Leadership

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.)

 

SageRiver Adds New Consultant
SageRiver Adds New Consultant 2024 2560 SageRiver Consulting LLC

Mitchell (Mitch) Heinzeroth joined SageRiver last year as a consultant. With years of executive-level retail experience, he knows how to bridge the gap between strategy and operations. He also knows what it feels like to hang upside down on a rope more than 700 feet in the air. We sat down with Mitch this month to talk about what he learned at Target Corp.’s top-performing store, his passion for leading teams and his excitement about joining SageRiver.

SageRiver (SR): Tell me about the role you have at SageRiver. What is your focus?

Answer: I joined SageRiver last year, and my first engagement was with the Family Intercultural Resource Center (FIRC) in Summit County. They retained SageRiver to provide strategic planning services to help them address rising food and housing costs for residents. Stakeholder engagement was an important part of the project because FIRC wanted to develop transformative strategies and partnerships to solve complex, systemic challenges. I interviewed and conducted numerous focus groups with a range of stakeholders, and we synthesized and reported those findings as the foundation for our strategic planning work. SageRiver has always been at the forefront of new thinking and methodologies, and, with my unique background, I bring additional diversity to the team. My hope is to contribute fresh insights and approaches to delivering top-notch work to our clients.

SR: You bring retail leadership experience to SageRiver. Over your six years with the Target Corp., what were your standout experiences or achievements?

A: I was very lucky to work at the No. 1 store in the country for five of the six years I was with Target. It was a massive operation that employed anywhere from 300 to 450 team members at a time, depending on the season. There are accomplishments I am proud of but never expected, such as becoming a district subject matter expert in reverse logistics. My fulfillment role also gave me the opportunity to build a business that grew from just under $3 million to almost $13 million in three years.
Most of all, however, I learned about building teams and developing people. It’s something that gives me joy. Retail operations employ people from all walks of life and every educational and experience level. It’s a fast-paced business, and you need to connect with people quickly, understand what motivates them and create a team environment that encourages everyone to push for success. It’s challenging but fun.

Working for Target also helped me become a better problem-solver. Nothing works as quickly as retail. The challenges you’re presented with every day need immediate remedy. I learned to look at problems from a bird’s-eye view so I could see immediate solutions, but also pursue longer-term fixes within systems over time.

SR: You worked for Target Corp. during the pandemic. How did you lead your team through that experience?

It was difficult. As a large corporation and retailer, Target had responsibility for millions of employees and guests. The government considered us an essential business, so we stayed open throughout the pandemic. The corporation provided policies and procedures that we then implemented in our stores, but we also had to understand the fears and individual circumstances of our team members and guests. Especially at the beginning, most employees and guests were afraid of the unknown—of what it meant to get sick—and didn’t want to step within 10 feet of someone else, but they still needed an income, work, or the essentials to live during lockdown. As an executive team lead, my role was to make adjustments to the extent I could, consider their individual feelings and concerns but still run the business. I tried to always stay positive for the team and keep us moving forward.

SR: What excites or interests you most about your new role at SageRiver?

A: It’s exciting to be asked to strategize the future with an organization. Many of SageRiver’s clients are nonprofit or government organizations, and they make a huge difference in their communities. I’m VERY excited to be part of enlarging their impact even further. The leaders we’re engaging are invested in the process of change and in looking deeply at systems and opportunities for transformation. We’re building change with them, and that’s exciting.

SR: What is your philosophy of customer or client service?

A: In retail, I learned that treating everyone with genuine respect, honesty and a welcoming attitude is critical. Kindness also goes a long way. Those lessons apply to consulting as well, but I’d add that engaging people in envisioning and working toward a better future is also key. That’s what SageRiver is known for—and it’s how we help organizations transform and grow. We’re hired to help make an impact—and it needs to be an impact our clients embrace and own.

SR: What do you enjoy outside of work?

A: I’ve got a wonderful fiancé and two dogs, and any time I can spend with them and my family and friends is time well spent. I’m also a Broncos fan, which has been rough over the past few years. I also love riding my Peloton, and I ran the Colfax Half Marathon this spring. I’ve taken up golf as well, and I compete in fantasy football.

SR: What’s something about you that people might not know?

A: I bungee-jumped off one of the top 10 “legal” bungee jumps in the world (Bloukrans Bridge in Tsitsikamma, South Africa). I’m also an avid Garmin watch user. In my lifetime of wearing it, I have 32 million steps—or 16,337 miles—tracked on Garmin.

“The Meaning Quotient: Unlocking the Secret to Joy in Our Work”
“The Meaning Quotient: Unlocking the Secret to Joy in Our Work” 800 533 SageRiver Consulting LLC

Editor’s Note: Susan Heinzeroth delivered the following keynote address on Sept. 25, 2020, for the University of Colorado Staff Council’s Staff Excellence Awards ceremony.

Without question, COVID-19 has caused tremendous loss and hardship in our community. We don’t want to minimize those difficulties, but we can appreciate the lessons this challenging period offers for us.

What I’ve observed in the way many people are responding gives me hope.

We are leaning into our humanness in new ways, embracing the messy process of learning and sustaining ourselves through community and common purpose. We are—by necessity—reprioritizing and focusing on what matters most.

When we focus on increasing what researchers Susie Cranston and Scott Keller call the “Meaning Quotient,” we become more resilient and more likely to achieve peak performance and joy. So today, I’ll unpack what ‘meaning’ entails and explore how the Meaning Quotient applies to our work and our lives.

Recognition: Affirming That We Matter

The first element of the Meaning Quotient is Recognition—and that’s what brought us together today. On occasions like this one, we recognize how weeks, months and perhaps years of work have culminated in a significant achievement. It’s important to celebrate big milestones and accomplishments, AND it’s just as important to embed recognition into our daily work.

Why does recognition matter?

  • It affirms that we matter—that our contributions are valued.
  • It gives us insights into strengths we may not realize we have.
  • It encourages us to keep going, even if our progress is slower or harder than we hoped.

Recognition doesn’t have to be an expensive reward or highly public, although it can be. What matters most is building recognition into the way we work together and offering different types of recognition to match the preferences of the people we’re celebrating. For some people, a personal note of appreciation will mean the most. For others, a callout in a team meeting matters more.

The primary takeaway—whether you’re a leader or a coworker—is to commit to recognizing the talents and contributions of those around you. It makes a difference.

Measurement: Driving Learning and Growth

The second element in the Meaning Quotient is measurement. Measurement is important because it indicates we value something enough track it. Measurement gives us line-of-sight into how our work supports larger objectives. As our metrics improve, we can see exactly what that means for the organization.

If we bring the right mindset to this process, it can also bring us joy.

What do I mean by mindset?

As we all know, learning involves struggle and hard work. It often requires us to challenge our existing beliefs and assumptions. It requires us to be vulnerable and open to feedback.

It asks us to lean into our humanness—to look to each other for encouragement and guidance.

The learning process can be painful or exciting, depending on our mindset.

Carol Dweck of Stanford University articulated this idea in her book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.” Through her research, she developed a powerful theory about growth versus fixed mindsets.

According to Dweck, those with growth mindsets believe that abilities can be developed. Instead of judging themselves if they aren’t exceptional at everything, they find joy in getting better.

By contrast, those with fixed mindsets believe that abilities are set. If they don’t succeed right away, they become discouraged or defeated.

If we bring a growth mindset to our work, then measuring our progress will be exciting and affirm that—step by step—we’re getting better.

Relevancy: Fueling Our Work with Purpose

The last element in the Meaning Quotient is relevancy. In the business world, we once believed that people were primarily motivated by money or advancement opportunities. Although both matters, we now know that a better predictor of employee engagement and productivity is purpose—the sense of doing work that makes a difference for a larger whole.

The question each of us must answer is, “What is my purpose? What do I do that contributes to a larger whole?”

Our sense of purpose grows over time along a predictable trajectory. I call this the “Me—>We—>World” continuum.

It starts with understanding our own talents, abilities and interests and taking care of ourselves so we can give to others.

We can then grow and contribute to our own team and organization. As our abilities and resilience increase, we can look outward even further and identify ways to contribute to the larger world.

The Great Use of Life

Far from being a mystery, meaning is something we can deliberately cultivate in our lives and our work. You now know the formula:

Recognition + Measurement + Relevancy = Meaning Quotient

If we apply that knowledge and continue to pursue meaning and excellence throughout our lives, we will eventually be able to look back and discover we’ve built a legacy. Others will learn from our journey—and be enriched by it as they travel their own paths.

And the good news is that we don’t have to achieve perfection to create a meaningful legacy.

Rather, our greatest achievements come when we lean into our humanness, allow ourselves to be vulnerable and open to growth and dedicate ourselves to contributing to a larger purpose and the larger world.

As the philosopher William James said, “The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”

By celebrating each other, measuring our progress, and pursuing larger purposes together, we can create meaning and joy in our lives. Let’s commit to making that our shared legacy.

Thank you.

Personal, Professional or Principled: Which Type of Organization Are You?
Personal, Professional or Principled: Which Type of Organization Are You? 800 533 SageRiver Consulting LLC

Nancy Lublin has a secret power. A serial entrepreneur, she launched Dress for Success immediately after college. Today, the nonprofit operates in 25 countries, providing professional clothing, coaching and support to more than one million women.

Once that venture was flourishing, Lublin grew another nonprofit to 3.5 million members. And then she left to found a third social venture that is already gaining national attention.

Lublin’s secret power isn’t her organizational savvy or leadership skills, although she has both in spades. Her power is knowledge. She understands the kind of leader she is and the type of organization she’s best at developing. Her passion lies in building teams from the ground up and taking ideas to scale. Once she’s done that, she’s ready to hand over the reins and move on to her next start-up.

We can all learn from her understanding of what organizations need at different stages of maturation. That begins by identifying what type of organization you are and whether that fits what you’re trying to achieve.

Knowing Your Type

We’ve found organizations have essentially three different bases on which they operate. This framework for evaluating organizational decision-making and operations grew out of a conversation with our corporate attorney, Patrick Johnson. Viewed from our different vantage points, we agreed most organizations could be described as one of three types—Personal, Professional or Principled (PPP).

We’ll look at each type to assess what drives those organizations, what strengths they exhibit and when they might evolve to the next type to meet their goals.

It’s Personal. As the name implies, Personal organizations revolve around individual performance and relationships. Key people hold essential information, knowledge, expertise, and control. They are trusted to drive critical functions, service lines and decision-making. Outside their own domains, their processes and objectives may not be widely shared or understood, making it hard for others to provide input or fill in the gaps if they leave. As a result, decisions may be made without cross-functional collaboration or without an eye toward retaining key people.

Start-ups and smaller organizations often operate on a Personal basis. This model allows individuals to work independently and quickly during a high growth phase. As organizations become larger and more complex, they may need to move away from this model to create greater transparency, accountability, and decision making.

Professionally speaking. As organizations grow, they often need to create infrastructure that supports cross-functional collaboration toward common goals. Professionally-based organizations establish shared policies, processes and decision-making approaches then refine them over time. In these organizations, members know how key functions are performed and when to provide or obtain input. People share information, meet agreed-upon expectations, and understand the organizational strategy.

Professionally-based organizations focus on team performance and success. Because information and plans are shared, employees understand organizational priorities and contribute to broader organizational goals. As companies seek to strengthen their brands and grow their impact even further, they may move toward becoming Principled organizations.

We Do It on Principle. Principled organizations have done the hard work of defining their vision, mission, and values, engaging employees in strategy, and instilling professional practices. Along the way, these organizations gather input from partners, vendors, and customers to ensure buy-in and strategic alignment. You know what to expect from these companies because they deliver consistently, time after time.

In fact, Principled organizations don’t just have processes, frameworks, products and approaches. They have a “way” that is synonymous with their brand and aligned with organizational and stakeholder values. Customers return to them because they know they’ll receive the level of quality, service and innovation they expect. Job-seekers apply to them because they want to be part of their team. And investors support them because they deliver value.

Finding Your Place

Although most organizations start as Personal organizations and become Professionally-based or Principled as they grow, that isn’t always the case. Sometimes, organizations choose to operate on a Personal or Professional basis.

The key is to function in a way that supports your strategy.

At SageRiver, we help organizations to see themselves clearly and plot where key functions fall on the Personal-Professional-Principled spectrum. For example, we might ask:

  • What assumptions are used in developing your budget?
  • How do you establish success metrics for the year?
  • How do you identify your talent needs for the next five years?
  • How do you anticipate customer needs?

The language you use to answer those questions reveals where different functions within your organization fall on the spectrum. For example, Personal organizations often respond by referring to individual leaders and employees. Professionally-based organizations focus on processes, infrastructure and strategy. Principled organizations include those topics but widen the lens to encompass values, brand, culture, and stakeholder expectations as well.

Making the Shift

It’s not unusual for different organizational functions to fall in different parts of the spectrum. When that occurs, assess whether you need to shift the basis on which you’re operating to better support your strategy. If key functions are operating independently of one another and you need to innovate, you may move toward becoming a Professionally-based organization to create more opportunities for divergent thinking and collaboration. If your environment is changing rapidly, you may need to enhance your understanding of emerging customer expectations and values. That could require transformation from a Professionally-based to Principled organization to create better customer alignment.

Making these shifts starts with understanding who you are, what strategy you are pursuing and who you need to be to reach your goals. Take the first step by evaluating where you fall on the spectrum, and then identify a few changes you can make to ensure you’re operating on the right basis to execute your strategy.

Contact us today to learn more.

Becoming Mindful: Unlocking Innovation by Awakening to the Present
Becoming Mindful: Unlocking Innovation by Awakening to the Present 800 533 SageRiver Consulting LLC

During a yoga session one day, my instructor encouraged us to “take an inversion of your choice.” These upside-down poses increase flexibility and circulation and allow us to view the world from different angles. She returned to the idea with a parting question.

mindfulness-yoga

“Where do you have opportunities to welcome new perspectives?” she asked.

It’s a question I pose in my strategy work with clients. Some organizations struggle to execute their strategies because of embedded aspects of their cultures. They may focus on the “way things have been done,” think in top-down terms or instinctively move away from unfamiliar ideas.

Mindfulness can help us shift to generative ways of thinking and experiencing situations.

Stopwatch at 90 Seconds

Mindfulness is a tool I employ with clients at all levels. It’s especially important for leaders, as it supports their focus and stress management. Leaders live demanding lives, and they need tools to help them stay grounded and awake to new possibilities.

Mindfulness works by helping us create space between a stimulus and our response. Research shows that an initial feeling lasts for about 90 seconds. The impact depends on the meaning we assign to our feelings and the resulting decisions we make.

Through a daily mindfulness practice, we can learn to focus our attention on the thoughts, feelings and sensations we are experiencing in the present moment. As thoughts enter our minds, we simply observe them, allow them to move through our consciousness, consider them, honor them and let them go. As we detach and observe, we open ourselves to curiosity and learning, rather than judgment.

Positive Contagions

A mindfulness practice also helps leaders set a positive tone for their organizations. As researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California at San Diego have demonstrated, people “catch” positive or negative emotions from others. That means a reactive leader can produce anxious, rigid teams. Conversely, open leaders can help their teams interact in more inclusive, collaborative and creative ways.

work-mindfulness-leadershipAt SageRiver, we harness the power of mindfulness in team strategy, as well as executive coaching, sessions. We often begin our sessions with a mindfulness exercise to help participants let go of whatever stresses or demands they experienced that day. By grounding them in the moment and encouraging them to observe, welcome and honor thoughts and feelings, we set the tone for the work to come.

This simple practice pays dividends for the team. As we map their strategic landscapes and illuminate possibilities, we welcome divergent ideas without judgment. We listen with curiosity, seeking first to understand, and then consider what that contribution can add to our thinking.

This curiosity-driven approach creates space for everyone to contribute to and embrace the widest range of potential solutions. As we sift through ideas, we find new connections and possibilities, which create opportunities for innovation and break-through thinking.

Kiss the Earth

mindfulness-practices-walking

It takes practice to become mindful, and I consider myself a student learning alongside my clients. Day by day, however, I see the benefits in my own work and life and enjoy watching others experience greater focus, creativity and calm as they begin their own mindfulness practices.

You can start today by trying this mindfulness exercise:

  • Find a place where you can take a quiet walk (where you can also practice social distancing)
  • Take a moment to stand in place and focus on your breath
  • Notice the rise of your chest and expansion of your abdomen
  • Feel the passage of air as you inhale and exhale
  • Begin walking as though your feet are kissing the earth
  • Notice how the ground feels against your toes and heels
  • Describe the trees, grass, skies and birds (facts not judgment)
  • Connect with your senses and fully experience your surroundings
  • If thoughts intrude simply observe, allow, consider, honor and let them go

After you’ve spent a few minutes walking, stop and take note of how you feel. Repeat this practice every day for a week and notice the difference in your focus and ability to manage stress.

Then, contact us to take the next step in bringing the power of mindfulness to your team and your strategic planning process.

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.

Smart Courage: What I Learned on Yosemite’s Half Dome
Smart Courage: What I Learned on Yosemite’s Half Dome 2560 1610 SageRiver Consulting LLC

The sheer face of Half Dome loomed over us. We’d arrived at Yosemite Park just a few weeks after a woman fell to her death summiting the peak. Already wary of heights, I wasn’t sure I should attempt the entire climb, but I decided I would go as far as I could, understanding my own limitations.

“Boldness has genius, power and magic in it,” I reminded myself.

The quotation—one of my favorites from German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe—reminds us to commit fully to our boldest ventures. I’d been talking about adventure all year long, and I was determined to push through my fears, join my friends and hike on an #ExcellentAdventure of our own.

Choose Your Own Adventure

We’d been planning the trip for almost a year, and I’d been inspired by photos taken from Half Dome’s summit. I’d also read about the final 500-foot ascent, which requires climbers to cling to steel cables as they scale the face. Almost 300 people have been injured on Half Dome in the past 15 years, and the National Park Service warns that only experienced hikers should climb it.

As I battled misgivings, I took long hikes in Colorado to prepare for Half Dome. Our team also researched what supplies and equipment to bring. Unlike some of my friends, however, I’m not an experienced climber. I also have a longstanding fear of heights, which several members of my family share for good reason, and I wondered if I’d hold the group back when we approached the summit.

Before I could say yes, I had to reclaim the power we all have, which is to choose our own adventures. I wanted to hike Half Dome, but I also wanted to honor my own needs and the concerns of my family. So, I scaled the adventure to my skill level and promised my family I’d bypass the final 500-foot climb to the summit. That felt like the smart approach for me, my family—and the team.

“Yes, You Can!”

Luckily for me, I’d chosen the best team imaginable. I’ve known some of them since childhood, and our trust level was high. I felt comfortable telling them my fears, as well as what I looked forward to most. The conversation encouraged everyone to share personal goals and say how we could coach and encourage each other.

And that’s exactly what happened.

When we got to a steep point in the hike, I felt my fears take hold. While the others continued, one friend stayed behind and coached me through it step-by-step. “Just look at where you’re putting your feet,” he told me. “Don’t look to the right. Don’t look to the left. One foot at a time. You can do this!”

When I reached “my” summit, which was the sub-dome plateau just before the final ascent, I was tempted to keep going. I discussed it with my friend, and he validated my concerns about potential hazards, listened carefully as I explained the commitment I made to my “closest team”—my family and asked me how I’d feel if I didn’t keep that commitment. My ultimate decision allowed me to celebrate my experience with my family later, knowing I had kept my promise to them.

In the end, I learned how wise this choice was. While I enjoyed the view from my summit, I cheered my friends as they climbed toward theirs. One of the most experienced climbers came down the incline on the outside of the cables on his return journey. I was blown away by his skill and nerve, but, to my surprise, he told me I’d been right not to climb higher. Everything my family feared and I observed during our earlier climb, he said, was exaggerated on the cables. He had experience to draw on having hiked Half Dome 20 years before. Even so, he felt fear and anxiety on the cables this time, and he commended me for my choice.

Climb Every Mountain

So often, we think of adventures as risky leaps into the unknown. What my trip reminded me was that adventures come in all shapes and sizes, and we can scale them to our needs, resources, skills and conditions. In the end, adventures require equal parts head and heart—what I call “smart courage”—to challenge us without harming us.

I hope this year of adventuring has inspired you to climb new heights and explore new vistas. And I hope it’s encouraged you to find co-adventurers who will help you stretch and learn with every step. That’s what reaching the summit truly looks like—and it’s that much more meaningful and fun when you arrive there with others!

Share your #ExcellentAdventures with us on Facebook and Twitter—and remember to keep adventuring in 2020 and beyond!

Your Excellent Adventures Start Now!
Your Excellent Adventures Start Now! 2753 1508 SageRiver Consulting LLC

I watch “The Wizard of Oz” now and again. Magical and wise, it always pulls me under its spell. I feel Dorothy’s yearning to fly over the rainbow, and when she opens the door from her black-and-white house to technicolor Oz, wonder ensues.

That’s the power of adventure. Its call is universal, beckoning us to test our abilities, experience joy and venture into worlds unknown.

So, perhaps, be bold like Dorothy this summer and take some excellent adventures of your own! Big rewards await you!

Technicolor Vision: Awaken to Our Colorful World

Stepping into Oz, Dorothy realizes she’s surrounded by a strange new world. The Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man can talk! The Lollipop Guild serenades her. Although she focuses at first on their “otherness,” she soon embraces these strangers as friends.

Dorothy adapts quickly because she has what Zen Buddhists refer to as “the beginner’s mind.” She lets go of opinions, judgments and expectations and simply looks with amazement at the world around her, accepting what it offers.

For many, the beginner’s mind is illusive, unless we intentionally cultivate it. Almost unconsciously, we search for patterns, apply our expertise and experience, and arrive at conclusions. Our minds work quickly and effectively, while we miss opportunities to be surprised by new possibilities and connections.

Dorothy truly sees the Tin Man, Lion and Scarecrow in Oz, and is surprised to find they’d been with her in Kansas all along. Her adventure in Oz opened her eyes.

Talk About Talented: Expand Your Talent Toolbox

Sometimes we choose our adventures—and sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of one wondering, “Gee! How did I get here?” Regardless of their origin, adventures sharpen our gifts and resourcefulness.

If we embrace the experiences as Dorothy did, we’ll find we already have what we need for the road ahead. Curiosity, for example, drives so much of SageRiver’s work as we journey with our clients. Connecting with people and ideas helps us toward our collective destination.

Interestingly enough, we often discover talents on our quest that we didn’t know we possessed. The Cowardly Lion didn’t realize he had courage until he helped rescue Dorothy from the Wicked Witch. Like him,  we may unlock hidden abilities or strengthen skills we already have as we test ourselves in new situations.

Joy and Treasure: Enrich Your Mind, Heart and Life

Dorothy experiences some terrifying moments, but her trip also looks like a lot of fun. After all, they were singing and dancing their way down the yellow brick road!

The joy Dorothy and her fellow travelers experienced is no accident. The desire for novel experiences is innate. When we encounter new situations and adventures, our brains produce dopamine, which stimulates memory, focus and learning. When we adventure with others, we also feel the effects of two other brain chemicals—oxytocin and serotonin—which increase our sense of belonging and well-being.

Often, our exposure to new cultures, activities, people and landscapes awakens enduring interests. An acquaintance of mine planned a yoga retreat in the Bahamas decades ago. Although she can’t practice yoga anymore, she still enjoys the vegetarian cooking and meditation practices she learned on that trip. She calls the retreat a “port of entry” into a fresh world, where she found treasures she’s enjoyed all her life. League of Heroes: Become Heroes Together

At the end of the film, the Wizard gives Dorothy and her traveling companions gifts. The Scarecrow gets a brain, the Cowardly Lion his courage and the Tin Man a heart. Of course, they’ve shown they possessed those gifts all along. The Wizard is only validating what is already true.

One of the most important gifts that adventures give us is vulnerability. When you’re in a completely new situation, it’s natural to feel anxious, excited, unprotected, wondrous and more. That vulnerability prompts us to turn to others, share our hopes and fears and learn and grow together. We draw strength from what is best in others, while offering what is best in us in return, allowing us to become heroes together.

Step by Step

Dorothy’s journey through Oz began with her first step down the yellow brick road. If she hadn’t set her feet along the path, she would have missed an adventure that forever changed how she saw herself, her home and her world.

Are you ready to plan a few excellent adventures? Let’s get started!

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.

 

Building Authentic, Whole-Life Leaders the ICAN Way
Building Authentic, Whole-Life Leaders the ICAN Way 622 415 SageRiver Consulting LLC

The Institute for Career Advancement Needs (ICAN) has been building authentic, whole-life leaders for more than 35 years. SageRiver sat down with Julie Burrell Lillig, director of strategic partnerships at ICAN, to learn about ICAN’s unique philosophy and approach to supporting leaders at each stage of the development journey.

SageRiver (SR): How did ICAN get started? What need was it intended to fill?

Julie Burrell Lillig (JBL): It started in 1981 with several female friends having a conversation in their backyard. They were all successful, but they weren’t seeing many leadership development programs open to women in those days. They decided to do something about it, and that’s how ICAN began. It was a grassroots effort to create more opportunities for women leaders and advance women in business. Interestingly, because they took a unique approach, men started asking for similar leadership experiences.

SR: For those who aren’t familiar with ICAN programs, how are they unique?

JBL: What underlies all our work is a focus on developing authentic and intentional leaders. We take a holistic approach that engages the heart and mind of a leader. We want leaders to know their values, be comfortable in their own skin and, perhaps, lead in a different way than they have been led because it reflects who they are and their maximized potential. Each program is distinct and innovative, but those core principles flow through all our work.

SR: Today ICAN offers programs for women and men, both separately and together. Why do you sponsor both gender-specific and co-mingled programs?

JBL: When the focus is on the individual leader’s self-learning and development, we’ve found that many leaders are more comfortable in same-gendered peer mentoring groups. They are less self-conscious and less likely to filter their comments, which creates an open and unique relationship-building experience. That openness and honesty are essential for growth. When we focus on team building and organizational development, it’s important to involve both genders.

SR: If I wanted to get a sense of whether ICAN’s approach works for me, where would you recommend I start?

JBL: We offer one of the largest annual leadership conferences for women in the world, and that’s frequently how people first become involved with ICAN. We’re actually celebrating our 25th anniversary conference in 2018!

We also offer Women’s Leadership Circles. These are five-week programs that engage women at different stages of the leadership journey. This program gives leaders time to reflect and share within the circles, which is where much of the learning takes place. It’s a shorter time commitment than our full Defining Leadership program, and it gives participants a good feel for our unique approach.

Lastly, we offer a program targeted for individuals who lead teams called IMPACT – which is tailored to leaders at a mid-senior level who want to grow their influence and strategic impact for their team.

SR: Let’s talk about the Defining Leadership program, since Susan Heinzeroth is co-leading two sessions this fall. What makes Defining Leadership unique?

We call it our flagship program because it’s become so well-known and respected. We offer gender-specific programs for men and women and concentrate on three content themes: Stepping into Your Power, Creating Vision and Achieving Vibrancy. The program builds self-awareness, emotional intelligence, communications skills, whole-brain thinking and leadership agility for participants and is designed to be truly transformational.

Although the program achieves a number of learning objectives, our primary purpose is to help participants dig deep to better understand their own values, passions and personal strengths and weaknesses. We believe in helping leaders develop a vision and approach to leadership that is authentic to who they are and what they believe.

We integrate a number of tools and learning experiences to help participants achieve that goal. The program includes peer-to-peer learning, one-on-one coaching, individual assessments, experiential learning, self-reflection and journaling and more.

SR: Right now, ICAN programs are hosted at your headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Do you plan to offer programs in Colorado at some point?

JBL: We’re exploring that possibility, yes. Our programs and conferences have been very popular with Colorado leaders, and we may offer local programming in your state in the next few years.

SR: Can people register for ICAN programs now?

JBL: Absolutely! You can register online at www.icanglobal.net.

Fostering a Healthy Team Ecosystem
Fostering a Healthy Team Ecosystem 2560 1707 SageRiver Consulting LLC

Early in my career, I developed an outsourcing consulting practice for Coopers & Lybrand, which later merged with another firm to become PwC. The practice grew quickly, as clients discovered the strategic advantages that outsourcing could offer.

Over time, however, I noticed a pattern. While managers adapted to new operational realities, few invested sufficiently in onboarding contractors and building integrated employee-contractor teams. As a result, their groups met basic business goals but failed to innovate and achieve optimal performance.

Similarly, companies today are adopting matrix organizational structures to achieve key strategic objectives. Pulled from different parts of the company—and often including contractors—these cross-functional “flash teams” need help developing a common purpose, language and operating structure. When leaders neglect those needs, their teams produce predictably mediocre results.

In today’s ever-changing competitive environment, companies need teams to operate at the highest level to ensure organizational success. That makes fostering an ecosystem for optimal team performance Job No. 1 for every leader.

Teams in Flux

Consider a few statistics that illuminate the challenge.

More than 40 percent of the U.S. workforce is employed in contingent roles, according to the General Accounting Office. The agency defines contingent roles as contractors, temps and on-call and part-time employees. At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that employee tenures are shrinking, with the median tenure currently at only 4.2 years on a job. (That number is even lower for millennial employees.)

With more roles being filled by contractors and employees moving in and out, teams are in constant flux. Is it possible to create cohesive teams in this environment? And, if so, can optimal team performance persist over time?

At SageRiver Consulting, we believe the answer is a resounding “yes,” but teambuilding can’t be left to chance while leaders focus on other tasks. Effective teams are characterized by high levels of trust, commitment, accountability, open dialogue, and results-focused recognition.* No group of employees—let alone of contractors and employees—will develop those traits without sustained effort.

Steps to Success

That is why leaders must focus tirelessly on nurturing a healthy team ecosystem. Here are five steps you can take to build a cohesive, motivated and high-performing team:

Step 1: Engage your team in developing your vision, mission, values and charter.

Commitment comes from understanding your purpose and uniting with others to achieve a worthwhile goal. Begin by defining your vision, mission and values and codifying those in your team charter. This document will also outline your operating principles and define “mission success.” Once the initial work is done, revisit the discussion regularly and bring your mission and values to life with storytelling and story listening. Through this process, you will engage new team members and reaffirm your shared commitment.

Step 2: Invest in individual and team assessments.

At SageRiver, we employ research-based diagnostic tools to support team performance and individual development. The assessments help diagnose challenges and create a common language for problem-solving and cooperation. Armed with these insights, teams can move beyond misunderstandings and labels and find more effective ways of collaborating.

Step 3: Recruit for attitude and aptitude in all roles.

Smart companies know that hiring for culture fit and talent beats hiring for skills alone. But do you select and orient your contractors in the same way? If key functions are filled by contractors, they’re an important part of your team ecosystem. Make sure they support your culture and values, rather than undermine them.

Step 4: Embrace open dialogue and mutual accountability.

Many teams struggle with honest feedback and mutual accountability because the discussions feel too emotionally charged. You may need to invest in training to help team members overcome their fears and build new skills. Ultimately, your goal is to shift the focus from blaming and shaming to mutually supporting team performance and individual growth.

Step 5: Empower peers and reward results.

In effective teams, members cheer for each other and recognize each other’s achievements. To build mutual accountability and commitment, empower team members to reward each other for their contributions to team goals. Ask them to give specific feedback about how and why a peer excelled and to offer that recognition in public.

Legacies That Endure

Although it takes an investment of time, money and energy to foster a healthy team ecosystem, the rewards are enormous. High-performing teams create a culture of their own that persists even after individual members (or leaders) leave. As Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Creating an optimal team culture may be the most enduring legacy you leave your organization—and perhaps the most valuable one as well.

*Traits based on the research and writings of Patrick Lencioni, author of “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” and Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, authors of “The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization.”

The Essential Skill Great Leaders Share
The Essential Skill Great Leaders Share 500 334 SageRiver Consulting LLC

It happens every time.

He stood in front of the room, remembering the moment he uncovered a family secret. Everything he had known about himself and his place in the world was wrong. As he grappled with new truths, he was forced to decide what he truly believed about trust, family, identity and life purpose.

The room was still as he told his story. His listeners weren’t checking their phones or letting their minds drift elsewhere. Instead, they were leaning forward, taking in each word and remembering moments when they, too, had been at a crossroads.

Although his story was especially dramatic, the effect he created was familiar. I facilitate storytelling workshops with diverse groups—corporations, nonprofit organizations, graduate classes and more—and the same dynamics occur. When people tell their stories, they engage the hearts and minds of their listeners and break through apathy and resistance. Their listeners stop judging and realize the universal truth that behind every person there is a story waiting to be told, heard and embraced. Attitudes soften, conversations begin and minds open to new possibilities and ways of thinking.

Storytelling is, quite simply, transformative.

Crafting Your StoryHere are a few simple steps to discover and hone your story:

  • Identify your purpose and audience. Are you trying to reinforce values, develop leaders or achieve a different goal? Who will your audience be?
  • Unblock your memories. Pick a word related to your purpose. Then, spend 15 minutes writing whatever comes to mind. Don’t worry about grammar, logic or staying on topic. Just write.
  • Select your story. You’ll now have memories that can be developed into stories. Pick the one that best matches experiences your audience will share.
  • Activate their senses. Draw your listeners in by including a few sensory details. Paint a scene and add a sound or smell you remember.
  • Simplify your language. Use everyday language, not business jargon, and pare your story down to the essentials. That way, your listeners can reflect on how the story relates to them.

How Great Leaders Use Storytelling

I began incorporating storytelling into leadership development and teambuilding workshops 15 years ago. I had been invited to teach graduate classes in critical leadership, and I reflected on how best to distill the topic into one semester. In addition to sifting through my own experiences and reading, I intensively studied some of the most effective leaders across sectors and industries. What set them apart from other competent leaders was their ability to employ storytelling to lead organizations and teams.

Storytelling is obviously not the only leadership skill, but it is an essential one. The best leaders understand the power of a well-selected tale and craft their own set of crucial stories. They think of their stories as quivers in their bows, which they can strategically unleash to accomplish their goals. They also understand that their stories, rather than the tales of famous athletes or historical figures, are the most potent because personal stories demonstrate our willingness to share ourselves and invite others to share in return.

As I studied these great leaders, I observed how they used stories to reinforce values, prepare their organizations for change, develop emerging leaders, strengthen teams and engage employees to achieve higher levels of productivity and innovation. I have also trained sales forces and professional services teams to employ storytelling to create stronger client relationships. As one financial advisor told me after using his new storytelling skills, “When I share my story, I become human to them.”

How to Become a Storyteller

If you need to engage, motivate and lead people, storytelling is an essential skill to master. It doesn’t take the skills of Homer or a commitment to reveal uncomfortably personal information to business associates. Start by uncovering just one simple story that will help you open conversations and engage hearts and minds.

Remember: You have a life rich with stories that only you can tell, and your stories have the power to connect people in deeper ways. Begin with one story, and then contact SageRiver Consulting to discover how we can help you and your team unlock the transformative power of storytelling.

Testing, Testing, 1-2-3
Testing, Testing, 1-2-3 622 415 SageRiver Consulting LLC

By the time I met them, they were ready for change. They were locked into old patterns and conflicted about their direction. Work had become an exercise in frustration, and their stress levels were rising.

This healthcare organization faced real challenges so their team dynamics mattered. Seismic shifts in the marketplace required them to redesign their structures, processes and delivery approaches. And just over the horizon was a wave of likely retirements that would rob them of critical expertise.

Their organization cried out for effective leadership at all levels. Could this team lead the charge?

Opening the “Insights” Box

The answer was a resounding yes, and that shift began with individual and team assessments.

At SageRiver, we use diagnostic tools to open conversations, facilitate growth and unblock teams. In essence, an assessment gives us the keys to a box that contains insights about ourselves and our colleagues—about how we think, behave and interact. We don’t put people in boxes, rather, we take those insights out and use them to help people connect and function more effectively in the workplace.

Our healthcare client, for example, had leaders with conflicting thinking and behavioral styles. Meetings were geared toward the dominant approach, which left others without the information and interactions they needed. The result? Frustration and impasse.

After administering individual and team assessments, we diagnosed the problem and opened a conversation about retooling their meetings and communication approaches to address all participants’ needs. Armed with a common language, they were able to depersonalize the issue and agree on a solution.

That simple change unblocked their decision-making process and allowed them to move forward on other enterprise shifts.

Matching the Tools to the Task

Getting the right results starts with using the right tools. There are dozens of individual, team and organizational diagnostics available today. They fall into different categories to help identify personality traits, behavioral and thinking preferences, emotional intelligence, team dynamics, developmental progress and more.

SageRiver administers a range of the most rigorously validated instruments. Some of the newer assessments—most notably Emergenetics—include integrated tools that provide insights at the individual, team and organizational levels. These assessments look at both behavioral and thinking attributes, which make them a powerful tool for finding the unique “genius” in each person.

Assessments work best when they fit a client’s context. In selecting which diagnostics to use, we consider three questions: What goals do clients have? What obstacles are they encountering? And what level of self-awareness do they possess?

Unblocking Teams, Unlocking Value

Our healthcare client realized value from the assessments because we linked the findings directly to their daily work and long-term goals. They regularly discussed and applied what they had learned, which allowed them to adopt new approaches and measure their progress toward larger objectives.

Ultimately, the leadership team elected to deploy the assessments throughout the enterprise. It was an important first step in enabling essential cultural and behavioral shifts that have taken hold at all levels of the organization.

If you’d like to learn more about how individual, team or organizational assessments could benefit you, contact SageRiver Consulting at (720) 443-2551.

What’s Agile Got to Do with It?
What’s Agile Got to Do with It? 622 415 SageRiver Consulting LLC

Struggling to swim in fast-moving waters, many organizations adapt by trying to “manage” or “lead” change. These efforts can create short-term value, but they miss a central truth—that change is coming faster and faster from all directions and can’t be fully anticipated or controlled.

Organizations that try often expend enormous energy and resources trying to stop change. Or, they’re submerged by a rushing current when their strategy fails to anticipate new developments.

Fortunately, agile offers a better way.

Living in the River of Change

The term agile was first coined to describe a new approach to software development. Today, agile also encompasses a mindset and beliefs, as well as business management frameworks, techniques and processes. Yes, agile organizations disperse decision-making authority and allow cross-functional teams to work more autonomously. They also embed feedback loops into their processes and continuously improve their products.

But agile organizations are characterized by a different way of thinking as well. These organizations live within the river of change. They’ve learned to co-create the future with their customers and employees through ongoing listening, learning and adaptation. They are less focused on absolute judgements of right and wrong and are more open to different ideas that can lead to the next product evolution. They also demonstrate a high degree of trust, believing their employees know what to do, when to do it and how to communicate about their decisions.

Understanding What It Takes to Swim

By adopting this flexible, adaptive approach, organizations hope to become faster and more innovative and resilient. But is agile the right approach for all organizations, and what does it take to transform into a truly agile enterprise?

Based on SageRiver’s experience, there are five keys to success:

Visualize and Commit: Before you jump into the river of change, understand where you want to go and whether you’re committed to the journey. Begin by asking whether an agile approach will help you deliver on your most important goals. If the answer is yes, consider whether you’re really prepared to make the required strategic, cultural and operational shifts. To succeed, you must be clear about your most pressing challenges and your willingness to lead and work differently.

Share Stories with Fellow Swimmers: To empower and engage your team around a common purpose, employ storytelling and story listening throughout the organization. Treat storytelling as a valuable part of team discussions and invite others to respond with their own stories. As Steve Denning writes, this practice helps employees move in the same direction without a command-and-control management structure.

Find the Right Form: As any swimmer knows, finding the right form matters. Similarly, agile organizations need an organizational design that promotes both shared direction and flexibility, thereby unlocking the talents of teams and individuals.

Balance Consistency and Flexibility: Successful swimmers use repetition to build muscle memory, which allows them to execute flawlessly on even their worst days. Yet, swimmers must also adapt to changing circumstances. Agile organizations meet these twin goals by identifying the processes that deliver the most critical value across the enterprise. They then streamline those processes to deliver both standardization and flexibility, thereby increasing speed, innovation and consistency.

Improve Every Day: Strong swimmers evolve through constant practice, coaching and skill-building. Agile organizations operate in the same way. They build a continuous loop of measurement, evaluation, learning and improvement into their culture. They aim to improve in small or large ways every day. This approach creates a bias toward adaptation and change, which in turn produces organizational resilience.

Transforming into an agile enterprise takes time, self-awareness and commitment. The reward comes when you stop struggling against the current of change and start using its energy to propel you forward, knowing you will adapt and thrive no matter what the future holds.

To learn more, contact SageRiver Consulting at (720) 443-2551.

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