‘When you study average, you emerge with average. When you study excellence, you emerge with excellence.’
“Embrace your biggest headache and make culture a competitive advantage,” urged Curt Coffman, Senior Partner and Chief Science Officer of The Coffman Organization, kicking off an Enterprise Engagement Alliance regional meeting held Nov. 20 in Madison, WI. The half-day program, sponsored by The Engagement Agency and one of its founders, FIRE Light Group, brought together more than two dozen executives from a variety of businesses in the Madison area.
Coffman opened the program with a presentation on culture and engagement, followed by Bruce Bolger, Managing Director of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance, who offered an introduction to the Enterprise Engagement curriculum. Said Sandra Daniel, Principal of FIRE Light Group and co-founder of The Engagement Agency, “Our goal for organizing this meeting was to inform Madison business leaders of this important new business strategy. This is a concept that I think makes sense for the many Madison businesses that like to be on the cutting edge.”
“When it comes to developing a high performing, sustainable culture, engagement is the biggest challenge facing companies today,” noted attendee Craig Hanson, Senior Manager, People, Process and Culture at Springs Window Fashions, a Middleton, WI-based manufacturer of window treatments. “Organizations often decouple employee and customer engagement, which can create misalignment, frustration and feelings of entitlement on the part of your workforce. The concepts shared by Bruce and Curt created a common sense approach for aligning and engaging your organization in a way that delivers key business results in an environment where people want to work. I’m excited to introduce these concepts in our organization.”
Coffman spoke in depth about the role of culture in establishing an enterprise brand and a unique approach to engagement. “Over 70% of cultures share the same values – a focus on the customer, integrity, etc.” he said, adding “Great cultures tackle the biggest headaches.” Coffman is co-author of the business best-seller First, Break All of the Rules, and his new book, Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch, written with Kathie Sorensen. According to Coffman, “Great cultures find something unique that truly distinguishes them. Look for a headache that people would pay to get rid of.”
Coffman, who is also on the board of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance, said that companies often use the wrong benchmarks to measure excellence. “We have a tendency to study the average. When you study average, you emerge with average. When you study excellence, you emerge with excellence. If you want to understand turnover, study the people and customers who stay, rather than those who leave.”
The audience seemed surprised when Coffman noted that only 14% of companies hit their sales, marketing and manufacturing goals. “It’s culture that stops goals from getting accomplished,” he said. “The No. 1 job of leadership should be to ignite purposeful energy…leaders have to focus on being more interested than interesting. It’s about connecting people to purpose."
Coffman shared his unique perspective on a number of topics, which he expands upon in his latest book. For instance: Organizations have to make a distinction between identifying talent and developing skills. “Talent is the thing that you do that is better than 98% of all others.” Organizations, he said, should focus on identifying the right talent for the right role. “Develop people by rating outcomes; identify talents and non-talents. Based on that, find the right role for them in the organization and work to help the person strengthen talents and manage weakness. Don’t ignore weakness; find and support strategies that address them.”
As for customers, the objective is to create an emotional connection. “There are only two ways to grow and build value: get more customers and keep more customers,” Coffman said. “Everyone in an organization should be able to quickly explain how they affect those two things. What is each employee’s line of sight? Customers aren’t loyal by nature but are predisposed to having an emotional connection.” Organizations have to address the fact that customers aren’t in control and therefore feel vulnerable. Great cultures embrace this vulnerability.
How to translate culture into specific organizational goals was the approach of the condensed version of the Enterprise Engagement curriculum Bolger presented at the event. The essence of the program is that organizations with more engaged people will outperform their competitors over time, and that the process involves a formal strategic plan just like any other major business tactic.
That plan will work best when based on a framework that includes a well-defined culture and a brand that touches everyone related to the organization. Other critical components should include regular assessment; management coaching; communication; learning; collaboration and innovation; rewards and recognition; and measurement.