The 4 S’s That Will Move Your Culture

Prefer to watch on video rather than read?  Click here, 5 minutes with captions.

Getting your culture moving in the direction you need doesn’t have to be a mystery.  There are tangible actions you can take right now that will make a difference. 

I’ve named them the 4 S’s, and if you know the work of Frances Frei and Anne Morriss in Unleashed, and the body of work known as Systems Leadership developed by Ian Macdonald, Catherine Burke and Karl Stewart…you’ll already be familiar with some of these ideas.

First – my definition – culture is the shared understanding about the way you need act to fit in around here.  Don’t get too caught up in it…this works fine.

Know Where to Focus – how to spot the Pacesetter in your process

Prefer to watch rather than read?  Click here – 5 mins with captions.

You don’t want to waste your money and your people’s time by not working on the highest leverage point of the system.  Here’s how to make sure you get this right.

In a previous post I went through the importance of Not Bothering the Barista.  I know I’m a broken record on this, but once again:

If a process must go through A, B and C to get to the customer and the number in each box represents how many they can do per period, then the system can’t go any faster than B.  And rather than using the term ‘constraint’ or ‘bottleneck’, I use ‘Pacesetter’ because it’s, well, nicer.

And conveniently B is the first letter of ‘Barista’, which will always be the Pacesetter in a café.  Therefore, Don’t Bother the Barista!

All of this comes from Eli Goldratt in his book The Goal, where he even lays out five steps for improvement, the first of which is of course (in my words)

Identify the Pacesetter.

Here’s some ways to do that.

Culture Change – The Simple Lesson from Ted Lasso

This is definitely one that’s better to watch on video.  Click here, 5 mins, with captions.

Have you seen the show Ted Lasso?  You should.  Warms the coldest heart, and it’s funny.  And…we can find lessons in there about how we can make our own workplaces better.

Standards and Devotion – Leadership that changes people’s lives

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Ever had a leader that changed your life?  A teacher, a coach, a manager?  Would you like to be able to make that sort of difference?

What’s needed is simple, but not easy – the combination of Standards and Devotion that Frances Frei and Anne Morriss write about in their book Unleashed, which you should read.

Four Boxes!

So, what are we talking about?

Standards are as it sounds – the performance we want out of people. The level they are supposed to meet.

Devotion is about how much we care for another.  Their wellbeing, their success, whether they are OK.

Don’t Bother the Barista – make any work system better

Prefer to watch on video than read?  Click here, 6 mins with captions.

If you’ve been with me for a while, chances are I’ve run through this with you.  The purpose of this is to put it all in the one spot.

This is about understanding the focussing point required to get any system (any system) to work better.  And by ‘better’, I mean better for customers, better for those working in it, and better for the bank balance and purpose of the organisation too.

Time & Attention – your most unmanaged resource

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What makes it hard to get stuff done at work?  Interruptions.

And even if you’re not constantly looking at email (or some other interruption device you’ve installed like Slack), there’s an awareness of a constantly building-up bunch of stuff coming towards you…so the urge to check is strong.

A Better Way

Some companies are deliberately doing something about this, and one that stands out to me is the software company Basecamp which is run by Jason Friend and David Heinemeier Hansson, who look like this:

Command and Control – not automatically evil

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The Paintball Experience

I went paintballing once.  Thought it would be fun – I’d played a lot of sport, am pretty coordinated, I like reading about war…

And it sucked.

The whistle goes, I attempted to move…POP…..POP….POP and I’m out.

Regroup, go again, POP…..POP….POP and I’m out.

You know what I needed?

Some sort of sergeant.  Some sort of person who could yell at me

“Thompson, over there…NOW”.

Team Leader Pt II – Lessons from Old Tailem Town

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I was on my oldest child’s school excursion to Old Tailem Town recently (which, by the way, is pretty freaky, which is why the kids love it…)

As I watched the teachers do their (awesome) thing with us bunch of volunteer helpers, the thought occurred to me that what we have here is a great example of how the Team Leader role works.

Diamond Structure – the one for professional services

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Traditional hierarchy looks like this – a pyramid (and BTW it’s a very appropriate organising principle for many, many situations, so don’t feel guilty if you’re running one or in one).

Work Levels

The hierarchy shows us which roles have the job of being accountable for other roles…but it also can be used to show us what Elliott Jaques discovered as different levels of work.  I’ve drawn them in here…

The Empowerment Formula

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“Empowerment”.  We’re into it.  And why not?  It’s a good thing.  A condition of being OK is ‘agency’, which means being able to take actions that make a difference.  To have some sort of power.  To be ‘empowered’.

Unfortunately, a decree of “YOU ARE NOW EMPOWERED” combined with matching posters and distribution of keep-cups with catchy slogans is not going to be enough.