Building A Performance Culture

Building a Performance Culture
- A Guide for Leaders

eBook

Tim Kuppler

Preface for Leaders
This guide is about building a performance culture as the foundation for achieving
sustainable performance improvement. It’s written for leaders with vision, passion, and
the interest in prioritizing and maintaining persistent focus over time. They are also
deeply interested in engaging the head and the heart of their team in the process and
learning along the way, even from an eBook. These pioneers create the future and
aren’t afraid to build an organization that will successfully endure without them. If you
are one of these leaders then this guide is written for you. On the other hand, there are
command and control leaders that feel they don’t have time to relentlessly
communicate and engage their team. They allow the lack of clarity and alignment, and
potentially even fear, to persist in their organization and will likely HATE this guide.

This guide is targeted at two primary applications:

 A complete roadmap for major efforts to implement a performance culture.

 A tool for evaluating the operating drivers of your current culture and a best practice
guide for leveraging them to improve performance.

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Author Bio:

Tim Kuppler led multiple organizations through cultural transformations with a high level of involvement,
teamwork and rapid performance improvement. Best practices from organizations he led are featured as part
of the recently released book, Leading Culture Change in Global Organizations, International Institute for
Management Development case studies, trade publications, workshops and webinars. He built on this
foundation when he was President of Denison Consulting, a leader in organizational culture assessment and
improvement that’s worked with over 5000 organizations. Tim consulted a wide variety of organizations as part
of Denison and now as part of The Culture Advantage, an organization he formed to focus on the process for
building performance cultures. His passion and knowledge about culture change is well grounded in personal
experience as a progressive leader and work with organizations across many industries.

Building A Performance Culture, A Guide for Leaders Page 2 of 88
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Contents
1.0 Introduction & The Performance Culture Framework ......................................................... 4-7
2.0 Why Focus on Culture ........................................................................................................ 8-10
3.0 The Culture Maturity Model ............................................................................................. 10-13
4.0 Phase 1 – Build the Foundation .......................................................................................... 14
4.1 Step 1 – Evaluate Your Current Culture and Performance ............................................. 15-16
4.2 Step 2 – Clarify Your Initial Vision ................................................................................... 16-18
4.3 Step 3 – Clarify Values and Expected Behaviors ............................................................. 18-19
4.4 Step 4 – Evaluate Core Processes, Including Customer Feedback Processes ................. 20-22
4.5 Step 5 – Clarify Strategic Priorities .................................................................................. 22-24
4.6 Step 6 – Engage Your Team in Identifying SMART Goals ................................................ 24-28
4.7 Step 7 – Clarify and Track Key Measures ........................................................................ 28-29
4.8 Step 8 – Translate Goals throughout the Organization .................................................. 29-31
4.9 Step 9 – Maintain a Management System for Priorities and Goals ................................ 32-34
4.10 Step 10 – Manage Communication Habits and Routines................................................ 35-37
4.11 Step 11 – Build Motivation throughout the Process ....................................................... 38-39
4.12 Step 12 – Manage Performance ...................................................................................... 39-42
4.13 Overcome Typical Problems Building the Foundation .................................................... 42-45
5.0 Phase 2 – Expand the Approach ........................................................................................ 45
5.1 Develop a Greater Vision................................................................................................. 45-46
5.2 Build a Culture of Collaboration ...................................................................................... 46-48
5.3 Develop Key Competencies ............................................................................................. 48-53
5.4 Refine your Foundation and Build Collaboration as you Expand the Approach ............. 53-64
5.5 Overcome Typical Problems as you Expand the Approach............................................. 64-67
6.0 Phase Three – Go Deep ..................................................................................................... 67
6.1 Leverage Leadership Development ................................................................................. 67-69
6.2 Focus Succession Development ...................................................................................... 69-70
6.3 Acquire Talent to Fit Your Developing Culture ............................................................... 70-71
6.4 Refine your Foundation and Drive Innovation as you Go Deep...................................... 71-72
7.0 Summary and Next Steps .................................................................................................. 73-75
8.0 Vision for the Future of Culture Work ............................................................................... 76-78
9.0 Appendix – Operating Driver Evaluation ........................................................................... 79-86
8.0 References ....................................................................................................................... 87-88


1.0 - INTRODUCTION
This guide outlines a process framework for building a performance culture. It’s a
framework, not a rigid structure, and should be interpreted that way. You should find
value in the framework and not necessarily every point of view or specific approach.
The concepts apply in all organizations even if the level of structure and formality may
be very different. These concepts have been successfully applied in small businesses
and large, diverse global organizations. They are common sense, but rarely
communicated as part of an overall operating model. The framework for building a
performance culture will be covered in plain language so I’ll spare you the deep analysis
and complex philosophies . It’s not a general overview but a thorough and connected
framework reinforced through examples, graphics and repetition.

The framework will be covered in three logical phases: 1) build the foundation; 2)
expand the approach; and 3) go deep. The foundation is by far the most critical and,
suprisingly, many great organizations that apply concepts far beyond what’s covered in
the last two phases of the framework still lack the clear and aligned foundation to make
the most of their comprehensive approach.

It’s possible to apply all the concepts in the first phase, Build the Foundation, to just
one major improvement priority , or “The One Big Thing,” in order to build momentum
and make substantial measurable progress. This guide is not about building momentum
related to one or two major improvements but the information should still be an
excellent reference if your goal is focused on gaining this initial momentum. Improving
a few initial areas in a very clear way is great but still falls short of the goal of Building a
Performance Culture that delivers sustainable business performance as new challenges
and opportunities emerge. This guide covers the entire journey from building
momentum through the much deeper actions to anchor improvements in the culture.

It’s important to understand the overall framework for building a performance
culture in order to fully understand why the foundation drivers are so critical. You’ll be
returning to the foundation many times when there are major issues managing a
priority or as your organization reevaluates priorities and plans over time in response to
market, resource or other issues. We’ll also focus on further improving this foundation
at the end of the phase two and three improvements in this guide.


It’s sometimes overwhelming for leaders to make sense of the ideas from books,
magazines, blogs and other great sources. They must also deal with countless ideas
they hear from employees, bosses / owners and other stakeholders. A basic framework
helps with digesting it all in order to understand how things fit together in an
organization. This guide is organized in three phases over time but all the operating
drivers we’ll focus on in each phase fit in one or more of four categories:

 Strategic and Financial Alignment
 Motivation
 Talent Management
 Core Process Improvement

These four categories of operating drivers are the focus of this eBook. I will define the
supporting operating drivers but, more importantly, clarify the connections and a logical
sequence for implementation or improvement. They are presented in three phases
with an emphasis on implementation so the information will ideally be beneficial
whether you are veteran or just starting out with a culture improvement effort.

Figure 1 – Performance Culture Framework

These four areas of the Performance Culture Framework are not new and they are
consistent with other models, frameworks and concepts from well-known improvement
experts like Stephen Covey, Ram Charan and Jim Collins.


Figure 2 – Performance Culture Driver Comparison1/2/3

The starting point for application is in the areas of stategic & financial alignment and
motivation.

Strategic & financial alignment – the process and supporting structure of priorities and
expectations required to align values, strategic priorities, goals, measures and, most
importantly, expected behavior with a clear vision for the future of the organization.

Motivation – the connection of priorities and expectations to formal and informal
systems to reinforce results and behavior. This includes lower level motivators like
compensation and benefits as well as management and peer recognition that leads to
higher level motivators like pride and the individual sense of being able to make an
“impact”.

These two areas are the backbone of the process to build a performance culture and
most of the initial work to Build the Foundation is in these two areas. It’s far easier to
improve an organization if there is a very clear sense of priorities and expectatons that
are well-connected to, ideally, higher level motivators so employees give their maximum
discretionary effort. This basic concept of bringing maximum discretionary effort is
often emphasized in approaches to improve employee engagement.


The strategic & financial alignment and motivation backbone is supported by two
additional categories of operating drivers. These final two areas of the framework are
talent management and core process improvement; the “people” and “process” sides of
driving change over time. The supporting work in these areas may be very formalized
in large organizations with extensive supporting systems but they are no less critical in a
small businesses that utilize more informal approaches.

Talent Management - the systems for development and continual leveraging of talent in
the organization in support of the vision, priorities and expectations.

Core Process Improvement – improvement of the primary systems the organization
utilizes for managing work. This includes base management systems for monitoring and
managing priorities and plans as well as core “operating” processes (sales, production,
customer service, etc.) that depend on the type of organization.

The four areas of strategic & financial alignment, motivation, talent management
and core process improvement are the primary “operating drivers” of your culture. All
supporting “operating drivers” we review in this guide fit in at least one of these four
areas. You must understand these “operating drivers” and how they are supported in
your current culture in order to specifically identify what you will need to improve over
time to build a performance culture.


2.0 - WHY FOCUS ON CULTURE?
I will cover a few foundation concepts about organizational cultures so we have a
common orientation before diving into the framework for improving them. There are
many definitions of culture ranging from deep insights from Edgar Schein to the
common definitions referencing values and behaviors. I prefer to just refer to culture as
“the way we do things around here.” You can talk to a group of employees in any part
of an organization and they often raise similar attributes about how things work at the
organization. There will of course be differences across various sub-groups and teams
within one organization. These differences make it even more difficult to build a
consistent foundation due to all the leaders and personalities involved. With all of
these complexities, culture is still critical because it influences every strategy and plan of
an organization. It’s also not easy to change culture in a way that endures. Louis
Gerstner, architect of IBM’s turnaournd in the 1990’s said, “the thing I have learned at
IBM is that culture is everything.” He has another quote that’s not as well known but I
like even more: “the hardest part of a business transformation is changing the culture.”1

So why is culture change so hard? John Kotter identified a well-known eight stage
process of creating major change.2 The steps range from creating a sense of urgency to
communicating the change vision and empowering broad based action. The eighth
stage is “anchoring new approaches in the culture” where he references the
importance of customer and productivity-oriented behavior, improved leadership and
more effective management. He also stresses the need for articulating the connection
between these behaviors and the success of the organization along with ensuring the
behaviors are factored in leadership development and succession activities. Building a
performance culture requires a connected framework of numerous major changes that
must avoid the pitfalls that undermine most change efforts. A sufficient number of
those changes, not all, must also be anchored in the culture in order for them to support
sustainable performance improvement. Few leaders have the patience, persistence and
total commitment to positive actions going forward that’s necessary to endure driving
and connecting all the changes required for a major culture transformation. Most
leaders will just give up. They will not “give up” in the sense of stopping their focus on
driving change or facilitating major improvements. They will “give up” on engaging the
entire organization in the process and connecting those major changes as part of an


overall framework that is self-sustaining beyond their management. It’s not an easy
road to build clarity and alignment but it’s absolutely worth the journey.

Culture change efforts are well worth the frustrations, roadblocks and downright
painful experiences people have along the way due to two main reasons. The first is the
reason communicated by most: there is extensive research confirming the link between
culture and performance. Improvements in sales, profit and the overall value of
organizations have been well documented by researchers from many perspectives. This
guide is not about the research or deep analysis of the components of a culture. It’s
about the process to improve culture but the second reason why culture change efforts
are “worth it” is very important for the process.

The absolute key to this process of building a performance culture
is the focus on increasing the individual and collective understanding of
how to make an IMPACT.

The fundamental concept supporting the entire process I’ll share to build a performance
culture is related to IMPACT. You are building the capability of individuals and teams in
your organization to have an impact. They learn approaches they will apply to have a
greater impact on the results of their work and they will understand how that work is
connected to the success of the organization in a more direct way. Each one of us
desires to make an impact at work and in our personal lives, sometimes there isn’t even
a clear division between the two. We learn the most about how to make an impact by
being part of improvement efforts and contributing through the work we directly
complete and the feedback we provide to help others. The beauty is that many of the
things we learn to make a greater impact at work translate to our lives at home and with
all the other organizations we interface with outside of work. We’re then more
equipped to have an impact at work and beyond as we learn over time. I have been
through some pretty difficult situations as a leader. One of the most difficult was a


massive restructuring and downsizing effort during the recent financial crisis. Close
friends and colleagues that were actually doing a great job were let go because we had
to downsize the overall organization and make some tough choices. One person
thanked me after he was let go and specifically referenced how he applied what he had
learned at home and it really made a difference with his family. Others thanked me
because they learned about their strengths and realized they were better suited to
make an impact in a different career. The positive feedback comes through in tough
circumstances but that’s only after change efforts have produced positive progress,
results and countless learning points over time.

Another exciting part of the approach is that team members learn how to make an
impact within the context of an aligned culture instead of being overcome by the
continual stresses of an ineffective culture. Clarity and alignment reduces stress on you
as a leader and every member of your team. There is a natural health and wellness
benefit as individuals, teams and your organization learn to have an impact the “right”
way.

Positive progress where individuals and teams really learn how to make a greater
impact builds pride and confidence, individually and collectively. The pride leads to a
great sense of positive energy in the organization and the confidence helps people see
change efforts through with greater focus and persistence. Employees don’t just
understand “how,” they leverage that understanding by taking action. The process to
build a performance culture increases the individual and collective capability of an
organization to make an impact through proactive action together. The impact can be
measured through financial performance and other measures of organizational
effectiveness and is also evident with the organization’s customers, communities and
other stakeholders. The hard part is that employees across the organization should be
able to describe “how” they make an impact and “why” it’s connected to a positive
impact on the organization. We’re working to imbed changes in the culture so the
knowledge of “how” and “why” must be continually reinforced and developed. I didn’t
say clarity and alignment was going to be easy but this guide addresses how to clearly
engage the head (how / why) and the heart (pride / confidence / impact) of your
employees.


4.0 - THE CULTURE MATURITY MODEL
THE BEHAVIOR SIDE OF BUILDING THE FOUNDATION
I created the Culture Maturity Model to allow for a quick evaluation of where an
organization may fit as they develop their performance culture over time. It’s a general
framework so an organization will not necessarily experience every quality listed in the
category of the model where they appear to fit.

Figure 3 – Culture Maturity Model
The phases of this guide are designed to move an organization across the levels of
the Culture Maturity Model. Phase one, Build the Foundation is focused on moving
from Reactive (level 1) to Functional (level 2). Phase two, Expand the Approach, is
focused on moving from Functional to Collaborative (level 3). Phase three, Go Deep, is
about moving from Collaborative to High Performance (level 4). The goal is to help your
organization move along one level at a time so work progresses in logical phases.

Figure 4 – Phases for Developing a Performance Culture


As previously mentioned, it’s not effective working on all improvement areas in
organizations at the same time. The foundation needs to be in place to support the
higher order operating drivers we’ll cover in phase two and three. Some organizations
may already have systems in place for some of these higher level operating drivers but
still struggle due to issues with their foundation. Phase two and three are all about
sustainability but they will not have the intended impact without a strong foundation.
An obvious example is the transition from Build the Foundation to Expand the
Approach. Expand the Approach is all about growing collaboration. This collaboration
will be chaos if you haven’t clarified expectations and priorities first and engaged the
organization around building momentum on the top 1-3 priorities, the focus of Build the
Foundation.

Phases in a Nutshell
Phase 1 – Building the Foundation: Build clarity and alignment around the top 1-3
priorities and move to the functional stage as the organization learns the behavior
necessary to build positive momentum as a team.
Phase 2 – Expand the Approach: Leverage the concepts learned in Phase 1 to
support a greater vision for the future with emphasis on highly effective
collaboration and developing key supporting competencies.
Phase 3 – Go Deep (for sustainable performance): Implement more advanced
improvement approaches as a team that support the greater vision with innovation
and speed. Manage the continual development of leaders, succession
development and hiring practices that emphasize cultural fit to embed changes in
the culture over time to achieve sustainable performance improvement.
Note: Re-assess and reinforce the foundation with phase transitions and when the
organization experiences major changes over time (new top leader, major
environment / market changes, etc.).

Specific operating drivers are defined that are the focus of work in each phase. These
drivers are highlighted in Figure 5 – Phases, Drivers and Levels of Developing a
Performance Culture. These areas may be supported formally or informally but they are
important concepts for all organizations.


Figure 5 – Phases, Drivers & Levels of Developing a Performance Culture

The operating drivers in Build the Foundation are the most critical for initial
work and when an organization struggles with clarity and alignment over time. These
operating drivers also continue to be developed or “refined” as listed in figure 5 as the
organization moves through the phases of Expand the Approach and Go Deep. This
guide includes far more detail regarding the drivers in Build the Foundation due to their
continued emphasis through all three phases of the journey. The additional operating
drivers in phase two and three are more advanced so I’ll only provide a general
overview of each with a special emphasis on why each is important for building a
performance culture.


4.0 – Build the Foundation
The process to Build the Foundation will be outlined in 12 steps. You may need to
work on connecting all 12 if you have major clarity and alignment issues. It may help to
review the 12 steps below in order to identify areas that are already effective
characteristics of your operating model with strong clarity and alignment. Feel free to
skip those steps of the process to focus on the areas you know you need to improve.

 Step 1 - Evaluate Your Current Culture & Performance
 Step 2 - Clarify Your Initial Vision
 Step 3 - Define Values & Expected Behaviors
 Step 4 - Evaluate Core Processes, Including Customer Feedback Processes
 Step 5 - Define Strategic Priorities
 Step 6 - Engage Your Team in Defining SMART Goals
 Step 7 - Define and Track Key Measures
 Step 8 - Translate Goals throughout the Organization
 Step 9 - Connect and Support Measures through Dashboards
 Step 10 - Implement a Management System for Priorities & Goals
 Step 11 - Build Motivation Throughout the Process
 Step 12 - Effectively Manage Performance

The first step is evaluating your current culture and performance. You’ll learn many
things about how to customize the approach in the remaining steps if you prioritize
issues in this step. Remember, this is a framework and it will help to focus on how each
step fits in the overall model versus critiquing the specific language or examples I’ll use
to explain each step. You may have sufficiently covered some steps in your organization
so focus on filling in the gaps and understanding the overall flow and connections. The
steps are only intended to support a logical explanation. Supporting work may be
completed in parallel.
Some of you may say “we do all of these things” in Building the Foundation but you
still have a lack of clarity and alignment. If so, scan this section to see where the
structure may differ because the issue may be with the individual “operating drivers” or
how some are being led and connected from a behavior standpoint to engage your
organization in the process.


4.1 - Build the Foundation: Step 1 – Evaluate Your Current Culture and Performance
I’ll take an abbreviated approach with explaining this step because it’s possible to go
very deep. The starting point for understanding your current culture is clarifying in
broad terms the context.
Current Context Questions
 What are the key challenges your organization is facing?
 What are the strengths and weaknesses of your organization?
 How is your organization performing in meeting financial expectations and
other expectations of your customers, employees and other stakeholders?
 How are any weaknesses impacting your performance?
 When you think about changing “how things work around here” what stands
out as critical priorities for improvement or major frustrations?
Many organizations build on this basic understanding of context to help you design
a culture assessment. Culture surveys typically involve an output of results in generic
language because a common foundation of survey questions is used across many
organizations. This common foundation will allow you to not only understand and
measure strengths and weaknesses in your own culture but also how they compare to
other organizations. They are very beneficial for gaining a quick and organized
summary of your current culture. I liked using them because they allowed me to engage
the entire organization in the process. We quickly developed a common language to
define various aspects of our culture and to measure it across the organization. There
are many survey providers and they each define culture with a different language.

Figure 6 – Sample of Culture Survey Providers and Results Categories


It was always necessary to use the culture survey results as a foundation for
discussion and that brings me to the key for understanding your current culture at an
operating level. Culture survey or not, you’ll still need to understand the “operating
drivers” of your current culture. The operating drivers help clarify “why” your culture is
the way it is and the specific areas where changes will need to be focused to move your
culture and performance. You’ll need an awareness of why strengths and weaknesses
exist in your organization to fully leverage the strengths and to begin addressing the
most critical weaknesses. Culture surveys will help to provide key insights to customize
the approach of evaluating and improving your operating drivers but this deeper
evaluation is still necessary.
Add to your general definition of the current context identified from the questions
at the start of this section as you evaluate, in broad terms, the four areas of “operating
drivers” in the Performance Culture Framework:
 Strategic and Financial Alignment: Are priorities, goals and measures clear and
aligned across all parts of your organization with a strong connection to your key
financial metrics?
 Motivation: Is there a strong sense of motivation stemming from higher level
motivators like management recognition and peer recognition that leads to pride
where employees strongly believe they make a positive impact?
 Core Processes: Is there substantial “pain” managing the work in your core
processes? If so, what core processes not only have “pain” but are having the
greatest impact on your performance?
 Talent Management: Does your team have the talent and capabilities you need to
succeed and are team members continually building their capabilities in the key
areas you need?
Taking stock in understanding your current culture and the performance of your
organization is very important as you assess your vision for the future.
4.2 - Build the Foundation: Step 2 – Clarify Your Initial Vision
Did you know Apple doesn’t publicize a Vision statement? Is there any question
that Steve Jobs was a visionary? Apple has a mission statement that’s changed many
times over the years as they rolled out new products but the vision of Steve Jobs went
far beyond any documented statement or summary. He built a culture that supported
his vision in countless ways. He had incredible vision for a group of “wickedly smart
people” working with passion, relentless persistence, innovation, deep collaboration,
focus and prioritization among other expectations. He had vision for their products as


he emphasized “products are the motivation,” simple and elegant designs, end to end
solutions, thin is beautiful and the computer as a digital hub.1
At this point of building the foundation, it’s not necessary to have a grand and all-
encompassing vision of the future and a simple vision statement is not good enough. It
may be fine to skip this step if you already have a clear vision that’s well understood and
motivating for your team. The initial vision should capture the obvious and clarify a few
key areas that will be the focus going forward with “how things work around here.”
There will be time later for the grander vision as the organization is fully engaged in the
process so I only refer to this as an initial vision. Momentum needs to be built around a
few key areas whether they were highlighted during a culture assessment or a general
review of how your organization is performing. This vision will serve as the foundation
for clarifying strategic priorities and plans so it’s completely fine for it to be relatively
generic. It’s not a vision statement so I’ll refrain from listing examples but I will share a
couple stories.
I led one organization that was clearly in need of a turnaround. There were major
issues on the financial front and the historical culture was all about command and
control. The initial vision was not about market leadership, new innovations or some
aggressive growth strategy. It was all about stabilizing the business and building a new
team. It was clear in meetings with the Leadership Team and in communications across
various sites that we were going to focus on a few key priorities defined as a team and
we would be managing them in an entirely new way. We defined some basic expected
behaviors for managing objectives as a team and I shared some stories about
approaches I used in the past while still making it clear we would define the path
forward together. Our focus on stabilizing the business and building a team took about
six months until we had firmly implemented the approaches behind the 12 steps in this
guide for Building the Foundation.
Another organization I led was in a completely different situation. We had made
progress as a team in North America but my responsibilities were expanded to include
the global business. The business was performing well so the vision wasn’t about
stabilizing the business but there were clearly some threats for the future. Our sales
were almost entirely concentrated with one customer. The good news was that there
was not a clear global leader in our market so there was definitely hope to expand to
other customers. The vision for this organization was all about building a new global
team, diversifying the customer base and becoming the market leader. We clarified
some of the approaches we would use to build the team and the behaviors that would
be important for all team members.
Your vision may be more specific or thorough than these examples but it’s
important to have an overall vision defined by the leader or top team, even if it’s not a


vision as deep as Steve Jobs. I like the following quote from Joel Barker, creator of The
Power of Vision video.
Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time.
Action with Vision is making a positive difference.
Joel Barker2

4.3 - Build the Foundation: Step 3 – Define Values and Expected Behaviors
Some of you may be thinking this step is about a very loose and general framework.
It’s definitely not; the foundation of behavior reinforces everything in this guide. In
most cases this work is a combination of clarifying values and supporting “expected
behaviors.” I found the expected behavior step to be critical because everyone
interprets values from their own perspective. The step to clarify expected behaviors
takes more work but it’s important for the entire process. Richard Barrett from the
Barrett Values Center recommends asking “what behaviors would be showing up if we
were living these values.”3
Your vision may not need to be clearly captured in a statement but I strongly
recommend you document expected behaviors or capture them in some way to
accelerate progress. Some organizations go to the extent of clarifying key principles,
values, codes of conduct and beyond. One of my favorite examples is from the
Container Store. They have a series of “foundation principles” and videos with
employees explaining each principle in their own words.4 Here are a few other
examples: the “Service Values” from Ritz Carlton and a second generic example.

Service Values: I Am Proud To Be Ritz-Carlton
1. I build strong relationships and create Ritz-Carlton guests for life.
2. I am always responsive to the expressed and unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.
3. I am empowered to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for our guests.
4. I understand my role in achieving the Key Success Factors, embracing Community Footprints
and creating The Ritz-Carlton Mystique.
5. I continuously seek opportunities to innovate and improve The Ritz-Carlton experience.
6. I own and immediately resolve guest problems.
7. I create a work environment of teamwork and lateral service so that the needs of our guests
and each other are met.
8. I have the opportunity to continuously learn and grow.
9. I am involved in the planning of the work that affects me.
10. I am proud of my professional appearance, language and behavior.
11. I protect the privacy and security of our guests, my fellow employees and the company's
confidential information and assets.
12. I am responsible for uncompromising levels of cleanliness and creating a safe and accident-free
environment.

Figure 7 – Expected Behaviors - Example #15


Figure 8 – Expected Behaviors - Example #2

I used large group feedback and prioritization activities to build a set of expected
behaviors in many organizations. It’s amazing how people start recognizing the
behaviors more consistently when they are engaged in the process to define, or at least
clarify, their core values and expected behaviors.
A reality check is needed as you finalize expected behaviors. The list or summary
should not look like it’s for a completely different organization. You should see some
cultural strengths shining through you will leverage as you focus on shifting a few key
behaviors critical for your future culture. Jon Katzanbach, culture change guru with
Booze & Co., recommends a focus on improving no more than three to five behaviors6
but I really wonder if that’s realistic unless they fit together in a couple families. I
recommend focusing on behavioral strengths that already exist in the organization plus
one to three additional behaviors that will be important as you Build the Foundation.


4.4 - Build the Foundation: Step 4 - Review Core Processes, Including Customer
Feedback Processes
You will not avoid the discussion of “how we do things around here” from a
process standpoint as you develop your strategic priorities in the next step. It can’t just
be about behavior because your processes reinforce and support certain behaviors.
Your management system (step 9) that supports tracking progress towards goals is an
important core process we’ll cover later but you have other core processes for
supporting the products and/or services you provide to your customers. When building
or improving a performance culture, it’s always important to understand where there is
“pain” in managing your core processes. We have all felt that process pain and
frustration in organizations. Initial momentum is built by engaging the organization in
identifying the pain, prioritizing areas to be addressed and then engaging your team
again to lead improvement in a those key areas (through goal & measure management –
covered in subsequent steps of this guide). It’s often more about evolving or
improving a core process with common sense changes versus new major innovations
from a process standpoint. I loved hearing feedback like “we’ve wanted to change this
for years” or “this has always been a problem.” Long service employees are a great
source to engage in determining process problems that have “always been that way.”
The dialogue about strategic priorities and goals, in the next step, should involve an
understanding of core process issues that are impacting current performance. These
core processes need understood at a high level so it’s not about detailed process re-
engineering when building a stronger foundation. There is a place for that later in the
effort to build a performance culture. The key at this point is the focus on general core
processes for your organization. They might include your sales process, customer
service process, production process or other core processes that are important for
supporting your strategic priorities. Strategic priorities and / or supporting goals need
to address removing the top areas of pain. Feedback and prioritization efforts work well
to narrow in on the key areas that need addressed as a team. Involvement meetings,
also covered in the next step of this guide, are an example of an approach to engage the
organization in the process to quickly identify the top areas of pain.
Objectives focused on core process improvement should have an impact on
improving the overall process in a way that improves performance in a measurable way.
I am raising this point with some hesitation because there may not be a discrete
measure for removing frustration from your organization. We love it when frustration is
removed from our work processes. It’s even a bigger deal if those frustrations have
been there for a long time. General feedback and prioritization efforts often surface
some of the biggest internal frustrations. You’ll help gain momentum in building your


performance culture by tackling these internal frustrations and removing the pain as a
team. It’s still important to make sure any emphasis on process improvement isn’t
totally focused internally. All processes are not equal. A foundation process for all
organizations is your customer feedback process.

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from
the chairman on down simply by spending his money somewhere else.
Sam Walton

Every organization needs fundamental customer feedback processes and most have
them in some form. They could be systems related to overall satisfaction, complaints or
some other more general system. The effort to review core processes as a foundation
for strategic priority and goal development should involve a review of your customer
feedback processes at a minimum. There is no point of putting energy into creating and
delivering new products and services or some other future-oriented priority if the house
is burning and customer satisfaction is a major problem. The entire organization needs
to understand how customers view the organization. Basic measures like complaints or
other satisfaction measures should be highly publicized. Core processes that impact
those measures need to be evaluated in order to understand root causes for the issues
and to prioritize improvement efforts that remove “pain” from your customers too. The
customer “pain” has absolutely spread to your employees that support those processes.
They will love being engaged in the process to remove the pain and satisfy customers.
The initial identification of where to focus the effort related to your strategic
priorities and supporting goals may come from high level customer feedback and not a
detailed supporting system. Ask major customers to prioritize the areas your
organization needs to improve. The efforts to improve your organization need to be
visible to your customers. Your organization will highlight improvements needed in
countless areas of your organization. Many of these areas are not visible problems to
your customers. Unfiltered customer feedback cuts through the noise to the critical
areas where change would clearly be noticed by your customers. The following
example clearly highlights the power of connecting with your customers as part of the
process to define your strategic priorities.

Linking Customer Feedback to Strategic Priorities and Building a Performance Culture
I moved to a new organization and quickly reached out to meet some of our top customers. I
focused the discussion on how things were going in general but shifted it to engage them in clearly
identifying the top areas we needed to improve. The common themes were quality and


innovation. There were deep concerns about quality. We jumped all over quality first since it had
the potential to really damage the relationship. Innovation wasn’t realistic as a starting point since
there would be no trust behind our delivery of new innovations even if they were in the pipeline.
We engaged our entire leadership team and large parts of our organization in a process to
brainstorm, prioritize and commit to the top goals we would focus on to drive our improvement.
It took about six months to engage the entire organization in the process in a very positive way and
for there to be substantial progress evident with our leading and lagging indicators. Customers
came to our facilities and could see the visible change in many areas but the key was the aligned
message about “how things worked around here” on the quality front that gave them confidence
in our organization.
We were then able to learn from that process to improve our approach for managing
innovations (in our case it was new product development) in the same way. Each of the 12 steps in
Building the Foundation was important for the process. We utilized feedback and prioritization
activities in an involvement meeting with our team that was focused on what went right and what
went wrong with our management of the quality strategic priority. We defined the priorities we
needed to take from that experience and apply to improve our plans supporting the innovation
strategic priority. This aspect of organizational learning is critical for the process of building a
performance culture over time so performance improvement is sustainable as new problems,
market changes or opportunities come up. It’s far beyond a basic lessons learned system because
the changes are firmly embedded in the operating structure of the organization and immediately
applied to another strategic priority with very high visibility. We ended up delivering substantial
new innovation in a product line that had remained virtually unchanged in 25 years.
It took about 12 months for there to be a turnaround on both priorities identified by our
customers. Both areas improved to the point where our major customers were not only providing
positive feedback but sharing our success with major competitors telling them “we had moved
ahead” and “they better watch out” for our company. Unfiltered feedback from customers at the
start of the effort and along the way was just as important as the highly visible measures of
progress (in every communications meeting, on our intranet, etc.). We shared our disciplined
approach with our customers throughout the process and we even communicated the approach
heavily in our marketing (in advertisements, with supporting highlights, titled: “A New Direction”
and “Feel the Change”). I probably wouldn’t have pushed the link to advertising if I hadn’t been
through this journey many times before but I had total confidence in our team to deliver
substantial positive change together.

4.5 - Build the Foundation: Step 5 – Define the Strategic Priorities
The decisions you make to clarify strategic priorities are powerful because they set
the stage for goal translation throughout your organization. Feel free to skip this step if
you have a few clear customer-driven strategic priorities. If you haven’t clarified 3-5 key
strategic priorities throughout your organization then this is the start of bringing things
back into focus. Let’s recap the steps to this point: You have reviewed your current
business performance and current culture (step 1) as a foundation for clarifying your
initial vision (step 2). You have defined expected behaviors that support your vision and


values; these behaviors will be important with your work on any priorities (step 3). You
have also moved beyond behavior and evaluated your processes for performing work,
especially your customer feedback processes (step 4). You now need to engage your
leadership team and, ideally, a much larger part of your workforce to clarify the top
strategic priorities.
The foundation you are building will be laser focused on these key strategic
priorities. You’ll be engaging your organization with intense focus on these areas in a
new way that will also move your culture over time. Your entire organization will learn
from the process of how to manage work more effectively and will apply concepts and
approaches to other areas over time. You will build momentum for your culture change
from initial progress on a few well-defined and supported strategic priorities.
Keep the following areas in mind when defining your top 3-5 strategic priorities. They
should:
1. Engage a large cross-section of your workforce so your extensive effort to build a
performance culture will directly touch the daily work of your entire team.
2. Cover any major areas that are deteriorating your credibility with customers. You
need a strong foundation of customer feedback and improvement since customers
will not wait around for their fundamental needs to be covered later (Note: the
evaluation of the customer feedback process was covered in step 4).
3. Address major core process issues (also identified in step 4) that are consuming the
time and energy of the organization and driving major frustrations
4. Place priority on any urgent areas necessary to stabilize serious financial problems.
Building a performance culture must not be in conflict with a relentless focus on the
numbers. Some leaders may not be around past Building the Foundation if the
numbers don’t improve.
5. Note: Hold off on more innovative priorities if those related to your customers and
financial foundation are weak. These priorities will be the focus for at least 6-12
months but you’ll have time and the cultural foundation to move on to more
innovative approaches later. Advanced priorities like LEAN, CRM, very innovative
new products or services, new technology and other areas may not have the
foundation of clarity and alignment to take hold. Far too many organizations think
these progressive approaches are the solution but they will fail if they are not firmly
integrated with the foundation of priorities and expectations that cross all areas. It’s
difficult to build this strong foundation across major areas and implement
sustainable leading-edge improvements at the same time.


You should be able to easily explain why the strategic priorities you identify make
sense and fit together for your next phase of improvement together as a team. It also
helps to engage large parts of your organization in the process to define or confirm your
strategic priorities. You’ll be developing a clear set of goals to support your strategic
priorities in the next step of the process.
A great technique is to integrate your vision and strategy work by clarifying your
“strategic vision” as part of a story. This approach is extremely powerful and
compelling. The typical complexity of vision and strategy work falls away if you are able
to clarify them as part of one clear story. Grainger was able to bring their strategic
vision to life as part of a humorous, interesting and highly effective video7. It was far
easier for the key aspects of their vision and strategy to take hold and spread
throughout the organization when they clarified the strategic vision of the organization
in a clear story and associated video. You may choose to use other approaches than a
video but the story approach engages the head and heart of the organization more than
any lists or specific descriptions.
4.6 - Build the Foundation: Step 6 – Engage your team in defining SMART goals
Your prioritization work will continue as you engage your team in the process to
define SMART goals that support each of the strategic priorities defined in Step 5. As a
refresher, SMART goals are:
 Specific – focused, logical, clear and top priority supporting a broader strategy.
 Measurable – key for measuring progress (covered in detail in step 7)
 Attainable – Aggressive but developed with feedback to make sure they are realistic
 Relevant – They need to make a difference – for customers, your team, financially…
 Timely – a maximum of 6-12 months
You’ll need to engage a broad team at the start of this process. Your work on these
initial goals will develop the “culture-building muscle” of your organization and enable
you to effectively engage your team on countless other priorities and goals in the future.
The concept of “culture-building muscle” is extremely powerful and it includes four very
basic steps (see figure 9):
 Engage a team in brainstorming improvements.
 Prioritize the top ideas as a team with no big analysis.
 Translate the top ideas to SMART goals for ongoing tracking.
 Track progress as a management team but intensely focus on supporting actions
related to the goals and visibly recognize positive progress as a team.


Figure 9 – Develop Culture-building “Muscle”
It takes tremendous discipline and persistence to build this capability in your
organization but it’s a basic approach you will return to in times of crisis and in other
situations that require quick and aligned action from your team.
My favorite approach to build this capability quickly is an “involvement meeting.” I
used the approach over 100 times as a leader and consultant. The purpose is to engage
the participants in clarifying priorities and plans as a team. It requires a time
commitment (typically 4-6 hours for a thorough meeting) but it’s one of the best ways
to build clarity and alignment quickly as a foundation for the remainder of the steps in
this process. An involvement meeting should involve a few leadership levels of the
organization at a minimum but the concepts work with individual leadership teams and
any other team. Some organizations have top 100 meetings or even larger meetings to
engage personnel from all sites while small businesses might engage all of their
employees.
I prefer starting the meetings with a clear “state of the business / organization” as a
foundation for multiple feedback and prioritization sessions as a team. This is the time
for the leader to share their impressions of the current state (step 1) and their overall
vision of the future (step 2). The leader shares their vision and, potentially, the key
strategic priorities that will be the focus for the session. Break-out groups are identified
to engage in feedback and prioritization as a team. I like utilizing appreciative inquiry
techniques with a focus on creating the future versus problem solving approaches to
“fix” various areas. The teams are asked to identify supporting goals or priorities in a
key area of the organization. I have used many approaches to structure these sessions
and the following routine seems to work the best:


 Each team moves to a pre-defined area. They work together to answer a positively-
worded question about identifying priorities to improve a particular area of the
organization (a strategic priority or a major supporting priority)
 Each team starts by brainstorming improvement options and listing them on a flip
chart (no long debates)
 Each team then agrees, through voting or debate, on the top 2-3 priorities for
improvement and identifies each on the flip chart (circling, identify with star, etc.)
 Each team briefly reports out on only their top 2-3 priorities (2-3 minutes per team)
 The feedback from all teams is consolidated on a few flip charts (only the 2-3
priorities identified by each team)
 These flip charts are posted in a central area and all attendees vote on the overall
priorities for improvement (using stickers or markers during a break or over lunch).
 Multiple strategic priorities or improvement areas may be covered in one meeting.
The involvement meeting approach isn’t giving up leadership and letting the
organization run everything. It’s very important for leaders to “set the stage” for
discussion about each subject so the break-out activities have the right focus. I have
attempted to think through the priorities I thought my organization would highlight as
part of the process. It never ceases to amaze me how this process naturally covers the
obvious priorities but the participants typically go beyond the obvious and highlight new
insights and approaches that make a tremendous impact on the plans going forward.
The feedback from these meetings serves as the foundation for well-documented
SMART goals that are tracked over time.
I spent nearly 10 years holding these types of meetings at least every six months in
multiple segments of the overall organization I was leading at the time. My early career
helped me realize the potential power of these forums. I had attended numerous large
group leadership meetings before being promoted to a general management position.
It always used to frustrate me about the lack of clarity around next steps that would
come out of these meetings or how the next “big meeting” would end up with the same
issues and problems being highlighted. I was committed to making sure the people I
led would not have the same feeling from group meetings they attended. The key is to
connect one meeting to the next with great discipline. The meeting ends with the top
leader clarifying the next steps about how the priorities will be translated to specific
goals and plans. They also clarify how the organization will be updated on progress.
The “state of the business / organization” the top leader gives at the beginning of the
next meeting includes a recap of what was decided on in the last meeting and an honest
assessment of current status. The feedback and prioritization activities are then focused
on further improving work on some of the same priorities from the last meeting (what


worked well / what needs changed to improve) or the team may focus on new priorities
if sufficient progress is being made (often it’s a combination of both).
It doesn’t matter if you use an involvement meeting or some other approach to
engage your team in the process of clarifying the top goals that support each strategic
priority but it is critical to engage your team. Top-down and dictated priorities don’t go
over well if the people leading the work on those priorities are not involved in the
process. Involvement meetings and other approaches engage the head AND the heart.
The top goals of the organization need documented in a clear way. It’s fine to use a
detailed format for tracking goals but I also prefer to use an overall dashboard with a
color rating for each major goal. Some people hate color ratings due to potential
debate about status (a focus on the color versus the goal). We just had a rule that the
leadership team would agree on the rating and the lower color would be used to avoid
any big debates. I first saw the format we ended up using during a World Wide
Purchasing meeting at General Motors. There were three overall strategic priorities and
three to five major supporting goals for each. See figure 10 for the general format. I
liked how it allowed for a very fast and visual sense of not only the priorities but the
current status for each one and the key supporting goals. I used this type of visual
summary in every monthly communications meeting and posted status on the front
page of our company intranet. Remember my earlier point about connecting individual
impact to the impact the organization is making. It’s difficult to even understand the
connection, let alone support it, if you don’t have a clear understanding of the top goals
of the organization. Repetition and consistency helps so define clear habits for sharing
strategic priorities and progress on supporting goals regularly.

Figure 10 – Strategic Priority Dashboard Example


We’ll cover the more detailed format for goal tracking in Step 8 (Translate Goals
throughout the Organization) and the review process for goals in Step 9 (Implement a
Management System for Priorities and Goals).
4.7 - Build the Foundation: Step 7 – Define and Track Key Measures
Clear measures should be defined for each of the top goals of the organization.
Measures are important so there is a clear and quantifiable approach to tracking
progress towards each goal. Some goals lend themselves to quantifiable measures
more easily than others. A format I like for tracking financial and other straightforward
measures is identified in figure 11. The three year history, monthly trend (in $ and %)
and comparison to plan or target is a great format to utilize as a foundation in
leadership team meetings (see step 9 – Implement a Management System for Priorities
and Goals) and for communication in the organization (step 10 – Implement
Communication Habits and Routines). There are of course countless formats that work
but communicating data in a clear format is important as you teach your organization
about the measures as a foundation for feedback, prioritization and monitoring progress
over time.

Figure 11 – Example Measure Format

Another important concept for building an effective measurement system is to
utilize a structure of leading and lagging indicators. I first learned about this concept
and the rigorous tracking of goals from one of my first mentors that took a deep interest
in helping me learn, Mike Vella. We ended up co-authoring a case study on a customer-


focused, metric-based performance improvement system we utilized. Lagging
indicators measure the end-state, often from a customer or financial perspective. They
are very important because they show the result of the work of the organization. They
unfortunately are “after the fact” measures so there is benefit to connecting them to
leading indicators. Leading indicators may be used in combination with lagging
indicators in order to focus on measures that will be predictive in some way on the end-
state or lagging indicator. If there is a strong connection between leading and lagging
indicators then improvement in leading indicators should result in lagging indicator
improvement over time. Leading indicators are extremely important when it comes to
goal translation deep in the organization. Different parts of the organization are able to
focus on the measures they influence and not measures at a higher level where the
connection to their work is not clear.

Figure 12 – Leading and Lagging Indicator Examples8
This additional focus on leading indicators must be balanced with the lagging
indicators that show the final results of the work of the organization in the eyes of the
stakeholders; both are important.
4.8 - Build the Foundation: Step 8 – Translate Goals throughout the Organization
The process to translate goals throughout the organization is similar to the concept
we just reviewed on leading and lagging indicators. In step 6, we covered the
importance of developing SMART goals in support of the strategic priorities. These goals
should be supported by measures (step 7) and they also need translated to supporting
SMART goals in departments, teams, divisions, locations or however you are organized.
This may not be necessary in small businesses that may focus on one set of goals and
measures for all.
The key is for all employees to understand the goals and measures for the work they
perform. Patrick Lencioni wrote The Three Signs of a Miserable Job and two of the three
“signs” were related to employees feeling a lack of relevance and a lack of
measurement.9 Proper goal translation, including the connection to supporting


measures, maintains relevance to the overall goals of the organization and provides the
measurement each one of us needs in order to know if we are making progress. Both
aspects, relevance and measurement, are key together in order for a person to feel they
are having an impact that really makes a difference.
Documenting goal and measure translation is extremely important. There are very
rigid approaches to break goals down into supporting goals with quantitative measures
that are weighted and fully connected. These approaches often require the
implementation of a substantial amount of measurement in areas where no measures
may currently exits. It is important to at least provide a connection by goal, category,
strategic priority or some other language to the goals at the next higher level of the
organization. Just like measures, there are countless formats for tracking goals and
highlighting the measure, current status and other information. I preferred the basic
foundation format in figure 13. It simply covers the higher level strategic goal or priority,
goal description, measure / target, champion, color rating by quarter and a current
status / notes column. We used far more extensive formats to track detailed supporting
measures in finance, operations and other groups.

Figure 13 – Basic Goal Tracking Template / Example


There was never the intent to capture everything in the format because we had
quarterly goal reviews to discuss current status and adjustment to plans going forward at
a more detailed level. These quarterly reviews were supported by monthly dashboard
reviews where key next steps were discussed and major issues were taken off-line for
more detailed review (the process is covered in the next step). Some goals were also
supported by more detailed action plans.
An important part of goal translation is the connection of measures to the front lines
of the organization. It’s often beneficial to consolidate information and measures in
highly visible dashboards.
Goals and measures provide a great framework to make sure there is a focus on the
strategic priorities of the organization. It’s sometimes difficult to take the structure all
the way to the people at the front lines of an organization that are involved in directly
providing services, producing products or providing support for the organization in some
other way. Goals and measures in some areas may need translated down to hourly or
daily tracking to keep a close tab on performance so adjustments can be made quickly
due to the regular feedback loop of measurement. In some cases, it helps to track
multiple measures in a dashboard or consolidated format of information and measures.
Again, there are countless different formats. You might have seen one at a fast food
drive through window where they track response time or in a sales, customer service or
manufacturing environment. It’s amazing how it helps to consolidate information on
one page, white board or some other format so there is focus. Figure 14 is a simple
example from a manufacturing environment.

Figure 14– Basic Dashboard Example (Manufacturing)


4.9 - Build the Foundation: Step 9 – Implement a Management System for Priorities &
Goals
We’re now to the last three steps of Building the Foundation. These steps support
the prior 9 steps and further enhance clarity and alignment. They cover tracking
progress on priorities & goals, communication and motivation. They are the support
structure for the strategic and financial alignment you are achieving with the 12 steps.
The management system for priorities and goals includes the regular cadence of
reviewing current status against the plans and measures for your goals. We’ll call these
“management reviews.” Larger organizations need clear management reviews at
different levels of the organization so each set of goals, measures and plans is being
consistently reviewed at a defined frequency. Champions and teams for various
measures will ideally have recovery plans or actions in-progress for key variances to
plan. The reviews should be efficient and highly focused on capturing any major course
corrections or follow-up actions necessary to improve performance to plan, AND they
are important for expanding the management of any reasonable continuous
improvements. The management reviews help with teaching the organization how each
leader and team should apply constructive approaches for reviewing progress and
proactively adjusting plans where appropriate. A negative tone in these reviews only
spreads fear and inhibits proactive action and transparency. The reviews are also an
important time to recognize progress with both behavior and results. The general
framework of the overall process is identified in Figure 15.

Figure 15 – Management System for Priorities and Goals

Plans should be identified in order to support achieving a goal and the related
measure. The plans may be formal or informal but resources and, in some cases,
supporting tools are necessary to manage the plan. Management reviews involve


evaluating current status against the plan and measure. Issues or problems may need
problem solved in a logical counter clockwise direction:
 Was the measure correct and information captured accurately?
 Were the right resources and tools in place to manage the plan?
 Was the plan adequate to allow achievement of the goal and measure?
 Was the goal and measure well-defined and realistic to allow definition of an
achievable plan?
Management teams don’t need to walk through each step for each issue but the
framework may be beneficial to reduce haphazard, unstructured problem solving with
everyone throwing their idea out about the root cause of a problem. These meetings
should involve “confronting reality” in order to make sure the key issues in the
organization are being openly discussed. Larger organizations will need a management
review process at multiple levels (see figure 16).

Figure 16 – Management Reviews by Level (for larger organizations)

I held a monthly meeting we called a “business meeting” in most organizations I led.
The meeting ranged from 4-6 hours for a thorough review of our major functional areas
and cross-functional teams (more on teams later). I would take the notes at the
meeting, capture major actions and distribute the notes to all salaried employees.
There would be a sensitive issue from time to time we would track separately but the
employees really appreciated being in the loop on the vast majority of key actions we
were managing in the business. This approach would not work at the top level of a very
large organization but it could within supporting divisions, teams or locations. The key
is for relevant updates to be communicated across the relevant audience.


One important aspect of the approach was the format for departments and cross-
functional groups to review progress. I used the following “Quad Chart” format across
many different departments and teams to efficiently report out on the progress of goals
as well as the current issues that were consuming the time of a department or cross-
functional group. As you know, balancing the short-term and longer-term action is a
difficult balance. A brief explanation of each “quadrant” is listed in the example below.
The key to the format was the “Leadership Team Support” quadrant. The summary of
top issues and status on priorities was important but the team used the “Leadership
Team Support” area to clearly identify when support or help was needed to complete a
goal or handle another issue. It helped bring clarity to what departments and teams
were taking responsibility for and what support they specifically needed from
management.

Figure 17 – Dashboard Example for Departments / Teams (Quad Chart)
On a monthly basis, we focused on the short-term actions that supported both the
overall goals and any “top issues” that could be in support of major goals or day-to-day
work. The quad chart would be followed by other measures for some departments and
team. The review of the quad chart was a brief update and was supplemented with
more thorough review of goals on a quarterly basis (see Figure 13). Employees could
move across departments or teams easily and utilize the approach. It was also a
straightforward process we could easily explain to any employee.


4.10 - Build the Foundation: Step 10 – Implement Communication Habits & Routines
John Kotter identified a key “error” as part of a list for “Transforming Organizations:
Why Firms Fail” in his book Leading Change. 10 Error #4 was “Undercommunicating the
vision by a factor of 10 (or 100 or 1000)” and I couldn’t agree more. I firmly believe it’s
nearly impossible to over-communicate, not only the vision, but what the organization is
doing to support the vision (the strategies, goals, current status and key plans).
Communication is extremely important with every major aspect of building a
performance culture but I am intentionally highlighting it at this point in the
explanation. The last step was focused on implementing a management review process
but that only involves a small part of the overall organization. You need clearly
established communication habits and routines to engage the entire organization in the
process to manage and refine improvements. You should have already engaged the
organization in the process to clarify vision, values, strategic priorities, goals and
measures. The effort will be wasted if you don’t engage the organization on an ongoing
basis after building that strategic alignment.
Clearly establish basic habits and routines related to communication. I held a
monthly communications meeting in some form (face to face, web, cascaded approach
with multiple locations, etc.) for over 10 years. We only missed a couple months but
there was something about the monthly frequency that kept the team focused on
priorities, the progress we were making (our current status) and key next steps. In the
rare instances when we missed a month, I could definitely tell that the issues, questions
and lack of clarity grew exponentially in that second 30 days. Our team knew every
meeting would include discussion about the vision, review of our key strategic priorities
/ goals / measures, a brief review of current status and anything significant related to
upcoming plans. There was always some effort to engage in feedback, even if it was
only Q&A, over the course of the meeting. This was also an important time for
confronting reality about issues in the business and changes to our plans, addressing
drama-inspiring rumors or concerns and, ideally, recognizing examples of great behavior
and results. The communication meetings were just one example of a communication
habit or routine. We supplemented this monthly focus with the “involvement
meetings” (referenced in step 6) every six months, regular events (social, wellness,
recognition, etc.) to build team spirit with a purpose and other habits and routines
across departments, teams and locations.
Emphasize clarity in communication. I learned this the hard way over many years
but fortunately a trusted employee gave me a wake-up call on this front. He said I
typically have great vision and overall plans but it takes too long for the organization to
understand, engage and fully support them. The result is more stress on everyone


involved and it slows down progress. I immediately began focusing on clarity and the
following approaches help: simple summaries and dashboards, repetition, pre-reviews
of communications by key influencers in the organization, simple financial summaries,
lots of visuals, the “power of 3’s” (no more than 3 priorities, goals, next steps, etc. so
they are memorable), feedback to confirm clarity, make it interesting and fast moving
but balanced with repetition on key points, checking for understanding, using stories
and analogies and did I mention repetition???
Informal communication was just as important as the planned communication
routines. Countless one-on-one discussions were necessary to explain the process and
plans and to VERY proactively request feedback without being defensive. These “behind
the scenes” discussions to build understanding and confidence in the approach were
critical to increase clarity initially and to identify adjustments we needed to maintain
clarity along the way. I was normally coaching people about how to manage issues and
ideas themselves but I definitely used their input to continuously refine our work.
Focus some of your informal communication on key “influencers” across the team.
There are always people that seem to have a great impact on others. It could be due to
their tenure, competence, personality or other reasons. Get the influencers on board
and you have momentum, and allies, that will give you the confidence to endure many
obstacles. I liked meeting with long service employees at the start of any new role.
They were always able to boil down the key issues and clarify what’s “always been that
way” versus more recent issues that may have emerged. I would typically have a few
meetings with them as a group to help utilize their feedback in a very proactive way
until they gave feedback that real change was starting to occur. It also helps to work
with high potential employees that have the passion and proactive approach to spread
understanding. They will ideally be capable of sifting through all the hallway chatter
and drama to give you “the word” on what everyone is really thinking about the change
efforts. I always tried to directly address “the word” they shared in upcoming
communication activities by directly confronting issues or adjusting the content so these
issues could be discussed openly without revealing a specific source. Your time is
precious but understanding influence definitely helps. I like Robert Cialdini’s six
principles of influence from his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.11 They
can be “used” in a totally unacceptable way but they are very powerful tools if they
become a natural part of your leadership style.


Communication – Applying Cialdini’s Six Principles of Influence
1) Reciprocity – the concept of returning favors. A leader must take the time to give
collectively and individually to their organization. Giving time and energy to communicate,
support and guide will be repaid in countless ways if employees genuinely believe you care.
2) Commitment (and Consistency) – Cialdini says we have a deep desire to be consistent.
The structure of the 12 steps in Building the Foundation provides a level of consistency to
the work of individuals and how it all fits together. It’s also important to be consistent
about communication on problems or issues. Employees will not be open about
communicating the “real” issues if they fear your reaction.
3) Social Proof – this is related to the sense of there being “safety in numbers.” It’s one of
the reasons focusing some energy on key influencers in your organization is beneficial.
Others not only listen to them but they tend to act in ways that begin to fall in line with
their actions. The 12 steps also helps build a framework of expectations for all employees
to support.
4) Liking – we are influenced by people we like. It’s not a bad thing for your employees to
“like” you and this will happen if they genuinely believe you have their best interests in
mind. The concept also applies to why it’s important to have key influencers “on board”
with a new direction or change.
5) Authority – we feel a sense of obligation to people in authority. You are already in this
position as a leader. Don’t leverage this too much until trust is high in your organization.
6) Scarcity – we desire things or they are more attractive when they are scarce. Your time
as a leader is key with this principle. Your employees know your time is limited so taking
time individually and collectively to communicate, coach and support actions has a great
impact. A few minutes with an individual contributor might have more impact (influence)
than hours with a top manager. Take those few minutes (especially when they say “I didn’t
want to bother you with this” or “you probably don’t have time for this”).
There are countless issues that will be raised if there is extensive formal and
informal communication to support your improvements. Don’t forget to revert back to
prioritization as a team if you feel like the number of issues is growing and your clarity
and alignment is beginning to deteriorate. It’s better to take a step back and obtain
more input as part of re-prioritizing or adjusting plans than to just proceed and hope
clarity and alignment will improve with the current approach.
I have one last tip for formal face to face communication meetings; there’s
something about food that puts people in a more casual frame of mind and draws
people to the meeting. I held most communications meetings over lunch. They were
not “mandatory” but attendance was always great if it was a less-formal discussion over
lunch. 45-60 minutes once a month for 12 months is a big commitment but it can be a
major step towards building clarity, alignment and involvement across a team.


4.11 - Build the Foundation: Step 11 – Build Motivation throughout the Process
This framework to build a performance culture may be coming across as more about
structure than behavior and that is absolutely not the case. The structure helps level
the playing field so behavior, performance and other real issues in the organization will
be prioritized and dealt with more effectively as a team. The structure helps individuals
understand where and how they are able to influence their work and their team. It also
helps them understand how their efforts are connected to the overall efforts of the
organization. As we reviewed earlier, this is all about increasing the individual and
collective ability of an organization to make an impact and that’s highly motivating.
Feedback and recognition are necessary for individuals and teams to understand
where their efforts are beginning to make an impact. You need a continual and honest
assessment of current status so feedback and recognition efforts don’t come across as
fake or missing the big picture. There should always be some positive recognition that is
taking place. Sharing progress is a huge motivator to build momentum and confidence,
especially if it resulted from planned efforts to build a performance culture as a team.
Provide feedback and recognize all over the place! Say thank you repeatedly with
face-to-face discussions, e-mails, notes, phone calls and messages. Don’t let progress go
unnoticed. Build recognition habits into your performance culture in communication
meetings, monthly management reviews and other forums. Utilize positive
competitions with organizational measures and recognize teams that make the most
progress. I always liked balancing these positive competitions with broader employee
recognition. The top teams and all employees would be recognized if there was
substantial progress.
Positive energy must grow and should start from the top of the organization. You
should be confident that a well-planned effort to engage your team in clearly prioritizing
and implementing improvements will result in progress. You also need the persistence
to go back to your team when major things don’t go as planned to re-evaluate, prioritize
adjustments to your plan and move forward without reverting back to a top-down style
that will undermine your efforts. There is nothing worse than building hope in your
organization around an improvement effort that will be managed as a team and then
reverting to top-down decisions when things get tough. I am not saying there is no
place for decisions from the top. It’s only an issue when you have built expectations
about a different process being used to manage a priority and then you come across as
changing course mid-stream with poor communication.
We started this section on motivation with an emphasis on feedback and
recognition. This is a move toward positive and higher-level motivators that help to
build momentum. You will not be able to ignore major compensation, benefit or other


issues with lower level motivators. You need to clarify how major issues will be
addressed or at least be influenced in the future as you deliver sustainable performance
improvement as a team. There are always limits; over-promising will kill you later but
totally ignoring these fundamental issues will undermine efforts to focus on the higher
level motivators like recognition, performance-based rewards, pride and “impact.”
It doesn’t matter if it’s work to support higher or lower level motivators, at the
foundation it will be necessary to grow or reinforce a feeling in your organization that
you listen and care deeply about each person. Don’t feel the need to always offer
solutions since you are a leader; listening and asking a few questions will often lead the
other person to the solution. If it doesn’t then you will at least have shown you cared
and hopefully you went beyond just listening to truly understand. If they know you are
competent and care, they will run through walls to support you and allow you to learn
and improve as they learn and improve. Start with this fundamental point of listening
and showing you care, through action and not just words, so you build trust at the base
of your performance culture and get at the “real” issues.

Listening Quotes
To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well.
John Marshall
Listening is noting what, when and how something is being said. Listening is distinguishing
what is not being said from what is silence. Listening is not acting like you're in a hurry, even if
you are. Listening is eye contact, a hand placed gently upon an arm. Sometimes, listening is
taking careful notes in the person's own words. Listening involves suspension of judgment. It is
neither analyzing nor racking your brain for labels, diagnoses, or remedies before the person is
done relating her symptoms. Listening, like labor assisting, creates a safe space where
whatever needs to happen or be said can come
Allison Para Bastien
There is a huge difference between the opportunity to have your say and the opportunity to be
heard.
Jim Collins, Good to Great

4.12 - Build the Foundation: Step 12 - Performance Management
Now is not the time to implement a new and very structured performance
management system as you Build the Foundation. I’ll touch on some aspects of a more
thorough system in Phase Two – Expanding the Approach. The bottom-line for what
gives energy and momentum to effectively manage all of these goals with the right


behavior is peer feedback and accountability but there still needs to be a rigorous focus
on key measures.
When it comes to feedback, some of course comes from bosses but peers are
critical. Teams and employees commit to the behaviors and goals through the process
to establish and communicate them. They are given every opportunity to have input to
areas where adjustments are needed but it’s often through collective efforts to
prioritize improvements. There is a shared sense of accountability that’s built as
progress is made and employees gain confidence in the approach. They become
emotionally connected with the changes but in a more organized way.
Management recognition and feedback are important to help reinforce the right
results AND behaviors; both are critical for culture change. The management feedback
needs to transition into an increase in peer feedback to support each other but also to
call out performance issues (behavior or results) in the proper way. They learn, ideally,
the proper way from how their leadership manages performance and the top leader is
the model. If they see the top leader “going negative” and not being factual and
constructive about behavior and results issues, it will drive fear and they will have a
tendency to “go negative” or avoid confrontations altogether. Don’t EVER “take the
bait” and “go negative” but constructively stick to the facts and actions to move things
in a positive direction even if you are being confronted in a totally unreasonable and
disrespectful way. It’s definitely not about ignoring big issues but hold back from
feeding the drama fire.
Leaders need to be comfortable visibly giving performance feedback even in very
tough situations where some might think it would be best to take the discussion off-line.
If an employee exhibits a serious behavior issue visibly to a group, in a meeting or some
other forum, the leader must visibly call the issue out in a direct but respectful way and
provide constructive feedback. The employee can’t have the visible explosion or other
very negative behavior without there being visible confrontation and constructive
feedback. Everyone in the room learns from the exchange even though they may feel
incredibly uncomfortable. These difficult conversations make all the difference in
reinforcing the expected behaviors. You and your leadership will never have credibility
if employees feel the rules apply in a different way at the top. It’s still important for the
leader to have one-on-one discussion with the employee after a confrontation. There
will likely be deeper issues that need understood but it also provides an opportunity to
reconfirm expectations again. If visible behavior issues persist, even with constructive
feedback every time, then a more significant discussion and change is likely needed. I
had one of those situations. There were a number of explosions from a senior manager.
I tried to address them in a constructive way and understand his deeper feelings. One


day he called me and exploded: “you’re from the new school that’s all about hugs and
kisses and I am from the old school that’s about performance and giving people a swift
kick in the ass when they need it!” I still remember the exact words years later. I’ll give
him credit; he had an interesting way of getting his point across but he was also making
it clear a change was needed. We just had totally different views about leadership and
it wasn’t personal.
Fortunately, it’s been my experience that the positive recognition and feedback far
outweighs the periodic corrective discussions that are necessary. Positive recognition
and feedback starts to explode in some organizations and further helps motivate
employees to give their extra effort. Employees learn how to effectively confront their
peers, especially if they see it modeled in a constructive way from leadership.
Employees that are being destructive stand out. This is not about avoiding issues it’s all
about addressing them quickly and constructively as a team.
Employees will still bring a leader issues about their peers. It’s important for the
leader to coach the employee on how to handle the situation and not to take the
monkey on their back to deal with the issue. There are times with major issues when
some direct intervention is needed but the vast majority of times it should only be after
the employee has tried to handle the situation themselves in multiple ways.
The entire design of this process is grounded in feedback and prioritization. Ideally,
employees see leaders reaching out consistently for feedback but they start recognizing
the importance of the prioritization step. There shouldn’t be any more long feedback
lists with everyone interpreting in their own way whether appropriate action is taking
place. Diligent application of the prioritization step leads people to start to appreciate
the power of feedback in reducing stress and improving their performance. They start
reaching out for feedback but also try to focus it toward priorities or next steps so they
see value from the effort instead of feeling even more overwhelmed.
I’ll end this section on performance with an emphasis on goals and measures. The
start and end of any discussion about how the organization is performing needs to be
connected back to measurable and visible progress. All the great momentum built from
feedback, recognition and managing improvement as a team will fall apart if there is no
measurable progress. It can’t be left up to individual opinion whether progress is being
made and the key measures you have highlighted for improvement must improve over
time. If the organization is not “performing” and delivering the necessary results, it’s
important to re-engage leadership and the team to adjust priorities and plans as a team.
There needs to be clarity around the performance gap: why it exists, what caused it and
how priorities or plans are being adjusted to close the gap. The organization needs
even more emphasis on clarity when performance issues exist so leaders don’t just


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