“The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.”
—Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce
BIG PEOPLE ARE NOT INSPIRED BY SMALL VISION. Small thinkers make big stinkers. OK, one more common statement; “When you’re on fire, everyone wants to come watch you burn.” Alternatively, if you’re lukewarm, the Bible says your vomitous.
Your mission should be too big to ignore and too big to do on your own. When my practices had blown up and started getting asked to speak and consult, I was perplexed. I really did not know why we were seeing this kind of unprecedented success. We were thriving on an unimaginable level day after day, week after week, and were not impacted by any changes in the economy or politics, or the seasons or weather. But why?
A man who has continued to be a teacher, coach, and mentor in my life, Dr. Mark Chironna, came into my office for help, and after he had started his plan I asked him: “OK, Dr. Chironna, what worked for you here? What did you experience that caused you to walk in the door and choose us over many other options?” He responded immediately, “Culture vision.”
I asked, “What is culture vision?” He explained that everyone he met was “Mini-Me.” All the staff in our office embodied my enthusiasm for what we offered, used the same language, and had the same caring tone, he said. Each staff member possessed the same overall vision for what was delivered and a commitment to keep delivering it that permeated the atmosphere.
This really moved me to intensively study culture; including how to radically change one that you do not like. Here are 5 irreducible minimums for a healthy culture.
- Write down exactly what you want your culture to look like. Example: Entire families coming in, people engaging in your service for life, staff on a mission telling everyone they know about you, everyone coming to all of your events and bringing someone with them, receiving effortless referrals, etc. If it’s not a clear objective, you’ll never reach it!
- WRITE DOWN THE WHY! A written mission statement posted large, loud, and everywhere tells everyone involved why we need to use time, energy, and resources to save the world through what we do. Everyone should know the WHY TO THE WORK.
- The role in the goal. Make it clear what role everyone has in the mission
- Create Rhythm. In writing, verbally, on the walls, inherent with all electronic communication is mission, mission, mission. Rhythm is created when people can mimic you all on their own – or even make fun of you.
- Invest in your team. As they grow as leaders and embody the culture, you create a culture vision. A culture vision has many “mini-me’s” involved. It is not a culture unless the team is living the ethos (in the spirit of the culture) and the logos (using its divine terminology).
“Culture” Is Attention to All People and Parts:
First Corinthians 12:24-26 says: “God put our bodies together in such a way that even the parts that seem the least important are valuable. He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly, with each part caring about the others. If one part of our body hurts, we hurt all over. If one part of our body is honored, the whole body will be happy” (CEV).
It is easy to see how the people out front contribute to the greater good. But how about the billing and collection, data entry, maintenance, and reception team members? It’s like the human body: in the passage just cited, we know you can’t live without your heart, but you would also suffer from missing a hand! If you’re working at the complaints desk or in accounts payable, you may really struggle to see how your job is to save lives. That is not a position issue; it’s a leadership issue. Part of the regular training and support process is showing the team members who are not on the front lines THEIR WHY; how integral their role is to the mission.
For example, an employee may be in accounting and never see the client. However, what is the no. 1 reason someone gets upset or never commits as a customer? What is the no. 1 reason they will leave you as a customer? It’s the money! Thus, who could be more important to the ultimate success of the mission than those in a cubicle paying bills, managing QuickBooks, handling customer account issues, and all of the other unglamorous parts of the company that has everything to do with the mission?
We all appreciate the power of a healthy human heart to keep us alive and well! But a body can also go into a very bad state pretty quickly when the colon or a kidney goes out. All parts are mission-critical and deserving of attention, support, and praise. You do not want unsatisfied employees to be part of the team. EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW THE WHY TO THEIR WORK.
The new, ON-FIRE-CULTURE is every team member, patient, client, and customer an extension of you (mini-me’s), all-in on the BIG mission.
Have fun saving the world
Dr. Ben
