Which statement best describes how you feel about your organization circumstances today:
- 43% said "The culture of the organization is a clear strength and will be a key reason for our success."
- 42% said "The culture of the organization is a clear weakness and will likely be the key reason if we fail."
- 15% said "The culture of the organization has little impact, it is not helping or hurting all that much."
Our research shows that over half of those surveyed felt that their culture was a clear weakness and would likely be the key reason for failure if that were to occur. Acknowledging the powerful role culture plays in producing organizational results, one US government study showed that 94% of organizations experienced planned culture change in the study year.
Our premise: The results you currently get are produced by your current culture. That's it, culture produces results. If you are achieving desired results, then you currently have a strong culture that produces what you want. However, if you are not achieving the results you want, or if those results may be in jeopardy, then your culture needs to change. At the end of the day, your culture is entirely responsible for the results you are achieving, and leaders are entirely accountable for that culture.
While all of our books on workplace accountability
(The Oz Principle and How Did That Happen?) are New York Times Bestsellers, we think the reason that
To be successful, the shift in culture in our organization needs to...
- 35% said, "Needs to be accelerated; we need to speed it up."
- 36% said, "Needs to be advanced as a top priority on the organizational agenda."
- 26% said, "Needs to be resourced and given strategic importance."
- 3% said, "None apply"
A recent Partners In Leadership poll shows that organizations currently engaged in a culture change are looking to create a greater sense of urgency around the culture change and accelerate progress to the new, desired culture.
The Partners In Leadership culture change models and culture management tools are key as we consult with our clients in Accelerating The Cultural Transition® methodology, to produce game-changing results.
Here is a sampling of client case studies that illustrate the impact of the Partners In Leadership process on organizational results:
Search all client stories:
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The Story: A large well-known retail client was hit hard by the downturn in the economy after experiencing several years of solid business results. Although the company had put several initiatives in place to improve results (a robust effort to manage the "Actions" of the organization), all of them were failing to deliver. Realizing that they had not yet tried working with the culture and the fundamental beliefs people held about how to think and act to produce their desired results, the brand leadership team decided to implement a 50-store pilot by implementing Partners In Leadership's Culture Track™ Training to test the premise that culture would produce the bottom-line results they needed to achieve.
The team determined that anything less than a 2 percent improvement in same store sales would trigger a "no-go" decision. Improvement that fell between the 2 and 5-point range would indicate a need for further validation. But improvement of 5 percent or more would support an automatic "go" decision and full scale launch of the change effort. They precisely spelled out the specific standards the pilot would have to meet.
The pilot effort was implemented in each of the 50 stores. Store "huddles" of managers, optometrist and associates occurred daily. Working with The Results Pyramid® to accelerate culture change and focusing on the beliefs they needed their associates to hold, store managers began to see immediate signs of impact. The result: an 8-point gain in same-store sales and customer count in just 5 weeks! On top of that, 85% of all test locations produced those results. The CEO of the international parent flew in from Europe to meet with the U.S. Brand Management team to discuss the pilot. What was to be a 30-minute presentation turned into a 3-hour discussion, resulting in a 1000-store launch of the culture change effort, ending an intended 6-month pilot in just 7 weeks. It is important to note that during the pilot, nothing changed in terms of strategy, it was all about culture. At the end of the first 30 days of the launch, the company turned in their best month in 12 months and at the end of 60 days it was the best month in 24! Sixty-five percent of the stores delivered on their plan, where only 9% did the year before. One key leader said: "The principles of accountability have transformed our culture and way of thinking. The Self Track™ Training created a fundamental shift in our mindset, enabling us to achieve regardless of the business climate. The level of ownership and self-discovery has empowered each of us in a personal way. The concept is not a process, but rather a way of life. As a result of this, our group delivered its best performance year ever. What a testament to the culture of accountability."
By the end of the year the training was implemented, this company solved the problem they were facing: a declining customer count. They reversed the downward trend and went from a negative count to a plus one in customer count. The first full year after the training was implemented this client delivered on all three Key Results, and, for the first time in the history of the company, delivered their top line number - for the first time, ever!
To this retail client, the evidence was clear. Culture produces results. And the right culture produces the right results. For them, these were game changing results that put them squarely in the lead in their industry and created competitive advantage. Ensuring that your culture is aligned to produce the results you want is an organizational imperative every leader must embrace and learn to master. The Results Pyramid will help you do that. Remember, either you will manage your culture, or it will manage you.
Putting culture to the test...
The Results: 85% of test locations up 8 Points in same store sales, translating into a 50 million dollar bottom line company-wide impact.
The Story: A large well-known retail client was hit hard by the downturn in the economy after experiencing several years of solid business results. Although the company had put several initiatives in place to improve results (a robust effort to manage the "Actions" of the organization), all of them were failing to deliver. Realizing that they had not yet tried working with the culture and the fundamental beliefs people held about how to think and act to produce their desired results, the brand leadership team decided to implement a 50-store pilot by implementing Partners In Leadership's Culture Track™ Training to test the premise that culture would produce the bottom-line results they needed to achieve.
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Watch Tom Smith, NY Times Bestselling author, tell the Culture Pilot story (View Tom's bio).
The pilot effort was implemented in each of the 50 stores. Store "huddles" of managers, optometrist and associates occurred daily. Working with The Results Pyramid® to accelerate culture change and focusing on the beliefs they needed their associates to hold, store managers began to see immediate signs of impact. The result: an 8-point gain in same-store sales and customer count in just 5 weeks! On top of that, 85% of all test locations produced those results. The CEO of the international parent flew in from Europe to meet with the U.S. Brand Management team to discuss the pilot. What was to be a 30-minute presentation turned into a 3-hour discussion, resulting in a 1000-store launch of the culture change effort, ending an intended 6-month pilot in just 7 weeks. It is important to note that during the pilot, nothing changed in terms of strategy, it was all about culture. At the end of the first 30 days of the launch, the company turned in their best month in 12 months and at the end of 60 days it was the best month in 24! Sixty-five percent of the stores delivered on their plan, where only 9% did the year before. One key leader said: "The principles of accountability have transformed our culture and way of thinking. The Self Track™ Training created a fundamental shift in our mindset, enabling us to achieve regardless of the business climate. The level of ownership and self-discovery has empowered each of us in a personal way. The concept is not a process, but rather a way of life. As a result of this, our group delivered its best performance year ever. What a testament to the culture of accountability."
By the end of the year the training was implemented, this company solved the problem they were facing: a declining customer count. They reversed the downward trend and went from a negative count to a plus one in customer count. The first full year after the training was implemented this client delivered on all three Key Results, and, for the first time in the history of the company, delivered their top line number - for the first time, ever!
To this retail client, the evidence was clear. Culture produces results. And the right culture produces the right results. For them, these were game changing results that put them squarely in the lead in their industry and created competitive advantage. Ensuring that your culture is aligned to produce the results you want is an organizational imperative every leader must embrace and learn to master. The Results Pyramid will help you do that. Remember, either you will manage your culture, or it will manage you.
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The Story: Breg, is a good-sized organization with a network of more than a hundred distributors in over 35 countries. When Partners In Leadership began working with Breg, their CEO, Brad Mason, told us that they hadn't achieved their results for over three years and they hadn't paid out a full bonus in over four. They were underperforming with snail-paced, single-digit growth while other competitors were doubling their growth year after year. In addition, they had quality issues, a heavy backorder position, an unaligned sales team, extreme turnover at their manufacturing plant in Mexico, and innovation had come to a grinding halt with no new products in over four years!
In working with Partners In Leadership, implementing the Culture Track™ Training, the first step was a very honest assessment of the company culture and the CEO's management. The analysis revealed that it was clear the current culture was not going to get the results they needed to achieve. Brad Mason and his management team utilized the Partners In Leadership training and began to define the Culture that would supercharge their efforts and that would produce the results they needed to achieve. With that start, they implemented the training throughout the entire organization, including all of their international divisions.
At Breg, every senior manager has embraced this process, and every employee, including those worldwide, have been trained and are actively involved and committed to the success of the effort. One example is the "Above The Line®" recognition card, which is one of Partners In Leadership's key culture management tools. This is a card given from one employee to another recognizing their demonstration of the Breg Cultural Beliefs. At the first company meeting, following the Culture Track Workshops, Brad Mason shared: "We asked the 180 employees in our California office to submit the recognition cards that they had received in the prior month so that they could be drawn in a raffle. We drew from a stack of 260 recognition cards!"
Brad continues: "from a practical standpoint, our performance is improving significantly every week, morale is high and growing, the energy of the company is outstanding, and I am enjoying my work more than I have in many years. The universal observation of the team is that they would have never believed a company could make such a positive shift so quickly. We continue to champion the changes and expect more great things to come." Only one year after they rolled out the Culture Track Training, Brad Mason announced that not only did they achieve all three of their key results, including double-digit sales growth, but they also increased both production and quality levels, reduced their overtime budget by 36%, eliminated back orders for the very first time in company history, and their plant in Mexicali was recognized as one of the top 100 manufacturing companies in Mexico. About the process, Brad says: "It is the single most impactful thing that I have done in my career!"
Alignment in the culture accelerates record-breaking results...
The Results: Industry best quality, double-digit sales growth, out grew market by 4 times.
The Story: Breg, is a good-sized organization with a network of more than a hundred distributors in over 35 countries. When Partners In Leadership began working with Breg, their CEO, Brad Mason, told us that they hadn't achieved their results for over three years and they hadn't paid out a full bonus in over four. They were underperforming with snail-paced, single-digit growth while other competitors were doubling their growth year after year. In addition, they had quality issues, a heavy backorder position, an unaligned sales team, extreme turnover at their manufacturing plant in Mexico, and innovation had come to a grinding halt with no new products in over four years!
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Watch Brad Mason, President, tell the Breg Story in working with PIL, to implement the Culture Track™ Training (View Brad's bio).
At Breg, every senior manager has embraced this process, and every employee, including those worldwide, have been trained and are actively involved and committed to the success of the effort. One example is the "Above The Line®" recognition card, which is one of Partners In Leadership's key culture management tools. This is a card given from one employee to another recognizing their demonstration of the Breg Cultural Beliefs. At the first company meeting, following the Culture Track Workshops, Brad Mason shared: "We asked the 180 employees in our California office to submit the recognition cards that they had received in the prior month so that they could be drawn in a raffle. We drew from a stack of 260 recognition cards!"
Brad continues: "from a practical standpoint, our performance is improving significantly every week, morale is high and growing, the energy of the company is outstanding, and I am enjoying my work more than I have in many years. The universal observation of the team is that they would have never believed a company could make such a positive shift so quickly. We continue to champion the changes and expect more great things to come." Only one year after they rolled out the Culture Track Training, Brad Mason announced that not only did they achieve all three of their key results, including double-digit sales growth, but they also increased both production and quality levels, reduced their overtime budget by 36%, eliminated back orders for the very first time in company history, and their plant in Mexicali was recognized as one of the top 100 manufacturing companies in Mexico. About the process, Brad says: "It is the single most impactful thing that I have done in my career!"
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The Story: Partners In Leadership began working with PLX Technology of Sunnyvale, CA, producer of mixed signal semiconductor devices, to implement the Culture Track™ Training. It was a multi-step process including aligning their culture, applying recommended culture management tools and leadership skills, integrating the culture change and enrolling the entire organization in the process. The Culture Track Training helped them accelerate the culture change and achieve best ever results in their history. It was critical to their success to align everyone's actions, beliefs and experiences across the various functions of the company. With a more completely aligned culture, employees were able to align their daily work with achieving the key results they needed to achieve. Ralph Schmitt, CEO, told us "It was a tough year but best performance ever for PLX and changing the culture and aligning team made a significant difference." PLX achieved revenues of $115 million against a plan of $112 million while launching new products and keeping cost in line. Reflecting on what he learned from the training, one manager remarked: "Unless I consciously manage the culture, like my golf swing, muscle memory takes over and I'm back to my old ways. Culture has a powerful memory. We need to create new memories!"
A tough year, but the best year ever...
The Result: Best results in company history.
The Story: Partners In Leadership began working with PLX Technology of Sunnyvale, CA, producer of mixed signal semiconductor devices, to implement the Culture Track™ Training. It was a multi-step process including aligning their culture, applying recommended culture management tools and leadership skills, integrating the culture change and enrolling the entire organization in the process. The Culture Track Training helped them accelerate the culture change and achieve best ever results in their history. It was critical to their success to align everyone's actions, beliefs and experiences across the various functions of the company. With a more completely aligned culture, employees were able to align their daily work with achieving the key results they needed to achieve. Ralph Schmitt, CEO, told us "It was a tough year but best performance ever for PLX and changing the culture and aligning team made a significant difference." PLX achieved revenues of $115 million against a plan of $112 million while launching new products and keeping cost in line. Reflecting on what he learned from the training, one manager remarked: "Unless I consciously manage the culture, like my golf swing, muscle memory takes over and I'm back to my old ways. Culture has a powerful memory. We need to create new memories!"
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The Story: The human resources network of SSM Health Care, which owns and operates six hospitals in St. Louis, determined to change the company's image among its customers and its own team members. Using the Culture Track™ Training, team leaders identified and made the desired shift from B1(old, ineffective) to B2 (new, desired) beliefs perfectly clear: Stop thinking like a traditional support function with a transactional focus (B1), and start thinking like a business partner with a more strategic focus (B2). Having the ability to identify needed shifts and then communicate those shifts was critical to the success in the culture change process. HR wanted to partner more fully with the business units throughout the network and help them achieve their business results. Once people throughout HR adopted new beliefs about their roles, the change happened so quickly that it astonished even us.
Implementing the culture change, they outsourced their employee recruitment division and created specialties in the benefits and compensation administration areas, so that the staff in the new HR service centers could offer those services as part of their function. With their remaining HR resources, they concentrated their efforts on converting their internal HR professionals into HR consultants. Soon they fielded a new team of twenty consultants, each guided by a single purpose: support their business partners in achieving their key operating results. Each new experience gave the foundation for new beliefs (B2) resulting in their Key Result of changing the department's image among its customers and team members. What began with a shift in one belief has culminated in an impressive HR network that operates today as a purpose-driven support function providing unprecedented value to its internal clients.
Using the Results Pyramid® to Make a Change...
The Results: Successful transformation of the HR value proposition.
The Story: The human resources network of SSM Health Care, which owns and operates six hospitals in St. Louis, determined to change the company's image among its customers and its own team members. Using the Culture Track™ Training, team leaders identified and made the desired shift from B1(old, ineffective) to B2 (new, desired) beliefs perfectly clear: Stop thinking like a traditional support function with a transactional focus (B1), and start thinking like a business partner with a more strategic focus (B2). Having the ability to identify needed shifts and then communicate those shifts was critical to the success in the culture change process. HR wanted to partner more fully with the business units throughout the network and help them achieve their business results. Once people throughout HR adopted new beliefs about their roles, the change happened so quickly that it astonished even us.
Implementing the culture change, they outsourced their employee recruitment division and created specialties in the benefits and compensation administration areas, so that the staff in the new HR service centers could offer those services as part of their function. With their remaining HR resources, they concentrated their efforts on converting their internal HR professionals into HR consultants. Soon they fielded a new team of twenty consultants, each guided by a single purpose: support their business partners in achieving their key operating results. Each new experience gave the foundation for new beliefs (B2) resulting in their Key Result of changing the department's image among its customers and team members. What began with a shift in one belief has culminated in an impressive HR network that operates today as a purpose-driven support function providing unprecedented value to its internal clients.
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The Story: At one point, CPI formed the nucleus of the newly established Guidant Corporation, created by the split-off of Eli Lilly's subsidiary medical device companies. At the time of the split-off, CPI's name changed to the Cardiac Rhythm Management Group (CRM), which grew to account for the bulk of the new Guidant Corporation's sales. Fred McCoy, CPI's Chief Financial Officer when the company first adopted the Culture Track™ Training, became the new CEO of this amazingly successful company. Fred faced the daunting task of figuring out how to continue the growth and profitability of the company by equaling, and then exceeding, its past successes.
The CRM Group continued to operate the best product-development engine in the cardiac rhythm marketplace. It produced products at a faster rate than its competitors. In fact, sales from products less than twelve months old accounted for more than 60 percent of CRM's total revenues. However, while CRM's best-in-class product development and clinical development engines rapidly introduced new heart-related products to the marketplace, something had changed. CPI had become overly reliant on products and product features. In effect, its leaders had assumed that "if they built it, customers would come."
Despite the continuous flow of products, the company was not winning the market share it had assumed its technological edge would create. Customers wanted more than just new products; they wanted a company that was easy to do business with. Clearly, CRM needed to do more to win over customers and patients to the Guidant therapies. To accomplish this, Fred knew that his leadership team needed to extend the sterling performance they had built in product development to all the other functions in the company. His first task aimed to get everyone in the company aligned with the shift from current results, since the last culture change effort (R2) to the new desired results based on their strategic needs (R3). Since the organization had done this before (a successful culture change), he capitalized on the proficiency of the management team to get aligned around this new objective and then enlisted their help to get the company there. CRM's shift from (R1) (results they were getting before the first culture change effort) to (R2) and now to (R3), along with the accompanying shifts in the culture, epitomizes the journey all organizations travel over time as they strive to stay competitive and at the top of their game.
Culture is not something you can do once and then leave alone. It always needs to be managed relative to the results (RX) you are working to achieve. Again, managing the culture is not an event, it is a process, and maintaining alignment among all the parts within The Results Pyramid,® requires constant and vigilant attention. The CRM shift to (C3) reflected a tactical shift in culture, not an overall transformation. Since they had successfully done it before, they were confident that they could do it again. Their shift in Cultural Beliefs® was simple: They needed to extend the winning culture they had built in product development to every other discipline in the company, so that every employee in the organization operated with the same heightened competitive edge as the product development group. Marketing, manufacturing, quality assurance, and every other function needed to provide a competitive advantage in their respective disciplines.
The shift to C33 proved to be another game-changing event. By building new capabilities, CRM created and maintained extraordinary value in the eyes of physicians and patients, participated fully in a tough and rapidly growing competitive market, and saw its sales revenue double again in just five years. Boston Scientific then purchased Guidant, with a total transaction value of $27 billion. CRM accounted for over $20 billion of that value. From the time of its split-off from Lilly to its purchase ten years later by Boston Scientific, Guidant's stock price climbed from $3.62 (adjusted for stock splits) to $80.10 per share. Guidant and CRM turned in one of the top performances ever in the history of medical technology companies. The alumni of CRM have gone on to occupy high-level technical and executive positions in a variety of successful medical technology enterprises. As the CPI/CRM story suggests, once you achieve alignment in the culture, you must work to maintain it over time. This requires clear and focused effort. You can never just "install" culture and then forget about it. Maintaining alignment in the culture is a critical leadership skill and capability that you must use every day to manage change in today's complex and competitive environment.
Do It Again, But Better...
The Results: One of the top performances ever in the history of medical device companies.
The Story: At one point, CPI formed the nucleus of the newly established Guidant Corporation, created by the split-off of Eli Lilly's subsidiary medical device companies. At the time of the split-off, CPI's name changed to the Cardiac Rhythm Management Group (CRM), which grew to account for the bulk of the new Guidant Corporation's sales. Fred McCoy, CPI's Chief Financial Officer when the company first adopted the Culture Track™ Training, became the new CEO of this amazingly successful company. Fred faced the daunting task of figuring out how to continue the growth and profitability of the company by equaling, and then exceeding, its past successes.
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Watch Fred McCoy tell the Guidant/CPI Story (View Fred's bio).
Despite the continuous flow of products, the company was not winning the market share it had assumed its technological edge would create. Customers wanted more than just new products; they wanted a company that was easy to do business with. Clearly, CRM needed to do more to win over customers and patients to the Guidant therapies. To accomplish this, Fred knew that his leadership team needed to extend the sterling performance they had built in product development to all the other functions in the company. His first task aimed to get everyone in the company aligned with the shift from current results, since the last culture change effort (R2) to the new desired results based on their strategic needs (R3). Since the organization had done this before (a successful culture change), he capitalized on the proficiency of the management team to get aligned around this new objective and then enlisted their help to get the company there. CRM's shift from (R1) (results they were getting before the first culture change effort) to (R2) and now to (R3), along with the accompanying shifts in the culture, epitomizes the journey all organizations travel over time as they strive to stay competitive and at the top of their game.
Culture is not something you can do once and then leave alone. It always needs to be managed relative to the results (RX) you are working to achieve. Again, managing the culture is not an event, it is a process, and maintaining alignment among all the parts within The Results Pyramid,® requires constant and vigilant attention. The CRM shift to (C3) reflected a tactical shift in culture, not an overall transformation. Since they had successfully done it before, they were confident that they could do it again. Their shift in Cultural Beliefs® was simple: They needed to extend the winning culture they had built in product development to every other discipline in the company, so that every employee in the organization operated with the same heightened competitive edge as the product development group. Marketing, manufacturing, quality assurance, and every other function needed to provide a competitive advantage in their respective disciplines.
The shift to C33 proved to be another game-changing event. By building new capabilities, CRM created and maintained extraordinary value in the eyes of physicians and patients, participated fully in a tough and rapidly growing competitive market, and saw its sales revenue double again in just five years. Boston Scientific then purchased Guidant, with a total transaction value of $27 billion. CRM accounted for over $20 billion of that value. From the time of its split-off from Lilly to its purchase ten years later by Boston Scientific, Guidant's stock price climbed from $3.62 (adjusted for stock splits) to $80.10 per share. Guidant and CRM turned in one of the top performances ever in the history of medical technology companies. The alumni of CRM have gone on to occupy high-level technical and executive positions in a variety of successful medical technology enterprises. As the CPI/CRM story suggests, once you achieve alignment in the culture, you must work to maintain it over time. This requires clear and focused effort. You can never just "install" culture and then forget about it. Maintaining alignment in the culture is a critical leadership skill and capability that you must use every day to manage change in today's complex and competitive environment.
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The Story: While shopping for a cultural transformation, the then largest chain-owned grocery store in the United States didn't reach for off the shelf training. Smith's Food and Drug enacted a full-scale roll out of the Culture Track™ Training from the Senior Executive Team to over 8,000 people throughout the company using 57 management-level personnel as internally trained facilitators. Kenneth White, VP of the California Region described the reality of their situation, "all year long we struggled to show some increase in same-store-sales with no real success in doing so." As a result of creating alignment around the regional budgets, Smith's Food and Drug experienced their first taste of the impact that accelerating culture change can have on results: "One week after. . . same store-sales climbed and continued to climb for almost every week thereafter. Numerous obstacles presented themselves, but the team remained 'Above The Line' and put forth a genuine effort that l will never forget. California was the only region in the company to receive a 100% bonus, and that's because people were able to See It, Own It, Solve It, and Do It!" The focus of Creating A Culture Of Accountability® where people throughout the organization were aligned around specific results created a positive variant to budget in the millions of dollars.
This was no ordinary culture change for the President and CEO, Able Porter; "Rather than presenting a formula for 'one best way' to run an organization, (Partners In Leadership's books) provide a practical and powerful desktop guide for any organization or team leader who has a genuine interest in shifting their organizational culture in a 'non-cookie cutter' format." Smith's Food and Drug incorporated two ingredients into their leadership development program for success; The Self Track™ Training and The Culture Track Training. "We attribute a good deal of this success to the Partners In Leadership process and the impact the process had in helping our people to operate "Above The Line."
Adding Transformation To The Grocery Cart...
The Results: Exceeded annual budget by several million dollars by increasing same store sales for 11 consecutive weeks.
The Story: While shopping for a cultural transformation, the then largest chain-owned grocery store in the United States didn't reach for off the shelf training. Smith's Food and Drug enacted a full-scale roll out of the Culture Track™ Training from the Senior Executive Team to over 8,000 people throughout the company using 57 management-level personnel as internally trained facilitators. Kenneth White, VP of the California Region described the reality of their situation, "all year long we struggled to show some increase in same-store-sales with no real success in doing so." As a result of creating alignment around the regional budgets, Smith's Food and Drug experienced their first taste of the impact that accelerating culture change can have on results: "One week after. . . same store-sales climbed and continued to climb for almost every week thereafter. Numerous obstacles presented themselves, but the team remained 'Above The Line' and put forth a genuine effort that l will never forget. California was the only region in the company to receive a 100% bonus, and that's because people were able to See It, Own It, Solve It, and Do It!" The focus of Creating A Culture Of Accountability® where people throughout the organization were aligned around specific results created a positive variant to budget in the millions of dollars.
This was no ordinary culture change for the President and CEO, Able Porter; "Rather than presenting a formula for 'one best way' to run an organization, (Partners In Leadership's books) provide a practical and powerful desktop guide for any organization or team leader who has a genuine interest in shifting their organizational culture in a 'non-cookie cutter' format." Smith's Food and Drug incorporated two ingredients into their leadership development program for success; The Self Track™ Training and The Culture Track Training. "We attribute a good deal of this success to the Partners In Leadership process and the impact the process had in helping our people to operate "Above The Line."
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The Story: “Universal” produces aluminum rigid container sheets for the packaging products market. Customers use those sheets to manufacture the bodies, ends and tabs of beverage and food cans, which are used in the soft drink, juice, energy beverage, packaged water, food and pet food industries. Universal’s leaders decided they needed to “go big or go home” with one of their key units, the Flexible Materials Division (FMD), a North America–based business. At one point, FMD accounted for over 30 percent of total company revenues and won praise as Universal’s flagship division.
With the implementation of a global strategy for organization-wide growth, however, FMD’s revenue contribution to the parent company had dropped to less than 10 percent, motivating the Universal board to question whether FMD should remain in the portfolio. The board threatened that if the FMD business could not get itself above the cost of capital and realize a reasonable return on that capital, then the parent company would find more promising opportunities for investing its money in the global markets.
In a final attempt to turn things around, the board decided to bring in someone from the outside to run FMD and recruited “Ken Jones” to serve as the division’s CEO. With prior experience in the steel industry, Ken brought a fresh perspective to his job. He knew that FMD’s “boss-centered” (C1--the current culture) culture, replete with boss-centered leaders, did not make sense for his division and its unionized workforce. He had learned that in such an environment, employees who were closest to the problems and who often had good ideas about how to solve them would not speak up and talk about what wasn’t working, that they would not easily tolerate risk, and that they would fear punishment for any and all failures. After quickly assessing the current culture, Ken determined that to save the business and drive success, the division would need to create an “employee-centered” (C2-the desired culture) culture in which everyone at every level was engaged in making the plant productive again.
As far as he was concerned, creating C2 meant blowing up the current “silo-like” organization and putting the business back together flatter, with more responsive pieces. At this point, Ken brought us in to help implement the Culture Track™ Training and change the culture of the organization. He needed game-changing results and knew that a focus on culture could make that happen. As the central theme of the new C2 culture, Ken encouraged what he called a new-business owner mentality. His Case for Change argued that the company’s survival as a viable entity depended on its ability to reduce costs rapidly while at the same time making the business more competitive. Ken believed, and communicated to every member of his team, that because Universal would probably end up selling them anyway, they might as well operate as though they had just bought FMD and take the risk to make the changes they thought the business needed. He convinced his management team to step up and act as if they were the new owners of the FMD business.
Ken knew that in order to become competitive and save the business, his team needed to boost return on capital (ROC) from 2 percent to over 10 percent. This became FMD’s R2: 10 percent–plus on ROC. To do that, he knew that one of the plant’s key production lines needed to produce 10 million more pounds than it currently churned out and that it needed to do it with the same number of people. With R2 in mind, he challenged his team to figure out how they could make that happen.
As a central part of the Culture Track Training, Ken and his team created a Cultural Beliefs® statement that captured the essence of the change they needed to make in order to achieve R2. At every opportunity, they reinforced those beliefs, which included major cultural shifts like Think FMD, Step Up!, Speak Up!, and Proudly Invest.
The end result? A 12 percent return on capital! Ken and his team changed the game for both FMD and Universal. They not only staved off the threat of closing the plant; they returned to their profitable status as a revenue producer in Universal’s portfolio. The culture changed so completely that it survived the turnover of almost every key player involved in establishing the new cultural direction, including Ken, who tragically died shortly after the transformation. The new leader, “Bill Weston,” found, to his surprise that the culture did not depend on Ken’s personality, but on the B2 beliefs that had been instilled at every level of the organization. On his first day, someone handed him a card containing the Cultural Beliefs, suggesting that he should start asking people about what they had done to change the way they work to reflect the Cultural Beliefs. He was also told that he should seek Focused Feedback® from a wide mix of people throughout the plant. Bill quickly learned that the way a leader responds to that feedback can make all the difference in continuing to move the culture change forward.
About on-boarding new leaders in the Culture Track Training effort, the SVP of Human Resources at FMD recounts: “Perhaps most telling is that our efforts have remained undaunted although we’ve experienced transitions and an 80% turnover of senior leadership. As one key leader said following her 90-day orientation, ‘I wish I had this 20 years ago! It is so simple and so powerful for leaders in today’s business environment’.”
Saving the day from 2% to 12%
The Results: A 12% return on capital, saving the plant, partnering with a unionized workforce.
The Story: “Universal” produces aluminum rigid container sheets for the packaging products market. Customers use those sheets to manufacture the bodies, ends and tabs of beverage and food cans, which are used in the soft drink, juice, energy beverage, packaged water, food and pet food industries. Universal’s leaders decided they needed to “go big or go home” with one of their key units, the Flexible Materials Division (FMD), a North America–based business. At one point, FMD accounted for over 30 percent of total company revenues and won praise as Universal’s flagship division.
With the implementation of a global strategy for organization-wide growth, however, FMD’s revenue contribution to the parent company had dropped to less than 10 percent, motivating the Universal board to question whether FMD should remain in the portfolio. The board threatened that if the FMD business could not get itself above the cost of capital and realize a reasonable return on that capital, then the parent company would find more promising opportunities for investing its money in the global markets.
In a final attempt to turn things around, the board decided to bring in someone from the outside to run FMD and recruited “Ken Jones” to serve as the division’s CEO. With prior experience in the steel industry, Ken brought a fresh perspective to his job. He knew that FMD’s “boss-centered” (C1--the current culture) culture, replete with boss-centered leaders, did not make sense for his division and its unionized workforce. He had learned that in such an environment, employees who were closest to the problems and who often had good ideas about how to solve them would not speak up and talk about what wasn’t working, that they would not easily tolerate risk, and that they would fear punishment for any and all failures. After quickly assessing the current culture, Ken determined that to save the business and drive success, the division would need to create an “employee-centered” (C2-the desired culture) culture in which everyone at every level was engaged in making the plant productive again.
As far as he was concerned, creating C2 meant blowing up the current “silo-like” organization and putting the business back together flatter, with more responsive pieces. At this point, Ken brought us in to help implement the Culture Track™ Training and change the culture of the organization. He needed game-changing results and knew that a focus on culture could make that happen. As the central theme of the new C2 culture, Ken encouraged what he called a new-business owner mentality. His Case for Change argued that the company’s survival as a viable entity depended on its ability to reduce costs rapidly while at the same time making the business more competitive. Ken believed, and communicated to every member of his team, that because Universal would probably end up selling them anyway, they might as well operate as though they had just bought FMD and take the risk to make the changes they thought the business needed. He convinced his management team to step up and act as if they were the new owners of the FMD business.
Ken knew that in order to become competitive and save the business, his team needed to boost return on capital (ROC) from 2 percent to over 10 percent. This became FMD’s R2: 10 percent–plus on ROC. To do that, he knew that one of the plant’s key production lines needed to produce 10 million more pounds than it currently churned out and that it needed to do it with the same number of people. With R2 in mind, he challenged his team to figure out how they could make that happen.
As a central part of the Culture Track Training, Ken and his team created a Cultural Beliefs® statement that captured the essence of the change they needed to make in order to achieve R2. At every opportunity, they reinforced those beliefs, which included major cultural shifts like Think FMD, Step Up!, Speak Up!, and Proudly Invest.
The end result? A 12 percent return on capital! Ken and his team changed the game for both FMD and Universal. They not only staved off the threat of closing the plant; they returned to their profitable status as a revenue producer in Universal’s portfolio. The culture changed so completely that it survived the turnover of almost every key player involved in establishing the new cultural direction, including Ken, who tragically died shortly after the transformation. The new leader, “Bill Weston,” found, to his surprise that the culture did not depend on Ken’s personality, but on the B2 beliefs that had been instilled at every level of the organization. On his first day, someone handed him a card containing the Cultural Beliefs, suggesting that he should start asking people about what they had done to change the way they work to reflect the Cultural Beliefs. He was also told that he should seek Focused Feedback® from a wide mix of people throughout the plant. Bill quickly learned that the way a leader responds to that feedback can make all the difference in continuing to move the culture change forward.
About on-boarding new leaders in the Culture Track Training effort, the SVP of Human Resources at FMD recounts: “Perhaps most telling is that our efforts have remained undaunted although we’ve experienced transitions and an 80% turnover of senior leadership. As one key leader said following her 90-day orientation, ‘I wish I had this 20 years ago! It is so simple and so powerful for leaders in today’s business environment’.”
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The Story: Children's Miracle Network Hospitals (CMNH) were founded in 1983, growing from a televised fundraiser in a small studio to one of North America's leading children's charities. The Network specializes in providing comfort, treatment, and hope to millions of sick children and adolescents each year. As of 2011, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $4.3 billion-most of which is donated a dollar or two at a time.
Children's Miracle Network Hospitals came to Partners In Leadership when fundraising had leveled off at $230 - $250 million per year. The cost to raise money was going up, customer satisfaction was low and falling. Developing a Culture of Accountability® was key to achieving their Key Results. They needed to accelerate a culture change so they invited Partners In Leadership to implement the Culture TrackTM training within the organization. During one of their first Develop Beliefs workshops, the CEO John Lauck introduced a strategic imperative of quadrupling the fundraising to $1 Billion per year, within 10 years, by 2022. One of their Cultural Beliefs® reflected the needed shift in thinking and improved performance: Billion-Dollar Thinking.
John implemented the "Billion-Dollar Thinking" belief by meeting with representatives of all 170 children's hospitals each year. In March of 2011 (prior to the Culture Track training) the meetings were filled with complaints and disappointment from the hospitals about how difficult CMNH was to work with. In a similar meeting in March of 2012 not a single complaint was mentioned. Instead the meetings were filled with compliments on what CMNH had accomplished, how easy they are to work with, their improved performance and ideas on how to expand services. Presently "Billion-Dollar Thinking" has become a common topic within the hospitals. They are now asking CMNH for ideas and assistance on how to quadruple the services they provide.
One year after implementing the Culture Track training, Children's Miracle Network Hosptials' fundraising increased 13% and the cost per dollar raised was reduced 13%, but in 2012 these results were far surpassed when they saw their fundraising increase by 16%. That's a 29% increase in over two year in an industry where the average is flat to 3% increase over the same period. In fact, in 2012 their key result was to hit $282 million in fundraising for their network of 170 children's hospitals. For an incentive, John told the organization that if they hit $300 million, he would save his head, and when the organization surpassed $300 million in fundraising that's just what he did, telling his employees at the celebration when his head was shaved, "If this is what $300 million looks like, I'll wear it every day1" These are just a few of the amazing feats this organization has made since implementing the training.
The impact on culture and the success of the organization has not been lost on the Board of Directors who can not believe the positive changes that had occurred within the organization. There is now a belief that a $1 Billion per year fundraising result will be achieved far in advance of the 2022 target.
John is certain now of the importance of addressing culture in order to get new results, "In my entire career, including PepsiCo. and General Mills, I have experienced many processes designed to get a management team to work better together. But I have never experienced a process that has had such a profound, sustained, positive impact on not only the management team, but also the entire organization." Looking back, John realizes that when he first became CEO, he should have addressed culture before tackling strategy and structure, allowing culture to contribute to them. His firm belief in this is summed up in a saying of Peter Drucker's that he loves to quote: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
The change in the culture and the focus on accountability has been remarkable throughout the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals organization. John acknowledged this in early 2013 in a message to all employees in the Network on surpassing their goal, "I'm thrilled to report we've exceeded this goal. The spirit of collaboration and Billion Dollar Thinking is found in each department and noted in every meeting as we welcome our 30th year of saving kids' lives... Thank you to our entire Network who accepted the challenge and went the extra mile. You are truly appreciated, and the results of your efforts are evident at our member hospitals."
Billion-Dollar Thinking
The Results: Increased Money Raised To One Billion Dollars Per Year.
The Story: Children's Miracle Network Hospitals (CMNH) were founded in 1983, growing from a televised fundraiser in a small studio to one of North America's leading children's charities. The Network specializes in providing comfort, treatment, and hope to millions of sick children and adolescents each year. As of 2011, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $4.3 billion-most of which is donated a dollar or two at a time.
Children's Miracle Network Hospitals came to Partners In Leadership when fundraising had leveled off at $230 - $250 million per year. The cost to raise money was going up, customer satisfaction was low and falling. Developing a Culture of Accountability® was key to achieving their Key Results. They needed to accelerate a culture change so they invited Partners In Leadership to implement the Culture TrackTM training within the organization. During one of their first Develop Beliefs workshops, the CEO John Lauck introduced a strategic imperative of quadrupling the fundraising to $1 Billion per year, within 10 years, by 2022. One of their Cultural Beliefs® reflected the needed shift in thinking and improved performance: Billion-Dollar Thinking.
John implemented the "Billion-Dollar Thinking" belief by meeting with representatives of all 170 children's hospitals each year. In March of 2011 (prior to the Culture Track training) the meetings were filled with complaints and disappointment from the hospitals about how difficult CMNH was to work with. In a similar meeting in March of 2012 not a single complaint was mentioned. Instead the meetings were filled with compliments on what CMNH had accomplished, how easy they are to work with, their improved performance and ideas on how to expand services. Presently "Billion-Dollar Thinking" has become a common topic within the hospitals. They are now asking CMNH for ideas and assistance on how to quadruple the services they provide.
One year after implementing the Culture Track training, Children's Miracle Network Hosptials' fundraising increased 13% and the cost per dollar raised was reduced 13%, but in 2012 these results were far surpassed when they saw their fundraising increase by 16%. That's a 29% increase in over two year in an industry where the average is flat to 3% increase over the same period. In fact, in 2012 their key result was to hit $282 million in fundraising for their network of 170 children's hospitals. For an incentive, John told the organization that if they hit $300 million, he would save his head, and when the organization surpassed $300 million in fundraising that's just what he did, telling his employees at the celebration when his head was shaved, "If this is what $300 million looks like, I'll wear it every day1" These are just a few of the amazing feats this organization has made since implementing the training.
The impact on culture and the success of the organization has not been lost on the Board of Directors who can not believe the positive changes that had occurred within the organization. There is now a belief that a $1 Billion per year fundraising result will be achieved far in advance of the 2022 target.
John is certain now of the importance of addressing culture in order to get new results, "In my entire career, including PepsiCo. and General Mills, I have experienced many processes designed to get a management team to work better together. But I have never experienced a process that has had such a profound, sustained, positive impact on not only the management team, but also the entire organization." Looking back, John realizes that when he first became CEO, he should have addressed culture before tackling strategy and structure, allowing culture to contribute to them. His firm belief in this is summed up in a saying of Peter Drucker's that he loves to quote: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
The change in the culture and the focus on accountability has been remarkable throughout the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals organization. John acknowledged this in early 2013 in a message to all employees in the Network on surpassing their goal, "I'm thrilled to report we've exceeded this goal. The spirit of collaboration and Billion Dollar Thinking is found in each department and noted in every meeting as we welcome our 30th year of saving kids' lives... Thank you to our entire Network who accepted the challenge and went the extra mile. You are truly appreciated, and the results of your efforts are evident at our member hospitals."
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The Story: In 2009 one of the world's leading casual dining restaurants was faced with declining sales due to a downturn in the economy. They gathered 1500 general managers in Dallas Texas to hear a message from the leadership team. The message was clear; the restaurant brand and dining industry had flat to declining sales for the last 6 years. It was time for a shift. The market was changing, the economy was changing, and the casual dining experience was shifting.
It was August and the company's stock was trading in the mid $14 range and the shift that was needed would have to be substantial. It would need to be a power shift.
As the organization began that 3-day conference they started by recognizing they could no longer think and act in the manner they had for the last 34 years if they were going to truly get better results.
Prior to the gathering the leadership team worked closely with Partners In Leadership to identify the needed shifts within the culture, and focused on creating alignment around the results at all levels of the organization, a first in over 34 years of being in business.
The "Power Shift" meeting was the introduction of the new culture along with the tools necessary to integrate the Culture TrackTM training with the top leaders of the organization. Over the course of 3 days the leadership team applied the models and principles used in the training, with a emphasis on Focused Accountability, Focused Feedback, Focused Storytelling, and Focused Recognition.
While it was just the beginning, the foundation had been laid and the top leaders team would not waver over the next 2 years from their journey. On more than one occasion the opportunity to stray away from their focus on the results and their desired culture presented itself to the team, and they continued to stay on course.
As the leadership teams met throughout the year they focused on applying the models and practices to accelerate greater accountability both individually and organizationally. They were so committed that each year they took a deeper dive into the learning how to use and apply additional tools to accelerate culture change.
In 2011 as the organization finished their 2010-2011 year the leadership team gathered upstate California to debrief on the yearend results. Out of the 4 key results the outcome was a success:
Team:
At the time of the team meeting the stock price had risen to $25.81. When asked what was the difference Doug Brooks, CEO, COB, said during opening remarks to a group of high potential leaders that, "two years ago we began a journey that found us focusing and aligning around our key results and a common set of beliefs and set of tools that has help us change the way we think and act as a company."
During that period the restaurant chain completely changed the business model that had been in place for 34 years by integrating the Cultural Transition Process® into each of their key initiatives.
After just two years the general mangers are now planning their next gathering to hear a new message for the year. The message this year is MOMENTUM! The work they have done has created a wave of momentum that is leading to positive results for the first time in six years.
Fire up the Grill
The Results: 60% increase in shareholder value.
The Story: In 2009 one of the world's leading casual dining restaurants was faced with declining sales due to a downturn in the economy. They gathered 1500 general managers in Dallas Texas to hear a message from the leadership team. The message was clear; the restaurant brand and dining industry had flat to declining sales for the last 6 years. It was time for a shift. The market was changing, the economy was changing, and the casual dining experience was shifting.
It was August and the company's stock was trading in the mid $14 range and the shift that was needed would have to be substantial. It would need to be a power shift.
As the organization began that 3-day conference they started by recognizing they could no longer think and act in the manner they had for the last 34 years if they were going to truly get better results.
Prior to the gathering the leadership team worked closely with Partners In Leadership to identify the needed shifts within the culture, and focused on creating alignment around the results at all levels of the organization, a first in over 34 years of being in business.
The "Power Shift" meeting was the introduction of the new culture along with the tools necessary to integrate the Culture TrackTM training with the top leaders of the organization. Over the course of 3 days the leadership team applied the models and principles used in the training, with a emphasis on Focused Accountability, Focused Feedback, Focused Storytelling, and Focused Recognition.
While it was just the beginning, the foundation had been laid and the top leaders team would not waver over the next 2 years from their journey. On more than one occasion the opportunity to stray away from their focus on the results and their desired culture presented itself to the team, and they continued to stay on course.
As the leadership teams met throughout the year they focused on applying the models and practices to accelerate greater accountability both individually and organizationally. They were so committed that each year they took a deeper dive into the learning how to use and apply additional tools to accelerate culture change.
In 2011 as the organization finished their 2010-2011 year the leadership team gathered upstate California to debrief on the yearend results. Out of the 4 key results the outcome was a success:
Team:
- Hourly turnover was at an all time low
- Employee engagement went from 44 to 56, highest ever Guest:
- GEM score 47 to 54, all time high rating Sales:
- Positive traffic and sales within the last 5 accounting periods, best in past 5 years Profit:
- Best restaurant contribution since 2007
- 60% increase in shareholder value
At the time of the team meeting the stock price had risen to $25.81. When asked what was the difference Doug Brooks, CEO, COB, said during opening remarks to a group of high potential leaders that, "two years ago we began a journey that found us focusing and aligning around our key results and a common set of beliefs and set of tools that has help us change the way we think and act as a company."
During that period the restaurant chain completely changed the business model that had been in place for 34 years by integrating the Cultural Transition Process® into each of their key initiatives.
After just two years the general mangers are now planning their next gathering to hear a new message for the year. The message this year is MOMENTUM! The work they have done has created a wave of momentum that is leading to positive results for the first time in six years.
