Let's talk Transformation : The business leaders podcast #118 Jumpstart your workplace culture with Eric Stone
"Clear beats clever, yet we’re still incentivising clever in organisations… “
A brilliant conversation with Eric about creating the conditions for both performance and people to thrive. We delve into the different parts of this journey to build a culture that enables performance. The acronym LoL—listen, observe, learn— highlights the importance of engaging with employees and clients to understand their challenges beyond financial metrics.
We also discuss the importance of personal interactions, that are vital for building trust, particularly in the digital age. A human-centric strategy and cultural resilience are crucial for navigating crises, and being intentional with our actions to build relationships, communicate effectively and take people with us on this journey is important to building a new way of thinking, acting and being.
We all suffer from complexity bias, and the importance of clarity over complexity has never been more pressing, as we look to lead with empathy, streamline messages and enhance focus.
Eric generously shares his stories, experience and operational tips from his career and from working with leaders across the five generations.
The main insights you'll get from this episode are :
- Starting from a fascination with leadership from an early age, through business school, and working for a company that enabled personal growth resulted in a message of impact to pass on in the form of a book.
- Based on the notion that ‘simple’ plans are not necessarily simplistic to implement, the book offers anecdotes and practical tips for hands-on operationalisation for leaders as the mechanic for the car, and whose people are the vehicle for the journey.
- LOL – listen, observe and learn – as a foundation for strategy to obtain different opinions to give a new view of how best to act, thanks to a diversity of perspective - no one is ever smarter than the room even if they are the smartest person in the room.
- Observing behaviours and action is the simplest definition of culture. Visiting with and talking to people builds trust – a roadmap is not a new idea, but without the human element it is just directions, and leadership must navigate both the path and the people.
- The ‘velvet hammer’ approach refers to the relationship between people and performance – leaders must truly listen, observe and learn, make people feel special, but also give them accountability, balancing head and heart.
- Clear beats clever, despite this not being the paradigm in most organisations. Clarity can be achieved through simplicity to overcome complexity bias - complex does not mean better, and improvement does not mean adding to.
- It is much better to master the basics than trying to be too clever; leaders are overwhelmed with information and excuses are introduced – far better is to avoid the noise and be a ‘distraction catcher’.
- The abc of communication: know when to amplify a message, buffer it, and convey it. To embed this in a culture successfully and sustainably requires feedback, time management, the definition of priorities, and difficult conversations.
- Cultural resilience is about equipping people to have conversations in the workplace and about having an intentional approach to everything e.g. stay interviews. It acts as a shock absorber when bad news strikes, by building a solution mindset.
- A ‘check under the hood’ process allows for the tangible measurement of culture by asking questions, obtaining data, and creating a baseline (for scoring) to provide qualitative and quantitative criteria.
- Six-point inspection - satisfaction, engagement, retention, profit/market share, values, and D&I – can be used to take the pulse of a company and provide a score, and they can be looked at individually or in the round.
- A score is logical and a reflection of execution rather than strategy while culture helps to execute a strategy by making it more tangible (with data) and less ‘fluffy’ (more operational).
- The emotional state of the business is an important indicator of success or failure, but the leadership gap requires behaviours training, generational perspective training, and emotional intelligence training.
- Repeated conversations may hit home on one occasion among thousands, but disbelief can be overcome gradually and lead to celebrating something special that has been created to move forward with.
- There are five factors of employee engagement to improve workplace culture:
· create a strong relationship with the management team
· communicate goals and expectations clearly
· provide the right material, equipment and information for the desired outcome
· encourage personal and professional growth
· and reward top performers.
Find out more about Eric and his work here :