Culture shock
One Monday morning I was waiting in reception for Managing Director Dave to arrive for our 0900 appointment. As I was sitting there various members of staff were busy preparing for the week ahead.
Dave eventually strode in, eyes everywhere but nowhere. He’d clearly clocked me because I picked up his non-verbal call, a nod of the head for me to follow him upstairs to his office.
As we passed reception, Jill said good morning and passed Dave a pile of opened post which he took without a word. As we walked through the main office several people said ‘Good Morning Dave’ but he was flicking through the mail as we walked and affected not to notice.
On the climb up to his office he bumped into a young female member of staff because he was reading a letter but he still said nothing by way of apology. When we got to his office Dave opened the door and someone was studying a computer print out. Dave’s first words of the morning were “What are you doing in here?”
When we were alone together I asked Dave if that is the way he normally greets his staff. His reply was memorable.
“I’ve had a bad weekend”
Bien manger?
Takeovers and mergers are one thing on domestic soil, quite another when they involve organisations from different countries and different cultures.
If talking about all the jugular issues beforehand (see Dec 25th) is a prerequisite for a love match on home ground, then what about the added dimension of the overseas angle?
This is an area where I have little experience. Thinking about it, maybe in addition to the requirements for a domestic takeover or merger the key to a successful marriage between diverse overseas organisations is the relationship between the two people at the very top. Witness Thatcher and Gorbachev or Blair and Clinton.
I guess that must come down to chemistry but I haven’t even got a grade in that subject.
……..waits for nobody
Living in England it is salutary to remember that yesterday, December 25th was a special day for only a tiny proportion of the worlds’ population.
Most people in Russia, Brazil, India and China, the BRICS countries, probably had their minds elsewhere.
Over there it seems that business is not always conducted in the same way as it is here. In these countries people often do things differently, they think differently and they behave differently.
The progress of the global knowledge economy and the implications for all of us marches on, oblivious to the ephemeral preoccupations of the few.
Biting off more than we can chew
Continuing with the festive theme for this blog. Some people eat their food quite delicately, one small mouthful after another, leaving plenty of time to digest the meal as they go. Others, at the other end of the spectrum just seem to hog their food down, taking the largest possible mouthfuls in the shortest period of time.
Organisations in the acquisitions game are a bit the same. Takeovers and mergers can be leisurely, timely and considered affairs or they can be frantic, rushed and ill considered.
At the end of the day, we are looking for synergy between the two new partners. Just like a personal relationship the more that we can share, in an open and honest way about the jugular issues before the ceremony, the more likely we are to end up with a relationship where one and one makes three.
We all get indigestion occasionally and there is usually a good reason for it.
Dropping off
Occasionally there are people at the top of organisations that need to leave; they need to find something else to do.
Why is this?
Well it can be, and often is simply because the speed of change in the global knowledge economy is too fast. Not everyone in their fifties (the average age of directors in business) wants to keep changing how they think or changing what they do or changing how they behave. This can be quite an unsettling way of living.
Often these people are relieved to go, to be on their way. They just want the whole thing to be managed in a calm, dignified and mutually respectful way.
A bit like a civilised divorce really.
Vacuum
It is possible to work in a Board Room doing just the sort of things that we discuss in this blog and suddenly you hit a very raw nerve.
It’s usually something that not one director really wants to talk about because it could cause all sorts of ructions, yet nonetheless it has to be discussed in the interests of the organisation.
This can cause pain. It’s the stuff that hurts.
One reaction to an event like this can initially be silence; sometimes anger. Afterwards you may hear nothing for some time, and enquiring calls go unanswered. This may happen for months or even years, but then suddenly you get a call right out of the blue; it can even sound a bit like a summons.
I remember a family brewery once. The father wanted a brewery and half a dozen pubs whereas the son wanted simply an Award Winning brewery but they could not afford both. In any case you cannot have two different bull’s eyes for one organisation, even if one does belong the father and the other belongs to the son. That bull’s eye meeting was the end of my involvement with the company. Eventually, a couple of years later it became clear that the decision the Board had actually made was to go for the Award Winning brewery. On one occasion Dad had the magnanimity to put his arm round my shoulder and say, “You were right”
Recently he said, “It’s time you came in and had another session with the top team again.”
It’s OK, that’s how it should be. We can talk about anything and everything under the sun, providing it is in the interest of the business.
Second thoughts
A lot of the best leaders have the ability to work out a decision based upon three different perspectives. The first includes the application of logic, rationale and analysis, which is then contrasted by consideration of feelings, beliefs and values.
Second position is to look at the decision from someone else’s point of view, to try to see the decision in the context of their world, their reality and through their eyes.
Finally, some leaders go a step further and ask “What is a totally objective view on this decision?” This is the ‘fly on the wall’ position.
This ability to move through three different thought perspectives marks out top leaders and people of real influence.
The better they do this the better decisions they make and the better they become.
Off the wall
Some Boards of Directors think that they are immune to the normal rules of business. Directors that console themselves with behaviour that is outside the normal realms of Best Practice say things like “Well you can’t do budgets for a business like ours” or “We are different, don’t expect us to conform to the norm”
We all give our real thoughts and feelings away, whether we like it or not, through the words we use, our tone of voice and our gestures.
But the truth is that successful businesses succeed, over a period of time, by doing the same few things regularly, time after time after time after time. A study of excellent organisations often reveals that a large part of their routine could even be described as boring. I wonder how often David Beckham has practised kicking a ball into the top corner of a goal?
Others, even spectacularly fast growth organisations, can fail, ultimately for a whole host of reasons. Frequently it is a failure to apply accepted Best Business Practice on a regular, consistent basis.
Over the holiday period, the accepted Best Practice of only so many calories or units of alcohol per week may challenge many of us.
”But I like roast potatoes, mince pies, brandy butter and a nice glass of port.”
Over the top
Fast growing organisations often try to promote from within as if to reward some of the people that have been there since the early, formative, turbulent, demanding days.
Sometimes it works, but essentially if it is to work then the growth of the people has to be in harmony with and at a similar pace as the growth of the organisation.
This can be a tall order for some, especially if they are promoted from being a manager to being a director where a whole new type of responsibility kicks in. So what do you do with someone who is young, enthusiastic and talented as a manager but who doesn’t quite cut the mustard at director level?
My goodness, you train them!! We all have to attract, keep and develop talent from whatever source in order to develop and sustain competitive advantage in the knowledge economy. It could be a bespoke course, it could be group work such as to be found with the
ACE organisation, it could be one to one mentoring but it has to be something.
Otherwise, as one massively talented, recently promoted person put it to me recently, who has no support and no mentoring, “Well, I was ready to leave the company.”
And that’s called a tragedy, both for the individual and for the organisation.
Stretched
Yesterday we were talking about new projects and new investment but it doesn’t have to be like that.
Some twenty years ago I used to run public courses in the West Midlands on topics such as finance and marketing. One day I was out on the street, cold calling as part of my strategy to recruit and I walked into a printing company, not 250 yards from my house. I explained to the owner what I was doing and he replied, “Well I have been in business for twenty years so there is not much that you can teach me!” I tried to explain that most of the learning came from the other business owners on the course and that I was merely the facilitator. But it was the end of a brief conversation and a few moments later when I was back out on the pavement I noticed that he offered a range of items for sale in his window. One of the items was “Useful boxes” at 59p plus VAT.
Now I am not sure what the learning point in this blog is, dear reader, but those same boxes are still on the same shelf at the same price as I write. I wonder if the boxes have been there for forty years?
Stretching
People at the top of organisations have a tough job and that is why they get paid well to do it. Sometimes there is a new project or a new investment and after all the consulting and all the collaboration, they are ultimately responsible for the call that they have to make.
I encounter people in this situation all the time. I get asked are there any ground rules, any kind of ways to look at things that can help in the decision making process.
One that springs to mind is to look at the broader picture surrounding the key decision. How will it affect staff? How will it affect the resources of the organisation? Resources include time, energy and money. Does this particular investment or project need to be done right now?
I am aware that there amazing people like
Richard Branson around who seems to achieve extraordinary feats even when all the indicators point in the opposite direction. However the vast majority of us are not like Richard Branson, so if most of the indicators suggest that we will be stretched very thinly if we proceed , then at the very least we need to go back to the drawing board and think again.
I know its boring this way Richard.
Family business realities
Long established family businesses have a great deal going for them. There is loyalty – the idea that blood is thicker than water; there is family unity; looking to see whether succeeding generations could play a part.
Usually there is the impact on the community – this sort of business is often the mainstay of the local economy, especially if we are talking about a rural family business.
As usual, we always need to look at both sides of the coin. On the flip side, family businesses are sometimes inward looking, wrapped up in long standing rivalries. Shareholdings and succession issues are often taboo subjects, frequently major but unresolved topics.
The business has invariably been built upon making the product and / or delivering the service; there is often great expertise to be found in operational competence. The thing that ALWAYS gets neglected and even ignored completely, is the people bit. The global knowledge economy is a very unforgiving place. In this world it is only people and relationships that can consistently deliver excellence for customers, irrespective of what has happened in previous generations.
Eventually, the traditional family business is faced with the inevitable. Carry on as we are, with the same, usually poorly qualified, poorly trained family members doing more or less what they have always done, or bring in new blood at the top and face risk and uncertainty.
There is only one choice and you fudge it at your peril.
LEAF this to me
Great to watch innovation and creativity from leaders happening in a group setting.
LEAF stands for Linking Environment and Farming. There were two dozen farmers discussing diversification projects at an event last week hosted by
Wiggly Wigglers, one of the great farm diversification businesses.
Farmers were asked to bring a prop to the meeting that they use with visitors to their farm. One delegate had a badge the size of a beer mat. It was inscribed ‘Ask a farmer’ and is used to encourage visitors to ask anything they like about farms and farming.
Facilitator,
Susie Emmett asked the group how this particular prop could be used even more effectively and someone said, “get a batch of badges made up with the words ‘I asked a farmer about ….wild flowers’, or ‘I asked a farmer about ….hedgehogs’. The idea is that these badges could be issued to visitors, particularly school groups, so that the messages they take away from the farm can be more widely heard when they get home. It is a marketing ploy designed to educate the general public more widely about the agricultural sector.
It’s just another example of a relationship where one and one can make three.
Redundant
The culture inside an organisation can be measured in percentage terms by conducting a staff survey using the Indicators from the Investors in People Standard.
It’s much more fun, if less scientific, to just feel the culture at an event particularly when it is so strong and so positive. I was priveleged to be invited to the
BN Jackson Norton Christmas gathering last week. It could, for all the world have been a reunion of old friends.
The venue was
Avery’s Wine Cellars basement in the heart of Bristol, with candles and dimmed lighting enhancing the unique atmosphere of a centuries old building. A male voice choir in top hats and tails, dressed as they might have been when the cellars were built arrived halfway through the evening. Their rendition of Christmas Carols made the evening more special. From Suzanne to Graham, Michelle to Penny, Janet to Vaughan, you would not have known that this was a business gathering or that these people were business colleagues. It was just people eating a selection of fabulous cheeses and dinking some great wine.
There was a quiz for twelve teams of three. You had to for example, scour the cellar for 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines from three different countries. The prize for each member of the winning team was two beautiful Stuart Crystal Burgundy glasses chosen by Michelle, wrapped by Suzanne and presented by Graham. What a superb evening it was.
Many more organisations like this and I will be out of work.
Engagement
Quality of discussion in the Board Room is a vital consideration. It’s just that different people are often in a different frame of mind when they come together to talk and listen to one another. Or even an agenda item can throw one person into one thinking position whilst it throws someone else in a different direction.
Edward de Bono wrote ‘Six Thinking Hats’ (Viking 1986) in order to try to resolve this dilemma. The idea is that different coloured hats represent different ways of thinking and behaving:
White = Facts and figures
Red = Emotions and feelings
Black = Devil’s Advocate
Yellow = Positive
Green = Creative and lateral
Blue = Control and planning
I work with a Board that actually use coloured discs in their strategy meetings. So that when for example, feelings about a particular issue are running high if someone holds up a red disc it tells everyone about that person’s perspective and it legitimises others to engage at a similar level.
The better the quality of engagement the better the quality of the meeting and the greater the value of outcomes.
It’s that simple.
Precious
Occasionally you meet people at the top of organisations that confuse their own ego with the objectives of the organisation.
Somehow they are precious; they see their talent or capability, as being outside or independent of the normal processes that work for the organisation. One of the commonest manifestations of this is the CEO that acknowledges the value of appraisals for all employees – all employees that is except himself / herself and maybe one or two others.
This isn’t a crime because self esteem, self confidence and self belief are all important attributes of senior executives, but they can take a while to mature in varying degrees and varying areas for all of us.
It’s just that there can be a very fine line between the “I” statement and the “we” statement. When we get past this point, we cease to be precious about our own talent because we know that whatever it is, it will be of greater value when it is aligned with the talent of others.
Succeeding with succession
Top people in organisations have several primary responsibilities, one of which is to attract, keep and develop the very best talent that they can afford.
It may seem counter intuitive but as one great leader that I had the pleasure of appraising last week put it, “It’s not about me any more, it is about them”.
What he meant was that yes, it has taken a lot of hard work, determination and talent to get to the top, but now, having got there, it is even more important to start developing and bringing on the other members of the team.
This is almost like the three stages of maturity. Firstly, in the early stages of our life, we are all dependent on others to help us grow and develop. Around the teenage and early adult years we move into independence where we say ”I can do this”.
Eventually however, it dawns on us that whoever we are, we cannot fulfil our potential alone and that is when we say, “We can do this” This is the third stage of maturity or interdependence.
