Creating organizational cultures based on values and performance | Ann Rhoades | TEDxABQ
Summary
TLDRThe speaker emphasizes the significance of organizational values in driving performance and culture. They recount their early banking experience to illustrate the importance of hiring individuals who align with company values. The talk outlines five key traits of high-performing, values-based organizations: defining values, hiring for competencies and values, fostering accountability, understanding that employees embody the brand, and maintaining a continuous improvement model. Examples from JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines demonstrate how values translate into exceptional customer service and brand loyalty.
Takeaways
- 🏦 The importance of values, particularly organizational values, is emphasized as a driving force behind passion and performance.
- 💼 Early experiences, such as hiring a teller with both competence and values, shape one's understanding of the significance of aligning values with job roles.
- 🔍 High-performance, values-based organizations consistently exhibit five key traits: defining values, hiring for competencies and values, strong accountability models, understanding that employees are the brand, and continuous improvement.
- 🛫 JetBlue Airways serves as a case study where leaders established values and behaviors that became the company's DNA, illustrating the impact of leadership on organizational culture.
- 🔑 Leaders drive the values of an organization, which in turn influence behaviors and ultimately shape the company's culture.
- 👀 Culture is defined as what people do when no one is looking, highlighting the intrinsic nature of organizational values and behaviors.
- 🌟 Southwest Airlines is highlighted for its demonstration of the golden rule through an employee's actions, showcasing the practical application of values in customer service.
- 🎯 Behavioral hiring, a method developed during WWII, is used by high-performance organizations to predict future performance by assessing past behaviors.
- 🏥 Healthcare organizations use behavioral hiring to recruit nurses who demonstrate the values of caring, aligning with their organizational culture.
- 🏢 Google's 'Bring Your Parents to Work Day' is an example of rewarding employees in a way that is meaningful to them, reflecting the company's understanding of its workforce's values.
- 📈 Continuous improvement is crucial for organizations to maintain greatness, as demonstrated by Double Tree Hotel's initiative to reduce silverware costs through employee engagement.
Q & A
What is the speaker's first job and what lesson did they learn from it?
-The speaker's first job was in banking, and they learned the importance of hiring based on values and not just experience, after hiring a teller who was also a great shoplifter, leading to missing money from the vaults.
What are the five traits of high-performance, values-based organizations according to the speaker?
-The five traits are: 1) Defining who they want to be around based on a values model and reciprocal behaviors, 2) Hiring A-players with both competencies and values, 3) Having a strong model for accountability and rewarding good performance, 4) Understanding that people are the brand, and 5) Having a strong continuous improvement model.
How did the group of nine people who founded JetBlue Airways define the company's values and behaviors?
-They sat in a room at Double Tree hotels in New York City and defined the values and behaviors that would be part of the company's DNA. They also wrote a paragraph about what they hoped would be written about them in years to come.
What is the relationship between leaders, values, behaviors, culture, and performance according to the speaker?
-Leaders drive the values of an organization, those values drive behaviors, the collective behaviors become the culture, and culture drives performance.
What is the story of the individual from Phoenix, Arizona, and what values does it illustrate?
-The individual from Phoenix had to rush to say goodbye to his grandson and was assisted by a Southwest Airlines customer service agent and the captain, illustrating the value of the golden rule and the importance of hiring people with the right values.
What is the significance of the behavioral hiring methodology and how did it originate?
-Behavioral hiring is a method that originated during World War II to identify and hire people with behaviors that lead to consistent success. It is significant because past behavior is predictive of future behavior about 90% of the time.
How does the healthcare system in California use behavioral hiring to select new nurses?
-They use behavioral hiring by asking questions that reveal the candidate's past behaviors, such as handling a difficult patient, to predict how they will perform in the future.
What is Google's unique approach to the 'bring your child to work day' and why did they implement it?
-Google implemented 'bring your parents to work day' instead, recognizing that many of their young engineers had not yet started families. This approach was meaningful to their employees and attracted 4,900 parents from around the world.
What is the importance of understanding why customers are loyal to a brand, according to the speaker?
-Understanding customer loyalty is important because it often comes down to the people who serve the customers within the brand, with 38% of loyal customers' decisions being influenced by the service personnel.
What did Double Tree Hotels do to address the issue of excessive spending on silverware?
-Double Tree Hotels found out that silverware was being thrown away by mistake due to staff clearing tables too quickly. They implemented a system where staff went through the trash to retrieve silverware, saving the company $11,200 in one night.
What is Tony Hsieh's philosophy on values and culture in relation to success, and how does it apply to Zappos?
-Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, believes that if you get the values and culture right, success will follow. This philosophy is applied at Zappos, where they focus on creating a strong company culture based on their values.
Outlines
😀 Organizational Values and Hiring Practices
The first paragraph introduces the concept of values in an organizational context, highlighting the importance of aligning personal and company values. The speaker shares a personal story from their early career in banking, where they hired an experienced teller who turned out to be a thief, underscoring the need to prioritize values over mere experience. The paragraph goes on to outline five traits of high-performance, values-based organizations, including defining desired behaviors, hiring for competencies and values, establishing strong accountability models, recognizing employees in meaningful ways, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. The story of JetBlue Airways is used as an example of an organization with deeply ingrained values that have become part of its DNA, emphasizing the role of leadership in driving values and the impact of culture on performance.
😇 The Power of Values in Customer Service
The second paragraph delves into the power of values in shaping customer service experiences, using the story of a man rushing to say goodbye to his dying grandson as a case study. The narrative illustrates how Southwest Airlines' commitment to the golden rule influenced the actions of its staff, resulting in a flight being held for the man. The paragraph also touches on the use of behavioral hiring techniques, which originated during World War II, to identify and recruit individuals whose past behaviors are indicative of future success. The method is particularly popular in high-performance organizations and is exemplified by a healthcare system in California that uses it to hire nurses with a strong value of caring. The summary also mentions Google's unique approach to employee rewards, demonstrating the importance of meaningful recognition, and ends with a statistic from Bain & Company about customer loyalty being largely influenced by the people serving the customers.
🚀 Continuous Improvement and Leadership in Organizational Culture
The final paragraph emphasizes the necessity of a continuous improvement model for organizations to maintain greatness. It recounts a story from Double Tree Hotels, where an analysis of silverware expenses led to a discovery of waste and a creative solution to save money by recovering silverware from trash. The story serves as an example of the importance of ongoing evaluation and adjustment within an organization. The paragraph also features Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, who attributes the company's success to getting the values and culture right. The speaker concludes with a call to action, prompting the audience to reflect on the true values of their own organizations, and ends with applause, indicating the end of the presentation.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Values
💡Passion
💡Organizational Values
💡Accountability
💡Behavioral Hiring
💡Performance Model
💡Continuous Improvement
💡Culture
💡Brand
💡Leadership
💡Loyalty
Highlights
Importance of values in driving passion and organizational behavior.
Early experience in banking with hiring a teller who was also a great shoplifter.
Traits of high-performance, values-based organizations.
Defining values and reciprocal behaviors for organizational culture.
Hiring 'A' players with both competencies and shared values.
Establishing a strong model for accountability and meaningful rewards.
Understanding that employees are the embodiment of the brand.
The importance of a continuous improvement model for organizational success.
JetBlue Airways' founding and the integration of values into its DNA.
Leaders driving the values of an organization, which in turn shapes culture and performance.
Culture as what people do when no one is looking.
Story of Southwest Airlines' exceptional customer service during a crisis.
Behavioral hiring as a method to predict future performance based on past behavior.
Healthcare example of using behavioral hiring to select nurses with the right values.
Google's unique approach to rewarding employees by bringing their parents to work.
Loyalty to a brand being largely influenced by the people serving the customers.
The necessity of a continuous improvement model for maintaining organizational greatness.
Double Tree Hotels' initiative to save money by preventing silverware waste.
Tony Hsieh's philosophy on values and culture as the foundation for success at Zappos.
Encouraging reflection on the real values of one's organization.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Applause]
have you ever wondered why it is that
certain things are very important to us
and we become passionate about them for
me it's all about
values and I know that have individual
values we have family values but for me
it's about organizational
values and it probably started when I
was very young and had my first job and
actually the job was in banking and my
first
responsibility was to hire a very
experienced
teller which I did didn't take that long
in fact within a couple weeks she was in
the
organization and we know noed within a
few weeks that she wasn't just good at
being a teller she was obviously also a
great Chopper because she constantly was
going out of the bank with these
beautifully wrapped
packages we also noticed we were missing
some money from one of our
vaults and all of a sudden it struck me
that maybe I should be looking for
something other than just someone with
experience many years later now after
having worked for some very
high-profile values-based strong
organizations I have discovered that
there are some certain traits that high
performance models that are values-based
have consistently there are five things
that they do very
well first of all they Define who they
want to be around a values model and
reciprocal
behaviors they also spend the time and
effort it takes to hire a players who
have the competencies like my teller but
unlike my teller they also have the
values the third thing they do is they
have a very strong model for
accountability and the reward people in
the organization for doing a good job in
a way that's meaningful to
them the fourth thing they do is they
understand your people are your
brand and last but not least they have a
very strong continuous Improvement
model about 17 years ago a group of nine
people who would be the leaders for a
new
organization sat in a room at Double Tre
hotels in New York
City and they defined the values and the
behaviors that would be part of this
brand new company that they were
creating today those values and
behaviors are part of the DNA of that
organization they also described and
wrote a paragraph that they hoped would
be written about them in years to come
and that has also
happened that company is called JetBlue
Airways you see the leaders in that room
understood that leaders Drive the values
of an
organization and those values Drive the
behaviors the behaviors
collectively become the culture of the
organization and I contend that culture
drives
performance you see culture is really
what people do when no one is
looking one of my favorite stories is a
story that I found in the internet about
an individual who lived in Phoenix
Arizona and he got a call one morning
from his
daughter who told him that his grandson
had been in an horrific
accident and she wanted him to come say
goodbye to the grandson who they felt
would have to be taken off life support
that
day he called the airport and found
there was one flight that would get him
there it was a Southwest flight and he
ran to the airport but if you've ever
been in Phoenix you know that sometimes
it's difficult to get through and while
he was in line he discovered that he
might miss his flight he called his wife
and told
her he got to the gate a little late and
when he got there he saw that there were
no passengers in the waiting area
and he ran up to the woman who was
behind the podium who was obviously a
customer service
agent and he said to her oh my gosh I've
missed my flight and she said are you Mr
Smith and he said yes and she said I
want to make a call for you and she made
a call that he thought was probably to
schedule him for another flight which
would be irrelevant because he wouldn't
get there in
time as she completed the
call a door opened up behind her
and a captain walked
out and he said Mr Smith we've loaded
the plane and we're taking you to say
goodbye to your
grandson you see at Southwest there are
40 some thousand people who live the
value of the golden rule every
day and that's what that Captain was
doing when you want to hire people that
actually have the competence and the
values a lot of organizations have
started using a methodology that
actually was perfected during World War
II the military started looking at who
are the pilots that are hitting their
targets consistently and who are not and
they found out that there were behaviors
that were significantly different
between those that consistently hit
their
Target and they started hiring people
with those behaviors because past
behavior is predictive of future
Behavior about 90% of the
time and what they found out is they
changed the outcomes today that
methodology called behavioral hiring is
being used by a number of high
performance
organizations in fact they use it a lot
in healthcare and in California one of
the Health Care Systems there uses it to
hire new nurses and they were
interviewing these nurses and they were
asking the question can you give me an
example of a time when you had a very
difficult
patient and this young nurse who was
interviewing told the
story about her having worked as a
pediatric nurse in another
environment and she told the story about
a baby being born with a portion of its
brain
missing and the young mother knowing she
couldn't take care of this child who was
not destined to live very long gave the
child up for foster
care this young
nurse took a leave and took care of that
baby until he passed
away and today she is a member of that
company of that
organization because she has the value
of caring which is one of their strong
values one of the things that's really
important is as organizations look at
how do we reward people
the gr organizations look at rewarding
people so that it's meaningful to them
one of my favorites is Google and what
Google does is they looked at you know
every company has this bring your child
to
workday but Google looked at it and they
realized that they have such a young
group of new Engineers that many have
not started their families yet so they
did something different they do bring
your parents to work day and they had
4900 parents who came this year and they
came from all over the
world because that was important to the
people that work
there one of my favorite things is to
look at why are we loyal to a certain
brand and when Bane and Company looked
at it last year for a very large company
they found out that the biggest part of
our
decision to use a brand and fre a brand
is because of the people that serve Us
in that
brand
38% of the decision of loyal customers
are all about who serves
them you know if you don't have a
continuous Improvement model if you
really are a good organization but you
want to stay great you need to have a
continuous Improvement
model and the great organizations do
that in fact at Double Tree Hotel tells
when they found out that they were
not um spending not saving enough money
in fact what they were trying to do is
they found out they were analyzing why
is it we're spending so much money on
silverware and they found out in their
large corporate um environments and
these big hotels the people were trying
to do such a good job they were clearing
the tables too
quickly and so the CEO walked in to
visit a hotel at Reagan Airport and he
saw that there was a table set with all
the
silverware and it said there was a sign
on it that said we saved the company
$11,200 last night by going through the
trash because they had gone through to
find the silverware that had been
mistakenly thrown
away Tony Shay is one of my favorite
people Tony Shay is the CEO of Zappos
which is a great company and Tony Shay
has always said because he used the
model that I described to you today he
he's always said if you get the values
and the culture right success will
happen I'd like to leave you with one
thought today and that is what are the
values the real values of your
organization
[Applause]
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