzeroth during a sabbatical in New Zealand.

Fuel for Success

After 40 years, Epic now numbers 10,000 strong. It continues to be an innovation leader and enjoys one of the highest employee retention rates in the industry.

Its learning-and-adventure-fueled culture may be a reason why.

“We invest in not-so-basic benefits because they help broaden the views and perspectives of people who work here, which, in turn, makes us better able to design and implement software for all people especially those who may be different from us,” Heinzeroth said.

The results have driven Epic’s success—and improved the lives of patients worldwide.

To learn more about building learning and adventure into your organizational culture, contact SageRiver at (720) 443-2551.

Beliefs→ Behaviors→ Results: Engaging Teams in Defining Values-Based Behaviors
Beliefs→ Behaviors→ Results: Engaging Teams in Defining Values-Based Behaviors 1630 1223 SageRiver Consulting LLC

The excitement grew as employees flipped the posters to reveal six winning words and then placed them in a new order. When the audience realized the words formed the acronym “WE CARE,” they rose for a thunderous ovation.

The enthusiastic crowd wasn’t a group of fans cheering a rock star. They were DaVita employees—better known as “teammates”—applauding DaVita’s new descriptors of how they would translate their patient care beliefs into everyday behaviors.

The descriptors were unveiled at a 2018 DaVita Academy in Denver. The two-day event is held to nurture the culture of DaVita, which is known as a village because DaVita places community at its center. The unveiling capped a highly democratic process that involved hundreds of teams and thousands of voters worldwide.

Giving Life to Guiding Principles

As part of SageRiver’s “Workplace of the Future” e-newsletter series, we’ve been exploring how leading companies are bringing their guiding principles to life and sharing those insights with clients. After contacting DaVita to learn more about its intentional culture, I was invited to attend a 2018 DaVita Academy. The experience gave me a unique opportunity to see how DaVita was translating its vision, mission and values into behaviors that would guide day-to-day interactions within a specific organizational context.

Why does defining behaviors matter? Because the workplace today includes five generations working across time zones and cultures at a faster pace than ever. Given those factors, employees may understand company values differently without even realizing it. By tying values to specific actions, companies like DaVita help develop a shared understanding that allows teammates to better accomplish their purpose.

Respecting the Commitment

A Fortune 500 company and a leading provider of kidney care, DaVita is known for its human-centered, democratic culture. In fact, DaVita was literally named by its teammates, and its team values were defined almost 20 years ago through a democratic process. That same community spirit guides all aspects of DaVita’s village life today.

A core tenet of DaVita’s culture is that “beliefs drive behaviors, which drive our results.” Village values—or beliefs—are reflected in every aspect of DaVita’s workplaces, events, communications and more. DaVita determined it was time to turn its beliefs around caring for patients into specific, tangible behaviors.

Given its culture, DaVita knew what launching a democratic process to define those behaviors would entail.

“If you truly engage your people, it can make your culture much stronger,” said Dave Hoerman, chief wisdom officer of DaVita Inc. “You have to be ready to listen to what your teammates say, however, and decide to live in integrity and accept the answer, even if it wasn’t what you expected to hear.”

Before engaging teammates, DaVita thinks carefully about the type and level of input they’re seeking and how it will be used. They also consider whether they can commit enough time, money and energy to engage the village in effective ways. As a result, when teammates are asked to provide input, they know their voices will be heard and valued, which helps build trust throughout the village.

Deciding What Caring Looks Like

For this effort, DaVita underwent a global, iterative process to determine which behaviors were critical to making patients feel cared for. The process involved:

  • Facilitating multiple rounds of input to collect top behavior ideas from more than 500 teams across the village
  • Democratically voting to winnow the list of behaviors from 14 to six
  • Engaging more than 11,000 voters from 13 countries (Voters included clinical and corporate office teammates, as well as physicians.)
  • Reviewing the list with all top executives to ensure the behaviors were actionable, not duplicative, and aligned with the mission and values.
  • Organizing the final behaviors into an easy-to-remember acronym

Rather than simply announce the final result, DaVita engaged teammates in an exciting interactive event. The unveiling included more than 2,000 teammates attending the Academy and thousands of others streaming in live from across the globe. Three teammates came on stage to engage this world-wide audience in guessing which six of the final 14 behaviors had been voted the winners.

DaVita defines itself as a community whose teammates “care for each other with the same intensity with which we care for our patients.” Appropriately enough, when the winning behaviors were revealed the next day, their first letters spelled “WE CARE.”

Continuing the Journey

While the Academy reveal generated excitement, DaVita was just beginning its journey toward understanding and living the WE CARE behaviors.

“Relentless reinforcement is absolutely critical to making the behaviors sticky,” Hoerman says, noting that he’s changed his email sign-off to “Every interaction matters!” as a reminder about the importance of WE CARE actions.

As an organization, DaVita will integrate WE CARE behaviors into the culture in several ways, such as:

  • Leaders will share WE CARE stories during village meetings and events to reinforce the meaning, purpose and impact of the behaviors.
  • Team activities will be suggested to help teams learn about and practice the behaviors during regular meetings.
  • Leaders will observe their teams as they interact with patients to identify opportunities for recognition and coaching.
  • The teammate onboarding process will include education around what the behaviors are, how to live them and why they’re critical to DaVita’s culture of caring.
  • WE CARE will become a part of DaVita’s visual imagery and will be represented in its centers, offices, and major events to keep the behaviors top of mind.

Renewing and Strengthening Your Culture

As DaVita’s experience shows, engaging your team in defining behaviors can help renew and strengthen your culture. Behaviors must be embraced by everyone, and teammates are more likely to enthusiastically “own” new behaviors if they create and celebrate them together. Once that initial work is done, the behaviors must then be integrated into HR practices, training, branding and meetings so the culture change takes hold.

The process takes effort, but it’s an investment worth making if you want to breathe new life and power into your vision, mission and values. To discover more about how DaVita built its “radically human” culture, click here.

 

Radically Human: The DaVita Way
Radically Human: The DaVita Way 977 652 SageRiver Consulting LLC

In our “Stories from the Field” series, SageRiver sits down with senior leaders who are transforming their organizations for tomorrow. Our latest conversation is with Dave Hoerman, chief wisdom officer of DaVita Inc., a Fortune 500 company and a leading provider of kidney care in the United States. DaVita’s human-centered, democratic culture has caused executives nationwide to rethink why companies exist and how they should be led.

“Sitting outside his home on a Nigerian mountainside, Modupe looked out over the farmlands below. As always, his fellow villagers were tending the fields and caring for their children. But on that day, Modupe watched in fear as a river overflowed its banks and rushed toward his village.

Knowing he couldn’t warn everyone in time, Modupe set fire to his home. When the villagers saw the flames consuming his house, he knew they would come to his aid. Better to lose a home, he thought, then the villagers he loved.

Just as he expected, the villagers saw the flames and abandoned their crops to help him. As they ran up the mountainside, the river flooded their fields. Although their harvest was lost, the villagers all lived to plant again in another valley.”

Leaders tell this story, whose original author is unknown1, at many meetings at DaVita Inc. “What lesson does the story teach?” a leader will ask. “One for all, and all for one,” the DaVita team will often answer. (Taken from the book “The Three Musketeers,” the expression is used as a reminder of their mission and commitment to each other.) In the story, the villagers are not defined by their roles as home owners or farmers. They are part of a community, and community members care for each other. That is what why the village exists and why the villagers thrive.

What We Do Is Not Who We Are

At DaVita, Modupe’s story has special resonance because it speaks to the core purpose of the company, which is to nurture the well-being of the community. This belief is so central that employees, who call themselves “teammates,” refer to their company as a village.

Although many companies describe their culture as a blend of how people think, relate and carry out their work, DaVita distinguishes between what the community is and what the company does.

“When people ask us who we are, we say we’re a community first, and we care for each other,” says Dave Hoerman, chief wisdom officer for DaVita Inc. “What we do is provide healthcare. That fuels the economy of the village. Community first, company second—that’s the shorthand description of our culture.”

Keepers of the Flame

Hoerman should know, as his team focuses full time on tending the flame of DaVita’s culture. Hoerman’s group developed the village credibility book and welcomes new teammates to the village during a two-day experience called the DaVita Academy. They also ensure DaVita’s language, symbols and traditions reflect the community’s values and spirit.

“We’ll often say, `in the spirit of our values’,” Hoerman says. “We believe we have a spirit. We believe love and caring are at our core. We don’t shy away from those ideas and that language because we want this place to feel soulful.”

Under the careful eye of Hoerman’s team, every communication, meeting, event and workspace is designed to reflect DaVita’s spirit. Village leaders’ quotations are painted on office walls, and caring stories are shared with teammates. Storytelling, in fact, is a central component of life at DaVita, as stories open conversations, illuminate meaning and connect to people’s emotions and beliefs.

Voice of the Village

From the beginning, DaVita has taken a radically democratic approach to creating its culture and co-leading the company.

That commitment began in 1999, when Kent Thiry became CEO of a company called Total Renal Care. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy, and its employees were demoralized from working long hours for a failing organization. Although the financial pressures were intense, Thiry decided his first priority was to create a purpose-filled and caring workplace. Accordingly, he invited employees to help transform their company into a place they wanted to be.

Working together, thousands of employees developed and selected a new name, DaVita, which means “he/she gives life.” They also defined seven core values they wanted to live by as a community and held each other accountable for living out those beliefs. Over time, their shared language evolved, and they moved from being employees to teammates who care for each other as a village.

One of the core tenets of DaVita’s culture is that people’s beliefs drive their behaviors, which drive their results, and that quickly proved true. Caring for each other translated into providing extraordinary care to patients, too. That, in turn, fueled DaVita’s turnaround and growth into one of the leading providers of kidney care in the United States.

Today, DaVita teammates are still co-leading the company, and hierarchical titles are rarely used. Even a C-suite executive like Hoerman introduces himself as “a teammate with the wisdom team” to help level the playing field and invite everyone to share their best ideas as equals.

Hoerman’s group also checks in with teammates regularly to ensure the culture is working well and invite input and ideas. Teammates selected the name for the new coffee shop, for example (the winner was “Village Grounds”), and they’re naming a new office tower as well. In addition, DaVita leaders conduct regular “Voice of the Village” calls and drop in on meetings or classes to lead “Town Halls” to solicit instant feedback.

“We gather data and feedback in a lot of different ways, and when we get enough, we adjust,” Hoerman says. “You can stay nimble if you don’t overcomplicate things.”

Deposits in the Village Bank

Instead of prizing status and issuing directives, DaVita’s leaders focus on modeling village values. If the purpose of the company is to nurture the community, Hoerman says, then a leader’s first priority is to know and care about community members.

Hoerman puts this into practice by making what he calls “village deposits.” Each month, he sets a goal for saying hello, introducing himself to teammates he hasn’t met and talking with others about how they’re caring for each other. His assistant holds him accountable by asking questions and noting his progress on a “humanity scorecard.”

The goal is to create a place where people feel welcomed, cared for and known, Hoerman says, and that only happens when people open the door to conversation. Each interaction is like making a deposit in DaVita’s culture bank.

Those caring interactions are bolstered by village programs. One example is a trust fund called the DaVita Village Network, which helps teammates pay for unexpected expenses due to natural disasters or personal or family tragedies. The contributions, which are matched by DaVita, come from other teammates wanting to help their fellow villagers.

DaVita also offers educational programs through DaVita University for teammates with different needs. For example, one course called “Camp Courage” serves teammates battling cancer, while another assists teammates who are military veterans assimilating into life after service.

Mind, Body and Spirit

DaVita promotes other practices to strengthen DaVita’s culture as well. Those include breathing exercises, meditations, yoga poses, stretching breaks and more. Although the techniques are atypical for a Fortune 500 company, DaVita has seen results from acknowledging that people bring all of themselves—mind, body and spirit—to work.

“A community shows up with emotion,” Hoerman says. “We talk about spirit and soul and give people an opening to set their intentions, reflect on an experience or share a story. Initially, people think it’s strange and ask why we’re doing it, but the results are very real.”

The practices help community members care for themselves and each other, as well as perform at their best. One example is starting meetings with a “check-in” to allow teammates to share what is on their minds and in their hearts. As each person talks, the group listens without judgment and asks what the person needs to feel supported. The answer may be as simple as celebrating a success, acknowledging a struggle or letting someone step out of a meeting to take a call.

“What we’ve found is that this process helps people release the worries, stresses, fears and anxieties they’ve brought into the meeting or the class,” Hoerman says. “Once they’ve expressed those feelings, they’re better able to focus on the decisions at hand.”

School for Life

Because DaVita prioritizes community first, company second, learning opportunities are offered continuously and encompass personal transformation as well as professional development.

“We live in a community, and that means we care about the personal beliefs of people,” Hoerman says. “Sometimes those beliefs are self-limiting, and sometimes they’re helpful. We want to give people a chance to examine their beliefs and identify where they can take a step forward to create healthier lives.”

The wisdom team develops and sponsors these human transformation opportunities as part of nurturing the community and its members, Hoerman says. Unlike typical training programs, these programs aren’t tied to job responsibilities or performance measures. Instead, the goal is to care for teammates as whole people and help them grow. That, in turn, strengthens the culture and naturally leads to better patient care.

“Our beliefs drive our behaviors, which in turn drive the results we get in our lives,” Hoerman says. “We want to raise the consciousness of every person in our community because that is what a caring community would do.”

If your organization is interested in transforming its culture, contact SageRiver to learn more.

1 Although the original author of Modupe’s story is unknown, it is included in James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner’s classic book, “Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It.”

The Learning Organization: Farm Credit Services of America
The Learning Organization: Farm Credit Services of America 884 545 SageRiver Consulting LLC

In this new series, titled “Stories from the Field,” SageRiver sits down with senior leaders who are transforming their organizations for tomorrow. Their inspiring stories illustrate how leaders and employees are co-creating the organization of the future to achieve greater agility, engagement, innovation and performance. Our first conversation is with Ann Finkner, senior vice president and chief administrative officer of Farm Credit Services of America (FCSA), a customer-owned financial cooperative serving farmers and ranchers in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. FCSA’s holistic approach to becoming a learning organization makes it a national leader in employee engagement.

You Say You Want a Revolution

Founded in 1916, FCSA has a rich tradition of providing credit services to those who feed the world. Known for its honesty and integrity, the organization serves its members proudly and helps strengthen their farming and ranching operations through good times and bad.

In the late 1990s, FCSA welcomed a new CEO with a passion for organizational development and culture change. His arrival kicked off what Finkner calls a decades-long “cultural revolution” that transformed FCSA from a traditional top-down organization into one that engages all team members in imagining and creating the future. Over the same period, FCSA has more than quadrupled its annual income, which it then reinvests back into serving customers and shares with its customers/stockholders through cash patronage.

Mind Shifts

In those early days, FCSA knew it needed to reconceptualize leaders and teams to become the organization it wanted to be, Finkner says.

Accordingly, FCSA developed a new leadership framework based on the concepts of James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. The goal was to shift expectations and thinking, so leaders would understand their roles as facilitators, coaches and guides. Rather than manage through top-down directives, leaders were primarily responsible for inspiring a common vision, developing talent and fostering relationships with and among team members. For their part, employees were no longer individual contributors. They were teammates, collaborators and grass-roots leaders focused on shared growth and achievement.

FCSA offered training around these principles, refocused its annual leader meeting around leadership and leadership development, and empowered team members to collaborate in new ways.

“Leaders now had permission to do things differently,” Finkner recalls. “Instead of leading every meeting themselves, for example, they were encouraged to rotate the leadership and develop team ground rules and accountabilities.”

FCSA also retooled some programs to put leaders and team members on more equal footing. Leadership was not about elevated status; it was about accountability and responsibility, Finkner says.

Space Matters

Knowing that the physical environment influences how people think and act, FCSA transformed its workspaces into open settings with casual areas to encourage collaboration and conversation. Leaders work in open offices alongside their team members whenever possible, Finkner says, to strengthen relationships and understand how team members work together. Team members can also gather in conference areas or use enclosed phone booths for private or extended conversations.

FCSA discusses open workspaces in candidate interviews as well, letting applicants know that teamwork is an essential component of FCSA’s culture. That principle is being applied to a new building project at FCSA’s headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, as well. A cross-functional team of leaders and employees guided the effort to ensure the design supports collaboration and meets essential team needs.

Winning Together

Aligning the compensation structure to team success was another important element of FCSA’s transformation, Finkner says. Annual incentive plans are now entirely team based, with support teams participating with the customer-facing teams they assist. (Individual performance is factored into merit pay.)

“We are a team, not competitors, and we share the same goals,” Finkner says. “We wanted to encourage employees to partner in serving customers and to help everyone win.”

FCSA also eliminated annual performance reviews in favor of more frequent coaching discussions. Leaders facilitate monthly check-ins with team members, as well as more formal semi-annual conversations. Rather than review past performance, however, leaders use inside-out coaching to help employees identify how they can achieve their individual and team goals. Younger employees, who value ongoing feedback and growth, have especially appreciated the stepped-up coaching rhythm.

Teachers Are Everywhere

As FCSA’s evolution continued, a second CEO challenged the organization to think bigger. In addition to being great team members, he wanted FCSA employees to be better people because they worked there.

At FCSA, employee development is driven by experience, exposure and education, at both the individual and team levels. Each team member creates an annual personal development plan as part of annual goal setting. Goals are aligned to each person’s career stage and personal and professional objectives. FCSA also gives employees eight hours of paid volunteer time each year. In addition, employees can take occasional paid personal time to meet family commitments, serve in the community and pursue personal goals.

To support ongoing learning, Finkner’s team also expanded internal training and development opportunities. Employees can now access self-directed learning programs to explore long-term career goals, including future leadership roles. Facilitated trainings are also offered to team members at all levels to support their development. In addition, leaders and employees are encouraged to pursue more coaching, feedback and exposure to other teams and leaders as part of their personal development plans.

True to its team focus, FCSA convenes cross-functional teams to accomplish key objectives. Some of the teams, such as the women and young professionals teams, are standing groups. Others, such as the building design team, have time-limited missions. In addition to driving initiatives forward, the teams give employees the opportunity to learn more about FCSA’s business, build skills through new projects and forge relationships with team members across the organization.

Regular work teams learn and serve together as well. They are asked to complete quarterly activities, including volunteer projects, training sessions, teambuilding activities and celebration events. Employees also connect via online blogs and forums to share interests and ideas and explore mutual learning.

FCSA tracks the impact of these activities via IBM Kenexa, a talent management system that includes employee engagement surveys and analytics. Along with their annual survey results, teams receive a guide that helps them use their information to develop team engagement and business plans to drive continuous improvement. As an enterprise, FCSA consistently achieves among the highest employee engagement scores of all IBM Kenexa customers.

The Story of Us

Over the past 20 years, FCSA employees transformed their organizational culture, which they collaboratively defined in what they call their “We Are” statements. The statements are illustrated on posters throughout FCSA work areas and shared with new employees. In addition, employees develop an annual online publication that showcases what being an FCSA team member looked like during the past year.

New team members receive what Finkner calls “culture in a box”—literally a box including items that represent aspects of FCSA’s culture. In addition, new hires attend executive-led sessions that explore FCSA values and programs, such as new employee orientation, well-being and leadership development.

The culture is strengthened by connecting employees with FCSA members. Each year, employees visit member farming and ranching operations to further connect with the people they serve. FCSA is also involving employees and members in a “Shark Tank”-inspired initiative to create innovative ways to support farmers and ranchers.

Because leaders and employees own the culture together, Finkner says, there is a high degree of trust and transparency. In many ways, she says, the culture evolves organically and fosters mutual accountability based on shared values and expectations.

“New employees will say that our culture just feels different in a good way,” Finkner says. “That type of culture doesn’t just happen, though. You have to work at it and know how to be a team member and lead in that environment.”

Climbing Higher and Higher

As Finkner reflects on FCSA’s journey as a learning organization, she says some lessons are clear.

Employees are more likely to embrace change when they know the business case for new initiatives and can help solve potential challenges. FCSA has also created an expectation of continual learning, and employees know they have a vital voice in FCSA’s evolution.

“It takes time, and you can’t eat the elephant,” Finkner says. “You must decide where the greatest value is and start there. And then, you must continue to push forward, rather than being satisfied with where you are.”

Finkner also stresses the need to rethink leadership. As she has grown as a leader, she spends less and less time on functional responsibilities. Instead, her days are spent listening to stories, facilitating conversations and asking questions to guide development.

“Leadership is less about completing tasks than it is about creating value,” she says. “I’m here to be in service. That is how we add value as leaders.”

If your organization is interested in transforming into a learning organization, contact SageRiver to learn more.

 

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