Good Afternoon,

First I want to thank everyone for their great insight and assistance over the last few months. The responses I have received around change in culture, leadership programs has been wonderful, eye opening and a learning experience for myself. I love having this discussion board to learn from others.

Now - I have just finished sitting in on a 2-day strategic planning session with mostly sr. management and some other department heads. It was a wonderful experience and I was glad I was invited to attend. The biggest thing that I heard from these sessions is that we will be moving to a results driven culture anchored by an incentive program for our branches (consumer and commercial lenders, teller, CSR's, etc). Accountability was a big topic. It is sparse around here now and conversations revolved around how to become more accountable when moving to this culture. Sustainability of the culture, performance and profitabiity were also hot topics. Has anyone been part of this transition moving to a more incentive based results culture? I have been tasked with coming up with a mental model of how this may look, questions to ask during development, really structuring a plan of where to start and move forward. I have done some research in the last few days and just can't seem to find what I am looking for to get me started down the right path. Any info would be helpful.

Thanks and have a great weekend.
J

OTG,

Many lament not having a seat at the table...so you are off to a good start.

As you participate in this transformation I would encourage you to keep a few thoughts in your back pocket. Focusing on results may sound sexy....but it can lead to downstream problems. In my experience it often leads to short term performance bumps and long term performance slumps.

Why? Because in our sincere desire to get those results we overlook the other two variables...process and relationships. So, no matter how high the bar is set, no meaningful long term results can be sustained unless you also pay very close attention to the work process and the relationships of those who will do the work. It is that balanced focus (results-process-relationships)that enables an organization to continuously improve and deliver world class products and services.

The notion of a performance driven culture is both appropriate and appealing...not to mention it's what any organization should be aspiring to achieve. Just don't lose sight of the enabler parts of that formula.

Since you mentioned accountability - it is so sparse everywhere in all aspects of life. A group I am part of recently held a national meeting and had a motivational speaker on the subject of accountability and his book "Accountability...a noun or a verb?" - it was truly outstanding and made me realize that at the end of the day, it you want to change anything, you must first start with accountability...without it, no incentive system will work.

I'm VERY new to this online tool, bear with me! I see that this is an old post, but if you (J) can email me with how you accomplished this results driven program, I'd greatly appreciate your insight.

brandy.mcmullen@trinitytransport.com

quote:

Originally posted by On the Go:
Good Afternoon,

First I want to thank everyone for their great insight and assistance over the last few months. The responses I have received around change in culture, leadership programs has been wonderful, eye opening and a learning experience for myself. I love having this discussion board to learn from others.

Now - I have just finished sitting in on a 2-day strategic planning session with mostly sr. management and some other department heads. It was a wonderful experience and I was glad I was invited to attend. The biggest thing that I heard from these sessions is that we will be moving to a results driven culture anchored by an incentive program for our branches (consumer and commercial lenders, teller, CSR's, etc). Accountability was a big topic. It is sparse around here now and conversations revolved around how to become more accountable when moving to this culture. Sustainability of the culture, performance and profitabiity were also hot topics. Has anyone been part of this transition moving to a more incentive based results culture? I have been tasked with coming up with a mental model of how this may look, questions to ask during development, really structuring a plan of where to start and move forward. I have done some research in the last few days and just can't seem to find what I am looking for to get me started down the right path. Any info would be helpful.

Thanks and have a great weekend.
J

I find it discouraging that your post has received so little attention after eight months. There are so many great contributors to these boards, but if no one has any ideas about how to get business results then why are we here?

If you are in a position to get onto senior management's meeting agenda, you might try facilitating them through a "force field analysis" focused on the current state of accountability? What organizational forces are driving us to greater accountability and results? What forces are in opposition? Then, identify those forces which can be leveraged (either strengthened or weakened) in order to change the current status quo. In every organization it is different, so incentives might work in one place and not another. Most often, the greatest problem lies with the fear-based restraining forces, which are too strong for positive forces to overcome. You may need to intervene at this level to get things moving.

In one organization I developed an action learning-based leadership development program which assigned future leaders to project teams. Each team had to develop and test some kind of innovation (some were product/service ideas, but most were internal process improvement opportunities) within a 13-week timeframe. Let me stress that the teams had to implement their plans, not just analyze / assess / design / recommend. At the end they presented results to an executive committee, and one set the ultimate standard of presenting a big check (ala Ed McMahon / Publishers Clearinghouse) that showed how much they had saved / gained. When you start to create a culture of accountability at this level of the organization (including the senior-level sponsors of each team) it spreads into other areas.

Hope this helps. I wrote about the action learning-based leadership development program in an ASTD publication a couple years ago, and could report the article or link if there is interest.

Andy Beaulieu
Results for a Change