Organizational Effectiveness

“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.

Eating the Elephant: A Bite-by-Bite Approach to Evolving Your Organizational Design
Eating the Elephant: A Bite-by-Bite Approach to Evolving Your Organizational Design 622 415 SageRiver Consulting LLC

Your board of directors has selected a new leader for your organization. Smart and dynamic, the leader sends a jolt of energy through the company.

A few months later, a memo arrives announcing an organizational redesign.

The goals aren’t well defined, but you’re determined to support the change. Your employees, customers and vendors express frustration and ask why the change is happening. You aren’t sure, but you respond as well as you can to move everyone forward in an uncertain direction.

If this scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone. More than 75 percent of organizational redesigns fail to deliver the intended results, a 2015 McKinsey report showed. Redesigns can lift performance, but they require time, energy and collective will to succeed. When organizations beat the odds, it’s usually because they’ve thought holistically and engaged their team through a full change management process. In short, successful organizations embrace the adage, “You have to go slow to go fast.”

Begin with the End in Mind

As the rate of change accelerates, many organizations are rethinking their designs to help them move faster. One size doesn’t fit all, but the trend is toward flatter, more decentralized organizations that adopt a “team of teams” approach. This type of design can deliver greater speed, innovation and agility by allowing interdisciplinary teams to form and reform in response to organizational needs.

If speed is the desired outcome, then why approach organizational redesigns at a more deliberate pace? Because a redesign involves more than just moving boxes on an organizational chart. In fact, changing your structure may be the final step you take after you assess how the building blocks of your company, which include your people, systems, processes, technology and more, help you execute your strategy. The way you fit those components together is what we mean by organizational design.

Time in the Trenches

At SageRiver, we review your design as one factor in the strategy process. Before recommending changes, we collaborate with you to explore points of light and pain within the organization. For example, we look for efficiency gains, innovation centers and leadership approaches that improve performance. We also consider resource constraints, process gaps and misalignments that hamper your team.

By digging deep and listening carefully, we discover whether evolving your organizational design will help you to realize your strategic vision.

This process involves engaging leaders, employees and stakeholders from all facets of your organization. In addition to asking for their insights, we’re gauging how ready they are for change, using the ADKAR model developed by Jeff Hiatt at Prosci. In the early stages, we assess whether your team sees the need for change. Later, we evaluate what information, tools, training and reinforcement they need to make the desired changes.

Bite by Bite

Although organizations are often tempted to jump right into restructuring their organizations, redesigns work best if you tackle other elements first. For example, if you plan to transition to a flexible team-based structure, it’s important to ask questions such as:

  • Have your employees fully understood and embraced your vision, mission and values?
  • What steps could you take to help your leaders be effective guides, facilitators and coaches, rather than top-down managers?
  • How would you describe your culture in terms of your approach to developing employees? Is feedback offered continually at all levels of your organization and welcomed as an opportunity for growth?
  • What internal tools, structures and coaching resources can you offer to facilitate effective collaboration?
  • How do you share individual and team goals and track progress in achieving them? (Transparent accountability is key to helping teams understand how responsibilities and activities align.)
  • What mechanisms do you have in place to evaluate, reward and advance employees within a flexible team(s) environment?

As you consider those questions and more, you’ll understand how much foundational work a successful redesign requires.

It’s the rare organization that can “eat the elephant” all at once. Successful organizations eat the elephant bite by bite through a series of small snacks.

Welcome Back, Kotter

If this process rings a bell, it’s because it draws on the stages outlined in John Kotter’s change model. One of his key insights was that change must be approached as a shared journey toward a compelling future.

As you begin your journey, it’s important to start with manageable pilot efforts, which you can test, refine and retest before implementing them across the organization. The reason for this is simple: Broadscale change involves big risks and can spark mistrust and resistance if it fails. By focusing first on smaller changes that deliver value, you can invite input from your team as you go and engage them in creating an organization that works for everyone. As you celebrate wins along the way and work together to make improvements, you’ll build trust and ownership and create an accelerating snowball of change. (Kotter’s See-Feel-Change framework, which he outlines with co-author Dan Cohen in their book, “The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations,” describes why this approach is so effective.)

Evolution Revolution

This approach to organizational redesign is a far cry from the old way, in which leaders huddled with a few people and then imposed a new structure on the organization. That top-down approach matched the top-down structures that characterized an earlier economy.

In the workplace of the future, which demands greater speed, agility, engagement and innovation, the process must fit the type of organization you hope to create. If your vision is of an organization that evolves constantly to meet the changing demands of the marketplace, then you must take a revolutionary approach to change by inviting your team to help design your future.

To find out more about SageRiver’s strategy development and organizational design services, contact us today.

Beyond Open Offices: The Workspace of the Future Is Here
Beyond Open Offices: The Workspace of the Future Is Here 622 622 SageRiver Consulting LLC

A conversation with Layer 10 Consulting

In our latest interview with business thought leaders, SageRiver sits down with Ken Wilkinson, chief enablement officer of Layer 10 Consulting. His firm has pioneered a new service called digital workspace enablement, which looks holistically at how technology can be leveraged to foster more collaborative, creative workplaces that lift team performance. We asked him how leaders should think about workspace technologies, how technology can support culture change and what the workplace of the future may hold.

SageRiver (SR): Your company has created a new service. How would you describe digital workspace enablement?

Ken Wilkinson (KW): We help clients to design technology into their workspace, so they can foster the culture they want and lift team performance.

We’re at the table before a new build or renovation begins to provide a holistic overview. We help clients define what they want to achieve, identify opportunities for technology to enhance their space and then select the right partners to support those technologies based on their goals and budget. Once those decisions are made, we collaborate with architects, engineers, IT staff and interior designers to produce the results our clients want.

SR: What’s driving the need for digital workspace enablement?

KW: The drivers are different for every client, but we see some overarching trends.

First, technology is no longer an add-on to the way we work. In the past, businesses designed their workspaces and then retrofitted them with technology. That approach cost more, and their employees were less productive because the technology didn’t work well. Organizations simply can’t afford to operate that way anymore.

Second, we have an extraordinarily tight labor market, and organizations are fighting to attract and retain talent. Millennials, in particular, want flexible, collaborative and fun workplaces. Having the right technologies in place helps companies create attractive cultures.

“The best solution is to encourage people to come to the office by creating an experience they can’t duplicate from home.”

And, third, many companies have a love-hate relationship with the work-from-home trend. On the one hand, it may help them shrink their office footprint and cut real-estate costs. They also know that many employees want—or need—to work at home at least some of the time. On the other hand, companies know that collaboration and creativity happen when people are together in a space. The best solution is to encourage people to come to the office by creating an experience they can’t duplicate at home. If companies do that while also making it possible for employees to work at home successfully when appropriate, then everyone wins.

SR: You mentioned that employees want flexible, collaborative and fun workplaces. What does that look like?

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. The design depends on who you are, how you work and who you want to be in the future.”

KW: There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Every organization wants a “wow” space or a fun space, but there’s a balance to be struck. Some companies attract employees through open offices with spectacular amenities and recreational areas. If you’re a publicly traded company, you also want to show that you’re spending money wisely on what makes employees productive. The design depends on who you are, how you work and who you want to be in the future.

SR: What are the most important questions for leaders to ask before making workspace technology investments?

KW: We ask our clients to think big and then smart.

“Thinking big” starts with asking who they are today and who they want to be. What kind of work do they do, and how do they work together now? Are they all on site, or do some work from home? Once we know that, we ask how they’d like their culture to evolve and what they’d like to be able to do that they can’t do now.

Once we know their aspirations, we “think smart.” That involves prioritizing goals and options to fit their budget and looking at both technology solutions and other approaches that might fit the need at a lower cost.

SR: How do you design a workspace technology solution for a client?

KW: We take a multilayered approach (see diagram) to designing the right solution for each client, and we always begin with the end in mind.

Our goal is to help our clients achieve their vision in a way that optimizes the experience of individual employees and teams. For example, we often use technology to create privacy in largely open office environments through sound masking, glass masking overlays or other strategies. We’re also incorporating more sophisticated collaborative tools into conference areas to support geographically dispersed teams, or boosting wireless capabilities inside and outside buildings so employees can work anywhere.

Another goal is to help our clients get the best long-term return on their investment. Technology changes by the minute, and no one can guarantee what the future holds. We can be sure of what will stay the same, however: There will be more people with more devices needing more connectivity and mobility. We prioritize those capabilities for our clients to support their future growth and productivity.

SR: Based on your experience, do you believe technology drives culture change?

KW: We’re technology enthusiasts, and we firmly believe that people, partnered with the right technology, can work more effectively and productively. That being said, we think technology can “nudge” an organization towards culture change, but it can’t shove a workforce in a particular direction.

For example, if you have a geographically dispersed team, you may want to use videoconferencing to strengthen team relationships and improve collaboration. To get value from the investment, however, people must use the tools. You have to set expectations about how you work together, and leaders must model that behavior.

Organizations also need to acknowledge that people have different preferences and decide how much variation they’ll allow within their team. When it comes to technology, we tend to think about generational differences. We also find that where people fall on the introversion / extroversion spectrum can make a difference. Not everyone is comfortable being on view or in open spaces all the time, and those employees will be more productive if they can occasionally work in quieter, more private settings.

At the end of the day, technology is a tool that supports culture change. Leaders will get the best results if they model the behaviors they want to see and work with their teams to define group norms while respecting individual differences.

SR: As you look into the future, what are the most important trends or developments you’re noticing in workspace technologies?

KW: Near term, there are four we’re seeing.

First, companies overall are taking advantage of the reliability, functionality and ease of use of cloud-based services and storage. That means they’re spending less for IT infrastructure.

Second, organizations are investing significantly more in wireless capabilities and connection points throughout their buildings and grounds. The investments make it easier for employees to move and work in different areas throughout the day. Even more importantly, companies can now capture real-time information about where people are located and what devices they’re using. The data can help them improve security or quickly evacuate buildings during an emergency. Organizations can also see how work areas are being used and adjust to ensure they’re getting the best return on their real-estate dollars.

Third, companies are increasingly offering personalization, flexibility and choice to employees and teams. For example, in many companies, an employee will check in for a work area assignment for the day. The employee’s badge indicates the employee’s preferences about location, type of work area, temperature, desk height and more. From a team perspective, companies are using structural approaches, such as architectural walls, that enable teams to reconfigure their space as needed to fit their needs.

And, finally, there’s a trend toward detaching from things and spaces. Rather than sit in the same space every day, people are more willing to get up, move to different work areas to collaborate and shift to open or private workspaces as needed. There’s a wellness component to this as well, as many employers are thinking about how to create workspaces that promote walking, standing, interacting and other healthy behaviors.

SR: And what about trends that are further out on the horizon?

KW: Many technologies that once seemed on the distant horizon are already here in some form. Artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things are already being incorporated into our projects, and their role will continue to increase. Robotics are here as well, although many of the applications are too costly to be practical for most companies.

The technology that’s available today is extraordinary. Who knows what the workplace will look like in 10 to 20 years?

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.”

It’s Time to Ditch the Employee Handbook
It’s Time to Ditch the Employee Handbook 622 415 SageRiver Consulting LLC

I approach each new consulting engagement with the eye of an anthropologist. I’m listening for business needs, but I’m also looking for signs about the beliefs, values, norms and traditions of the company. I want to understand the company culture, so I can engage and contribute effectively.

New employees feel the same way, which is why leading companies are moving away from policy-filled employee handbooks toward more creative culture books that illuminate their unique “civilization.” This culture investment pays off because culture has become a critical differentiator in attracting and retaining talent, while elevating organizational performance. A vibrant culture is imperative because it provides the “soil” in which employees flourish, which then enables them to embrace and implement a strategic vision. For that reason, smart companies view their cultures as strategic assets and cultivate them accordingly.

What do great culture books look like? They’re as varied as the organizations that produce them. Some are elaborate storybooks; others are simply a series of slides with culture pointers. It really isn’t about the budget or production approach. It’s about painting a picture of life at your company. We’ve summarized key elements from the best culture books to help you inspire, guide and invite new employees into your unique world.

It All Began When…

Your origin story is a powerful way to illustrate the values and purpose that drive you. New employees want to know how your company began, who your founders were and what inspired them to start a company. It’s equally important to show through concrete anecdotes and examples how your mission, vision and values shape your work today. Your culture is an unfolding story that your team is writing together. (IDEO’s culture book is arranged in chapters with just this idea in mind.) Give your new employees a clear picture of how their everyday behaviors will help contribute to your culture.

Many Characters, One Story

A great culture book includes more than a letter from the CEO and a description of what already exists. Great culture books reflect the perspectives of employees, who co-own and shape your evolving culture.

Before you start writing, gather a cross-section of employees and ask them these questions: What do you know today that you wish you’d known on Day One? What makes you stay at this company? What stories or quotations can you share that exemplify this culture? Your new employees will enjoy hearing from the resident experts in their own words, which is why companies like Zappos and Sterling Mining have incorporated employee text messages, photos, video clips and stories directly into their culture books.

Home Away from Home

Help new employees feel at home by explaining the practical dos and don’ts of your workplace, just as New York ad agency Big Spaceship did in its culture book. How do you dress? What communications systems and methods do you use? Where do people congregate or go for breaks? Do you have team activities or recreational events they can join? Are there definite “don’ts,” such as taking calls on speaker in an open office area?

Each company is unique, so identify the tips that will best equip employees to engage in your workplace. Alongside the guidance, try to explain why you live together as you do, so employees can better understand how your daily practices relate back to your values and purpose.

Growth Happens Here

Top performers care about growing throughout their careers. Top companies nurture that desire by providing clear avenues for learning and advancement. Netflix provided a roadmap for its new employees by answering questions, such as: What does top performance looks like, regardless of the individual role? What do teammates expect of each other? What behaviors get rewarded or discouraged? What are some proven avenues for learning and growth? If you answer those questions, you can amplify and direct the enthusiasm new employees feel.

The Best Workplace on Earth

Most workplaces have surprising or “cool” features that make them unique. Epic Systems Corp., a healthcare software company, invites employees to enjoy its beautiful Wisconsin surroundings by climbing up to a treehouse or riding cowhide-painted bikes around campus. True to its outdoor ethos, apparel and gear designer Patagonia lets employees take work-day breaks to go surfing at peak tide. Your surprising workplace benefits will be unique to your company and location. Whatever they are, include them in your culture book so your new employees will know they’ve arrived at the best workplace on Earth.

As your culture book starts to take shape, you’ll identify additional elements that are particular to your workplace and team. You may wonder if you should include policies and procedures, too, as those are critical tools for setting expectations and mitigating risk. We agree that employees need to know the rules that govern them; we’d simply suggest including your policies and procedures as an appendix or directing your employees to your Intranet for the most current and complete listing. Whatever you choose, keep revisiting and evolving your culture book over time. It’s a valuable way to engage your team in strengthening your culture year after year.

Contact us to find out how SageRiver can support your culture book development.

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.

 

Change Your Mindset to Prosper
Change Your Mindset to Prosper 400 296 SageRiver Consulting LLC

Returning after a week-long professional development experience, I felt energized. I’d deepened my knowledge, enjoyed rich conversations with colleagues and felt that familiar surge of excitement about applying new insights to our work with SageRiver clients.

I wasn’t surprised by the jolt of enthusiasm. Exploring new ideas with others is a favorite pursuit, and I’m not alone in feeling that way. Most organizations offer similar experiences for employees, knowing they view them as “perks” with true business value.

If you check back in a few months, however, those same employees often report that their excitement has faded. Once they returned to work, they had no way to apply and extend their learning in community with others. As one client observed, “We aren’t taught how to evolve, or to keep evolving together.”

His observation gets at the heart of two challenges facing businesses today—innovation and employee engagement. Both jump dramatically when companies transform into true learning organizations.

Alive Through Learning

As any parent will witness, humans thrive on learning. Observe the excitement a toddler shows after mastering a new skill. Listen to kids cheer after executing a new play against an opposing team. Despite the work that goes into it, learning is fun! It’s rewarding. It makes us feel engaged and alive.

Learning also helps us move from what Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck calls a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. In her groundbreaking book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” Dweck asserts that how we think about ourselves influences almost every aspect of our lives. Those who live with a fixed mindset think they have an unchangeable set of talents and attributes. They are resistant to criticism and avoid challenges because they don’t believe they can get better. In contrast, those with a growth mindset believe they can improve through feedback and hard work. When we learn, we prove the growth mindset is correct and become confident of our ability to overcome challenges and initiate change.

Dweck’s insights apply to organizations as well as individuals. In fact, I believe they are even more important for companies because a growth mindset produces innovation and prosperity. The fixed mindset is where the status quo lives, and we no longer have time for the status quo.

Steps Toward Transformation

Transforming to a learning organization requires a holistic approach because learning is an attitude, value, action and community all rolled into one. Here are some strategies and tactics we recommend to help you make the shift:

Offer Creative Spaces and Experiences

In a famous business lecture, British comedian John Cleese recommended play and stimulating environments to foster team creativity. We agree. Simple changes, such as striking artwork and engaging meeting spaces, can change the mood of a team and spark new ways of thinking. Trying new activities can also prompt creativity. One marketing agency, for example, tried improvisational comedy together. The goal wasn’t to find new careers; it was to relax the mind and signal that new ideas and approaches were welcome.

Invest in Learning Journeys

One way organizations inspire learning is through their unique employee benefits. Some companies provide extended paid sabbaticals. Others offer a paid week off to try a new experience or study a subject of the employee’s choosing. Still others provide weekly time dedicated to the employee’s choice of investigation. Invariably, employees come back to work re-energized and ready to share insights from their learning journeys.

Foster Curiosity

Curiosity is one of SageRiver’s organizational values, and there’s a reason why. Information alone has little value. When we dig deeper to understand causes, connections and implications, we translate information into knowledge, which can then be acted upon to add value. As Bernard Baruch once noted, “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.”

Learning organizations put this principle to work by making curiosity a formal part of team agendas. They dedicate staff time to exploring topics of interest, and they reflect upon their learning. They discuss how concepts apply to their work and then implement, prototype and test their ideas. Not all subjects will be aligned to business priorities, however. In learning organizations, learning is valued for its own sake and can flow from individual interests.

Develop Storytellers

At SageRiver, we believe that most of what we know is learned through story. To reap the benefits of learning, teams need time to internalize their discoveries and tell stories about how those insights relate to their lives and work experiences. Storytelling deepens learning and helps listeners connect with new ideas. It’s a powerful tool for organizational growth.

Engage with the Community

Learning takes place outside, as well as inside, the organization. Engaging with your community can be an important source of insight. Learning organizations encourage employees to serve on nonprofit boards, take service learning trips and volunteer for different causes. They dedicate time for team members to discuss their experiences, so they can reflect upon them and grow together.

Embrace Failure

People with a growth mindset know that learning is a journey, and failure is a natural part of it. The key is to evaluate, adjust and keep at it until you achieve your goals. As hockey legend Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

Business leaders are taught that organizations must grow or die. Learning is the attribute that powers organizational growth and innovation. As you transform into a learning organization, you’ll see benefits everywhere. Ideas come from all corners of the organization. Engagement rises. Relationships deepen, and synergies abound. If you’d like help making this shift within your organization, contact SageRiver Consulting.

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