by Riaz & Linda Khadem

Many case studies are written expressing concepts aimed at boosting growth, increasing profits, reducing costs, gaining market share, etc. While these topics are important and worthy of exploration, the present paper is not about growth, profits, or other similar objectives. It is about how a company can operate wisely and intelligently in a state of alignment such that all employees move together as one.

With this approach, the desired results such as growth, profits, and the like become the byproducts of alignment, not its principal aim. The advantage of this approach is that emphasis is placed on processes, not on results, and the effective operation of the processes culminates in sustainable and outstanding results.

The tools and tactics for creating the state of alignment in organizations have already been explained in our book, Total Alignment. Our intention here is not to repeat what has already been stated but to provide a high-level summary of the interacting processes that create and sustain the state of alignment in an organization, and to share the thinking behind them.

To create a state of alignment in a company, we must go back to the basics of why an organization exists and what it aims to accomplish. If we consider the organization as a collection of people who come together to fulfil a need in the market, then each organization has a unique way of fulfilling the need it perceives, and thus pursues a unique mission.

In many companies, mission was articulated at some point in the past and the workforce might or might not be aware of it. In either case, not much attention is usually paid to it. Here, we put great emphasis on assuring that mission is articulated through the participation of the workforce, that it is clear, that it is a true motivator for action, and is understood by all. The closer the organization’s mission serves to better the world, the greater is its intrinsic value in motivating the employees with a meaningful purpose besides receiving a paycheck every month.

With the mission well defined and accepted by all, a vision of where the organization intends to be in five or ten years becomes essential. Vision must also be shared by all, not just by the CEO or top team. It must be crystal clear and inspiring. We say this because the keenness of vision causes the keenness of understanding, which is a powerful motivator for action. The picture of success in the future that makes up vision is like seeing the end in the beginning. * When the end is clearly visualized by all, it causes actions to occur by everyone that sooner or later coalesce into a force that produces the desired effect. Vision engenders creativity that turns into seemingly impossible outcomes.

The third element that together with mission and vision serves as the foundation of Total Alignment is the core values that guide the organization’s progress through time. Values are the guidelines for behavior for all. They are never compromised. The organization would rather lose a desirable customer or employee than compromise its values.

In summary, an organization, no matter how small or large, is a collection of people who work together to fulfill a worthy mission, with a vision of success in mind, and they follow a set of core values. What we have just stated is not new. All readers are familiar with these three foundational concepts. Almost all organizations have some statements of mission, vision, and values artfully displayed in the corridors of their companies and on their websites. What is new in Total Alignment is that these three are placed at the very center of everything the company does. Stated in another way, everything the company does is aligned with mission, vision, and values.

The three generate the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that measure the success of the organization. They create the end-to-end processes from sales and order entry to order delivery and after sales support. They cause the formulation of strategies necessary to achieve vision. They serve as guidelines for clarifying the expectation of all jobs in measurable terms and the value-add of every job through individual scorecards. They provide the standard for measuring the health of the business in business scorecards. They necessitate the establishment of cross functional accountability that erases silos. They call for a continuous flow of information to track progress towards vision. They mandate the establishment of fair compensation that rewards teams and individuals for their contribution toward the achievement of vision.

Total Alignment serves as the umbrella for everything that happens in a company. It has the methodology for all processes that flow from the three foundational concepts, mission, vision, and values. The implementation of Total Alignment follows four basic pillars: Vision & Strategy, Accountability, Information and Culture.

Vision & Strategy

 The key to the implementation of the vision & strategy as the foundational pillar of Total Alignment is the Alignment Map, a simple yet powerful construct that serves as the framework for action in the company. It is a map that connects the present with the future of the company and becomes the dynamic living instrument of alignment.

The mission, vision and values of the company are placed at its center. They illumine the company’s present operation as well as inspire strategies for the future. The left side of the map contains a tree of indicators of success or KPIs that measure the outcome of processes that exist or need to be created to deliver the vision. The right side of the map contains a tree of strategies with three main branches: market strategies for the business units or segments, support strategies and closing gap strategies required to build the future. Strategies formulated on the right side through a strategic planning process are converted into specific initiatives with project plans, milestones, and deadlines. The indicators of the success of the initiatives on the right side are designated by a measurable index we call INX that stands for initiative index.

When constructed, the Alignment Map tells the story of where the company is at the present and how it will advance in time toward its vision. The map stands apart and is independent of the organizational chart of the company. It is a document that is always kept up to date. When a new process aligned with vision is created, the KPI associated with it is added to the left side. When a new strategic initiative called for by the vision is initiated, it is added to the right side of the map.

We offer a word of caution to companies devising market strategies on the right side of this map. To be aligned with the values that often include trustworthiness, excellence, and contribution to the betterment of the world, care must be exercised to not include strategies that violate the values. For example, a strategy of increasing market share is acceptable if it encourages the company to be more innovative, more cost efficient, and more conscious of continuous improvement. It is not acceptable if it tries to misuse the company’s financial strength to initiate a price war to eliminate rivals or to pay employees less than what their contributions are worth to increase profits, or to misrepresent the company’s products or services through misleading advertising. Such strategies do not belong to Total Alignment as they demonstrate a compromise of values in favor of a short-term positive bottom line.

Accountability

The implementation of the accountability pillar of Total Alignment assumes that the right organizational structure is in place. Depending on the size of the workforce and the type of business, the organizational chart could be two to several levels deep. Connecting the Alignment Map with the organizational structure involves the distribution of each KPI from the left side and each INX from the right side of the map among the many jobholders of the company. Someone must be accountable for each of the indicators and initiatives.

The methodology for this pillar requires delegating the KPIs from the left side of the map to the lowest appropriate levels of the organization while assigning the INXs from the right side to the highest appropriate levels. This is meant to empower the lower levels who are closer to the frontline and encourage upper levels to be more strategic and future oriented. As the success of most KPIs or initiatives is dependent on the collaboration of several functions, the accountability for collaboration is also included in the process of delegation and assignment. The outcome of the accountability process is the creation of individual scorecards for each jobholder containing a mix of KPIs and INXs with primary accountability or cross-functional accountability.

The construction of individual scorecards that emerges from the Alignment map is what we call top-down accountability. To this process must be added a bottom-up approach where each jobholder adds to the content of his or her scorecard important KPIs or initiatives that might have escaped the top-down process. The scorecard that emerges will have the benefit of including the priorities at the frontline together with the requirements of the vision of the organization. The example of scorecards thus created can be found in our book, Total Alignment.

A scorecard that is produced through this process should ideally have five to seven KPIs and INXs with weights of importance. The purpose in keeping the numbers low is to focus each person on the vital few factors that have huge impact on the success of the organization following the Pareto principle. The jobholders close to the frontline would have responsibility for mainly KPIs and those at higher levels will have responsibility for mainly INXs.

Information

The information pillar is supported by an alignment software that connects to the data warehouse of the company and displays information needed by all jobholders on the performance of their scorecards as well as the scorecards of collaborators in their pyramid of responsibility. The software connects the individuals accountable for a KPI or an INX with their horizontal or vertical influencers and gives feedback to each jobholder on his or her contribution to turning vision into reality. The system that supports this pillar is TOPS – the One Page Software, a state-of-the-art proprietarysoftware that has grown in its capability throughout many implementations. Its key reports are three – The Focus Report, Feedback Report and Management Report.

The Focus Report is the report of the performance of the jobholder’s scorecard. It contains each of the KPIs or INXs along with the status of performance for the current month, and three goal levels – minimum, satisfactory, outstanding – that determine the extent of advance that has been made in performance. The Feedback Report lists the positive and negative exceptions from the Focus Report. The positive exceptions are those KPIs that have reached or exceeded the satisfactory level stated in the Focus Report. Negative exceptions are those KPIs that have performed worse than the minimum goal level. This report also provides information on how many periods in a row the exception has occurred and to how many upper levels it has escalated. The Management Report is an escalation report that displays all positive and negative exceptions up the line in the organizational hierarchy. It serves to inform a manager on what is taking place in his pyramid of responsibility down the layers of the organization. A simple, adjustable escalation scheme is embedded in the software that reports exceptions to levels above the jobholder depending on the number of consecutive positive or negative exceptions.

Beyond serving as the information provider, the TOPS software supports the fourth pillar of Total Alignment, Culture.

Culture

Companies that have experienced the implementation of the first three pillars described above have already noticed a significant culture change. Their workforce has appreciated the transparency of the process. They have been involved in articulating their company mission, vision and values and have taken ownership for them. They have had access to the framework for action in the alignment map. And above all, they have gained a laser-clear understanding of the relationship of their scorecard to the vision of the organization, the line of sight that is truly meaningful. Yet, the cultural advance associated with all this is just the beginning of a more profound cultural change through the fourth pillar, Culture.

There are a few principles that guide the culture of Total Alignment. Among them are two: the oneness of humankind and cooperation & reciprocity. *  The first has implications for the way everyone in the organization views and treats others. It implies that the treatment of others is not stained by the lens of otherness, us and them, white collar and blue collar, managers and workers, old and young, bosses and subordinates, regular workers and temporary workers. All are equal and one, although each person has a different contribution to make based on levels of education, skills, etc. All contributions are valued, respected and their diversity is a true competitive advantage. The application of this principle stands in sharp contrast to the culture that exists in many organizations where the organizational hierarchy gives permission to managers to feel superior to those reporting to them and to feel obligated to continually issue orders and directives.

The second principle, cooperation & reciprocity, has the implication of turning self-interest into the interest of the organization in pursuit of its vision. There is an investment of time and energy in cooperation and reciprocity that comes with the sacrifice of self-interest. The application of this principle also stands in sharp contrast to the culture that exists in many organizations, where climbing to the top often follows the path of individual advancement and putting down rivals.

Bringing about the new culture of Total Alignment is not easy, especially when there are structures already in place in the organization that encourage the wrong habits developed through time. We believe you cannot build alignment upon the status quo. Some existing processes must change and be replaced with new ones.

One such structure is the performance appraisal system that involves managers meeting once or twice a year with their direct reports to evaluate them and to determine the objectives to be pursued for the coming year. Often employees reporting to different managers receive totally different objectives more aligned with the boss than with the vision and strategy of the organization. In Total Alignment, we have eliminated this practice. The scorecards already define the jobholders’ focus, and the evaluation of performance is transparent in the performance of scorecards. When Total Alignment is implemented, the traditional performance appraisal practice that feeds the ego of the manager can be counterproductive, with little value to the employer or the employee is replaced.

We have replaced this practice with what we call vertical review, a process that begins with one-on-one monthly or weekly meetings of a manager with his direct report, not for evaluation, but for assistance and empowerment. The meeting is followed by action and then reflection on action in the subsequent meeting. This practice also affords the opportunity of the two individuals to spend time sharing insights on the core values of the company and to consult on plans to improve competencies needed to excel. Other topics important to each person are also discussed.

The takeaway from a vertical review meeting for the collaborator is that he leaves the meeting with sharper focus on action plans to improve his competency and the performance of his scorecard than when he entered. He also leaves with learning gained through reflection and with higher motivation than when he entered the conversation. The takeaway for the manager is that he becomes aligned with the direct report in their common aim to advance the company, gains confidence that the collaborator has clarity on what he needs to succeed and feels more in control of what will take place in his area of responsibility. The systematic nature of vertical review allows him to increase his span of control by working with more collaborators.

Where Total Alignment is implemented, the performance appraisal system is not abruptly taken out. However, as the vertical review process is implemented and demonstrates its value, the necessity for performance appraisal diminishes in time and the practice discontinues naturally.

A second structure that we felt the need to eliminate is the staff meeting of a manager with direct reports to review results. It is often a downward focused meeting where the result of each area is presented. The meeting takes a considerable amount of time especially when there are many presenters. Besides the fact that much of what is presented by one person is irrelevant to the others, it feeds the feeling of superiority of the boss who sits in a position of judgement of the presenters. This type of meeting is not aligned with the principle of oneness discussed above. While it has the potential of supporting the principle of cooperation and reciprocity, usually this opportunity is not explored.

We have eliminated such downward focused meetings in Total Alignment and replaced them with an upward focused paradigm, the team reviews. In a team review we require the same group to focus on the performance scorecard of the manager instead of the scorecard of the direct reports. This is a shorter meeting, more productive, and future oriented. With this flipped paradigm change, the manager and collaborators become focused on improving performance. Each collaborator is equally invited to contribute to the improvement of the manager’s scorecard. This meeting unites the group in a common purpose. Here, again, we are not suggesting an abrupt action of elimination of the current result meetings, but a gradual phasing out of the practice as the new process of team review takes hold.

A space is created in the team review to reflect on the meaning of the core values of the organization and to assure alignment of everyone with the desired behaviors. Additionally, team reviews spend most of the time on performance of the scorecard of the manager. The team spends time thinking about how each indicator or initiative serves to advance the vision of the company, why its performance status has been above or below the satisfactory level, and how it can improve.

Prior to the meeting, the manager selects one KPI from his scorecard as the main topic of conversation and invites jobholders not reporting to him, with indispensable influence on the indicator. This brings the cross-functional influencers together with the entire natural team to the team review meeting. Together they apply in-depth problem-solving tools to arrive at a strategy to improve the performance of the KPI. They assign tasks required by the strategy along with deadlines assigned to appropriate individuals.

The execution of the action plan takes place after the meeting and throughout the month. When the same group comes together in a subsequent meeting, reflection on action and learning takes place and the action plan is modified as needed for another cycle.

Action plans are constructed at the lowest appropriate levels to improve the performance of a KPI. For those who have management influence on the KPI, their action plans become delta action plans in the sense that their effort is directed to the delta influence they exert on areas out of the control of the person who has the primary accountability for the KPI.

In summary, this fourth pillar, powered by the two interconnected management processes of team review and vertical review cascades throughout the organization, strengthens the culture change already initiated and ensures the quality and sustainability of alignment. Each of the conversations in team reviews and vertical reviews follow a unique methodology. A template for action planning accessible to all managers supports the action plans generated in these meetings.

Team reviews and vertical reviews are supported by the TOPS software on computers or mobile devices to obtain timely, relevant, and accurate information needed at any time. The software also facilitates the generation and distribution of meeting agendas, capturing of commitments for action with deadlines, and sending of reminders and notifications.

Conclusion

This note has covered the summary and thinking behind the interacting processes that lead to a state of total alignment in the organization. Where these processes have been fully implemented, the vision of the company has unfolded and gradually turned into reality, and the results show for themselves. Often vision is achieved sooner than expected and the results are obtained beyond the outstanding levels. The results tend to be both tangible and intangible, tangible in the top line and bottom line of the company financials, and intangible in the cultural environment affecting the quality of life of the workforce. There is no single leader who takes the company on a journey to the desired future. There are many acting as one.

The main ideas discussed in this note are the following:

• The paper is not about how to grow your company or maximize profits. It is about creating a state of alignment where many act as one, with the outcome being unity and progress.
• Mission, Vision, and Values are the most important assets of the organization and must be at the center of everything.
• The Alignment Map serves as the framework for action for the organization.
• The structure of the alignment map consists of mission-vision-values at its center, the KPIs that measure the vision on its left side and strategies that carry the company toward vision on its right side.
• Devising strategy must not violate the core values. It must avoid practices such as price wars that affect competitors, false advertising, taking advantage of employees by paying them less than their contribution is worth, damaging the environment, etc.
• Vying with rivals is a good thing if it encourages the company and its competitor to both excel in creativity and excellence thus contributing to the betterment of the world.
• Accountability for all jobholders emerges from the alignment map. Each KPI and Strategic initiative is assigned to one individual as the main person responsible as well as to others who have indispensable influence on the KPI or strategic initiative.
• The Total Alignment concept of accountability encourages cross-functional collaboration and eliminates silos.
• Individual Scorecards are created through a top-down assignment using the alignment map as well as bottom-up complement to add the main measurable responsibility of the job.
• Goals for each KPI and strategic initiative are assigned and listed in the individual scorecard.
• The software TOPS links with the company data warehouse and displays the performance status of each KPI or strategic initiative.
• Twin management processes of team review and vertical review serve to boost performance, sustain the state of alignment, and create knowledge through experience.
• Vertical review is a one-on-one process that begins with a meeting followed by action and then reflection in a subsequent meeting. The learning model of consultation-action-reflection on action is embedded in this process.
• The vertical review process also focuses on the necessity of aligning with values and development of the competency of the collaborator.
• Team review is a team process where the natural team aims to improve the scorecard of the team leader. It begins with a meeting followed by action and then reflection in a subsequent meeting. The learning model of consultation-action-reflection on action is embedded in this process also.
• Team reviews and vertical reviews are cascaded at all the levels beginning with the CEO down to the supervisor levels in organizations. They sustain alignment through time, both horizontally and vertically.

* [Bahá’í Writings]

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1. Responding to new ideas with openness

Instead of immediately responding to a new idea with “no,” isn’t it better to say, “let’s look at it, why not?” Naysayers create an environment where no one wants to take chances. The famous statement attributed to Robert Kennedy, “Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?” apply also to the ideas that your employees may have. If they are free to express them, you have created a culture that nurtures innovation. If you believe innovation is important, then openness to new ideas is a must. Without this cultural orientation, your company is at risk of passing by many ideas that could, if adopted, add to the growth and profitability of the business. By having a habit of saying no, you also run the risk of losing quality talent – talent that continues to grow impatient with corporate sluggishness and either leaves or becomes lethargic.

2. Collaborating

The old adage “no man is an island” is especially true within an organization because the talent of all is needed to pursue a common goal. Yet, lack of collaboration remains an important barrier to progress. Why is it that people prefer to work in silos instead of collaborating? There are many reasons. However, the root cause in our experience is the desire of each individual to apply his or her own solution toward the fulfillment of the common goal. The thinking goes something like this, “I know that my scheme works; I don’t understand the schemes proposed by others; I’ll do mine and prove it’s efficacy; I’ll convince others to follow my way.” But if everyone thinks this way, no scheme will have sufficient support to succeed. Cultural transformation requires a change in this behavior.

We have developed five laws necessary for collaboration: First, never make a command decision unless there is an emergency. Second, never take back responsibility after delegation unless the collaborator is incompetent and is being replaced. Third, never take a decision about your own area of responsibility without first getting the input of those who have indispensable influence on your success. Fourth, never take a decision that impacts the performance of a person on whom you have indispensable influence without first consulting with them. Fifth, if you are managing people who have indispensable influence on someone else’s results, never encourage them to take over from the person who is accountable. Their contribution should be only through influence and persuasion.

3. Responsibility / Accountability

What does taking responsibility mean and what do you do when you are responsible? A closely related question is accountability, what does it mean and what do you do when you are accountable? The answers to these questions are not clear in many organizations. When you ask managers in a company, who is responsible for sales? Everyone will come forward. When you ask, who is accountable for sales, everyone will come forward. Our response is that if everyone is accountable, then no one is. Accountability should be assigned to the person at the lowest appropriate level of the organization, to the person who logically has the scope to perform. In a sales organization, this person would be the sales person. Managers of sales people at upper levels of the organization don’t sell. They influence sales through their management influence. While they are responsible to be sure sales quotas are achieved, accountability for sales is at lower levels. Companies need to define accountabilities for all the key performance indicators in the company to the appropriate levels. Setting up a corporate rewards system that links performance to rewards is encouraged to motivate people to be more responsible and accountable.

4. Proactive Action Planning

Ideally, each manager in the organization should be held accountable for at most 5 main performance indicators. More than that would cause the person to lose focus. But, for the five indicators, proactive action planning is necessary. What do we mean by that? We mean the person should analyze what he or she can do to cause the indicator to improve. The analysis should determine the root causes that affect the indicator in the negative or positive fashion, and a proactive action plan for dealing with them must be developed. This is not an exercise you do one time. Rather, it is a habit you form to improve your performance on a day-to-day basis. The promotion of the action planning mentality along with applying the problem solving tools that enhance the quality of the action plans are important characteristics of cultural transformation we are proposing.

5. Following through

Naturally, following through with commitments that emerge from the action planning process is key to good execution. In many organizations, managers make commitments, but forget them as time passes without making sure that the commitments are done, or if they are not relevant, they are deleted or the deadline is moved. In one-on-one vertical meetings, collaborators review the commitments completed with managers and get approval. The cultural transformation we propose promotes the discipline of completing commitments on time and with proof of completion. We also propose incentives for follow through to be linked to compensation in order to strengthen this important element of the cultural transformation process.

6. Making decisions based on facts

Successful corporations and leaders make decisions based on facts and not emotions, biases or opinions. Fact-based decisions help mitigate our inherent cognitive biases. They reduce the chance of these standing in the way of rational decision making. The habit of making decisions based on facts requires looking for data to validate or eliminate conclusions. It is at the heart of the action planning process we discussed above. This habit presents a huge cultural change for many managers. Yet, it should not be taken to extremes as it could stifle valid conclusions that are based on intuition.

7. Reflecting on action and learning

Many people think without translating their thoughts into action, or act without a sound thinking prior to action. Many act, but don’t reflect after action to figure out what they could have done differently, what they learned, and what they would do differently going forward. The cultural transformation we propose encourages managers to constantly evaluate how things are progressing and what behaviors need to be adjusted to ensure meeting goals. The habit of planning, action and reflection is key to the learning culture that promotes innovation and moves the organization to greatness.

Employing these 7 habits will lead to more rewarding behaviors, and in turn to a great culture.

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1. Define Corporate Values

In the current business environment, we constantly hear the terms core values, mission statements and culture thrown around. Although these ubiquitous terms are integrated into our daily business language, few employees can successfully define them and even fewer are living them at work. To ensure meaningful cultural change, we have to first define the values that we want our organization to follow. Once defined, the value system helps change the culture in a few important ways. First, corporate values become primary recruiting and retention tools. With the ease of researching companies, job seekers are doing their homework on the identities of potential employers and weighing whether or not these companies hold the values that the job seekers consider are important. On the flipside, managers and recruiters can use the core values to evaluate potential candidates to see if they are a good cultural fit for the organization.

Second, core values educate and inform current clients, potential customers, and industry partners about what the company is about and clarify the identity of the company. In this competitive world, having a set of specific core values that speak to the public is definitely a competitive advantage. Many companies have done this first step, have defined core values, but have not gone to the next step.

2. Define Pinpointed Behaviors

With a clearly defined set of core corporate values, defining behaviors to support those values is necessary. Cultural change will be more meaningful for employees when they can see and understand that their expected behaviors are aligned with the corporate values and goals. The definition is not always easy. By pinpointed behaviors we mean behaviors that are specific, observable and verifiable. In other words, two people looking at the behavior can come to the same conclusion as to whether it is happening or not. Examples of pinpointed behaviors aligned with the corporate value of “treating people with respect,” for example are: listening with attention, not imposing personal views on others, not interrupting conversations, not putting down people by words or body gestures, not backbiting, that is saying something negative about a person in his absence, not acting with prejudice based on race, status or education. When you define pinpointed behavior for each of your core values, you will be defining a value-behavior tree. A value-behavior tree is the frame of reference for culture change. All conversations within the company, all behaviors of everyone should be aligned with this tree. With such clear guidelines, employees feel empowered to act and exhibit these behaviors.

3. Change Your Own Behaviors

If you want to ask someone to change behavior to be aligned with the value-behavior tree, it is necessary that you have done it first. Otherwise, you would be a hypocrite. Modeling behavior based on the values is crucial – especially by anyone in a leadership role, starting with the CEO and the executive team. If the CEO doesn’t lead, the cultural change will not succeed. So, try yourself to be the best example of the change. How do you change your behavior? By defining antecedents to the behavior or reminders for practicing the new behaviors, by making the effort to exhibit the behavior, and then having someone you trust give you feedback. It’s that simple, but it requires disciplined action.

4. Facilitate Change in Others

Once the leadership team is actively “living and breathing” the culture and corporate values, the rest of the organization follows suit. To facilitate change in others, reinforcement is huge. There are two management processes we are suggesting organizations implement and cascade at all levels called team result process and vertical result process. Conversation about the core values and the pinpointed behaviors that manifest them are embedded in these twin processes. Organizations should encourage a system of promoting these new behaviors. As an example of paying attention to values, leadership teams can select one value for each month and the conversations at all levels can be focused on that value throughout the company.

With these four steps, moving your organization through a difficult change or cultural shift will be comfortable for both leadership and teams.

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With today’s workforce of a different generation that is more educated and diverse, it is important to reevaluate a process that has been in place since the last century. Today’s generation works best in collaborative and empowering environments, requiring continuous feedback from managers and co-workers. Without feedback, talent tends to leave and look for  jobs with more support and career development. It’s time to abandon the performance appraisal concept of the last century and build a new one. Here is how:  

Have a more frequent conversation between you and your collaborator and change the format and content. Call it vertical results process and focus the conversation on improving results through building capacity. Make it a process rather than an event, a process that begins with a conversation followed by action and then reflection and learning. Improving results implies helping the collaborator improve his results, and is very different than evaluating the collaborator and putting him or her on the defensive. Building capacity implies giving the collaborator the support and accompaniment he or she needs to improve competencies. Feedback is at the center of this process. Given in a constructive and positive manner, feedback is a powerful driver of talent improvement. How and when you give feedback is as important as what you say. If done badly it can actually hinder a person’s ability to learn and damage their confidence.

Create an environment in the vertical meeting where hierarchy is not allowed to extinguish valuable contributions by your collaborator. This is different than the environment in performance appraisals where collaborators are on guard and careful about what they say. You want to create an empowering environment where the two of you are exploring how the collaborator can become more competent, and how the results for which he or she is accountable can be improved.  

Four Topics for Conversations

In a vertical meeting you can cover four topics: culture, performance, development and other important topics. Culture conversation aims at discussing the values of the organization and encouraging congruence of behaviors with values. By initiating a conversation about culture, you become the agent of change and help the collaborator align his or her behaviors with the company’s core values. You are not only helping your collaborator align his or her behaviors, you are reminding yourself to reflect on how you can lead by example. And when this vertical process is cascaded downwards, your collaborators will have a similar conversation with their collaborators.

The next topic is performance conversation. Here is your opportunity for reviewing the performance of the collaborator over the pervious month. By looking at, highlighting and reinforcing the positive performance, your collaborator gets the energy needed to pay attention to areas needing improvement. Specifically, take the opportunity of looking at and improving the action plans the collaborator has developed. Be sure the environment you are creating is one of collaboration and exploration, where you are helping to improve the action plan already developed rather than evaluating and criticizing it.  And, as this performance conversation is cascaded downwards to the next levels, all levels will have the benefit of paying attention to performance and results.  

Development conversation is the next topic in a vertical meeting. The purpose here is to ascertain that your collaborator is improving his or her competency on the skills needed to succeed in the job. This is a valuable discussion as it aims to develop capacity at the next level of the organization and aid in succession planning. Your collaborator may or may not know exactly what skills he needs or how to improve on the skills. During the conversation, help your collaborator zero in on the needed skills, and encourage him to develop a self-improvement plan. With your support as the manager and assistance from the Human Resource department, capacities are enhanced that improve your collaborator’s results and through that, the bottom line of the organization. Imagine the impact of this conversation on strengthening the pool of talent and impacting results when this conversation is cascaded downward to cover all levels!

The last conversation covers other topics that are important to either you or your collaborator. We have provided this space to be sure that your collaborator leaves the vertical meeting having covered all the important topics he or she needs in order to stay focused on the job. Ideally, your collaborator leaves the meeting highly focused and motivated.

It is important to remember a few key points in order to get the most out of this powerful process. See your collaborator as an equal who needs your accompaniment to learn, and also one who can provide you with the opportunity to learn. When giving feedback, be sure you focus on the positives, the strengths. Be sure you give specific examples of how his or her performance has added value to you and the organization. When giving negative feedback, remember you are not criticizing the person; you are giving an example of behaviors that are undesirable. Be sure that your style of leadership is appropriate to the development level of your collaborator. If you are too directive when you should be supportive, then you will freeze creative input. Be sure you maintain discretion and privacy when discussing your collaborator’s performance. Nothing ruins trust between a manager and an employee more than a violation of trust and confidentiality. These are the characteristics of an important management process that replaces the existing performance appraisal.

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Being trustworthy

It’s important to start with the value of trust. Being trustworthy is what the word actually coveys, being worthy of someone’s trust. It means behaving consistently in a manner that attracts people’s trust in you. This is probably the greatest asset you could have. Why? Because with this value, your customers will trust you and buy more of what you are offering; your suppliers will trust you and give you their best; your employer and boss will trust you and empower you to act. Trustworthiness establishes a level of comfort between leaders and their team. If your team members and the others in the organization inherently trust you, they will be more motivated to follow your lead and this will, of course, benefit the corporation.

Being customer oriented

Creating a culture of being ‘customer oriented’ is an important key to the success of any business. But what does it mean? It means knowing your customers so well that you understand their needs and their pains. It means empathizing with their pains, being concerned about their wellbeing and striving to serve them. This orientation will make you responsive to their feedback; it will cause you to look at the service or products you offer from their point of view – not just because they are important contributors to your bottom line. When you take care of the customer and provide excellent products or services – the bottom line will take care of itself.

Being quality conscious

Similarly, paying attention to quality enhances the customer experience and creates repeat customers. If the value, customer orientation, is respected, then you would want your customers to have the best quality you can offer them. You would want them to feel good about the product or service every time they use it. You would want the product or service you are offering to maintain quality and last as long as possible. Being quality conscious doesn’t only apply to external customers; your team and employees are your customers as well. Creating a culture of high quality encourages people to raise their standards and performance.

Being positive

We are habitually prone to focus on the negative, on what is not working right, and criticize or offer suggestions for improvement. A change in this orientation is necessary. Instead of immediately focusing on the negative, try to discover the strengths and build on them. Being positive gives people the confidence and energy necessary to improve. Placing value on positive attitudes in your organization benefits everyone’s outlook. Studies show that people feel inspired and empowered when they are surrounded by positivity. Barbara Fredrickson’s Broaden-and-Build research demonstrates that as people experience more positive emotions, they become more resilient to stress and develop a broader perspective that allows them to see the big picture and identify solutions. This is all good news for leaders who want to see more creative solutions from their team!

Being respectful

Respect is a human right and everyone deserves to be respected. While we all agree with this value, many are unaware of what it really implies. When someone speaks and we interrupt, we are not showing respect. When someone speaks and we don’t listen, we are not showing respect. But what if we arrive late to a meeting? Is that not disrespectful to the others present? We would probably never show up late for a meeting with someone of a higher social status. The value of being respectful is often ignored because people are so preoccupied with their own agenda. Yet we long for creativity and innovation in our organizations! Innovative ideas come from people at any level of an organization who are not discouraged from expressing their views, and are treated with respect. A culture of respect enables people to contribute knowing that they would be heard, and to share their ideas without fear. Treating people right because they truly matter fosters a healthy and trusting organizational culture.

Being in a learning mode

With all of the technological and scientific advances in recent years, we have access to vast amount of information to feed our learning. We are reminded how important it is to be lifelong learners. But being in a learning mode is not just being up to date with technology and information. A learning mode is an attitude that enables you to learn from your experience. It is an attitude that avoids rigidity and insisting that it’s “my way or the highway”. It is an attitude that encourages improvements and innovations. When you are in a learning mode, you are showing your team that you are open to change, that you respect the opinions of others, and listen to learn. You never know where the next great idea will come from!

Values permeate organizational culture in many ways. Setting clear ones, and the right ones, will lead your team to success.

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1. Dwelling on the negative

All actions lead to outcomes, some desirable and some not so desirable – successes and failures. Naturally, we are pleased to see the desirable outcomes, but what about the undesirable? Recognizing them and taking remedial action is necessary, but dwelling on them is unhealthy. Savvy leaders know that everyone in the company carefully watches how the leaders respond to failures. Do they see failure as an opportunity to learn or an opportunity to punish? The first is positive. The second is negative. The first reinforces action and encourages creativity and innovation. The second discourages action and causes fear of failure with the consequence of squelching creativity. Dwelling on the negative should be avoided at all costs. Instead, acknowledge the failure, make sure learning has taken place and focus on the successes as the lever with which the failures could be more than compensated for.

2. Acting defensively

When criticism comes your way, you have a choice of ignoring it, considering it an opportunity for improvement, or acting in a defensive fashion. Of the three choices the most destructive response is the last one. There is nothing to be gained by being defensive, except calming your ego. Okay, maybe the criticism was not fair and the accuser was trying to put you down for his or her gratification, but how would a defensive reaction benefit you? It would probably further alienate the accuser and reinforce the accusation. When you act defensively, you tend to seek out ways to minimize interaction with your peers or direct reports, and deprive yourself of valuable input. This doesn’t mean you should not defend a concept, a principle or a value. You should, indeed you must. What we are talking about is avoiding a defensive discourse based on taking the message personally. The culture of defensiveness should be avoided. Instead, people should be encouraged to be detached and try to let critical input bounce off and take the message as feedback for their improvement.

3. Giving in to Apathy

Apathy saps the energy the organization needs to achieve its vision. When apathy sets in and grows beyond a few people, the organization is in trouble. Leaders should be on guard to notice cultural patterns that cause apathy and change them immediately. A person is usually apathetic because the real purpose of working in the organization has been lost. The sense of mission, of helping others, of serving the customers and making a difference is no longer meaningful. It is an indication that the person may s never have understood or bought into the mission and vision of the organization. Hence the person sees no reason to serve others and to collaborate with peers to achieve a common goal. The way to combat apathy is to facilitate involvement, ownership of the mission and vision of the organization and, most importantly, a clear definition of how each person can add value.

4. Introducing fear into the organization

Some leaders introduce fear in the organization in order to force people to perform. But this tactic at best produces a temporary result. Under the threat of fear people freeze their creative contribution and perform only what is necessary to avoid their actions getting detected. They would not go out of their way to do great things for the company. Fear sets up the organization for mediocrity and mediocrity gives market share to the competitors. In today’s business environment, what keeps you in the business game are new creative products and services that would differentiate you from your competitors. With differentiation, you can demand higher prices and the income needed for growth. By bullying and creating fear amongst your team you are extinguishing creativity as well as multiplying the problem, as those who succeed in such a culture are likely to be bullies, too.

5. Hiding the truth

There is no other destructive habits as damaging as hiding the truth. Truth is information, and without accurate, timely and complete information a business cannot survive. The culture will soon degenerate into dishonesty and corruption. Some people feel that when something unpleasant appears, hiding it will protect them and guard their position. Far from it. Hiding the truth is cause for immediately getting fired. Leaders should make every effort to stop this behavior at all costs. Instead, people should know that the truth is their best friend, and any news, however unpleasant, can only help them if they deal with it in a responsible fashion.

6. Protecting turfs

Protecting turfs also stems from the lack of understanding and ownership of the mission and vision of the organization. When a person applies for work and is placed in a particular function whether it is human resources, finance, information technology or a line area, the tendency could be to focus only on strengthening their position in this function. Yet, there is a higher purpose beyond the functional silo. It is to help the organization to fulfill its mission and achieve its vision. When there is conflict, one can have the temptation to serve the immediate master. That is unhealthy and should be avoided. What a healthy culture requires is selfless effort to serve the good of the whole, not be blinded by the requirement of the part and be tempted to protect a turf. Sadly, many large organizations tolerate a culture of silos and turfs. This should be avoided at all costs.

7. Causing disunity

An organization is a collection of people who are brought together to accomplish a common goal. Unity of these people creates the energy to advance toward the goal. Imagine someone causing disunity among this group. It saps energy, causes people to blame each other, to protect turfs, act defensively, hide the truth and other toxic behaviors we have discussed in this post. What sets in is apathy and lethargy. Such an environment is not attractive to talent retention. Your good people will escape and without talent, the organization will lose its ability to succeed. When failure becomes imminent in the organization, that is when leaders should be sure that people don’t lose faith, don’t move into a survival mode and cause disunity. Their faith must be restored and the habit of causing disunity must be avoided at all costs. Instead, people should be encouraged to gain an understanding of the purpose of the organization and explore how each person can contribute to its advance.

Eliminating these negative behaviors and replacing them with positive ones will enable your corporation to nurture a healthy culture and move forward towards success.

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