By Jon Isaacson The question is not whether our organization has a culture the question is whether our culture has evolved by chance or because we have been intentional in developing it (more on business culture HERE). If our goal is to have a healthy and thriving team, culture becomes a key component of caring for the organization. If we can identify, build and staff around a culture that enhances our values then our combined efforts will have greater focus and potency. The development of a culture becomes, through the process, a component of attracting, caring for and retaining good team members. In short, take care of the culture because the culture is what cares for our people. If we care for our people, our team members will be enabled and energized to care for our customers. In service based companies, our people on the ground and in the field are the ones who have the bulk of the hands on interaction with our customers. Team members that are cared for will care about the team and will do work that communicates care on through to our clientele. Caring for our culture is one of the most effective things we can do as leaders because the culture is what takes care of our team member who in turn are the ones caring for our clients. Our culture is unique and our people are unique so the culture is always evolving as we develop. The end goal is the same, create positive customer experiences so that our combined efforts create value that people will gladly pay for. All companies need dollars in order to function at every level, but we often forget that at the end of the line those dollars come from people (customers) that care. People that care come from people that are cared for (our team members). Therefore being intentional about caring is one of the most profitable areas we can focus our efforts. Culture is not a unicorn. Culture is a gold mine. Jon Isaacson is a friend to facilities and risk professionals, partnering to enhance education, networking and assisting with recovery when the worst of it all hits the fan. While in college, the young Jon responded to an ad in the local paper for carpet cleaning and discovered the world of property restoration. Continuing the pattern of mentorship taught to him, Jon has built his business acumen growing organizational strength through professional relationships, employee development and process improvement. In addition to working full time, raising a family and volunteering, Jon writes, speaks and serves as director of local facilities networking group LFMC.
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Have you ever wanted to peer behind the curtain to observe how other organizations are addressing some of the shared challenges that all businesses face? For better or for worse, our video on Creating a Visible Production Schedule walk you through our process for making our team's work flow visible. Simply put, these are our project management tips and resources from managers for managers to help managers manage. Key objectives for our team as we worked through the production system optimization process:
Our organization was willing to spend money on the right program, but as noted above, we found that many of the most extensive programs were also too labor intensive for our needs. More than return on investment, we were concerned with practicality of the process, clarity of the communication portals and engagement within the team to help propel our mission forward. If you have worked with the insurance process than you know there is no shortage of paperwork for all parties involved, adding another lengthy data heavy process was going to be counter-productive. What are the benefits of scheduling? Communication is our organization showing our customers that we value them. Clarity and consistency is our organization showing our employees that we value them. Scheduling creates 1) transparency, 2) a baseline for clarity and 3) consistency (read more HERE). Communication within the organization is essential to setting up service teams for success when they are on the front lines of taking care of customers. Without clear and consistent communication an organization will at best struggle to reach its potential, a common ailment for many businesses of all sizes, and at worst will fold up altogether. Let the desire to improve the process push your leadership team to make communication a priority, or if you are tired of all the negative customer calls and high turnover, perhaps it’s time that management takes some responsibility (see our article published at R&R on The Five Layers of Communication). Video credit @thelegitabbie / Youtube Jon Isaacson is a friend to facilities and risk professionals, partnering to enhance education, networking and assisting with recovery when the worst of it all hits the fan. While in college, the young Jon responded to an ad in the local paper for carpet cleaning and discovered the world of property restoration. Continuing the pattern of mentorship taught to him, Jon has built his business acumen growing organizational strength through professional relationships, employee development and process improvement. In addition to working full time, raising a family and volunteering, Jon writes, speaks and serves as director of local facilities networking group LFMC.
by Jon Isaacson At the beginning of a new year every company has the same dream — this is the year we are going to blow the doors off of this thing with growth! Everyone is working on their six pack and so are companies. Yet, like most individuals, the likelihood that most organization will reach their growth goals is directly tied to whether their habits change from last year. Will you continue to join the cadre of growth bloviateors or will you make some real changes to put some walk to that catchphrase-business-talk? If status quo and annual mediocre cycles are no longer acceptable, what must we do? Admit That Growth Is Scary Everyone talks about growth, but the reality is that growth cannot be detached from getting your hands dirty in improving your processes. Growth cannot be treated as a noun. As a refresher, a noun is a person, place or thing. If growth is a thing for you, then you likely will not grow. Growth is a verb, it requires action. Growth is a reflection of your actions. That’s right folks, growth is you. Growth is not something that you just talk about, its something that you do. Lack of growth is a reflection, it tells us that something we are doing is not working. Leaders Exemplify Growth Growth happens because of people. If you are a leader and you are investing in our own personal improvement than you will more naturally be an active demonstration of professional development. Conversely, if you do not exemplify growth, regardless of how much you speak about it, their is a correlation to how growth will be impeded within your organization. If you want your company to grow, be a person that is growing. If you want your team to develop, be an example of how growth happens. Leaders Create Opportunities For Growth Your organization is made up of living components. Companies are made up of people, organizations need nourishment, need opportunities and need challenges or they will stagnate. Quotes on the wall and status quo training sessions are great for keeping pace with mediocrity. When growth is reduced to a noun it removes our teams from the necessity for action. Growth as a noun is a desolate wasteland where most organizations are grazing, rather than growth as a verb that is propelling teams to tackle their mission. Stagnate People = Stagnant Organizations. When you are hungry to grown and evolve, you will become an agent propelling the organization forward. You will be practicing growth as a verb. re moving with the organization as they propel it forward. New opportunities for persons up the ladder should be utilized as opportunities to create growth paths for those climbing from lower rungs on the ladder. Leaders need to create their own personal pressure as well as embrace positive pressure generated from eager team members who have a vision to move upward with the organization. If you are more concerned with tenure and keeping things the way they are. When leadership is scared to make too many changes and does not embrace internal momentum it should be no shock that growth is choked by itself. If there is little opportunity created for movement within an organization, the river is not flowing, the waters are stale. Leaders Need to Mentor If you are not working yourself out of a job, then you are not doing yourself or your organization any favors. This is not to say that an organization should turn an burn its people, or that you should leave an organization, but that as you work up the ladder you are mentoring others to take your place. I believe this is called a win-win situation, perhaps a win (for you) — win (for those you are mentoring) — win (for your organization). Every successful team needs leaders who are helping to mentor the next generations of leaders from within the team. One of the most rewarding cycles as a leader is to be able to train someone from no experience in your industry to climbing the ladder in your organization. When you hire good people, it becomes your challenge to develop them to their full potential. Develop Your Internal Resources In business they talk about the Peter Principle, recognizing a business trend to promote employees until they reach a point of failure. Another way to understand this cycle is to observe the lack of mentor ship within most organizations. If you throw people into positions that they haven’t been prepared for there is a greater probability of failure. Whereas if you invest in hiring good people and mentor eating them through the process then The individual and the organization benefit. As a leader it should should burn you up if you cannot keep or create progressive opportunities for your faithful performers. On a practical level of impact towards the goal of growth, when the dynamics of your organization enable your individuals to develop and grow internally, the company will externally grow more naturally. Grow produces growth. Your performers will be enlivened by opportunities, your employees will be prepared through mentoring and your organization will reproduce its capabilities in the market place expansion will be a product of the internal combustion. Don’t be scared of growth-ing, grow with your people, for your people and by your people. If you need a friendly kick in the pants, let us know. Jon Isaacson is the director for Local Facilities Manager's Connection (LFMC - localfacilities.com) which is a peer-to-peer networking group started in Eugene, Oregon. Jon has been working in business development, systems optimization and team building with organizations large and small for nearly 15 years. He has been writing, speaking and assisting teams with creative business solutions, helping those organizations bring their vision into reality.
In business there are rituals that neither management nor employees enjoy and yet they are widely practiced because a) it’s what everyone else is doing, b) we’re required to do it by the unwritten codes of business handed down from our ancestors and/or c) leadership is unwilling to admit that something needs to change. Enjoy our fun video that reviews the tried-and-failing process of annual employee reviews as acted out by children. If you do not recognize a need to evaluate and improve your processes, you are probably right – everything is fine and you are going to be awesome (sarcasm). But, if you recognize that there are always areas that can improve, you may start by relieving the additional strain on managers as well as the deflating of employee morale that is often tied to the annual employee review as currently practiced.
There are plenty of examples of what isn’t working, please tell us what you have been trying and what is working with improving employee engagement. Please help up gather some data on process improvement by taking our brief survey HERE. Keep doing good things. |
AuthorThoughts on personal and professional development. Jon Isaacson, The Intentional Restorer, is a contractor, author, and host of The DYOJO Podcast. The goal of The DYOJO is to help growth-minded restoration professionals shorten their DANG learning curve for personal and professional development. You can watch The DYOJO Podcast on YouTube on Thursdays or listen on your favorite podcast platform.
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