1:00 p.m.: Creating a “clean slate”
12:45: Pains
12:19 p.m.: Attendees shared their culture pain points and we’ve got a special activity coming up… Pics to come!
Attendee takeaways:
- Infusionsoft has rebranded the HR function of an organization
- Culture is in what you do, not the words on the wall
- Creating a forum within which to discuss practical application of culture as a strategy
- Getting clear on what competencies prospective employees need to have to do the job and testing for those
10:56 a.m.: Part of checking your ego at the door means being willing to have open, real communication. Encourage employees to keep it real with each other so that there isn’t negative politicking among the ranks. We have to be willing to put the values into action as well as making the hard decisions.
Culture is not instructed. It’s something people live and create organically.
10:50 a.m.: Creating alignment from the top down means everyone keeping an eye on how the “Big Three” supports the effort to achieve annual priorities and the bigger mission.
10:40 a.m.: Create a secret sauce list for the ideal employee. Help them align to the game plan, make sure there aren’t any surprises and make the firing process swift but compassionate. If someone has to be fired, make sure it’s an objective decision.
When someone becomes uncomfortable within an organization is either a matter of holding up the mirror or helping them find somewhere they can actually grow. Sometimes when expectations are set, people just don’t think they can meet the expectation. If the person is willing, the leadership role is to help them meet and exceed the expectation.
10:30 a.m.: Firing people is no fun. Three things to keep in mind when concerned that someone might not be a culture fit: alignment, no surprises, quick and swift.
You want to help the employee align to the game plan, make sure they’re not surprised if the firing does have to happen, and make it a swift and compassionate process.
10:15 a.m.: The core values are an integral part of performance evaluations. This helps ensure alignment to the vision. For example: there’s a real shift in perspective when a manager asks an employee “what’s your big dream?” It shows the employee that the manager cares enough about the employee to care about how that person’s life fits into the big picture for the company.
What if the role of manager wasn’t to tell people what to do but rather to listen, care and serve the employee and remove roadblocks to the employee’s ability to get his job done and be the best version of themselves.
10:00 a.m.: Dan Ralphs telling the story about how the @Infusionsoft culture of doing what we say we’ll do led to the launch of our first implementation accelerator. Clate Mask was transparent at the end of 2012 and said, we’re close but tracking to be just shy of our revenue goal. At the time, Dan was “entry level” (just starting) and he led a meeting that resulted in meeting the goal and exceeded it by $5000. Everyone in the company (with the exception of the executive team) was ready to do whatever it took to achieve the goal.
9:50 a.m.: Hiring strategy is 2×2 => alignment with the Vision and the skills to do the job. It translates to hard work. It’s hard to teach people to have integrity, to do the right thing, or to have passion for small businesses. But we can train them to do sales. – Hal Halladay
Perks are not culture. Culture is strategy that adds real value to companies, all you have to do is make a strong business case around this strategy.
9:30 a.m.: According to Hal Halladay, employee engagement =/= “happy employees”. People can be happy with the perks but not really engaged in being highly productive.
During industrial age, the most important part of the equation were the machines, not people. The resulting management structure was to watch and ensure people are doing the right thing and on target. Now people are the center of productivity, creating ideas and value for companies. It’s time to change from the industrial model and see people — knowledge workers — as the most valuable asset in the business.
You know employees are engaged when they give “discretionary effort,” speak up, offer creativity, go above and beyond, and work smart.
Creating this engagement is dependent on clarity of Vision — or purpose, values and mission.
9:15 a.m.: One attendee asked what’s the psychology behind making the offer. The answer is simple: if they can articulate their commitment to aligning with the purpose and values of the company. The likelihood is that they were already a good fit, it’s a failsafe of our hiring strategy. But if after two weeks of indoctrination into the culture during onboarding people still want to work for Infusionsoft — and they can articulate their commitment – we know they’re all in.
9:00 a.m.: @donavonroberson is making the offer. Much like we offer new employees $5000 to walk away if they feel the Infusionsoft culture is not something they can align with, we’re offering #cultureunveiled attendees $100 to leave if they aren’t aligned with the event Big Three. BTW: we haven’t had any takers.
8:45 a.m.: We’re asking the attendees to create three metrics for what they want to accomplish today. Some of these include: culture from the top-down (and back up), adopting a culture in a time of change, understand how to promote core values, how to creatively engage employees, how to get the right people engaged.
Next step: Aligning all attendees around the #cultureunveiled Big Three!
Is your mission statement too long? It’s hard to engage people in a shared purpose when the mission and purpose are too long or complex for people to remember.
When crowdsourcing culture, older employees might not be fully aligned. They end up with a couple options: to align or to move on to another company with a culture they can align with.
8:00 a.m.: Guests are arriving and looking a little confused as they approach the front desk. It probably doesn’t help that we have packing crates all over the office and half of the Infusionsoft offices are empty. But this is partly what we invited people to see. How despite our growing pains we have been able to nurture our unique culture built on purpose and values and now we’re moving to new digs!
You might have heard about the event and if you weren’t able to attend on such short notice, not to worry — I’ll be blogging all day from the event. Stay tuned. More to come.
Posted In: Best Practices