The Culture Engine - Summary

Leaders Book Summaries

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About the Book’s Author

S. Chris Edmonds is the founder and CEO of The Purposeful Culture Group and has also serves as a senior consultant with the Ken Blanchard Companies.

About Leaders Book Summaries

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Table of Contents

Nutshell Summary

Full Summary

Chapter 1: What Is an Organization Constitution and Why Do You Need One?

Chapter 2: It Starts with You

Chapter 3: Clarify Your Organization’s Purpose

Chapter 4: Define Values in Behavioral Terms

Chapter 5: Outline Strategies and Goals for the Coming Fiscal Year

Chapter 6: Your Organizational Constitution Must Be LIVED

Chapter 7: Gather Formal Feedback on Valued Behaviors

Chapter 8: Dealing with Resistance

Chapter 9: Hiring for Values Alignment

Chapter 10: Don’t Leave Your Organizational Culture to Chance

Nutshell Summary- To go to the full summary click here.

Chapter 1: What Is an Organization Constitution and Why Do You Need One?

Helping your team or company’s culture evolve into a validating, consistently high-performing and values-aligned work environment is a lot of work. Culture change or, if you prefer, culture refinement is not something to be taken casually. It must be seen as vital work that needs time, energy, and intention to help craft consistent workplace inspiration.

So, who must lead your team or company’s culture shift? The player or players who are responsible for culture change are those who:

• Can create or modify the organization’s incentives, policies, and procedures, and

• Have formal authority to guide the team, department, division,or company

In short, the leaders of your team or company are in charge of your team or company’s culture.

If leaders want that culture to evolve, they must take action to clarify their desired culture (defining it in behavioral terms), model their desired culture (living it in every interaction), and hold everyone on the team or in the company accountable for living it in every interaction.

The foundation of workplace inspiration, of high performance and values alignment, is an organizational constitution. An organizational constitution is a living, breathing document that outlines clear agreements on the team or company’s purpose and the values and behaviors that all team leaders and members believe in and commit to.

An organizational constitution outlines your team’s purpose, values, strategies, and goals. Holding all staff accountable for both performance and values ensures that your organization is populated by inspired, high-performing, values-aligned players. An organizational constitution creates common agreements based on shared purpose and values. These “rules of engagement” are formalized so every leader and employee know what values expectations are—and can model them, praise them, coach to them, and redirect misaligned behaviors.

Chapter 2: It Starts with You

The first step in developing an organizational constitution is creating a purpose statement. Let’s define an organizational purpose statement as a succinct declaration that explains what your company does, for whom, and to what end. It explains why customers should care about what your company does and what it stands for.

Chapter 3: Clarify Your Organization’s Purpose

The next step in creating your organizational constitution is to define the positive values and behaviors you want every leader and employee to demonstrate in every interaction with team members and customers. Values defined in behavioral terms are the most important element of your organizational constitution. The values and behaviors that you decide are required in your team or company will be examined, judged, engaged with, and (it is hoped) embraced for years to come.

Chapter 4: Define Values in Behavioral Terms

Leaders need to formalize three to five values with definitions and behaviors. Why three to five values? More than five are hard for us humans to remember and embrace! Don’t complicate things by offering too much content; keep it simple and easy to remember. The format for values statements looks like this:

Value: The one- or two-word value title.

Definition: A two- or three-sentence description that clearly states what this value means in your workplace.

Behaviors: These are “I” statements that explain exactly how you expect leaders and employees to demonstrate this value in your workplace. You will list no more than four behaviors per value. Why no more than four? Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Your team or company’s valued behaviors must outline observable, tangible, measurable actions. Just as organizational leaders manage to performance standards, these behaviors become values standards that are lived and proactively managed by leaders and employees throughout the company or team.

Chapter 5: Outline Strategies and Goals for the Coming Fiscal Year

As you embark on the implementation of your organizational constitution, realize that you’ll be presenting a different way of thinking about the work the team does. You’ll be asking people to shift away from a “short-term, results now” mind-set to a “long-term, inspiring workplace that delivers great products and services” mind-set.

You’ll need to invest time and energy in educating leaders and team members why this long-term approach is a great thing for your team or department. You’ll need to bring people along, day by day, praising aligned plans, decisions, and actions and redirecting misaligned ones.

Chapter 6: Your Organizational Constitution Must Be LIVED

You will need to help leaders and team members understand that your organizational constitution doesn’t reduce the emphasis on performance standards; it clarifies them with aligned strategies and goals. You’ll help them understand that the organizational constitution adds a new dimension to what a good job looks like: great team citizenship and values alignment.

Creating, socializing, publishing, and aligning people and practices to your organizational constitution is a long-term proposition. It’s a project that basically never goes away. You’ll make terrific strides in the first 18 to 24 months. Plans, decisions, and actions will align to your organizational constitution. You’ll see growth in profits, engagement, and service.

There will always be opportunities to do better. You’ll bring in new players who will need coaching and redirecting. You might enter new markets and face a different client base or needed skill set or business pace. The old ways of doing business, which is the norm for many businesses today, will always be a temptation. You must be ever vigilant to keep your team or department on its unique path as defined by your organizational constitution.

My wish for you is that you engage in this process by implementing an organizational constitution in your sphere of influence. This world needs teams and companies that have safe, inspiring work environments that team members love. This proven path awaits you.

Full Summary

Chapter 1: What Is an Organization Constitution and Why Do You Need One?

Helping your team or company’s culture evolve into a validating, consistently high-performing, values-aligned work environment is a lot of work. Culture change or, if you prefer, culture refinement is not something to be taken casually. It must be seen as vital work that needs time, energy, and intention to help craft consistent workplace inspiration.

So, who must lead your team or company’s culture shift? The player or players who are responsible for culture change are those who:

• Can create or modify the organization’s incentives, policies,and procedures, and

• Have formal authority to guide the team, department, division, or company

In short, the leaders of your team or company are in charge of your team or company’s culture. If leaders want that culture to evolve, they must take action to clarify their desired culture (defining it in behavioral terms), model their desired culture (living it in every interaction), and hold everyone on the team or in the company accountable for living it in every interaction.

The foundation of workplace inspiration, of high performance and values alignment, is an organizational constitution. An organizational constitution is like the Magna Carta or United States Constitution in that it outlines specific expectations and rights of organizational members (leaders and employees). Unlike the US Constitution, an organizational constitution does not outline the governance of the organization (employee ownership and such). It does describe the proven elements that make an organization’s work environment consistently safe, respectful, productive, and inspiring.

An organizational constitution is a living, breathing document that outlines clear agreements on the team or company’s purpose and the values and behaviors that all team leaders and members believe in and commit to. The deeper the leaders drive their organizational Constitution into their team, department, division, facility, or organization, the better the impact, higher employee engagement, wowed customers, and boosted profits.

When you manage by an organizational constitution, your team or company culture changes for the better, driven by liberating rules that leaders and employees buy into and demonstrate daily. These rules help them through ambiguity, setting standards of great team citizenship as well as great team performance. When organizations don’t have a constitution, people can behave badly—despite having the best of intentions. Players are simply trying to deliver what has been asked of them, using any means possible.

An organizational constitution redefines what a “good job” looks like for leaders and employees in your company or team. Most organizations focus entirely on results and performance. Results are certainly important, as financial viability helps the organization succeed another day. But, results aren’t the only thing that leaders should focus upon.

High-performing, values-aligned organizations balance the focus on performance as well as the values they want lived by team leaders and members every day. Employees in these companies deliver on performance promises and do so while demonstrating values of, for example, integrity, civility, and creativity. An organizational constitution outlines your team’s purpose, values, strategies, and goals. Holding all staff accountable for both performance and values ensures that your organization is populated by inspired, high-performing, values-aligned players.

What are the risks of not having defined values expectations—or of not managing to those desired valued behaviors? Typically, when organizations don’t have defined values or behaviors, leaders and employees treat each other (and even treat customers) badly because no one is paying attention to values. No one is measuring or monitoring the quality of interactions that happen daily.

In such work cultures, people can and will do anything to meet performance expectations—poach customers, overpromise to get the sale, stretch the truth to gain advantage, withhold information so a peer stumbles (or fails), withhold information so a customer makes the buy, and worse. Aggressive, self-serving behavior is the norm.

What is missing in these organizations is a clear definition of how “great corporate citizens” behave and the commitment of all parties to demonstrate those behaviors. People need to know exactly how people and customers must be treated in every interaction.

An organizational constitution creates common agreements based on shared purpose and values. These “rules of engagement” are formalized so every leader and employee know what values expectations are and can model them, praise them, coach to them, and redirect misaligned behaviors. Defining values and behaviors and then holding everyone in the company or team accountable for living them creates continuity and sanity. Every player knows what is expected of him or her.

Valued behaviors are liberating rules for every leader and employee as they describe exactly what’s expected. Players don’t have to spend time hedging or guessing how one should treat others or be treated. There is no more toleration of rude behavior or workplace bullying.

Chapter 2: It Starts with You

The credibility of the culture refinement will rely on the degree to which you, as the culture champion, are consistently modeling the desired values and behaviors. When you begin the culture refinement journey with your team or company and define different expectations (values and behaviors, particularly), scrutiny of your every plan, decision, and action will increase tenfold. You’ll be under a microscope, in and out of the workplace.

You must live and breathe the values and behaviors you publish as part of the organizational constitution. They apply to you inside and outside the workplace. They are your personal values engine. Any misstep on your part will be construed as “See? I told you. This is just another flavor of the month. The boss (or company) isn’t really serious about this culture stuff.”

Managing to your organizational constitution is a long-term initiative. Think of proactive culture management as a huge, important, ongoing project. It’ll take time and focus and energy to keep the project on track. Unlike most projects, this culture initiative will never be finished. You’ll see terrific alignment in the first 18 to 24 months, but your work environment is always evolving. Workplace inspiration is fragile. Creating a safe, inspiring, fun productive work environment takes tending, observation, checking it, redirecting, and coaching, and so on every day. You must understand these demands and requirements, and embark on this journey with your eyes wide open. You must understand who you are as a person and create a strong foundation for yourself as culture champion of your team or company.

Clarity breeds confidence that inspires commitment and competence. Culture champions must be intentional—not casual—With their own personal constitution (purpose, values and behaviors, and leadership philosophy).

Every person on the planet has a purpose he or she is acting upon. All people have values they act upon. They have behaviors they demonstrate. They even have a leadership or influencing philosophy they act upon. The most effective culture champions are very specific about their beliefs. They formalize them and share them so that others can give them feedback about how well they’re living their beliefs. They also develop a leadership philosophy.

Your leadership philosophy is a statement of your beliefs about leading others, your intentions when leading others, and what others can expect of you in your leadership capacity. What are your beliefs about leading and motivating people? These beliefs will flow naturally from reflection about the people who have influenced you in your past and from your purpose and values. There are benefits of formalizing and then publishing your personal leadership philosophy:

• It makes a promise that you are then committed to deliver on. You, the leader, understand the minimum standard you are expected to meet with your leadership efforts.

• You can reflect daily on your plans, decisions, and actions to gauge how well you are living up to your leadership philosophy. A proactive part of this reflection would include engaging key players (direct or indirect reports) in conversations about how they perceive your plans, decisions and actions.

An effective leadership philosophy is different than your personal purpose, values, and valued behaviors. While your leadership philosophy will be built upon the foundation your clear personal purpose and values statement creates, it is specific to your leadership intentions and efforts in the workplace, or in a community organization (wherever you are taking a leadership role).

Let’s define an effective personal leadership philosophy as a values-aligned statement that helps you inspire consistent high performance and authentic positive relationships with each of your team members, every day. Your leadership philosophy outlines your beliefs about leadership including what a great leader does, and what people can expect from you in day-to-day interactions. Your leadership philosophy sets the context for your influencing efforts and sets a high standard for your own values alignment as you craft workplace inspiration through an organizational constitution.

Don’t leave team member contributions and engagement to chance. Be intentional by clarifying and sharing your personal constitution. Then, live in alignment with your personal constitution, in and out of the workplace.

Chapter 3: Clarify Your Organization’s Purpose

I use the terms mission statements and purpose statements interchangeably. In my experience, these terms refer to what a business’s reason for being is today, as opposed to a vision statement that is a description of the organization’s desirable future state.

My experience and research lead me to believe strongly that the “present day” description is a stronger foundation for teams or companies embarking on the journey to high performance and values alignment. A clear purpose statement is actionable, tangible, and relevant for members of your team or company. A “present day” purpose statement, in its most perfect form, is an inspiring and compelling description of what your company or team tries to accomplish on a daily basis.

Your team or company’s purpose statement needs to be compelling and inspirational! It should clearly describe what you and your team members are passionate about. Let’s define an organizational purpose statement as a succinct declaration that explains what your company does, for whom, and to what end. Furthermore it explains why customers should care about what your company does and what it stands for. Unfortunately, most organizations do not have a clearly defined purpose with these three elements. A few don’t have a formal statement of mission or purpose at all.

This is a very effective purpose statement: To inspire and nurture the human spirit—one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time. Is it clear what the company does? Yes. It aspires to inspire and nurture the human spirit. Exactly how it does that isn’t clear, though it is if you understand that this is Starbucks’ purpose statement.

Is it clear for whom the company does it? It is not exactly clear whose human spirit will be inspired and nurtured. We might make the assumption that the company aims to inspire and nurture customers, employees, and neighborhood members but it is not clearly stated. Is it clear to what end employees toil or why customers should care? Yes. Inspiration and nurturing are valuable outcomes to strive for, both for individuals and for neighborhoods. This statement is 90 percent there! The assumption required of what is in the “one cup” makes the reader work a bit harder to understand what this company does. I am confident that this purpose statement is crystal clear in the hearts and minds of Starbucks employees today.

Your purpose statement serves as an active filter to assess opportunities, plans, decisions, and actions. Leaders and team members can easily pose the question, “Does this opportunity or action align with our defined purpose, our reason for being?” If so, it makes sense to pursue that opportunity, to take that action. If not, it is easy to see—and to communicate—that it doesn’t make sense to pursue that opportunity. In fact, pursuing a misaligned opportunity or action wastes time, money, and human energy. Having a clear, effective purpose statement helps the company or team stay confidently on track.

Chapter 4: Define Values in Behavioral Terms

The next step in creating your organizational constitution is to define the positive values and behaviors you want every leader and employee to demonstrate in every interaction with team members and customers. Values, and values defined in behavioral terms, are the most important element of your organizational constitution. The values and behaviors that you decide are required in your team or company will be examined, judged, engaged with, and (it is hoped) embraced for years to come.

Values and valued behaviors are the most visible demonstration of your organizational constitution. Values and valued behaviors are the evidence of your constitution that is noticed by people which includes customers, potential employees, and everyone who comes into contact with your team members. Values and valued behaviors are the unique theme of your organization’s culture that differentiates your company from other companies. They attract like-minded (and values-aligned) potential employees and customers, and create heart-driven momentum that builds performance and engagement across the organization.

Values alignment rarely happens casually. It happens so rarely that we can confidently say the chances of values alignment happening in your company or team without intentional effort are slim or none. To enjoy a values-aligned company or team, desired values must be intentionally defined in behavioral terms. Once behaviorally defined, values must be modeled and measured to ensure alignment by all members of the organization in every inter-action they engage in.

Though your company or team may not have formally defined values or behaviors in place today, your organization does have demonstrated values and behaviors. The ways people behave, interact, and operate have been reinforced over time. People are behaving exactly as we would expect them to behave, given the way the organization has guided and reinforced their behavior over time. These ways of behaving become normalized (called norms). These ways are not formal, they’re not explicitly communicated, and they may not be desired behaviors at all. But they have become embedded in your organization just the same.

Leaders need to formalize three to five values with definitions and behaviors. Why three to five values? More than five are hard for us humans to remember and embrace! Don’t complicate things by offering too much content; keep it simple and easy to remember. The format for values statements looks like this:

• Value: The one- or two-word value title.

• Definition: A two or three sentence description that clearly states what this value means in your workplace.

• Behaviors: These are “I” statements that explain exactly how you expect leaders and employees to demonstrate this value in your workplace. You will list no more than four behaviors per value. Why no more than four? Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Your team or company’s valued behaviors must outline observable, tangible, and measurable actions. Just as organizational leaders manage to performance standards, these behaviors become values standards that are lived and proactively managed by leaders and employees throughout the company or team.

High performing, values aligned teams and companies embrace the promises they make to each other and to customers. Those promises are based on performance expectations that must be delivered daily and on values expectations that must be demonstrated daily, by senior leaders, managers, team leaders, frontline experts and everybody in between. Your values and behaviors will outline exactly how your team or company’s “great corporate citizens” look, act, and sound in your desired culture.

Chapter 5: Outline Strategies and Goals for the Coming Fiscal Year

Your strategic plan is a formal statement of your company’s desired path to success: what your customers want, what markets to pursue, what products or services to create, and how to deliver them profitably. Effective strategic planning and execution are built on cooperation among your organization’s business units and support functions, sharing insights, opportunities, and even mistakes along the way.

Strategy is where the company’s vision of the future intersects with the realities of the now, where traction is gained one product test and one happy customer at a time. Strategy provides a foundation for company goals, which outline the specific performance expectations for every team member, to ensure that the company stays on its desired path.

High-performing, values-aligned teams and companies are very intentional about strategic planning and goal setting. Goals cascade from company-wide targets (like “generate 10 percent market share growth in the next 12 months”) to division targets (where R&D sets goals for new product releases and the marketing department outlines advertising and sales support, etc.), to department or team targets, and to individual player goal expectations.

Every organization needs to be intentional about its business strategy. With a formalized strategic plan, the right path is crystal clear. Goals are aligned to the strategy, and everyone understands why certain goals are a priority and other possible goals are not a priority. Your business strategic plan becomes a filter for opportunities that pop up. Potential programs or products or services can be quickly assessed as to the degree to which they align with your business strategy. If they advance the strategy, they deserve further consideration. If they don’t, they don’t deserve time, talent, or funding.

Without a formalized business strategy, any number of plans, decisions, and actions can seem aligned to leaders and team members. People will make competing decisions that are misaligned with each other and with the overall strategy, which results in frustration (at minimum), chaos (at worst), inconsistent performance, and lousy customer experiences. A formal strategic plan helps everyone on the team (or in the division or company) understand what the business objectives are for the planning period and what goals and performance targets align with the business objectives.

How long should your performance period be? I recommend two years. In this shrinking global marketplace, a time frame longer than two years just doesn’t offer many benefits. A longer time frame can cause your strategic plan to be antiquated and off base. Little good can come of that. A formal strategic plan outlines how the resources of the team or company will be allocated and aligned to deliver promised goals. It answers the question “Why are we doing this goal, project, or task now?” at any point in time in the performance period. It helps every leader and team member to be on the same page regarding your business strategy. It even helps every leader and team member communicate your strategy in lay terms, to anyone they work with. A formalized strategic plan removes any mystery. It creates clarity and confidence.

Once your strategic plan is formalized, you’ll outline performance goals that align to the key elements of your strategy. Those goals will describe your desired metrics and targets, which, when met, ensure your strategy is being realized. Strategies evolve regularly. Strategies need close observation to ensure they’re still relevant as your market changes, as your industry evolves, and as customer requirements shift. Make a formal reassessment of your team or company strategies every other year, more frequently if your strategies aren’t serving your customers, your stakeholders, and your employees very effectively.

Goals change often. They are the tactical, day-to-day targets that ensure traction toward the accomplishment of your stated strategies. Projects come and go as aligned efforts deliver promised products and services. You’ll cycle in new goals and performance targets as your team or company learns and evolves. Some goals and projects might be found to be irrelevant or unneeded despite how aligned they looked at the beginning of the performance period!

The five-point strategic planning process I recommend doesn’t need to address the “Who are you?” question. It simply builds upon that foundation to ensure your team or company understands the pathway to performance success. Once the pathway to performance success is clear, leaders can align team members’ plans, decisions, and actions to exceed those metrics and targets. Let’s look at the five-point strategic planning wheel:

Where:

Where are we now? This first point enables leaders to take a close, honest look at what’s working well regarding organizational performance. How are we viewed in our markets? Are our products or services unique and providing high value to customers, or are our products and services seen as commodities? Or do we offer a mix across the value spectrum? If so, is that mix beneficial for our business and our customers today?

What:

This second point focuses on future desirability and possibility. What opportunities or imperatives shall we consider? What are our customers looking for that might be in our team or company’s “wheelhouse” (i.e., we do it well or have skills that can be realigned to do it well)? What opportunities will require us to conduct a skunk works, where we build or hire needed skills to pursue a desirable market opening?

Decide:

Now you come to your decision point. This step typically requires the most focus and resolve. This is where you’ll leverage your team or company’s sweet spot, the combination of skills, vision, and ingenuity. Here’s where you’ll decide what three or four strategic imperatives your team or company will pursue over the next two-year performance period. Remember, keep it simple. No more than four strategic imperatives in your plan and three would be better! Once you’ve decided on your strategic imperatives, you’ll design your plan to leverage strengths and test new pilot avenues. The design piece includes defining two or three specific goals for each strategic thrust. Design may also include reallocation of talent or funds, restructuring of your team or department, and so on.

Work:

This point is where you’ll spend the most time: working your plan. You’ll put into place the elements you decided upon and designed in point three. You’ll probably need to craft relevant performance dashboards that help communicate progress on strategies and goals with a quick glance. You communicate, educate, and promote your strategies and goals. You’ll then align plans, decisions, and actions daily.

Assess:

Point five is where you assess the progress on and effectiveness of your strategies and goals. This needs to happen often (quarterly works well). Gather data with key players, and, together, refine targets as needed. This assessment point enables you to evaluate your strategic imperatives for relevance at least every other year. Effective assessment in point five serves as a lead into the next performance cycle’s strategic planning. You’ll go back to point one, and evaluate where the team or company is at, in terms of performing to plan. The cycle begins anew.

The only way to ensure that everyone understands and can verbalize your strategic plan and goals is to communicate them effectively, and to reinforce them regularly. Every project team should be able to explain how their project contributes to one of the company’s strategic imperatives. Your performance planning process should link every performance expectation (be it a project, goal, or task) to a specific strategic imperative. If it is difficult to describe how a project or goal does contribute to any of your strategic thrusts, it might be time to consider setting that project or goal aside. The discipline required aligning projects and goals to your strategic plan means that you’ll periodically find that some projects or goals are misaligned. They simply fall outside your defined sweet spot and have to be turned down.

Chapter 6: Your Organizational Constitution Must Be LIVED

There are three main themes that describe the best practices that leaders or culture champions, consistently use to ensure that their organizational constitution is being embraced and lived. These practices build credibility for both the leaders of the change and the desired change itself.

Describe the way:

This first theme is about communication and marketing of your desired culture, of the elements of your organizational constitution. Before engaging in the culture marketing campaign, you must first engage all staff in reviewing the initial, draft version of your organizational constitution. You’ll begin describing the way by sharing the constitution in draft form. The word draft is important to use. You don’t want to distribute a pretty version on company letterhead at this stage, because then the constitution looks like it’s done. If it looks like it’s done, and someone with a position of authority presents it, employees will think the organizational constitution is done.

It has been thought through, but it’s in need of employee input and validation. It’ll be ready for publication only after employees see it, consider it, and provide suggestions for improving it. Leave space on each page for all employees (including managers, team leads, supervisors, and frontline staff) to note their questions or suggestions for making the behaviors more specific or measurable. You and the leadership team decide which suggestions make sense and are ones that you all support. Add them to the elements of your organizational constitution. Then publish and communicate your final draft constitution as a set of guidelines for how all leaders in the department will behave.

Reiterate that now that the new liberating rules have been formalized and published, department leaders will be asked to demonstrate these elements daily. They’ll be required to model these values and behaviors in every interaction, with employees, with customers, even with strangers.

The final element of the “describe the way” theme is to embark in a consistent marketing campaign for your business purpose and values. The new elements that have been put in purpose, values, and valued behaviors need regular reinforcement to embed them in the daily normal interactions within and across your department.

Model the way:

Once the organizational constitution has been published, leaders must model the valued behaviors, every day, in every interaction. If leaders stray off that path, for any reason, and do not model the valued behaviors as defined, they’re telling fellow department members, “I don’t care about our values or behaviors.” Some leaders may feel that this scrutiny is harsh and unfair. They may feel that team members will look for any chink in their armor so they can discount leaders and discount this effort. It may be harsh and unfair, but it is the reality of a culture refinement. Leaders have to lead and model this charge. Employees will not only scrutinize leader behaviors inside the work environment but will do so outside, as well.

I tell leaders all the time, “You’ll never be able to run a yellow light in this town again.” You won’t be able to cut in line at the movie theater again. This scrutiny is a good thing. It will help leaders keep their focus on modeling the defined department values and behaviors. Don’t give leaders or employees the ability to opt out of living by the new rules of your organizational constitution. Don’t think, though, that this transition will be a piece of cake. It won’t. The organizational constitution demands different behaviors and different thought processes by leaders. Leaders will have to break habits formed over years (possibly even over decades) so they align with the new department purpose, values, behaviors, strategies, and goals. We’re all human. Making mistakes isn’t the problem. Trying to gloss over mistakes, misaligned behaviors, and the like is the problem. When you miss the mark, own your mistake. Apologize promptly. Say, “I’m better than that. It won’t happen again.” Leaders need to share their intentions (to model their department’s purpose, values, and behaviors) and share their learning with team members. The leaders’ insights on their own “values transition”can be very helpful to team members as they learn to embrace the organizational constitution, as well.

Align the way:

Once leaders embrace their responsibility to demonstrate the department’s values and behaviors, leaders must then coach other leaders, managers, supervisors, and so on (anyone with formal direct reports) to demonstrate the valued behaviors as well. Don’t assume that someone else will have the needed alignment conversation. Often leaders hope that the most senior leader will “do that alignment stuff.” That’s not how it works! Every leader needs to engage in these alignment conversations which includes the positive reinforcements of aligned behavior as well as the redirection of misaligned behaviors.

“Align the way” means that there are positive consequences for aligned behaviors and negative consequences for misaligned behaviors. Negative consequences don’t mean immediate suspension or firing. That’s too strong a reaction! Negative consequences likely mean a private discussion and one-on-one coaching. That’s an appropriate first level of negative consequences, bringing awareness of the misaligned behavior and agreement on how to align the leader’s behavior.

Chapter 7: Gather Formal Feedback on Valued Behaviors

I’ve suggested that leaders use a variety of channels to learn the extent to which they are seen as modeling the department’s values and behaviors. One of the most important tools for gauging values alignment is a custom values survey, taken by all leaders and employees in the organization every six months. Most companies monitor performance metrics carefully to ensure that promised goals are delivered upon. These performance dashboards are a primary foundation of performance reviews. What the custom values survey does is add a values dashboard to the mix. It offers reliable, valid data about values alignment.

Performance dashboards are monitored daily. Valued behaviors need to be monitored daily, but a formal custom values survey needs to happen every six months. Look at your custom values survey as a vital dashboard that requires monitoring and attending. You want formal data from this survey twice a year not once in a blue moon, or once and never again. When you start the values survey process, you make a commitment to continue the values survey process, twice a year, ad nauseam (forever).

Conducting a custom values survey makes values alignment as important as goal accomplishment. The survey questions are derived from the valued behaviors already formalized in your organizational constitution. These valued behaviors are easily translated into questions for the values survey. Just as your valued behaviors are stated in desirable terms (describing how great citizens behave in the organization, not how lousy citizens behave), the items or questions in your custom values survey are stated in desirable terms.

I call this a “custom” values survey because no other company on the planet will have the exact same valued behaviors as your team, department, or company has. Your valued behaviors are unique. You formally defined these specific behaviors because you know that’s exactly how you want leaders and team members to behave.

Before any team members can be asked to embrace the new values and behaviors, those with formal supervisory responsibility must put themselves on the line by living the values and behaviors and inviting feedback through the values survey. Credibility for the liberating rules of your values and behaviors grows every time a leader models those values and behaviors. Credibility for your values and behaviors erodes quickly if team members don’t see leaders as values role models in every interaction.

During the first run of the survey, only leaders will be rated on their values alignment. This first run of the survey should occur about six months after publication of your organizational constitution. This time frame gives leaders plenty of time to actively model desired values and behaviors or to not actively model them. It won’t be until the second run of the survey that you will invite team members not only to rate their leaders but to rate their peers and themselves on their demonstration of your valued behaviors.

The ratings that team members give their leaders, which leaders will see in their values profiles, will very likely show that team members observe and understand their bosses’ degree of values alignment every day, high or low. In other words, there are logical consequences to a leader’s degree of values alignment. For leaders who have chosen to embrace the valued behaviors, their team members see it and rank what they see in the survey. These leaders’ values profiles should reflect their active values demonstration. For leaders who have chosen to not embrace the valued behaviors, their values profiles should reflect their lack of values demonstration.

Chapter 8: Dealing with Resistance

Resistance can be expressed in many forms. Leaders who in the past have been calm and cool may demonstrate frustration and anger. Leaders who in the past have said the right things but done their own thing might be much more likely to act out in meetings, not just behind closed doors. Some resistance activities are very obvious and visible because they are acts of rebellion. Other resistance activities are more nuanced and much harder to see. These subtle expressions can be immensely powerful, eroding team members’ confidence in the organizational constitution initiative, in the leaders promoting values alignment, and even in their own place in the evolving work environment.

The following approach works very well. It is a direct, firm, and encouraging approach. It aligns perfectly with the “define the way,” “model the way,” and “align the way” phases of implementing your organizational constitution. First, don’t take the resistance personally. These players don’t have it in for you; they just don’t want to go where you’re asking them to go. The resistance is not about you; it’s about them. If you’re upset with the resisters, I don’t blame you. However, you won’t be able to facilitate this discussion effectively if you’re amped up. I suggest you defer the conversation for a few hours until you’re in calm, coaching state of mind.

Second, your job is to present what you’ve heard and observed in a calm, non-blaming, nonjudgmental manner. You’re presenting factual information. You’ve seen their misaligned behavior, you’ve received feedback from others about their misaligned behavior, and you’re presenting those observations in a factual manner. Don’t focus on their attitudes or belief. Their motivations are certainly interesting, but motivations are not relevant. Their observable, tangible, measurable behaviors are relevant because it’s those resistant behaviors you want to change. You need to present the information on the person’s behavior so that the resisting leader can understand that the behavior has been noticed and it needs to change.

Third, you need to understand the resister’s perspective. You can listen without agreeing with everything someone says. Give the resisting leaders a forum for expressing their concerns and fears about this change. Reflect on what you’ve learned from them, helping them feel heard.

Fourth, you can’t budge. Every leader must be fully on board. You can communicate to them that the rules have changed. You can explain how there’s a new standard in place, for both performance and values and that all leaders must be credible role models. You need to tell them that you won’t let them off the hook. Values alignment is non-negotiable. You must express, clearly and succinctly, that you expect values alignment from all department leaders and team members. There’s no “kind of” values alignment space in which to hang out in your department. People either demonstrate values alignment or they don’t.

Finally, your job is to give the resistant leaders a chance to align to your organizational constitution. If they agree to embrace your valued behaviors, map out a plan for them. Be specific about the behaviors you expect. Be specific about the behaviors you will not tolerate. Gain their agreement on the values standards. Explain what will happen if they do embrace your organizational constitution (continued meaningful employment) and explain what will happen if they are unable to model the valued behaviors. You will basically serve as a values accountability coach for the resistant leader.

The logical consequence of resisting leaders’ failure to embrace your organizational constitution is that they must be lovingly set free. They will have to find somewhere else to work, since they’re unable to deliver the values expectations and performance expectations that you now demand. How many chances should resistant leaders get? Is it fair to give resistant leaders the opportunity to learn that you are serious about values alignment and to give them a second chance? I think that’s fair. Give them a second chance and observe them carefully. If you need to call them on it, proceed with their transition out of the organization.

If you do see sincere effort and progress toward values alignment, celebrate it and continue praising and observing. You might find that the previously resistant leader has become one of the biggest supporters of your organizational constitution. I’m not a big believer in third chances. If resistant leaders haven’t changed the color of their stripes through a second chance, it’s unlikely they’ll do so with yet another chance. Make the call. Lovingly set them free. It would be better to have someone in the role who embraces the values and can learn the skills than to have someone who actively denigrates your values and behaviors.

Chapter 9: Hiring for Values Alignment

You put your desired culture at risk every time you hire someone. You put your culture at even greater risk every time you hire a leader, someone who will have formal responsibility for guiding the work of others. If that leader doesn’t embrace your organizational culture, he or she will erode trust, respect, and workplace safety. Be intentional with your team or company’s brand. Be intentional with your team or company’s story. The better educated your candidate pool is about who you are, what you do, and what you stand for, the more likely you will attract values-aligned players who are very interested in working for your team.

Make sure every job posting includes an explanation of your team purpose and values. If there is space, add details about your value behaviors, and about the requirement for all leaders and team members to model these behaviors. If there is not space, add a link to your web home where candidates can find these details.

Don’t stop there. Be sure to add questions that give candidates the opportunity to describe their own work ethic and their experience with values in the workplace in past positions. Ask candidates why they want to work with your team or department. Ask candidates which one of your values excites them the most. Then, review these answers carefully. Screen candidates’ applications to bring in only those with the greatest potential to demonstrate your values and fit into your culture. Don’t waste time interviewing applicants with great skill sets but who show little interest in your value and behaviors.

Make sure that at least half of the interview focuses on your team purpose, values, and behaviors. Ask questions that let candidates share how they would deal with values conflicts or ethical dilemmas, not just how they would use their technical skills to complete an activity. Ensure that the candidate engages with current leaders and team members, one-on-one or in small group conversations, to enable both parties to ask questions about skills and culture requirements.

Give the candidates time to ask any questions that they have about the job, team, or department. After all, you want them to interview you as much as you are interviewing them. Each candidate needs to be confident that he or she is coming to a team with a safe, inspiring work environment and to a team that will help the candidate succeed and fit in well.

Culture exposure is the intentional and conscious education and guidance of new hires in the ways of your organizational constitution. Like your own leaders and team members before you brought the organizational constitution into your department, your new leaders and team members are unlikely to have had any experience in previous roles and companies with values alignment. Help ground them in your formal purpose, values and behaviors, strategies, and goals. Help them understand how great team citizens look, act, and sound. Model the valued behaviors with them consistently.

Chapter 10: Don’t Leave Your Organizational Culture to Chance

As you embark on the implementation of your organizational constitution, realize that you’ll be presenting a different way of thinking about the work the team does. You’ll be asking people to shift away from a “short-term, results now” mind-set to a “long-term, inspiring workplace that delivers great products and services” mind-set.

You’ll need to invest time and energy in educating leaders and team members why this long-term approach is a great thing for your team or department. You’ll need to bring people along, day by day, praising aligned plans, decisions, and actions and redirecting misaligned ones. The time and energy that you continue to invest ensures that this initiative doesn’t suffer from the plague of MbA (which is managing by announcements).

You will need to help leaders and team members understand that your organizational constitution doesn’t reduce the emphasis on performance standards; it clarifies them with aligned strategies and goals. You’ll help them understand that the organizational constitution adds a new dimension to what a good job looks like: great team citizenship and values alignment.

Creating, socializing, publishing, and aligning people and practices to your organizational constitution is a long-term proposition. It’s a project that basically never goes away. You’ll make terrific strides in the first 18 to 24 months. Plans, decisions, and actions will align to your organizational constitution. You’ll see growth in profits, engagement, and service but there will always be opportunities to do better. You’ll bring in new players who will need coaching and redirecting. You might enter new markets and face a different client base or needed skill set or business pace.

The old ways of doing business which is the norm for many businesses today will always be a temptation. You must be ever vigilant to keep your team or department on its unique path as defined by your organizational constitution. My wish for you is that you engage in this process by implementing an organizational constitution in your sphere of influence. This world needs teams and companies that have safe, inspiring work environments that team members love. This proven path awaits you.

Table of Contents

Nutshell Summary

Full Summary

Chapter 1: What Is an Organization Constitution and Why Do You Need One?

Chapter 2: It Starts with You

Chapter 3: Clarify Your Organization’s Purpose

Chapter 4: Define Values in Behavioral Terms

Chapter 5: Outline Strategies and Goals for the Coming Fiscal Year

Chapter 6: Your Organizational Constitution Must Be LIVED

Chapter 7: Gather Formal Feedback on Valued Behaviors

Chapter 8: Dealing with Resistance

Chapter 9: Hiring for Values Alignment

Chapter 10: Don’t Leave Your Organizational Culture to Chance