The recent story out of the ANZ regarding David Hisco, the NZ CEO, is extraordinary. Over his 9-year tenure it cannot be denied that Hisco has done a fantastic job for his shareholders delivering over $13B in dividends during his tenure.

So, on the face of it, it doesn’t seem like he has committed the crime of the century. Does he deserve this public humiliation? Especially given that no ANZ customer has been directly affected by his actions?

In the past, relocation and other monetary support was the norm. Incentives to attract talent. However, perhaps after 9 years, and with a call for major changes in culture and conduct in the banking sector (which he has not acted on), it was time for him to change his own mindset. And, ANZ, and the media, certainly are making an example of him and his decisions. It’s a disappointing way to end a 30-year career. But, it appears that the excesses of the past were not challenged in this current environment.

One thing is for certain, Hisco was not leading by example. I’m sure ANZ staff are also disappointed with him. I wonder if he would have found it acceptable behaviour if it had been a member of staff at the ANZ and whether it would have been deemed as misappropriating company money. This would surely have been met with instant dismissal. Bottom line, it appears that ANZ treats its staff and executives differently. But is this right in today’s environment?

What next?

Challenge yourself:
Are you challenging yourself on some of the outdated mindsets and behaviours of the past, even when it might mean you have to give up some of those ‘perks’?

Check out:

Watch:
Simon Sinek (particularly around 25 minutes):

Company culture is often defined as “the way we do things round here” - it’s all about the power of social influence.

This video from Candid Camera shows just who easy it is for someone to start doing things the same way everyone else does instead of doing what they think is the right, or questioning why things are done a certain way. In society, when everyone's doing something, people naturally feel the need to fit in and follow the masses. And that is what can happen in organisations too.

But that is not always a good thing. Without a culture that questions the status quo and has curiosity at heart, many organisations can struggle to improve and stay relevant in a world that is being turned upside down by digital initiatives.

Have a watch of 'Everybody's doing it'.

After watching the video, think about how things are done in your organisation. Does your culture need to be more questioning and ask “why do we do things we do?’ Quite often noone knows the answer to that and a common response is often “because it’s how we’ve always done it!”

As the commercial world rapidly changes do you need your people to break out of old ways and action ideas that will improve the business?

If so, get in contact and lets talk about how you can change peoples mindsets to change the status quo.

Are your staff excited about the future and the company they work for?

At ON-Brand Partners we are all about creating 'Exciting Companies' - companies with real energy and purpose, where everyone is engaged, empowered and excited to execute your strategy successfully and deliver on what you promise to your customers.

First hand experience tells us that organisational culture is the biggest regulator of success and because of this, business strategy is only ever as good as the mindsets of the people who are tasked with delivering it. Without the right culture, studies indicate up to 70% of strategy or change initiatives fail to deliver their promised benefits. And critically, the energy and excitement for the future ahead wains.

Whether it is culture change in its broadest sense, or you have specific business challenge such as poor customer focus, weak staff engagement, disparate strategic agendas, leadership competency issues or lack of innovation, our proven approach to changing mindsets and aligning behaviours can help.

Typically, we work with leadership teams who acknowledge that areas of their business "just aren't working the way they need to" and are therefore not delivering the performance required of them. Frequently this is not for lack of good strategy, but more because the people expected to deliver that strategy don't know it exists, don't see it in context to their role, or don't understand it enough to 'buy into' it. They are not ‘excited’ by it.
For some, excitement is a simple emotion not generally associated with the workplace but ultimately it is what gets things done! If you are not convinced, think about what gets you out of bed in the morning and raring to take on your work challenges. It’s purpose, belief, direction - all the things that excite you and make spending time on them worthwhile

At ON-Brand our role is to help Engage, Empower and Excite your people to effectively action your strategy as intended. As their competence and confidence builds, real positive momentum for further change is created and you will see an 'exciting company' emerge - one that is well equipped to meet the challenges ahead.

So how would you describe your organisation? Can you sense the energy needed to get the job done?


ON-Brand Partners
Exciting Companies

Delighted to see the CEO of an organisation, who have been using our TakeON! Management Matters programme for a number of years, saying that "Many of our team who experience it genuinely think of it as life changing".
We've heard this said many times before and we can never hear it enough. Thanks for the great feedback.

Development themes like Emotional Resilience, Taking Charge of Change, Connecting Vision and Purpose, Self Awareness and Courageous Conversations do change people lives and create leaders who are well set up to lead in a commercial world that is all about ambiguity and constant change.

If you are looking for a  conversation based leadership development porgramme that has lasting impact, way beyond leaving a training room, then take a look at TakeON!

When most people think of corporate strategy, they usually think research, analysis and planning but at ON-Brand Partners we’re much more fascinated with what makes ‘organisations’ tick and how that allows strategy to actually be implemented as intended. Following many deep discussions with those successful (and some less successful) in business, we identified a dilemma that has continued to drive us ever since.

With strategy...

Almost every significant organisation has a strategy, some brilliant, some good and admittedly, some which are ill-conceived.  But regardless, the stark reality is that very few organisations ever achieve anything like the true potential their strategy promises. A vast amount of research certainly bears that out.

So, what is an organisation? There may be many relevant answers to that question, but we like to say the starting point is that ‘an organisation is simply a group of people who come together to create something of value for others’.  Show us an organisation that doesn’t fit that criteria?

If that is true, then what really matters for sustained performance of an organisation, is the quality of both the connections that are made between the people on the inside, and the connections they then make to stakeholders on the outside (customers, suppliers, shareholders, communities).

Above all, everyone must be connected to that value which the organisation aims to create for others -  It’s purpose. Organisations connected to their purpose ensure that everyone has a clear line of sight to the customer – no matter how far removed they are from interacting with them - and the importance of their individual roles have for the stakeholders, inside and out.

In today’s parlance, we talk about this as the need to both ‘align’ and ‘engage’ your employees around what really matters to the business.  At ON-Brand Partners we’ve enjoyed a privileged journey in recent years working with some major organisations throughout the world, designing and implementing approaches that bridge this very gap.

We can proudly say that with our help, ‘they’ have delivered real results, often remarkable improvements in a range of performance measures – such as employee engagement, productivity, internal collaboration, customer loyalty, sales, revenues, and profit. In essence they were able to bring there strategy to fruition.

At times we have been staggered by the ‘positive momentum’ created and, most importantly, sustained. The ‘they’ I refer to is critical, because you should not expect that anyone on the ‘outside’ (such as consultants, coaches, trainers or advisors) can substitute for the effectiveness of leaders internally. But what ON-Brand has done is to have enabled the collective leadership of the organisations we have worked with to be more cohesive, focused and effective.

In essence, we’ve successfully ‘connected people through their work’.  In doing so, it has made a difference – to organisations, to teams, and to individuals.

Many of the companies who have partnered with ON-Brand are large organisations, who were able to bring to bear substantial quantities of time, people resources and money to address their issues.

However, we knew an opportunity existed for smaller organisations (say 100-1000 people) or sub-groups of larger organisations, to be equipped with similar capability and opportunity.


And that’s why we offer TakeON!

TakeON! represents a blend of the best thinking, resources and tools that we have developed for a range of clients over the last decade. It cuts to the core of what is required to succeed in today’s fast paced and unpredictable world.

Fundamentally, it offers a platform for leaders at all levels of your organisation to create meaningful dialogue around what really matters to their business at any time.  A platform that is embedded in ‘business as usual’ (not bolted alongside), which allows you to implement your strategy, or quickly shift the focus of your organisation in times of need.  And it progressively builds a culture that supports your business performance.

TakeON! empowers teams and individuals to reshape what they are doing. It builds confidence into the organisation because it brings greater balance to looking at ‘what is already working’ (rather than what is not working) and how you can build upon that.

It unleashes potential by fostering collaboration, innovation, and a focus on the future.

TakeON! has been tried and tested, refined and retested across a range of organisations.  It is designed to ensure an organisation becomes self-reliant as quickly as possible, but can always call on support where needed.

For us, our current and as yet unknown clients, it represents the best of what shapes culture, leadership and performance in today’s commercial world, giving them the means to adapt and compete where the ‘rules of the game’ no longer exist. We will continue to bring new thinking, provide new tools and always, be available to provide a sounding board and guidance such that your strategy comes to life and delivers what was intended.

Why?

Because the 'doing' matters as much as the thinking.

According to the Corporate Leadership Council's (CLC) study on High Performance, the conventional approaches to managing/leading performance have delivered gains of about 1% per annum since 2002.  Yet on average, Executives and Managers estimate they will need to lift employee performance by a whopping 20% to meet their organisation's goals over the next few years!

By analysing what the best performing organisations are achieving, they say this is possible. And the key to unlocking this 'Breakthrough' performance?  Increase the 'Network Performance' of employees.

Network Performance is defined as...
"employees effectiveness at improving others performance and using others contributions to improve his or her own performance".

At this point you might note that this is quite a different approach to traditional organisational development programmes which have typically focused on 'Individual Task Performance' i.e. an employee's effectiveness at achieving his/her own tasks and assignments.

Network Performance is essentially about the ability of everyone to freely and willingly transfer knowledge to the benefit of everyone. It includes things like:

• Effectively transferring great ideas from other parts of the organisation into their own work
• Improving procedures and processes based on ideas from others
• Effectively transferring skills and knowledge to co-workers
• Providing useful new ideas for products, services and process improvements to others
• Improving working methods, techniques or tools for others

The ability to achieve any of these comes down to whether your organisations culture actively facilitates them, vs working against them. For example, cultures which ignore or tolerate silos would struggle to get any type of true network performance. And business silos remain all too common today - possibly the one thing that almost all our clients say is an issue for them.

On a related note, this insightful article by Soren Gorhamer 5 New Paradigms for a Socially Engaged Company explores how "companies are realising that it is not enough to get people to show up to work; the real challenge is creating cultures that enhance creativity and innovation" and that's all about getting them working together better.

The article reinforces a number of really important points about why the concept of ‘Network performance’ is so important.

• build a culture that reflects the experience you want your customers to have so that experience comes naturally. For example, it is likely that staff will struggle to deliver great service to customers if they aren't getting it from their own colleagues! Think of the great quote by Sam Walton the founder of Walmart..."It only takes 1-2 weeks for employees to start treating customers the same way the employer is treating the employee"
• look to the wider organisation for the answers and ideas you need. Leaders don't have all the answers but the wider organisation and its customers almost certainly do, so provide the channels that allow that wisdom to be exposed and shared. Internal online community platforms like OBP’s ON2net are designed to be just that for those wanting to share what they know and learn from others
• ensure everyone in the business understands and is engaged around the 'purpose' of the business. It may sound cheesy but unless people really believe in what their organisation is there for, and understand the value it adds to its customers, they won't understand their particular role in achieving it, and you won't get the best out of them. This point was reinforced to us in a video taken at one of our engagement events where a staff member has just realised that he was 'not just an IT person' but had a much more important and significant role in helping to look after the financial welfare of their six million customers. I'm sure this guy feels much more connected to the business now and will look for more ways to deliver the best service to customers
  

Soren finishes his article with this powerful statement...

"The old paradigm was individualistic and focused on thriving to be personally brilliant; the new one is much more social, and it involves creating cultures that enhance innovation in all those present".

Brilliantly said. It's clearly time for everyone in an organisation to be brilliant together.

If your company culture doesn't support an integrated network approach to work, the team at ON-Brand Partners would love to talk about how we can help you build a culture that does.

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If you'd like to talk to ON-Brand Partners about how we can help you build the 'right' culture then we're ready to listen. Contact Us

I think that many of us have seen that a lot of change programmes have a high rate of failure - I believe the commonly reported failure rate is somewhere around...

In most cases this is simply because people are naturally afraid of what that change might mean for them, so they actively resist it - even if in reality it may in fact be a very positive thing for them directly!

If your organisation is embarking on  a transformation programme (and there is probably a 100% chance of that as the digital age turns current business models on their head) then the interview Overcoming the Fear of Change  published on the Gallup Management Journal provides some really good insights into why so many change initiatives do fail.

The point it makes about the critical role of the change sponsor(s) is a very good one, as time and time again I think we have all seen change initiatives fail simply because it seemed like no-one really cared about them, and the sponsor (typically a senior manager) isn't visible in walking the talk on why the change makes sense, and why it is a good thing.

If, for example, the CEO isn't as visible as they need to be around an initiative, David says people look around at those managing the change process and think, "Well, I see you talking about this change, but I don't hear the CEO talking about it. Why isn't he/she out here? Why aren't leaders telling their people this is important? Why are you the face of this, and why have they gone quiet?". Sound familiar? If the sponsor is unwilling or unable to play their required role, that is a strong signal that the change has never been that important.

And then, as David rightly points out, many employees will simply think...

“We start change programs, but we never seem to finish them properly” is another common frustration voiced, and a big reason why there is so much cynicism about change programmes, and that the world of change management is sadly riddled with failure. Basically it been made into something that people should fear, rather than embrace knowing it will be good for everyone.

In many cases I think a lot of organisations also mistake change management for an 'org chart' restructuring instead of restructuring what’s in peoples heads - the mindsets that influence everything they do and whether they buy into, and support, change.

This article What’s so hard about managing change and becoming more agile? is also a nice read as it also shares many of the the reasons why change is so prone to failure. I like the authors summation of what is required to make change management work.

Again, everything points to culture as the great regulator of success.

The article also has a great chart which looks at the drivers of real change and reinforces the point made in Overcoming the fear of change in that it is the things like the "lack of management commitment, passion and drive, feeling of involvement" that are the greatest barriers to change.

Working in the complex area of culture change, we have heard many times from a range of clients, about how past change initiatives  have come and gone without a trace and staff are understandably wary of them. This is one of the reasons why senior leadership engagement and  creating sustainability should be such a strong focus of any change programme i.e provide a framework, and build the competency within the organisation, to be able to allow all staff to successfully implement and manage change themselves going forward.

At ON-Brand Partners, our approach is all about helping you build a culture that overcomes the many barriers to successful change. We take into account your particular starting point and the issues and opportunities faced, to ensure the focus is tailored to the areas of greatest need. Each solution could include any of the following components of our Platform for Change, all brought together in our distinctive ON-Brand way.

With the ON-Brand approach, rather than your people saying "this isn't going to last”, instead you'll hear...

That's the time when you know the fear and cynicism has gone, excitement for the future ahead begins, and transformation sticks.

A while back one of our online learning community members posted a link to a case study article on the HBR Blog site. The article summarised the experience of Aetna as it transformed itself after a number of failed attempts. The major theme, not surprisingly, is about how to (and how not to) embrace the culture challenge.

Here’s a short exert.

“All too often, leaders see cultural initiatives, like the one at Aetna, as a last resort, except for top-down exhortations to change.  By the time they get around to culture, they’re convinced that a comprehensive overhaul of the culture is the only way to overcome the company’s resistance to major change. Culture thus becomes an excuse and a diversion, rather than an accelerator and an energizer.”

There is no doubt that the relationship between ‘change and culture’ has become an increasingly hot topic.  For example, take a look at many of the articles in the Harvard Business Review and you’ll see there is some great stuff all around innovation, R&D and transformation. And woven through those articles – all compiled by different experts - is the consistently common theme that culture matters! If you're still not convinced have a read of McKinsey's piece Culture: 4 keys to why it matters.  In it they reinforce that the 'right' culture is the one (and only) thing that will give an organisation the performance, unique point of difference and adaptability they constantly seek.


And at ON-Brand Partners we know this to be true, as we see it everyday in our clients as they work to create organisation's that can tackle a fast and unrelenting future. And the one thing that will support or hinder that change is whether their culture is right for the task.

Here’s our perspective on the key themes becoming undeniable when tackling organisational change:

1. ROI correlates first and foremost with ‘strategic alignment and culture’ and only then is there a clear causal relationship with the level of investment in innovation or change.  Strategy&’s  “The Global Innovation 1000” study is always strong on this point.

In effect, the pathway to maximise ROI should look like the chart here.  Unless you get the alignment and culture right, you’ll waste a lot of time and money on change efforts.

In reality, many organisations are still not grasping this.  We are often presented with ‘transformation journey’ diagrams that are completely the other way around. That is: Stage 1 - Systems and technology; Stage 2 - Operational processes, and finally; Stage 3 - Culture and people.  With that sequencing, culture is much more likely to become ‘an excuse and a diversion’ (as described in the Aetna case study).  Culture is only likely to be an 'accelerator and energizer' if you lead with hearts and minds, and build commitment to the future vision and the change agenda required to achieve it.

2. Transformation is being seen less and less as one-off ‘step change’ (i.e. it’s a project or a programme) and more as incremental change and ‘continuous improvement’.  That’s not to say that programme management disciplines aren’t useful, but our view is one of the key limitations in the way organisations have approached this (particularly ‘culture change’), is that the activities run in parallel to BAU, rather than being embedded within it.

In essence (and this seems self evident), to sustain success over the long term, the prevailing mindset needs to be that we are constantly looking to improve, change and innovate.  There’s an old management adage the ‘best time to change is before you need to’ (i.e. when you are doing well), because it is then that you have the resources and momentum to accommodate the change.

3.  The culture required to maximise innovation is becoming increasingly clear, but paradoxically, it’s not one uniform culture. If we liken culture to company DNA, then the (ideal) ‘genome’ for innovation-focused companies may actually vary across different parts of the organisation, depending upon the emphasis of change or innovation required.

By combining all these insights, ON-Brand Partners have constructed this chart which we thinks represents a good ‘wireframe’ for the culture that innovation and change focused organisations need.

The key points from this are:

No matter what sort of change or innovation you are aiming for, the mandatory cultural attributes are:

• Deep focus on the customer experience
• Passion for your products and services

Where the focus is on ‘continuous improvement’ in order to ‘optimise’ the core business, then:

• High levels of connectivity and collaboration within the culture are also key

Interestingly, when leaders of companies are talking with us about weaknesses in their culture, the ‘silo’ mentality is almost always near the top of the list of concerns.  This cultural attribute goes beyond just people and departments being helpful to each other (although that’s critical).  It’s also about a mindset of being ‘joined up’: understanding the entire value chain and where you sit within it.

Where the focus is also on ‘expanding’ into adjacent products or markets (i.e. a higher level of innovation), then:

•  Change agility will be important to success

This is about the openness to new ideas and the commitment to support them.  ‘Agile’ (a methodology increasingly applied in the technology space), is an appropriately descriptive word. It suggests a nimbleness and ability to move at pace – step by step.

Finally, where the focus is on the highest level, or true ‘breakthrough’ innovations, then:

•  Reverence for technical capability is necessary

“Well, of course!” you’re thinking. "Obviously we need to respect the value brought by people with deep specialist knowledge such as scientists".  Yet, it’s often not the case as evident by the language used to describe these specialists - the ‘white-coats’, ‘tech-boffins’ and ‘cone heads’!

A key perspective from seminal analysis done by Nagji and Tuff on innovation is that breakthrough innovation should be clearly separated from the core business so that the activity is not encumbered, or pulled back by business as usual.    This goes beyond physical location of the team, but includes different requirements for funding, performance metrics, and types of talent.

4. Dialogue based communication is the foundation for not only shaping the culture but also driving transformational change.

A global study by McKinsey done back in 2010, but still highly relevant today, that examined the common success drivers for large transformations identified three key factors that are directly pertinent to this point.  And these are closely correlated with our core on-brand principles.

So back to the question we posed at the start. What should come first? Culture transformation or Transformation culture? In essence we believe organisations need to transform their culture into the 'right' culture first, such that it is then capable of transforming the overall business. The transformation process must start with culture, not end with it, as culture regulates the success of everything else. Culture transformation therefore leads to a Transformation culture.

Finally, to paraphrase a senior executive of a highly successful transformation process we have been involved in...

“Culture is the key to creating momentum in the change journey. The culture must align with what’s required from your transformation strategy. And the most important thing we did to shift the culture at was to ‘change the conversations’ happening across the business. That didn’t happen through emails or PowerPoint presentations, but through leader-led, dialogue-based communication at all levels, underpinned by on-brand stories and examples of the success we were seeking in action.  And not just once or twice, but ensuring these conversations were happening week in, week out.”

Is your organisation serious about 'the Customer Experience' or paying lip service to it? "CX transformation is no longer a nice-to-have, it's a necessity" – according to Forrester and it’s predicted that by 2020 customer experience will overtake price and product as the key differentiator when consumers make choices between brands.

If you are in Auckland on May 16th 2018, then come join ON-Brand Partners at our next Customer Experience Conversation where Paul Trotman will share his perspective on the organisational, attitudinal and technological barriers that can come between a business and their customers. And what to do about it!
Grab your entry ticket at www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/cx-conversations-the-customer-experience-are-we-serious-tickets-45051278587