Jack Dalyasked that question, the entire room stood up and screamed and yelled
and shouted with glee, you’ve got the makings of the first leg of the
chair of culture—recognition.” What are your systems to ensure
regular, ongoing recognition? You don’t leave it to chance. You don’t
ensure it is taking place only when you happen to be in a good mood.
What are your systems to ensure regular, ongoing recognition?
The second leg of the chair would be communication systems. The
nu mber one employee complaint is that there isn’t enough
communication going on in the company. Where is the company going?
How is the company doing? We need to be straight with our folks.
Employees are indicating that they need to sort through what is spin
and what is real. Be sure that there are systems in place to ensure
regular ongoing communication—daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly—
in different means using a variety of methods. The more w e can
in crease the importance of culture, the better our companies will run.
The third leg of the chair in terms of culture are personal and
professional development processes. People today are looking at the
world differently than they did ten, twenty, and fifty years ago. And
one of the ways they’re looking at the world of business is, “Is this
company helping me grow personally and professionally? And if it is,
th en I’m anxious to join it and I’m e xcited to stay with it; but if it’s not,
th en I’m going to keep my eyes open for anoth er opportunity.” Not
only will they switch companies, but they’ll switch industries and
switch careers. We have an opportunity as entrepreneurs to attract and
retain people by implementing processes in our company that help our
people personally and professionally.
And the fourth leg of the chair is empowerment processes. Creating
an environment in the company where the people working in it feel
comfortable making decisions as if they were the owners, instead of
relying on books of regulation and getting approvals. Our customers
are looking for online employees to be able to make the call. If we were
ab le create freedom for our people, I think the culture would be much
more powerful and a lot more fun.
In review, those four legs of the chair were recognition systems,
communication systems, personal and professional development
processes, and empowerment processes. When I look at those four legs