Building Organizations Where People Contribute Their Best (because they love working there!) | 050

Building Organizations Where People Contribute Their Best (because they love working there!) | 050

Can engaged, aligned team. Systematic improvement. Sustained agility. Legacy. Achieving these outcomes is exactly what we’re talking about on today’s episode.
Welcome to Lean Leadership for Ops Managers, the podcast for leaders in Ops Management who want to spark improvement, foster engagement, and boost problem solving – AND still get their day job done. Here’s your host, Leadership Trainer, Lean Enthusiast, and Spy Thriller Junkie, Jamie V. Parker.
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[00:00:43] We are in interesting times. Organizations across the country are trying to figure out how to attract and retain people, and when I talk with executives, this is one of the top challenges they’re working on right now. How do we compete not just in our service or product market, but in the employment market? They have unfilled positions and they’re worried that the people who do work there are going to burn out or that they’re going to have to tell customers no and lose business or that they won’t be able to sustain the current conditions for too much longer.
So they’re asking, how do we build an organization where people want to work and they tell everyone how great it is, which of course means more people want to work here?
Well, let’s talk about it. Last week, I introduced you to a model outlining what makes our organizations best places to work, what people, what employees, what team members, what people want in their work experiences. If you missed it, then head back and take a listen.
Now, if you like visuals, you can see a visual of the model at our shows just had to https://processplusresults.com/podcast/ And this is going to be episode 50, by the way.
While you’re there, you might just want to go ahead and sign up to be on the email list because everyone that is on the list got the model visual emailed to them.
All right, here we go. Let’s jump in.

[00:02:15] Today we’re talking about the same model as last week. But instead of looking at it from the team member perspective, we’re going to look at it from the organizational or leadership perspective. In the last episode, we talked about what team members want. In this episode, we’re talking about what executives want for their organizations. As we talk through this, pay attention to how we achieve both what team members want, plus what organizations or leaders want and notice how they overlap.

Speaking of plus, remember, with our model, we start with a plus sign right in the middle. We draw a plus sign and then we draw a circle around it. So we end up with a circle that has four quadrants. Now, let’s talk about this real quick. Here’s what’s in your quadrants of your circle. In the upper right, we have purpose. In the bottom right is participation. In the bottom left is performance, and in the top left is progression.
And that’s where we start today. Purpose, participation, performance, progression.

[00:03:24] Let’s talk about purpose first. From an organizational standpoint, we’re looking for alignment that everyone throughout the organization is working toward common goals. The decision making is done purposefully based on purpose and values and priorities. That’s where purpose comes in.
The other thing that purpose allows us to do as an organization is to enable fit. Your organization is not a good fit for everyone, and everyone is not a good fit for your organization. And that’s good. That’s the way it’s supposed to be, because we have diversity and we want diversity and people have different priorities and perspectives. This is perfect. We don’t want this to be a good fit. Diversity means it’s supposed to not be a good fit for everyone. The thing is that too often this wrong fit isn’t found out until late in the process. And now you might feel stuck with someone and they might feel stuck in the organization. But for either party to do something about it takes effort. And there are so many competing demands for that effort.
Here’s the thing, when we embrace purpose and integrate it throughout our organization into our every day, in our recruiting processes and everywhere as to who we are, then we’re better able to recognize fit earlier. Plus, the people who are a good fit, they feel so much more connected, which leads to greater commitment.
Purpose.

[00:05:00] Next up is participation. Leadership is a relationship. Leadership happens between people. When I originally mapped out this model, I started with the word partnership here to kind of capture this relationship piece. But as I continue to dig into what this really means, I realized that wasn’t quite the right word because this is more than a state of being. It’s really action, and participation is action based. Organizations want active participation. They want engagement.
Oh, that magic word engagement. We’ve seen the stats. We know what a difference it makes when people are engaged. Gallup studies show that compared to disengaged teens, engaged teams deliver 22 percent greater profitability, 41 percent fewer quality defects, 37 percent less absenteeism, 48 percent fewer safety incidents and 25 percent turnover compared to 69 percent. Engagement means active participation.
Oh, and a side note. I can’t mention these engagement stats without saying it, because this is at the core of why I do what I do. Ready for it?

[00:06:17] Managers account for 70 percent of the variance and engagement.

Hear that. Managers account for 70 percent of the variance in engagement. This is why we have to develop our leaders. It’s also why this participation quadrant is really predicated on relationships.
Participation.

[00:06:42] The third quadrant is performance. Ops folks, you don’t need to hear this from me. This is what you talk about all the time. It’s the bulk of your job- delivering on performance expectations, delivering results. This is what you’re paid to do. Right. And we know results matter.
Here’s the key. It’s process plus results. How we get results matters because in the performance quadrant, it’s not just about the outcome. It’s about how can we deliver the outcome consistenty? How can we continuously improve? And that means we have to look at the inputs, the processes, the routines, the systems and the role that people play in achieving performance goals year after year.
Performance.

[00:07:31] Finally, in the fourth quadrant, up in the top left of the circle, we have progression. Because so many executives and senior leaders I talk with are on a quest for this progression- it’s moving beyond improvement. It’s sustained improvement. Yeah, that pesky word sustainability. But not just to sustain.
It’s like next level stuff. It’s system integration that creates ongoing agility, not just for today, but for tomorrow. It’s kind of next level. It’s purposefully tackling the really hard stuff that most organizations, frankly, just don’t get to.
That’s progression.

[00:08:14] So these are your four quadrants: purpose, participation, performance and progression. This is what executives want for their organizations.

To get it, though, we have to add a little bit more to our model. You see, people are the heart of our organizations. So right in the center of our plus sign, right where the horizontal and vertical lines meet, we have a heart because we can’t manipulate or fake our way through the four quadrants. We have to authentically care about people. We lead with a servant’s heart. And so we keep that front of mind by placing a heart right in the middle of a model.
There’s another piece we need to add around the circle, we add an outer circle, just a little narrow outer circle, and this outer circle represents personalization. Personalization is how we consider each individual in our organization because priorities and needs and desires are different from person to person. So we just want to envelope the whole thing and keep that in mind. But as leaders in our organization, we’re building relationships with individuals.

[00:09:32] Whew! All right, here we go. We went through this model and what it looks like from the executive, the organization, the leadership standpoint. So let’s talk a little bit. Let’s kind of summarize some of this.

[00:09:44] Purpose, participation, performance, progression, all enveloped in personalization with people caring for people at the center.
Why does this model work? What do we get when we achieve this?
Well, here’s how it works.
Purpose plus participation give us an engaged, aligned team.
Participation plus performance give us systematic improvement.
Performance plus progression give us sustained agility so that we can continue to be competitive and continue to grow and continue to have flexibility and respond well into the future.
And progression plus purpose give us legacy. Legacy is the gift we give to the world, to our team members and their families, to our customers, to our communities. Legacy is the lasting impact we have.

[00:10:48] And here’s what’s great about all of this. It’s absolutely possible to align what team members want with what you want as an operations executive. These are not contradictory or competing things. They’re the same things. In fact, you can actually head back to Episode 49 and listen to the team member’s perspective and viewpoint on these four quadrants: purpose, participation, performance and progression. It’s the way that we come together to serve people, plus deliver results.

[00:11:23] It is time to take action. So what’s your next step? Here’s what I want you to do. Consider what future state vision you have either for your organization or your division or department or team. What is your highest intention? What is your vision when it comes to each quadrant? Purpose, participation, performance, progression.
What would that look like for your organization or team? Map it out, map out your future vision for each of those quadrants. That’s your one next step?

[00:11:59] Finally, if you’re finding the podcast helpful, please share it with at least one other person and stay tuned. Next week, we have a guest joining to talk about how leaders can actually take vacations for real. And then after that, we’re coming back to this model.
I’m going to talk about the specific levers. So when you think about not just the four quadrants, but within each quadrant, what are the levers you need to pull in order to achieve participation and performance and purpose and progression and all of these four different things?
So what we’re going to do in these coming episodes is we’re going to move from the overall concept to what you need to do. So stay tuned, put it on your calendar.
If you haven’t subscribed to my email list yet and go ahead and do it. That way, you’ll get notifications, you’ll get the visual aids, all of those things.
Until next time.