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With the downward spiral of the domestic auto industry, the state of Michigan suffered the most abysmal economic performance in half a century. Compounded by a 230,000-job loss in 2009, Michigan's struggles were beyond that of most states. Central to the economic pressure lies the regional banking system. Independent Bank of Michigan weathered the economic storm through significant cost control management: eliminating bad loans and increasing requirements for loan qualification. While this approach was effective in controlling expenses, Denise Wheaton, Sr. VP Retail Banking, and her senior management team recognized it would take something more to return Independent Bank to profitability.
When Partners In Leadership began working with Denise, the team had already determined the bank needed to rely on internal growth and reduce any reliance on factors outside of their control. With Michigan's economic turnaround far out on the horizon, Denise and her team looked within their organization and asked, "What else can we do" to return Independent Bank to Profitability?
Independent Bank introduced The Oz Principle® Accountability Training® at a Keynote address to over 200 branch managers and staff. The company aligned both the Commercial and Consumer Departments to a set of clearly defined key results, which served as the focal point of Accountability for Independent Bank. This joint accountability for the key results signaled a shift in the way the staff needed to think and act at Independent Bank. For the first time, the team was aligned at the top. This alignment was critical to the bank's ability to rely on its internal customer base for growth. The Commercial Group would explore their customer's personal banking needs and offer solutions, while the Consumer Group would explore Commercial opportunities with their customers.
The staff was introduced to the Steps To Accountability® Model. This fundamental tool served as a platform for developing the team's awareness of what it looks like to be Above The Line,® focusing on things within their control, using See It,® Own It,® Solve It,® and Do It® best practices.
In working with the executive team, we emphasized the use of the language of accountability and the need to integrate accountability practices within their day-to-day activities. This simple, yet powerful approach, has impacted Independent Bank's ability to take accountability for their key results by staying Above The Line. Denise Wheaton reports the bank has continued to improve each quarter of 2011, positively impacting all of their key results.
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Organizations who invest in major strategic initiatives will achieve greater results when they align their organization's culture - what people think and do to achieve the desired outcome. The more powerfully aligned the culture, the more intense the focus on results will be. We are told by our clients that the most effective change management process they have seen is the Partners In Leadership Culture of Accountability® Process. The Culture Track,™ which is the second of the Three Tracks to Creating Greater Accountability,® outlines the essential steps to creating the needed shifts in organizational culture for producing the results an organization is seeking to achieve.
A great example of the application of this change process occurred with a leading category specialty retail client who launched a major shift in the product focus of sunglasses, from the historical view as a health benefit, to fashion and style. While the repositioning of the product required a significant strategic and tactical shift, launching it without repositioning and aligning the experiences, beliefs, and actions of the organization expected to achieve the result, would have limited impact.
Using the change methodology we write about in our recent New York Times No. 1 Leadership Book Bestseller, Change the Culture, Change the Game, we partnered with the client to develop a simple, customized exercise designed to guide team discussions around The Results Pyramid in each business unit. As you recall, The Results Pyramid presents how the three essential components of organizational culture—experiences, beliefs, and actions—work in harmony to achieve results. The pyramid not only tells you why the culture is the way it is, but also how you can accelerate a shift in that culture to create competitive advantage. At the top of the pyramid are "Results." Those results come from the "Actions" people take, which is the next level down on the pyramid. Here, the mistake leaders make is to focus only on actions when they are not getting the results they want. However, those actions stem from the "Beliefs" people hold. Those beliefs are compelling and are the secret to accelerating change. Change a belief and you capture the heart; focus just on actions, and you merely get compliance. People's beliefs are born from the "Experiences" they have, both in and out of the organization or team. These experiences form the base of the pyramid and are the source of our beliefs. In sum: experiences foster beliefs, beliefs influence actions, and actions produce results. The experiences, beliefs, and actions of the people in your organization constitute your culture, and as The Results Pyramid suggests, your culture produces your results.
Using The Results Pyramid, the focus with our retail client was on shifting the belief held by the associates in the stores that was acting as a barrier to success: "Customers don't want prescription sunglasses." As a result, associates were hesitant to show sunglasses (the accompanying action) unless requested by the customer. The belief this client needed the associates to hold was simple: "When customers actually experience wearing sunglasses, they immediately recognize the value." Daily team huddles, in-store training and generous amounts of Focused Feedback® around forming this belief created a focus for the associates that they soon described as "Getting sun on everyone." Now, the focus on sunglasses was no longer just a program, it was the key to success and a cause they could invest themselves in. As the associates began to create the right experience for their customers by introducing sunglasses to them, the results were amazing--2X the expected sales growth in sunglasses for the year! This translated to important bottom-line improvements in profit and top-line gains in sales.
Focusing on "Beliefs" by using the Results Pyramid brought about an impact on results much faster than would have otherwise occurred by simply addressing the "Actions" people should take. Effectively working with beliefs brings more impact and any organizational "To Do" memo ever could. We chuckled when we heard a statement from one of the leaders who witnessed the shift in beliefs and the results that followed: "Wow, this PIL stuff really works!"
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TEMECULA, CA - February 21, 2011 - Partners In Leadership, Inc., the premier global provider of Accountability Training®, and Bestselling Authors of The Oz Principle, and latest no. 1 leadership book, Change The Culture, Change The Game, recently named Yvon Wagner as the company's newest Regional Vice President / Executive Facilitator. Wagner's hire underpins Partners' move to enhance their organization with industry executives who have applied experience using the methodology of Accountability to achieve breakthrough organizational results. Wagner, who resides in Southern California, will focus her efforts on supporting the Optical, Health Care, and Retail industries.
Wagner leaves an impressive 24 years of leadership with Luxottica Retail brands. In her distinguished career as Vice President, Yvon has led the reinvention of brands such as Target Optical, BJ's Wholesale Optical, and transformed both culture and the operating business model at LensCrafters. As a board member and President of EyeExam of California, the nation's largest Optometric HMO, Yvon mastered the complexity of cross-functional alignment in the health care arena. Her experience reaches beyond corporate America to the private sector as a business owner in the health care field.
Since bringing, The Oz Principle to Luxottica Retail North America in 1997, Yvon attributes her career success and dramatic results to the positive approach to Creating a Culture of Accountability® at every level of the organization. The groundbreaking work of Partners In Leadership has established creating greater accountability as a new and innovative means to organizational improvement and leadership development. They offer a proven Three-Track approach focused on Self, Culture and Others® Audiences describe Yvon as passionate, engaging and authentic. She brings extensive experience in implementing all of the Partners In Leadership Training content and curricula, including The Oz Principle Accountability Training, The Culture of Accountability Process, and The Accountability Sequence Training.
ABOUT PARTNERS IN LEADERSHIP
Partners In Leadership, Inc. is a widely respected international management consulting and training company. Founded by New York Times bestselling authors Roger Connors and Thomas Smith in 1989, the company has grown to become the premier provider of Accountability Training® Services around the world. They have assisted thousands of companies and hundreds of thousands of people in more than 50 countries, from the executive suite to the front line worker in understanding how to create greater accountability for results in their organizations and on their teams. The positive impact of their training and consulting work in helping their clients achieve their organizational results has been dramatic-producing growth, profitability and shareholder returns that are truly record breaking.
