I wasn’t ready for his question.
Cody, our Shipping & Receiving manager walked into my office.
“Got a second?”
“Sure, come on in. What’s up?”
“I don’t know how to inspire my guys to ‘think big.’ You know what we do. My team packs boxes. How am I supposed to hold the guys accountable to that?”
Think Big and Make it Happen was one of our company’s 6 core values.
Cody helped me see something that I knew existed, but struggled to put my finger on.
There was nothing wrong with the core value. And there was nothing wrong with Cody’s question.
In fact, it was a GREAT question because it highlighted an important gap our company had around core values…
And it might be the same gap that *your* company has around your core values... making them actionable & impactful for every individual in the company.
Working in Cody’s department was akin to running a sprint every day.
Each morning they started behind as web orders came in 24/7. Their job was to clear them by the end of our business day. It was way more involved than just picking and packing. Often they would have to consult with a sales team member to ensure the right items were being sent.
Monday’s were the hardest because orders would continue coming in over the weekend, so they’d start their day playing catch up.
That left little time for any of them — including Cody — to think about how to make bigger changes, let alone ‘making them happen’ during the daily race.
“Cody, that’s an excellent question. Tell me what you’re thinking.”
He went on to explain their goal was to be 100% accurate. Speed was something they excelled at.
Even though their accuracy hovered around 98%, that meant 2 customers out of every 100 would have an issue.
We walked around the shipping area, looked at workstations, and talked with his team.
We didn’t find a ‘silver bullet’ solution, but we DID find dozens of small inefficiencies which led to identifying improvements the team could make to hit the goal of 100% accuracy.
Think Big and Make It Happen is a great core value…
But it has to be broken into tangible, actionable and accountable steps.
The mistake I made was not understanding this. Because Cody was willing to ask for help, he helped ME learn a valuable lesson.
When I work with clients now on their core values, I use stories like this to illustrate the necessity for making core values visible, measurable and teachable.
Take a moment and look at your company’s process around your core values. What you find — or more importantly, what you don’t find — is a great place to start.
Core values that are just words on the wall will not increase engagement. They’ll actually drive it down.
Good leaders like Cody take ownership to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Is there someone willing to lead this initiative in your company?
I'm here to help when you're ready.
#corebehaviors #corevalues #management #teamculture #organizationalculture #highperformance
Marketing Manager | Events I Digital | Growth | Content | Branding
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