12 Culture of Service

Introduction

While the design of the leadership and management systems is the first signal of leadership intent, the ultimate goal is the overall organizational culture change. Culture is the glue that holds the organization together and brings it to life. For our purposes, culture can be defined as “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of the organization from other organizations (Hofstede et al., 2010). It is learned and includes patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving within the organization.

At the core of culture are the organization's values, which are manifested in its rituals, heroes, and symbols (Hofstede et al. 2010). Sustaining excellence requires the new systems, processes, and practices to become second nature and embedded in patterns of thinking and behavior. To achieve sustainable excellence, we need a culture of service to one another and all our stakeholders.

While internally oriented family or clan cultures can become self-serving and inwardly focused, they don’t have to be. Organizations that have achieved performance excellence have been able to focus on external customers and the market AND the workforce at the same time. They did it by valuing employees who trust each other and work together to create excellent products, services, and experiences for customers. High-performing organizations are values-driven. Values drive decisions, behaviors, and priorities at all levels of the organization.

Read Chapter 12, Culture of Service, in the [Re]Create Book.

Objective – Understand the Culture of Service concepts, components, and relationships and how they contribute to leadership and organization [re]design for sustainable excellence.

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Does your organization’s culture support the compelling directive and strategy? In this lesson, you will apply the key culture of service concepts to your organization. Specifically, you will use empathy profiles to explore and understand your current culture and values, including the rituals, heroes, and symbols. Then, identify the associated behaviors for each of the desired values. Finally, for each value, you will identify the rituals, heroes, and symbols that support the value.

Empathy Profile Rituals 

Video 0:50

Objective – Use empathy profiles to explore and understand your “current” culture and values by examining the rituals in your organization.

1. Describe the Ritual

Begin in the lower left-hand corner and identify the ritual, process, or practice, and briefly describe what activities and artifacts are included. You want to include enough details to describe this to the people when you ask them what they SEE and HEAR. You want the participant(s) to focus on a very tangible and real experience that they had in the organization. For example, the Annual All Hands Kick-off Retreat might be an all-expenses-paid trip to a resort with a significant other once a year.

2. Describe the Purpose of the Ritual

Describe the intent or purpose of the ritual, process, or practice. What is the expected reaction and result? While you may not want to share this with the person you are interviewing, you want to know what the organization is trying to accomplish with this ritual and the desired reactions and results when people participate. Then you can compare the desired reactions to what the people tell you about how they actually react. In our annual retreat example, the purpose might be to celebrate as a “team” and bring the company together – increase the feeling of camaraderie and teamwork.

3. What Do Participants See?

Describe what participants see when they experience the ritual, process, or practice. Capture their perspective and words. In our annual retreat example, everyone, regardless of position or title, is experiencing a luxury resort, having fun, and reaping the rewards of the previous year.

4. What Do Participants Hear?

Describe what participants hear when they experience the ritual, process, or practice. Again, capture their perspective using their own words. For the example annual retreat, they might hear talk about how great the company is, many positive comments about the team, optimism about the coming year, and so on.

Note – What they see and hear is typically covered in the interview at the same time.

5. What Do Participants Think?

Describe what participants think during and after experiencing the ritual, process, or practice. For our annual retreat example, responses might include: "This is a cool, unique experience, and this is the best place I have ever worked.”

6. What Do Participants Feel?

Describe how participants felt during and after experiencing the ritual, process, or practice. For example, attending the annual retreat might make them feel valued, appreciated, an equal member of the team, and so on.

Note – What they think and feel are typically covered in the interview at the same time.

7. What Do Participants Then Do?

How does what they think and feel about the experience influence what participants do? In our example, they may use their discretionary energy and effort to help the customers succeed, so the company succeeds. Why? Because they are part of a team where everybody shares.

8. What Do Participants Then Say?

How do what they think and feel about the experience influence what participants say? In the annual retreat case, they might recommend the company to their friends – people with whom they want to work.

Note – What they do and say are typically covered in the interview at the same time.

9. Values Represented by the Ritual?

What values can we infer from what participants see and hear, think and feel, do and say? Are those aligned with the intent of the ritual? In our annual retreat example, the values reinforced included valued employees, teamwork, and customer focus. In this case, customer success equaled employee success.

Note – The ritual, process, or practice does not have to be as remarkable as the annual retreat example. It could be the onboarding process or filing an expense report. Interview a variety of people in your organization and get them to describe all aspects of the empathy profile for the specific ritual. If you can get them to allow you to record the interview, and it’s not a sensitive topic, you can create a verbatim transcript that will enhance your analysis. The answers to the empathy profile areas are often embedded in the thick, rich descriptions they give you when talking to you. It is often difficult to tease out and analyze all the details “on the fly” while you are talking to them because you want to stay engaged, ask questions, and keep the conversation going.

Empathy Profile Heroes 

Video 9:01

Objective – Use empathy profiles to explore and understand your “current” culture and values by examining your organization’s heroes.

1. Describe the Hero

Identify the hero and provide a brief description of the hero’s characteristics, accomplishments, and so on. Sometimes these are the organization’s founders, and sometimes they are people who do cool things, save lives, or do something remarkable for a customer. Who do people tell stories about talk about, hold up, and revere? Pick one hero and describe that person. The example we will use is the #1 Salesperson of the Year.

2. How is the Hero Treated?

Describe the values the hero represents. What behaviors does the hero demonstrate, and what is the expected result? The values do not necessarily have to be good. The hero could have values that do not align with the values you hope to have in the organization. Also, the hero doesn't have to be aligned with your values. It just needs to be someone in the organization who is held up as a role model. Your analysis will reveal whether this person is consistent with the organization’s values. For example, does celebrating the #1 salesperson recognize the team’s accomplishment and bring the company together? In other words, does it reinforce teamwork?

3. What Do People See the Hero Do?

Describe what participants see when they observe the hero in action in the participant’s own words. For the #1 salesperson example, the behaviors they see might include working overtime, making deals that don’t make sense for the delivery costs, and thus low profit.

4. What Do People Hear the Hero Say?

Describe what participants hear when they listen to what the hero says and what others say about the hero. Again, from the participant’s perspective in their own words. For the #1 salesperson example, the people in the organization might say the number of sales is the only metric that really matters. Everything else is a distraction.

Note – What they see and hear are typically covered in the interview at the same time.

5. What Do People Think?

Describe what participants think about the hero and what the hero represents. For our #1 salesperson example, people may be thinking that because the salesperson made bad deals just to make his or her numbers, they now have to work harder for less company profit to deliver the products and services at the price.

6. What Do People Feel?

Describe how participants feel about the hero and what the hero represents. In the #1 salesperson example, they may feel used and unappreciated. The person causing the problems is the hero, and we are left “holding the bag.”

Note – What they think and feel are typically covered in the interview at the same time.

7. What Do People Then Do?

How does what they think and feel about the experience influence what participants do? In the #1 salesperson case, dedicated employees may try to make it work, but many fail to deliver and blame the salesperson and the deal.

8. What Do People Then Say?

How do what they think and feel about the experience influence what participants say? People in the #1 salesperson case might conclude that this place cares about nothing but sales. They don’t care about the customers or the long term.

Note – What they do and say are typically covered in the interview at the same time.

9. Values Represented by the Hero?

What values can we infer from what people see and hear, think and feel, and do and say? Are those aligned with the organization’s desired values and culture? In the #1 salesperson example, we might conclude that short-term individual performance is more important than longer-term team and company success.

This example is not intended to imply that sales are not worthy of recognition. Sales are necessary to achieve the financial revenue goals. However, as we’ve already addressed in previous labs, the way to grow sales sustainably is to sell great products, services, and offerings that you deliver and, for commercial organizations, that make a profit. If we hold up heroes who succeed using unsustainable methods, we send the wrong message.

Empathy Profile Symbols 

Video 14:47

Objective – Use empathy profiles to explore and understand your “current” culture and values by examining your symbols.

1. Describe the Symbol

Identify the symbol and provide a brief description, including the media used to communicate the symbol. For this example, we will use reserved parking spaces for select executives near the facility’s front door.

2. Describe the Purpose of the Symbol

Describe the intent or purpose of the symbol. What is the expected reaction and result? The symbol’s overall purpose in the example is to bring the company together and increase trust and teamwork. However, reserved parking spaces do not improve teamwork. While rewarding and motivating a select group, reserved parking spaces may reduce employees' sense of value and teamwork for a much larger portion of the workforce.

3. What Do People See?

Describe what participants see when they see the symbol – their perspective in their own words. Make sure they are thinking about the symbol about which you are asking. If you can show it to them, that is best, and then get them to describe what they see and hear in their own words. In the reserved parking spaces example, they may see that they have to park far away and walk through the rain and snow past the empty spaces at 6 am. Then they see the executives come in later in the day.

4. What Do People Hear?

Describe what participants hear when they listen to messages about the symbol. In the reserved parking space example, employees might hear things like, “executives deserve the parking places near the door; they have important things to do.”

5. What Do People Think?

Describe what participants think about the symbol. With the reserved parking spot example, they may be thinking, “I’m not as important to the success of this company as the executives.” “The organization doesn’t value my time or contributions.”

6. What Do People Feel?

Describe how participants feel about the symbol. With our reserved parking example, they might feel unappreciated and not considered an important part of the team, possibly resentful.

7. What Do People Then Do?

How does what the participants think and feel about the experience influence what they do? In the reserved parking example, people who feel unappreciated and possibly resentful often do only the minimum required to avoid getting fired. They do not use their discretionary energy and effort to help the organization succeed.

8. What Do People Then Say?

How does what they think and feel about the experience influence what participants say? In our parking example, they may talk negatively about leaders. For example, they might say, “leaders do not care about us; they only care about themselves.”

9. Values Represented by the Symbol?

What values can we infer from what participants see and hear, think and feel, and do and say? Are those aligned with the intent? In the parking example, we might conclude that hierarchy and the status and privileges associated with a position in the organization. Some people’s time is more valuable than other organization members’ time. While this might be true if measured by compensation costs, it also has negative impacts. The point is not whether reserved parking spaces are good or bad, but what results they produce and how those results align with your intended purpose. We design and deploy symbols and rituals, and hold up heroes, all with good intentions. Unfortunately, people interpret these things in their own way, and often differently than the designers intended.

Note – If you ask the executives who have reserved parking places what they see, hear, think, feel, say, and do, you are likely to get different answers than those who do not have reserved parking spaces. So, when exploring how symbols (and rituals and heroes) affect the organization’s people, include people from multiple perspectives, levels, and parts of the organization.

Organizational Values & Individual Behaviors 

Video 20:58

Objective – Identify the ”desired” values and associated individual behaviors.

Values

Identify each desired value for your organization.

Individual Behaviors

Describe the behaviors associated with this value. Describe the behaviors that reflect the value. What is the expected result of these behaviors?

Examples

Valued Employees

• Employees are more committed to the mission
• Employees are more engaged – go beyond the minimum required
• Absenteeism is reduced – Fewer Sick Days
• Tells friends how the organization is a great place to work

Trust

• Honesty in all things large and small
• Integrity – consistently applies the values
• Competent – knows what they are doing
• Reliable – consistently does what is expected of them

Teamwork

• Cooperation – works well with others
• Selfless – does what is best for the team
• Loyal to the team and organization
• Being of Service to other team members

Excellence

• Competent – highly skilled and knowledgeable
• Committed – does what is required to produce high quality
• Discretionary Effort – goes beyond the minimum required
• Never satisfied – always learning and improving

Customer Focus

• Focused on solving customer problems
• Empathy – listens to understand what it is like to be the customer
• Being of Service to the customers
• Ambassador – represents the organization to the customer

Some groups take this further and develop scenarios that describe what the behaviors look like in specific jobs and situations. These scenarios facilitate learning and provide a basis for evaluation.

Culture of Service Assessment 

Video 23:15

Objective – Identify the rituals, heroes, and symbols that will illustrate and demonstrate the desired values and behaviors.

Value

Identify the “desired” values of your organization’s culture. Your organization may or may not demonstrate all these values now, but they are the values in your vision of the ideal culture; for example, teamwork.

Rituals

Identify and describe the rituals, processes, and practices that demonstrate the value. Identify and describe rituals, processes, and practices that are opposite or detract from the value.

Example – Annual All-Hands Kick-off Retreat. Celebrate and bring the company together to increase camaraderie and teamwork. This ritual contributes positively and supports the value of teamwork.

Heroes

Identify and describe the heroes that are the epitome of the desired value. Identify and describe the criteria used for rewards, recognition, and promotions.

Example – The #1 Salesperson of the Year sends the message that individuals can succeed without being good team members. This hero is a negative impact and detracts from the value of teamwork.

Symbols

Identify and describe the symbols that demonstrate the desired value. Identify and describe symbols that are opposite or detract from the value.

Example – Having parking spaces reserved for select employees sends the message that some people’s time is valued more than others'. This symbol negatively influences teamwork.

Conclusion

Aristotle proposed that “Quality is not an act. It is a habit.” Culture change is not a quick fix. It takes time, tenacity, and a conscious combination of systems [re]design and leadership. While all the leaders in our study wanted the culture to change quickly, as one CEO put it, “While you may have to put the ‘rudder over hard,’ the ship doesn’t turn quickly. It takes time for culture change, and you have to take the group along with you.” While you can learn everything you need to lead system and culture change, it is easier if you have a few enabling characteristics, attitudes, and motivations.