1. Something to Believe In
To be motivated and effective, people have to know in their heart that they matter and what they are doing matters - they have to believe in themselves, their contributions, their colleagues and the company. Leadership can’t just tell people “they matter”. The proof will occur through the everyday actions of the group. The most successful organizations leverage the skills, thoughts, and life experiences of all the people in their organization as well as those in their vendor and partner organizations. Creating a dynamic where everyone is part of the process, provides honest input, and contributes in a positive way takes a positive corporate culture - within a framework of scalable, repeatable, continuously improved processes and systems.
2. Embracing Vision and Protecting OwnershipCreativity, particularly the vision of those in defined value creating roles, has to be protected. Decisions need to lay with the creative person. While, the process draws on the resources of the whole organization, hijacking the vision and the decision process will lead to a lack of ownership and at best, long term mediocrity. Patronizing lip service to empowering people breeds disengagement. No one in the organization should be able to go around the creative person or tell them they have to do something a specific way - or eventually there will be no process and the decisions will be left to puppeteers to make on their own without the support of the group. Are things really going badly enough in the process that someone needs to step in? Have all attempts to provide honest and constructive help to the team been exhausted? If so, before attempting to take over the minutia of the decision making, leadership ought to consider replacing the visionary.
3. Nurturing receptivity, reciprocity and honesty
Individuals not only have to be receptive to the input and assistance of others, they have to actively seek it out. By nature, people are hesitant to both seek and give honest and heartfelt advice, feedback and assistance. An environment needs to be nurtured where people trust that what they have to say is honestly valued and respected, that people won’t be offended, that they won’t be belittled or ridiculed for their opinion, and that they won’t look dumb for bringing something up. At the same time, group meetings where people “perform for the audience” rather than honestly contribute to the success of the effort have to be minimized. There also has to be reciprocity – a belief that others will act positively to help them, just as they are helping others - without expectations of net gain. This is not group think or paralysis by analysis – there is a defined decision maker who is responsible and who moves forward after thoughtful consideration of the input. Keeping score or owing each other favors is a negative culture to be avoided. Reciprocity has to be a commitment to give more than you receive and to place the interests of the group above your own without the culture of, “what can you do for me”? The Go-Giver, a book by Bob Burg and John Adam Mann is a great story about receptivity, reciprocity, and giving.
4. Championing Connectivity and Forcing Transparency
In order to be a part of everyday successes, people have to be connected and they have to know what is going on. If meetings are the primary means of people staying informed and connected in your organization, you have a steep hill to climb and you may want to read some of Seth Godin’s work. Communication, information and decisions have to move at lightning speed.
Continuous improvement necessitates looking back (as well as forward) and transparency is a prerequisite of learning. Everyone would rather accentuate the positive and talk about success rather than talk about the things that went (or are going) wrong. It is important to recognize contributions and shower praise where appropriate. However, some things always go wrong, and it is important to talk about key issues in a constructive way in order to move forward. Mistakes are repeated, and problems fester, if you don’t own up to them and address the causes. Don’t dwell on it, but force people to discuss what goes wrong rather than brush it under the rug. If you avoid the hard conversations, people are incrementally less forthright in the future, pushed towards conservative approaches, and disenchanted. Catastrophic failure is often rooted in a series of mistakes that go unaddressed or unacknowledged, whose cumulative effects are therefore unseen until it is too late.
5. Building a Positive Environment
People who know what they are doing matters, who are engaged and connected in an organization that protects creative vision and honesty are going to be highly motivated. A major premise of the book the Fish Philosophy by John Christensen is “There is a choice about the way you do your work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself.” Positive attitude at a basic level is a prerequisite to success as described in this well written book; but unleashing organizational potential requires standing out, distinguishing the organization, and being innovative. Inspiring and empowering people within the framework of your business model does involve choice about the work itself.
References:
The Go-Giver
Fish Philosophy
Why Should Anyone Trust Your Vision
Seth Godin's Blog
Pixar founder Ed Catmull interview
