We all love stories. From the time we come into the world, people tell us stories. As we grow older, we read stories and we tell our own stories. Some stories are personal, others professional (bios), and sometimes we tell stories for others – business or volunteer for nonprofit).
Why are stories so powerful? Stories have power because they:
· Give voice to our dreams and hopes.
· Tap into our emotions.
· Express creative thought.
· Pass on knowledge that comes from experience.
· Create and nurture collective memory.
· Tell where we’ve been (legacy) and where we are going (envisioned future).
Why do we tell stories (purpose)? We tell stories to:
· Educate (transfer knowledge and traditions).
· Communicate/uphold social and cultural customs, social structure, expectations of behavior.
· Create and reinforce social and cultural bonds (among social, economic, other groups).
· Explain the world (belief systems).
· Entertain.
Sometimes a story has multiple purposes. These stories can have the greatest power because there are many, layered meanings that reinforce each other and give deeper value to the messages.
For societies that did not (and some surviving ones that still do not) have a written language, storytelling – what anthropologists refer to as oral tradition – was the only way to communicate information critical to basic survival and explain the world. There’s even specialization in the storytelling. Some stories were known and could be told by all the society’s elders. Then there were stories that were meant to convey special knowledge and were told by particular individuals in whom this special knowledge resided by virtue of their roles, such as a ritual/spiritual leader or healer.
Even though our society has written language and sophisticated technology to communicate with more people, more quickly and in different geographical places simultaneously, the purposes behind the stories remain the same. The stories are there to help us make sense of the world and our place in it, and to share it with those who, by necessity or invitation, are in our circle.
What are the more important things you need your stories to say about your company / organization?
Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work
Showing posts with label corporate culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporate culture. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Flex Your Communication Muscles
When it comes to our physical bodies, muscles atrophy when they are not used. Even relatively short periods of lessened muscle activity and movement, as when a leg is immobilized after a break, can affect muscle tone and length, flexibility, agility, and stamina. That’s why physical therapy, which helps muscle stretch, strengthen, and regain ‘muscle memory’ and helps joints regain/retain range of motion, is so often an adjunct to treatment for muscular–skeletal conditions.
This metaphor is useful for business. Unless an organization regularly engages in active, informative communication with employees and customers – in other words, flexes its communication muscles -- it will lose its flexibility to adjust to unpredictable conditions, the agility to bounce back from otherwise temporary setbacks, long-term stamina to retain and/or grow market share, and the ability to effectively use its collective ‘memory’ (aka collective business knowledge and history) as a foundation for moving forward.
In realistic terms, how important is it to flex your communication muscles?
Open communication, open minds, open for business. Some of the best ideas for solving problems or leapfrogging the competition come from employees. The best solutions derive from exchanging and sharing ideas. It’s the spark that ignites innovation and prevents the company from becoming stagnant.
More is more. While the economy may lead you to tighten the purse strings and voice “less is more”, when it comes to communication, the opposite is true. The more you communicate with employees and customers/prospects, the more market intelligence you have to run your business. Employees are your front line and they know what it takes, on a daily basis to deliver on your brand promise. Ask customers about their expectations and their satisfaction with your service/product and you’ll receive valuable information that you can use to redesign your service/product, gain referrals, or expand into new market niches. And, with today’s technology, communicating more doesn’t have to cost more.
Role model the communication behavior you want for your corporate culture. Leaders who primarily (or solely) directly communicate with the management team should not expect employees to be forthcoming in their communications. The actions of leadership (i.e., corporate behavior) send more powerful messages than any employee handbook or memo. If you want your employees to communicate meaningful information on a regular basis with management (including you) and customers, then you have to show them how it’s done well and why it’s essential to the business’ long-term success.
So, flex your communication muscles and gain a competitive advantage. No heavy lifting required.
By Stephanie Leibowitz, MA - Anthropologist At Work
This metaphor is useful for business. Unless an organization regularly engages in active, informative communication with employees and customers – in other words, flexes its communication muscles -- it will lose its flexibility to adjust to unpredictable conditions, the agility to bounce back from otherwise temporary setbacks, long-term stamina to retain and/or grow market share, and the ability to effectively use its collective ‘memory’ (aka collective business knowledge and history) as a foundation for moving forward.
In realistic terms, how important is it to flex your communication muscles?
Open communication, open minds, open for business. Some of the best ideas for solving problems or leapfrogging the competition come from employees. The best solutions derive from exchanging and sharing ideas. It’s the spark that ignites innovation and prevents the company from becoming stagnant.
More is more. While the economy may lead you to tighten the purse strings and voice “less is more”, when it comes to communication, the opposite is true. The more you communicate with employees and customers/prospects, the more market intelligence you have to run your business. Employees are your front line and they know what it takes, on a daily basis to deliver on your brand promise. Ask customers about their expectations and their satisfaction with your service/product and you’ll receive valuable information that you can use to redesign your service/product, gain referrals, or expand into new market niches. And, with today’s technology, communicating more doesn’t have to cost more.
Role model the communication behavior you want for your corporate culture. Leaders who primarily (or solely) directly communicate with the management team should not expect employees to be forthcoming in their communications. The actions of leadership (i.e., corporate behavior) send more powerful messages than any employee handbook or memo. If you want your employees to communicate meaningful information on a regular basis with management (including you) and customers, then you have to show them how it’s done well and why it’s essential to the business’ long-term success.
So, flex your communication muscles and gain a competitive advantage. No heavy lifting required.
By Stephanie Leibowitz, MA - Anthropologist At Work
Friday, April 17, 2009
Before You Say "I Do", Assess Your Compatability Quotient
Cultural compatibility can make or break the ultimate success of a merger or acquisition. If you’re contemplating (or in the midst of) such a transaction, then you know how daunting a process it is. There’s so much on the line. The financial investment and commitments. Your company’s reputation. Management changes. Customer and supplier reactions. Employee implications. As you sift through the analyses and recommendations of the accountants, attorneys, and possibly independent business brokers, you also need to pay attention to the compatibility quotient. There’s financial due diligence, and then there’s “cultural due diligence”.
There are very real costs associated with mergers between businesses that are not a good cultural fit. The combined business can fail as a result of decision-making based on false assumptions, contradictory practices or policies, or the build up of internal defensive walls that block the cooperation and free flow of information vital to success. You need to stay on top of your game during the transitional period, which can extend over a couple of years for larger organizations. Know that your competition will use the situation as an opportunity to woo away existing clients and spook your prospects. It’s a strategy from an old playbook. Propose that another company’s reorganization will be a distraction and therefore that company won’t deliver attentive, quality service. Customer defection is a real possible consequence if you can’t demonstrate a truly unified front, cohesiveness in market behaviors and consistency in operations. With a low cultural quotient, you run the risk of spending too much time, energy and resources on fitting a square peg into a round hole and not enough time on retaining existing customers and getting new ones. Great differences in business culture will demoralize and sap motivation from your best employees, spread negativity and self-defeating beliefs throughout the organization, and ultimately leave the resulting business without sound financial footing and without a strong brand identity.
Even when companies have similar business cultures, there are still some differences that you will need to address. The keys here are mutual respect for each other’s culture and identification of common ground.
Companies that want to avoid such pitfalls need to enlist an independent party to conduct a cultural assessment, and then create and implement a plan for incorporating the assessment’s findings into a well-orchestrated integration plan (or a decision not to proceed).
A cultural assessment and integration plan should take into account, at a minimum, the following organizational culture variables:
Behaviors - the degree of informality/formality, decision-making maps, processes and hierarchies, and the definition (and requirements) of work (job descriptions, employee qualifications).
Communication - style (formal/informal), degree of openness, language, frequency and vehicles for information sharing.
Beliefs - common vision and goals, beliefs about what success is, and standards of ethical and acceptable behavior.
Business structure - the organization of work through teams and individual contributors, department/division responsibilities, accountabilities and interactions;
Business performance - performance criteria and measures, employee performance management programs, and compensation (including incentives and bonus plans).
If you’ve already inked the deal and find your business is exhibiting signs of ‘culture clash’, there are steps you can take to minimize these, keep the organization focused on the business plan, and lay the foundation for the 3 C’s to merger and acquisition success – communication, collaboration, and community.
Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work
There are very real costs associated with mergers between businesses that are not a good cultural fit. The combined business can fail as a result of decision-making based on false assumptions, contradictory practices or policies, or the build up of internal defensive walls that block the cooperation and free flow of information vital to success. You need to stay on top of your game during the transitional period, which can extend over a couple of years for larger organizations. Know that your competition will use the situation as an opportunity to woo away existing clients and spook your prospects. It’s a strategy from an old playbook. Propose that another company’s reorganization will be a distraction and therefore that company won’t deliver attentive, quality service. Customer defection is a real possible consequence if you can’t demonstrate a truly unified front, cohesiveness in market behaviors and consistency in operations. With a low cultural quotient, you run the risk of spending too much time, energy and resources on fitting a square peg into a round hole and not enough time on retaining existing customers and getting new ones. Great differences in business culture will demoralize and sap motivation from your best employees, spread negativity and self-defeating beliefs throughout the organization, and ultimately leave the resulting business without sound financial footing and without a strong brand identity.
Even when companies have similar business cultures, there are still some differences that you will need to address. The keys here are mutual respect for each other’s culture and identification of common ground.
Companies that want to avoid such pitfalls need to enlist an independent party to conduct a cultural assessment, and then create and implement a plan for incorporating the assessment’s findings into a well-orchestrated integration plan (or a decision not to proceed).
A cultural assessment and integration plan should take into account, at a minimum, the following organizational culture variables:
Behaviors - the degree of informality/formality, decision-making maps, processes and hierarchies, and the definition (and requirements) of work (job descriptions, employee qualifications).
Communication - style (formal/informal), degree of openness, language, frequency and vehicles for information sharing.
Beliefs - common vision and goals, beliefs about what success is, and standards of ethical and acceptable behavior.
Business structure - the organization of work through teams and individual contributors, department/division responsibilities, accountabilities and interactions;
Business performance - performance criteria and measures, employee performance management programs, and compensation (including incentives and bonus plans).
If you’ve already inked the deal and find your business is exhibiting signs of ‘culture clash’, there are steps you can take to minimize these, keep the organization focused on the business plan, and lay the foundation for the 3 C’s to merger and acquisition success – communication, collaboration, and community.
Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Company Culture is Your Key to Business Resilience
If you are a human resource or other operations manager, your goal is to maximize opportunities for achieving appropriate matches between your company's business needs and job candidate qualifications (as well as those of current employees). A company that takes active steps to identify, assess, articulate, cultivate and communicate a culture that supports its business performance goals has tremendous power to build resilience for long-term success. Communication of your culture (and its critical role in your ultimate success) in all aspects of employee engagement - recruitment, hiring, orientation/training, job responsibilities and accountabilities, and performance management - helps to reinforce positive behaviors and create a collective mindset for collaborative work around common goals and objectives.
As an anthropologist, I view companies as individual ‘societies’, each with a distinct culture, an ‘organizational glue’ that binds its members through shared vision, knowledge and experiences. The culture defines how a business sees itself and others, its relationship to others (customers, prospects, strategic partners), and how a company conducts its activities on a day-to-day basis. If someone asked you to describe your company’s culture, what would you say? What images come to mind? What does it feel like to work there? What words would you use? These are not questions for idle contemplation. The answers have serious implications for employee recruitment and retention, brand identity and marketing, and daily operations.
A company identifies and communicates what it expects – financial and operational results, as well as the employee behaviors and attitudes necessary to achieve those results - within the context of its unique business culture. The same behaviors in different companies may yield different results. Employee recruitment is a huge upfront investment of time and resources. High turnover drains productivity, diverts resources, and can be a distraction from a company’s business plan.
Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work
As an anthropologist, I view companies as individual ‘societies’, each with a distinct culture, an ‘organizational glue’ that binds its members through shared vision, knowledge and experiences. The culture defines how a business sees itself and others, its relationship to others (customers, prospects, strategic partners), and how a company conducts its activities on a day-to-day basis. If someone asked you to describe your company’s culture, what would you say? What images come to mind? What does it feel like to work there? What words would you use? These are not questions for idle contemplation. The answers have serious implications for employee recruitment and retention, brand identity and marketing, and daily operations.
A company identifies and communicates what it expects – financial and operational results, as well as the employee behaviors and attitudes necessary to achieve those results - within the context of its unique business culture. The same behaviors in different companies may yield different results. Employee recruitment is a huge upfront investment of time and resources. High turnover drains productivity, diverts resources, and can be a distraction from a company’s business plan.
Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work
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