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Is Yours A "Loon Culture"?

'Got Accountability?

Recommended Reading

Twitter Highlights

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The authors make a solid case supporting emergence of "the worthiness era" and why companies will need to excel in efforts to be "Good for Employees," "Good for Customers" and "Good Stewards." Based on solid research, their "Good Company Index" yields high, medium and low ratings of Fortune 100 firms and correlations with performance. There is plenty of evidence here supporting the value of "good company" practices, along with practical methods for adopting them in your organization.

Click the cover for a preview and link to Amazon.

Check out inTEgro Books and Store for recommenda-
tions of additional resources
to help "transform business
as usual into business at its best."

Twitter Highlights

I send 15-20 tweets per week with links to useful links and research. Here are a few of my latest, including links:

"It's better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation." (Herman Melville)

The Hidden Costs of Organizational Dishonesty (Written in 2004; are we getting any better?) http://tinyurl.com/ola76jz @sloanreview.mit.edu

Brain science confirms that knowledge of one's values reduces stress. http://tinyurl.com/peanajc

@hbr.org

Read this stirring account of a needed leadership revolution by a Countrywide Financial whistleblower http://tinyurl.com/orf2pa2 @smartblogs.com

Grow from Your Strengths

http://tinyurl.com/oobvmn2

@stratandbiz

Why Leaders Need To Ask: "Is That A Promise?" http://tinyurl.com/o5243jg

@stratandbiz

Condensing the entire history of management into a few practical questions: http://tinyurl.com/o6ogo74 @strategy-business.com

"The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why." (Mark Twain)

Procrastination is hazardous to our health. Managing "temporal myopia" and its other dimensions http://tinyurl.com/qdkwkyy @wsj.com

The Sensei of Seaweed, "Tree Ring Management," and the wisdom of leading for the long term http://tinyurl.com/omc5v7c @wsj.com

'Interesting collection of articles about the New World of Work from Financial Times. http://tinyurl.com/n9nwt7e @FT.com

"Integral Change Leadership" June Change Summit presentation for Minnesota Change Management Network... http://tinyurl.com/p8spvso @youtube.com

Are worker peer reviews a good idea? They seem to get mixed results. http://tinyurl.com/o387kpz @wsj.com

3 cheers for "Putting The Humanity Back In Human Resources"! http://tinyurl.com/oakckmt @strategy-business.com

Back to the future - how to embrace your company's history without being limited by it http://tinyurl.com/ncmqnq5 @strategy-business.com

Great leaders value reputation before revenue. http://tinyurl.com/q6qqf6w @linked2leadership.com

How to build a vibrant new organization without putting down the past http://tinyurl.com/ptcs5x6 @clomedia.com

Moe on Amazon's culture: A Workplace Culture And Brand Goes Horribly Wrong http://tinyurl.com/nafyyr4 @forbes.com

All warfare is based on deception. When near, make enemies believe we are far away; when far away, make enemies believe we are near. Sun Tzu

Strategy Isn't The Silver Bullet. Think culture and alignment. http://tinyurl.com/qj8m6cc

@tcbmag.com

Why emulating Amazon's culture won't work for you...Authenticity is the most important thing in business. http://tinyurl.com/py8b4ma

@forbes.com

Getting creative with job titles...If you could name your title, what would it be? http://tinyurl.com/omgmkcl @pressreader.com

Traveling to connect us to what we're really looking for http://tinyurl.com/pl67qkw @FT.com

"He who would survey the world must first sound the depths of his own character." (Lt. William Reynolds, US Navy ExEx Expedition, 1839-1841)

"The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place." (George Bernard Shaw)

"Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting." (Arthur Jones)
"No one was ever ruined from without; the final ruin comes from within." (Amelia E Barr) The same is true for organizations.

Angry emails and venting can be hazardous to your health http://tinyurl.com/pdlkapv

@wsj.com

Job "hacking" can improve work satisfaction http://tinyurl.com/p523lg9 @wsj.com

Random statistic: 11% of business leaders strongly agree that US colleges graduate students with needed competencies (2014 Gallup poll)

Successful change means engaging minds, bodies and hearts - how to engage the heart: http://tinyurl.com/pnyqb4f

@ivybusinessjournal.com

How to base change mangement on human psychology vs. animal training http://tinyurl.com/ptloowe @psychologytoday.com

Welcome to September's "Is Yours A Loon Culture"? Please visit the blog version to leave comments.

If you missed it, the start of August's "'Got Accountability?" follows. Click on "Read more" at the end to continue, and check out inTEgro's newsletter archive to access all past articles.

Is Yours A "Loon Culture"?

You read the headline right; I do mean "Loon culture" (not "loony;" that's for another time!)

A recent trek into Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) provided the inspiration for this month's newsletter. Among my favorite experiences in the BWCA are the sightings and sounds of Minnesota's state bird, the Common Loon, (although there is hardly anything

"common" about Loons.) I was reminded this trip of how the presence of Loons signals a clean and healthy lake. Clean and healthy lakes mean abundant fish, and for Loons, it' all about the fish; every 12 weeks a family of four Loons can consume about 15 tons! They frequent lakes with abundant fish and clear water where they can see their prey. I got to thinking, if the presence of Loons signals a clean, healthy and desirable lake, what are signs that we should watch for of a desirable organizational culture?

I'm not sure how a Loon's brain works, but there's a simple logic there somewhere connecting "clean lake," healthy lake" and "more fish." What's the simple logic that you follow to determine the quality of an organization's culture? After a few decades in this business, I've learned to look for three things:

Engagement - Is this an organization that attracts and retains talent, and where people are proud to work? Are they committed to the work and sufficiently engaged to invest extra effort?
Ethics - Do they not only comply with laws and regulations, but also treat customers, employees and all stakeholders fairly and respectfully?
Effectiveness - Are they executing sound strategies, achieving their goals, growing and sustainable?

What I've come to call "triple-E cultures" - effective, engaging and ethical - are where most of us want to spend our working lives. Increasingly, "triple-E" organizations are also where we prefer to do business; there is a growing interest in where are clothes and food come from, things like "carbon footprints" and treatment of workers in the supply chain. Especially in more competitive markets, talent and customers alike will "fly over" those organizations that do not exhibit triple-E characteristics.

There are common factors contributing to most clean and healthy lakes, including primarily a lack of pollutants or invasive species, sufficient

oxygen, nutrient balance and biodiversity. Each of these needs to be present, and they interact to maintain quality lakes with a sustainable fish population. Likewise, I've observed four sets of practices that are common to organizational effectiveness, engagement and ethical cultures; here are brief descriptions for these components of triple-E cultures and a few questions to gauge each:

IDENTITY - They know who they are, what they stand for and where they are going.

Are the organization's purpose, principles and priorities clear?
Is the organization aware of its limitations, and is it capitalizing on its strengths?

AUTHENTICITY - They are real.

Is the organization true to its purpose, principles and priorities; does it "walk its talk?"
Does it cultivate truth-telling and transparency?
Does it acknowledge and address external and internal threats and opportunities?

ALIGNMENT - They are cohesive and unified.

Are strategy, structure, systems and personnel practices aligned with purpose, principles and priorities?
Are differences leveraged? Is there unity with diversity?
How adaptable is the organization? Does it invest in research and increase the capacities of its human resources?

ACCOUNTABILITY - They fulfill their promises and are good community citizens.

Does the organization collect and use measures that matter?
Do members exercise responsibility?
Is the organization a good steward of its resources and reputation?

I hope this serves as a useful guide for leaders who want to cultivate triple-E cultures. I hope it also serves for conducting due diligence about the health of organizations that you are considering affiliating with.

inTEgro offers an Organizational Integrity Survey that systematically gathers feedback from organizational members to determine strengths and gaps relative to these four key dimensions of triple-E cultures. Please visit http://integro-inc.com/what-we-offer/survey-products/ to access a sample report, and contact inTEgro if you would like more information.

Fortunately there is growing interest in preserving or restoring clean healthy lakes; that will make the Loons happy. We all need to focus on what we can do to cultivate triple-E cultures; that will make talented workers, organizations' leaders and their key stakeholders happy.

"You can't sell it outside if you can't sell it inside."

Stan Slap

"The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture." "If you do not manage culture, it manages you, and you may not even be aware of the extent to which this is happening."

Edgar Schein

"The thing I have learned at IBM is that culture is everything."

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. former CEO IBM

Explore inTEgro's Great Quotes at http://www.integro-inc.com/resources/great_quotes

'Got Accountability?

What first crosses your mind when you hear "accountability?" I usually get two reactions: that there isn't enough of it, or a wary reaction. Unfortunately, both reactions often reflect reality. We encounter organizations with products, services or results that fall short, with no one taking responsibility to close the gaps. When accountability comes up in organizations, a common reaction is preparation for blaming, shaming, increased performance pressure or all three.

It doesn't have to be that way; ideally accountability is a positive, proactive dimension of an organization's culture that everyone owns and takes pride in vs. a reactionary, negative or punitive dynamic. Here are the keys:

Lay the foundation. Part of laying the foundation is embracing accountability as a core value. As with other core values, this works

when it's defined, discussed on regular occasions and modeled, especially by leadership. Defining values is important, since they are interpreted differently; agreeing on "what we will do" and "what we won't do" for any given value helps build common understanding.

Critical to a proper foundation for accountability is clarifying realistic goals and performance expectations. Research tells us that on average only about 40% of employees even know their