Friends of Dave #290: the late late late show...
NOTE: Apologies for the day late delivery of this edition. The platform that I use to publish the newsletter, Revue, experienced an unexpected outage starting Friday afternoon that went into Saturday evening, freezing out everyone from publishing and sending emails (and communicating with subscribers).
I posted notes on Twitter and on LinkedIn about this -- hopefully you saw them.
I have sent these newsletters for 289 weeks in a row on Saturdays -- it was disappointing to have the streak broken in this way. In light of this, I am now re-considering my publishing options and may migrate to another platform in the near future. Thanks for your patience and for sticking with me....
Last month you may recall I wrote about attending my son’s high school graduation and my admiration for the speech by the valedictorian that talked about having a “growth mindset.”
The emphasis of was on embracing the concept that you can ALWAYS be learning and changing, no matter how old, experienced or accomplished you may become. It was an important message to deliver, even if the intended audience may not have truly appreciated it.
I was reminded about the “growth mindset” this week as it came up in a number of different discussions I had — but it was about companies and building a “growth culture.”
As many long time FoDs know, I regularly write preambles and share stories about culture in this space — and it continues to amaze me how many companies struggle with what seems like a pretty straight forward concept.
There’s a reason that the quote: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” has legs to it. It’s because no matter how sound the strategy, if you don’t have a common set of values that binds an organization together, it will likely fail.
So what does it mean to have a “growth culture?”
From my experience, organizations that successfully establish a “growth culture” are not only built by fostering a “growth mindset” amongst team members, but also proactively implement a framework in place to support acceleration, velocity and business expansion.
Think about it — a rocket made out of cardboard and tissue paper won’t get to the moon no matter how powerful the engine is. You need a strong framework to support the output from the powerful output and the friction encountered when leaving the atmosphere.
Here’s what I believe are the most critical tenets that any organization must possess to truly be considered a “growth culture”:
Urgency — doesn’t matter if you are in sales, marketing, product, finance, customer success, HR, IT or a custodian. Successful, growing organizations are urgent in everything they do. They don’t wait until tomorrow to do something if it can be done today. The best meetings last 15 minutes — not a hour. Urgency does not mean “frantic” or even “impatient.” It doesn’t put a premium on activity for activity’s sake. But growth organizations all understand that time (perhaps even more than cash) is the most precious of resources.
Accountability — show me a company where, when the going gets tough, people point fingers at others, and I will show you a company that is not succeeding. Growth cultures see obstacles and, without prompting, see people rally to over come them — because there is an inherent sense of responsibility to each other and the team as a whole. You say you are going to deliver, you deliver as promised. You make a mistake and can’t keep your promise, you own it, fix it and move on. Weak cultures are afraid of accountability. Strong growing cultures embrace it.
Communication — this is probably the most common area that hinders growth for even the best organizations, and yet it may be the most simple to fix. Companies that lack transparency or have ineffective communication (especially where people talk more than they listen) are unable to properly coordinate and collaborate to support growth. Without good communication employees don’t know what is expected of them nor what constitutes success. Trust erodes. And this isn’t solved by training people on how to use Slack better — effective communication has to be nurtured and valued from the top all of the way down in an organization.
Empathy — growth cultures are able to effectively connect with key stakeholders like customers and employees with them at the center of their operating model. Products, policies, strategies and initiatives are all built with their well being in mind. The ability to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes and consider how they feel empowers organizations to solve problems the right way. It also breeds loyalty, trust, alignment and collaboration within the organization itself, making it easier to realistically set expectations, hit key milestones and course correct when it is needed.
I came up with a simple way to remember these crucial components to a growth culture: the acronym “UACE” — as in, “If you build a culture with urgency, accountability, communication and empathy as it’s framework, YOU ACE (UACE) the growth test.”
So next time you run into a problem that seems to be hindering progress in your own organization, try using these tenets I provided as the litmus test — in which area are you falling short?
If you are missing the mark on one area, it should be a relatively easy fix. Missing on more than one of these? You have some work ahead of you. All four? Time to bring your organization’s leadership together and get aligned — remember, culture eats strategy for breakfast.
Additionally, this can also be valuable if you are looking to join a new company and excited by its opportunity for growth. During the interviewing process, ask questions to discover if it has a “growth culture” that supports a “growth mindset.” If you don’t hear them reference or exhibit urgency, accountability, communication and empathy or you can’t get a sense of where they stand in these areas, you are likely getting lip service from them on their growth aspirations.
In other words, no matter how great the title, the comp plan or how lucrative options they are trying to sell you may be, growth isn’t truly the priority — so you will likely end up disappointed.
What do you think? I have tested this on countless occasions and it hasn’t failed me yet. Hope you find it helpful as well......
Long, late preamble this week, I know....It will probably end up on LinkedIn this Wednesday if you don't have time to read through it all. Check out the links below too if you get a chance. Apologies on the late delivery -- I will keep you posted if I decide to make a move on a new publication solution.
Thanks again for sticking with me, Friends! Hopefully we will back to Saturdays again next week.
XOXO
Dave
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