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Culture Duck Tales
May/June 2006 A Top Priority Values shouldn’t be just a bunch of buzzwords that look good on a plaque. Values are specific principles that guide our decision making and daily actions. Sadly, values are too often overlooked or swept aside in favor of profits and getting ahead. In his book The Cheating Culture, David Callahan argues that cutting corners to get ahead has become more common today—not just in the business sector, but also in medicine, sports, education, law, politics, and journalism. While that may paint a dire picture, Callahan says he is “actually optimistic that we can get a handle on this. It just has to be a priority.”
We are captains of our own character, writes Jon M. Huntsman in his book Winners Never Cheat. Huntsman should know. He started with practically nothing and built a world-class business that landed him on Forbes’ list of America’s wealthiest people. In Huntsman’s book, he shares the basic tenets that he lives by, including: play by the rules; get mad, not even; set a good example; and pick advisors wisely. Another rule is “keep your word.” Huntsman believes “your word is your greatest asset.” In 1986, after lengthy negotiations with Emerson Kampen, the CEO of a chemical company, Kampen agreed to pay Huntsman $54 million for 40 percent of a division of Huntsman’s company. A handshake sealed the deal. It wasn’t until six and a half months later that the lawyers finally got around to drafting the documents. In the meantime, the price of raw materials had decreased substantially, and Huntsman’s company found itself with record profit margins. Kampen called Huntsman with a remarkable proposal. He acknowledged that 40 percent of Huntsman’s division was now worth $250 million and he offered to pay half of the new value, rather than the $54 million they originally agreed upon. Huntsman had an equally astonishing answer: no. He said it would not be fair to use the appreciated value—and besides, they shook hands and agreed on $54 million. Huntsman explains his rationale: “I never had to wrestle with my conscience or to look over my shoulder. My word was my bond.” Kampen never forgot Huntsman’s unwavering commitment to his word, and he showed the utmost respect for Huntsman for the rest of his life. You Gotta Have Trust Even if your organization does all it can to promote its values, there’s still a crucial ingredient missing if you don’t have trust. Navy Captain Michael Abrashoff, author of It’s Your Ship, tells how he helped restore trust on the USS Benfold at a time when the crew’s morale was at a low. Captain Abrashoff pulled aside the officer on deck and the conning officer (the person who gives orders regarding course and speed) and told them they were going to refuel at sea; neither had ever done it before—both were visibly nervous. Just for a moment, consider how to refuel a ship at sea. You must maneuver within 120 feet of a tanker, while plowing ahead at 16.5 mph. The tanker sends over two hoses, and in the next 90 minutes, your tanks are filled with 200,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Stray too far from the tanker and the hoses break; get too close and the hoses are swept into the ocean. The conning officer began maneuvering alongside the tanker, but he asked permission each time he wanted to move the rudder or change speed. Abrashoff told him, “It’s your ship. Take responsibility for it.” With that, the junior officer took full command and successfully got the job done. His confidence soared. Abrashoff admits he was “terrified” at the start, but he knew he had to do something drastic to restore morale. It worked. That was the beginning of the crew’s newly found pride. Over time, “Benfold went on to beat nearly every record in the Pacific Fleet, and the crew was flourishing in the climate of relaxed discipline, creativity, humor, and pride,” wrote Abrashoff. Physical Evidence Many companies define their culture with written mission statements, visions, and values. But too often, there’s a gap between the desired culture and the actual culture. “A culture must be reinforced daily,” says consultant Dennis Snow, and one way to do that is through “artifacts” or physical surroundings. Physical surroundings reflect an organization’s values, customs, and behaviors. Snow says he once consulted with a company that claimed to have a customer-centered culture, but the organization had no physical evidence to support this value. “Everywhere I turned, corporate artifacts evidenced a culture that really valued company procedures, process manuals, and rigid rules—not the customer experience,” said Snow. While Snow acknowledges that dialogue and face-to-face interactions are all important in building culture,they are not enough. Organizations need artifacts because they provide evidence that a value is embedded into the culture. “There’s a permanence with artifacts that unrecorded stories simply don’t have,” says Snow. He urges leaders to start in the parking lot and walk through each floor and building. Study all areas, paying special attention to employee areas, since they often provide the best evidence of real culture. Does the physical evidence align with your mission, vision, and values? A culture cannot be wished into existence. It takes action and artifacts to make it come alive. Making Values Come to Life When Jack Welch first became CEO of General Electric, he says he was “guilty of endorsing vague, too cryptic values.” In is book Winning, Welch recalls writing in the 1981 annual report that GE leaders “face reality,” “live excellence,” and “feel ownership.” “These platitudes sure sounded good,” he writes, “but they had a long way to go toward describing behaviors.” It wasn’t until 2004, when Welch watched leaders of a new company—created by the merger of Bank One and JPMorgan Chase—work to articulate their values. The new company identified a value and then listed corresponding behaviors for each one. For example, one value at Bank One was, “We treat customers the way we would want to be treated.” The corresponding actions included: (1) Never let profit center conflicts get in the way of doing what is right for the customer; (2) Communicate daily with your customers; and (3) Don’t forget to say thank you. This level of detail may seem unnecessary, but Welch says he is “convinced you cannot be too specific about values and their related behaviors.” Lost and Found When a California woman recently lost her wallet, which contained $900 and several credit cards, she thought she’d never see it again. “I was sick all weekend,” said Kim Bogue, who had been saving money for a trip to Thailand, her home country. Bogue and a group of co-workers searched the buildings where she worked as a janitor; they checked bathrooms, rummaged through dumpsters, and searched offices, but found nothing. At about that same time, a homeless man was looking for something too—aluminum cans. What he found was Bogue’s wallet wrapped in a plastic bag in a trash bin. Bogue had accidentally thrown it away with her lunch. That Monday, the man, who declined to be identified, gave the wallet to a woman he knew worked in a nearby building. “He came up to me with the wad of money and said, ‘This probably belongs to someone that you work with, can you return it?’” said Sherry Wesley. Bogue soon got a call from her boss with the good news. “I couldn’t believe it when they called me,” she said. “He has a very good heart. If someone else found it, the money would be gone.” Bogue was so grateful that she gave the man $100 as a reward, which he split with Wesley. Wesley said she wasn’t surprised by the man’s actions. “I know he has the biggest heart,” she said. “Somebody like that who is so down on their luck and willing to help someone out is a rare thing.” Bogue says she feels blessed to have crossed paths with the man, and she said his honesty has renewed her faith in people. |
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