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ART FEST 2010

Hosted by Economic Development Organizations from Adams, Allen, Huntington, Wells & Whitley Counties.

Economic Development Forum Invitation

Thursday, September 16th ~ 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Huntington University

Wednesday, August 25th ~ 7:30 a.m.

Arts, Commerce & Visitors Centre

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7:30 am

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August Business Before Hours

In building a sustainable Culture for your organization, there are five fundamental questions that must be answered. These questions build the foundation for what will evolve into a complete Vision, Mission, and Core Values statement.

1. Who are we?
This is quite simply Identity. Your organization’s Identity comes from the people you have working there. Who do your staff believe the organization or themselves to be? Even if you think you know, you need to ask them. The asking itself is an important part of the process. Are there different answers? This will illuminate areas you need to focus on. If people have a vision of themselves as having a certain identity, and the company as having a very different identity, there will be a “fracture” from day one.

You need to start establishing a definition of “who are we?” that includes the individuals working for you, and the company’s vision of who they are. The Vision must contain both definitions to not experience that fracture, which will eventually become a morale or policy problem. When you have an answer that the people working for you agree is true, and it’s complementary to what “corporate” or Leadership believes is the definition, you have a good start to this process.

2. What are we doing?
This defines the work and establishes that your staff is on the same page with you about what they’re there to do. What is the product/service that you are selling, and why? What problem are you solving for people? What is the reason to come to work? Once again, this needs to be defined by your staff (getting a consensus) as well as agreeing with your company’s definition of product/service and what problem is being solved.

3. Who are we doing it for?
This question establishes that your people are clear on who your target audience is. Who is your demographic? If they are not clear, your messages cannot be clear either. This is especially important for anyone involved in business development or messaging. To communicate with the buying public, you need to know whether you are selling to stay at home Moms or young professionals at work. If your staff is not clear on this, the message of your team gets vague and unfocused. If the message is unfocused, your staff’s work efforts will become unfocused as well.

4. How will we do it?
This is the big Culture question. How asks “in what way will we do our work?” This is where you will establish a list of Core Values that everyone wants to live and work by. Once again, when there is a split between the values held by the organization and the values held by staff, you will experience a fracture in morale, resulting in productivity and turnover issues. Furthermore, without this basis of shared values, solving problems becomes dependent on following strict guidelines and rules, striving to predict infinite contingencies and possibilities. When coming from shared values, problem-solving automatically adheres to a certain code and predictability.

To get started on this process, we need to poll our staff to do an Inventory of Values, to see who holds which values, and how many share which ones. Establishing a list of Core Values that everyone on your team wants to live and work by is the most important pillar in building a team. If your team has a strong agreement about Integrity, that will become a foundation of how your staff conducts themselves. Without these Values being shared and communicated, no definitive Culture will form. The best one can hope for is what might be called an “accidental” culture; a culture that just forms on its own, by accident or default. This list or Inventory of Values needs to be established by as many of your staff as you can get together, preferably in a single block of time, (brainstorming session.)

5. How will we know when we are successful?
This question establishes Metrics. If you don’t have some idea of what you have as a definition of Success, you can’t tell when you get there. This is beyond a mere goal. Having this kind of definition lets you know when you are doing what you set out to do, and also when you are not, so that you can go back to an earlier stage of the process, and figure out where you went off course.

You and your team must agree on a definition of success (for the individual, the team, and the organization). Most people agree that happiness is a part of their own definition of success. This is just as true for an organization. If your definition of success includes happiness, you need to make sure that everyone has an agreement regarding the Three Components for Business Happiness: Profit, Passion, and Purpose. This is a three-legged stool, and when any one of these legs gets too much or too little attention, the instability is immediate. Focus on profit without passion, you get turnover. Focus on profit without higher purpose, you have BP and Wall Street investment banking. Focus on passion and purpose without profit, and you have a short-lived enterprise.

Profit is usually set by company leadership and self-explanatory. Passion is very personal, and requires sit-down time with your staff. You need to find out what they are passionate about, and how that can be woven into the fabric of your organization. Purpose is another part that requires getting input from your staff. When people feel aligned with a Purpose, they feel aligned with something larger than themselves. When they are aligned with something larger than themselves, it takes their minds off of their personal issues.

Only when we focus on our own personal survival issues do we feel a sense of isolation and a lack of Purpose and direction. When we focus on larger, more global issues, we look up from our lives, and become more aligned with contribution, as opposed to taking for ourselves. This level of consciousness is of course, what you want to bring out in your staff. Thus these Five Questions need to be addressed by your entire team, together, with discussion.

When everyone in your organization can answer these questions, a genuinely sustainable Culture is born. This is the key to the success of organizations from Nordstrom’s to Zappos. People are empowered to do their best to facilitate these values, and cohesiveness and congruence flow from the loading dock to the Board Room.

4 Mistakes That will Kill Your Data Backup Plan

Thanks to Blake King of G6 Communications LLC.
bking@g6com.com
800-5603359
www.g6com.com

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