Saying One Thing but Doing Another

A version of this blog was posted in January 2010. Over the past fifteen years of working with leaders in a range of companies, I regret to report that some of the dysfunctional behavior described in this blog is still very much alive in many organizations regardless of their age, their industry, their location or their size. Here’s how to fix that type of bad behavior. 

Happy New Year!

You probably know that the Roman god Janus is the origin of the month we call January.

And you’re likely aware that Janus was most often depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions because of his ability to look into the past and see into the future.

But did you know that Janus was frequently used to symbolize change – of moving from a current condition into a new and better condition in the future?

It’s this notion of evolving from one condition to another I’ll address here.

I’ve led more than 250 strategic planning sessions, have been invited into companies to dissolve disputes and chart a path forward, spoken to groups on every continent except Antarctica and work every month with more than one hundred CEOs, Founders, Managing Directors and Key Executives in my Vistage peer groups.

What I’ve observed is that many organizations are two-faced.

While leaders of these organizations say they want to move toward a desired condition the reality is that they continue to tolerate people, processes and principles that make it next to impossible to achieve the condition they claim to want. You might even characterize this organizational behavior as schizophrenic. That’s because, like Janus, most organizations have one vision of the future that differs markedly from the reality of their day-to-day operations.

The Schizophrenic Organization 

As part of my planning and process improvement work with these organizations, we often undertake an exercise that uses a model I’ve developed called the Identity Pyramid (you can download the Identity Pyramid shown below for free at www.bustin.com/resources).

In the course of the exercise (which takes at least a couple of hours and sometimes as long as a half-day) we examine how the organization delivers on its promises.

Every organization I’ve ever worked with – profit and not-for-profit – has cited in some form or another the pursuit of customer satisfaction as one of the by-products of the organization’s ability to deliver on its promises. There’s often a “Whatever it takes” mindset that comes into play. That’s the promise you and your company make to your customers and prospective customers OUTSIDE the company.

Here’s the problem. Promises being made INSIDE the company are broken every day. Deadlines, commitments, promises and agreements that are both spoken and sometimes written contracts between colleagues are broken. If a missed deadline involves a customer, it means that you, one of your star players or a special group of team members must make some heroic effort to deliver on the promise that’s been made to your customers.

Some of these breakdowns are operational. Some of the breakdowns are cultural.

Cultural breakdowns mean the stated values of the organization are being violated.

I used to think core values were soft. Today, I realize that core values articulate an organization’s competitive advantage. Values describe how the organization wins. Values provide guidance for coaching underperformers. And values help leaders make tough decisions.

Either your core values really matter or they’re just cheap words on your website. Your core values are at the heart of your decisions. Do our values reflect our real behavior? Do they provide clear insight into how we win?

Core values start a chain reaction:

One of the greatest paradoxes in business is that organizations have values that are not treated as valuable.

A Culture of Performance – Not Excuses

Mistakes happen. Underperformance is a pattern. And those patterns create accountability issues.
 
How many fires are you fighting? How many balls are being dropped on a daily basis? How many heroic events are required to rescue victory from the jaws of defeat?
 
Heroic events and a “whatever it takes” mindset may make your organization a winner today, but the organization will lose in the long run. Heroic events make it extremely difficult for you to grow and scale your organization because you’re managing by exception rather than by objective.
 
And at some point, your star players may decide that it’s not worth their effort to tackle their assignments if they know the level of commitment from their colleagues is lacking. 
 
When that type of behavior is allowed to continue, it becomes the default culture of your organization. As a leader, you have created – by default – a culture of double standards and not a culture where performance – not excuses – is the currency of winners.

Fixing Problems

I believe that most people want to do a good job.

So what’s in their way?

Ask them.

When leaders gather for a planning session I ask them to answer this question: Where are we not doing our best?

Individual performance can and should be coached at the individual level.

Problems with organizational performance must be examined and addressed together by the organization’s leaders. So the key word in the question above is “we.” An exercise I’ve used for years called “Deal the Cards” gets all of the problems out in the open so they can be addressed. If you’re interested in the details of this exercise, email me at [email protected].

You cannot get better if you don’t fix what’s not working.

The culture of your organization matters. 

So if creating and sustaining a culture of performance and accountability throughout the organization is important to you, you as a leader must be very clear about your expectations up and down the organization.

Start the New Year with a single-minded vision to treat promises made on the inside of your organization with the same regard as those made to customers on the outside.

Don’t be two-faced.