We are Culture-Driven

At Will's large pharmaceutical company, there was a big push by his division to go from last to first in customer satisfaction ratings.

Even though his boss, Ben, was an experienced manager, he micro-managed and criticized employees for petty reasons. Meanwhile, Will was seeing real problems being ignored.

Just when Will thought competing with their divisions in other countries was a lost cause, management got serious and hired Corporate Culture Consulting.

He was encouraged that steps were being taken to improve their chances of moving out of first place, but was skeptical anything meaningful could be done.

The first thing that got his attention was that this training was unlike others he’d been through because the focus wasn’t on the processes outlined in the company manual.

Instead, words like “values” and “behaviors” were being thrown around as if they mattered.

Smile with Teeth

Some of these behaviors centered on making the customer feel appreciated. Will did that already, but it frustrated him to see others seeming to take their customers for granted. Now, he was starting to feel there was a chance his division might go places.

Along with smiling, and meaning it, and bringing a good attitude into the room, responsiveness and humbleness were emphasized. These were common sense to Will, but he could think of plenty of instances where this had not happened. In fact, he’d seen just the opposite. Some employees displayed a palpable annoyance and impatience, right to the customers’ faces.

It was beginning to dawn on Will, why his division was in last place in customer satisfaction scores.

Like others, he had convinced himself that the customers were the ones who didn’t understand how things work.

The consultant also presented examples of behaviors that expressed the willingness to listen, and show genuine concern. All that was packaged in a patient and caring approach that always made customers feel that they were in good hands.

Will shrugged, thinking it all sounded good but he couldn’t think of very many associates who would do those things.

But the consultant than introduced a set of values, and his boss let everyone know that they would be well-trained, and then evaluated regularly on their willingness to embrace these values and put them to work.

As part of the Culture-Driven Service and Culture-Driven Leadership programs, all participants would be coached in the behaviors that were an expression of the values.

Following the initial orientation, the consultant worked with groups and individuals on how to communicate in ways that showed empathy, caring and an eagerness to satisfy the customer.

Some of that training included role playing where they were treated with classic subpar behaviors.

This helped create a sense of empathy, and seeing things from the customer’s point-of-view, which is one of the core values.

A small engineering firm in the southeast U.S. experienced 20% of their employees quitting in one month!

The common complaint, but not the only one, was that leadership was “not liked”.

Randy, a salesman, and Rusty, an engineer were talking about what they should do, over drinks at a bar down the street from the firm.

It was 6 PM on a Friday. They were worried about what all the departures meant for them.

Randy knew he'd be picking up more sales accounts, which would normally be good, but he was already overloaded after two other salespeople left.

Rusty knew that he might be looking at not only working late everyday, but coming in some weekends in order for engineering to keep up.

Although they had never thought about it before, the idea of finding jobs elsewhere started to take root.

They both clutched their beer mugs and stared at the bar. How had it come to this?

Two blocks away, back at the firm, its president, Wilson Stadler, was beginning to become alarmed.

At first he characterized the employees who'd left as weak-willed and too sensitive.

While doing a stint as a Captain in the Army he was used to people doing what they were told. It didn't matter how they were told.

He didn't take it personally when a higher ranking officer was toe-to-toe in his face.

That kind of personal pressure is what got the job done. And it had here, until recently. So, why was everybody leaving?

Wilson had a partner named Eugene, the bean counter of the two. Eugene was never in the military. He didn't necessarily enjoy watching Wilson run roughshod over the employees. In fact, he'd called him out a couple of times but was told that the bottom line was solid, so what he was doing worked.

Only now, the bottom line was starting to sink, and that was a trend Eugene couldn't stand by and ignore.

Eugene convinced Wilson they needed to call in someone who could stop the hemorrhaging, before they had no employees left.

Wilson acquiesced only when Eugene pointed out it wasn't just how many were leaving. It was their best people jumping ship.

Having heard about Corporate Culture Consulting from a neighbor in the finance business, Eugene placed the call.

On the phone he cited employee retention as an issue, and asked what, if anything, could be done to suddenly make people want to stay.

He secretly hoped whatever was in the cure, it would make Wilson take it down a notch.