Organizational Health

Behind the Curtain: 3 Questions Organizations Must Ask (Post #3)

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It’s going to happen.

Misunderstanding. A bad hire. Fear. Doubt. Disagreement. Separation. Change.

When it does, someone has to hold up their hand and say, “Hold Up!”

Reminds me of the Progressive Insurance commercials where a red flag gets thrown. Hilarious.

An organization that is unified on their values and builds community between one another has at least one other question to answer to ensure their public persona matches their behind-the-curtain private one: How’s the culture on both sides of the curtain?

The flipside of making sure all is well behind the curtain is that you still have to pay attention to what’s going on on the other side. In last week’s episode of “At The Table,” the troubles at Hertz and United Airlines were discussed; it’s evident the Execs aren’t bothering with gauging the culture between the front lines and their customers. And it’s been that way for years.

How is that possible? Is it because no one behind the curtain cares? No one’s assigned to be the “Keeper of the Curtain”? Is there dedicated time behind the curtain to talk about the culture on the other side?

Leaders, to engage this question further, here are four more questions for your team to discuss:

  • What’s our process to gauge the culture on both sides of the curtain?
  • Who’s responsible for gathering cultural data and conveying it behind the curtain?
  • What kind of culture do our values promise?
  • What are we willing to do when unhealthy culture is present?

May your culture on both sides of the curtain matter and thrive.

Photo by David Werbrouck on Unsplash

Behind the Curtain: 3 Questions Organizations Must Ask (Post #2)

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I grew up a PK. For those outside of church world, PK stands for preacher’s kid.

In addition to growing up in a preacher’s home, I also spent over 20 years serving on church staffs. There are many interesting dynamics to being on a church staff, but I believe one of the keys to organizational health behind the curtain has to be relationships.

In my dad’s day, the prevailing thought was pastors didn’t make friends in their churches. I hear that thought, but I never accepted it for myself. More and more, this seems to be the choice. Reality is, either way you live, it’s going to come with some challenges. But that’s true about all relationships, right?

Building on the first question about values to ensure your public persona matches your behind-the-curtain private one, it seems you must answer this question about your team: How are you building community in your organization?

Community is all about relationships. A healthy community invests in one another, cares for one another, listens to one another, trusts one another, celebrates one another, challenges one another, and commits to one another. If any of these actions are what you claim to do for your customers, it has to be going on in your team also. Community requires intention. It has to be pursued.

Leaders, to engage this question further, here are four more questions for your team to discuss:

  • In our hiring process, how much attention is given to community health?
  • What have we done in the last six months to build community?
  • How well does our team pursue community by growing in understanding one another?
  • Who’s really in charge of the community behind the curtain?

May your community behind the curtain shine in front of it.

Photo by Windows on Unsplash

Behind the Curtain: 3 Questions Organizations Must Ask (Post #1)

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Mark wasn’t wrong. In January I observed an exchange between two organizations that led me down a rabbit hole in my brain. It ended with me posing this question: What questions must be answered to ensure your public persona matches your behind-the-curtain private one? Mark agreed to tackle this from a leadership angle (see posts March 10-12); my task is to address the organization angle.

Before throwing out the first question, I need to throw credit to one of my favorite leadership podcasts. The Table Group’s podcast entitled At The Table is worth your following. Patrick Lencioni’s team asks and answers leadership questions every week that challenge leaders and their organizations. Subscribe to it now!

Wednesday as I waited in the lobby of a local nonprofit waiting for a meeting, I noticed a framed image of their values. It caught my eye mostly because of the Hebrew words. I was curious. If you’re curious, here’s the list of ten:

I’ve gotten to know one of their VP’s over the last eight months. He’s relatively new in town and therefore new to his team. We haven’t gotten to know each other well enough for me to inquire, but I wonder how his interview process went compared to his reality of being on the job. You know what I mean, right? It seems more often than not the hiring process doesn’t really pull back the entire curtain.

Which leads me to question #1: Are we all for the same things, really?

Doing the work to solidify the organization’s values is important. Equally important is protecting them. Through the hiring process, alignment on values needs to be top of mind. Periodically, probably routinely, values need to be restated in leadership meetings. It wouldn’t hurt to find creative ways to check if all team members can state them.

This matters for one huge reason. If you say in front of the curtain that you stand for something but rarely discuss it behind the curtain, eventually those on the other side will find out. Your words must be more than lip service.

Leaders, to engage this question further, here are four more questions for your team to discuss:

  • When’s the last time we checked our values as a team?
  • How are we evaluating our values?
  • How well are we listening to people on both sides of the curtain in evaluating our values?
  • What uncomfortable conversations do we need to have about our values?

May your words behind the curtain match your words in front of it.

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

Blog Series: Behind the Curtain

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No matter the organization you choose to analyze, there’s an understanding every one doesn’t see all the stuff. There are things not seen or known by the public and, often, not the majority of those engaged in the organization (staff, volunteers, etc.). Some call it seeing behind the curtain.

Others refer to as organizational politics. I’m not a fan of that label, but it’s understandable why people use it. And therein lies what we’re really analyzing-people.

The stuff behind the curtain is actually the actions/interactions of organizational leaders. How do they get along? How do they manage themselves? Is there a mirror anywhere, and who’s responsible for its use?

It seems healthy, thriving organizations care about what’s behind the curtain as much as, if not more than, the other side. A couple of weeks ago in watching a young organization I wondered to myself what it would take for it to be one of those organizations for the long haul-an organization whose public persona matches what’s behind the curtain.

I invited my friend Mark Stanifer to join the wondering by sending this question: What questions must be answered in order for what’s behind your organization’s curtain to match your public persona? The result is a blog series that we’ve co-authored.

Mark’s contributions focus on questions for leaders; mine focus on questions for the leadership team.

Keep watch for Mark’s first post.

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Role Clarification: It’s Critical

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In my years of leadership, one vital item that continues to gurgle to the top determining the health of a team member and ultimately the entire team is role clarification. Just this week, I was reminded again how often simple clarifications are missed and how they impact decisions and conversations.

I was having a second conversation which some would call “hard” with a leader after a first with their colleague. Come to find out, that first one wasn’t necessary, but only because the second one clarified both of these leader’s roles. Totally changed that conversation and explained some odd, head scratching moments over the past two years. I felt bad, but not for long when this leader said, “Yeah, that happens a lot.”

They may be right more than they know. Hopefully in their context they can work to lower that frequency. Speaking of context, there seems to be a common thread of how role clarification gets missed. That thread can be summed up in one word: CHANGE.

If it’s true that change is constant, then it must be true that clarification also needs to be constant. For example…

  • If a team member receives a new title or responsibility, repeated clarification for everyone is necessary. A one-time announcement by email, social media post, or meeting announcement doesn’t suffice. And just stating the title doesn’t cover it. Consider delivering a brief job description, purpose for the title, and who is impacted by this role; it probably wouldn’t hurt to update the organization chart. What may seem like a small change is still change.
  • When a new team member is added (no matter the level), repeated clarification for everyone is necessary, particularly if the position is a new position. One could ask, “So whose responsibility is that?” My opinion, it’s the primary responsibility of the new team member’s immediate supervisor; in the case of their reporting to a board, then the board should own this task. Please avoid making it the new team member’s responsibility to explain why their job was created, what their job is, and what the new organization chart looks like. If that’s how your leadership rolls, you may be looking to refill this position sooner and more often than you’d like. It may seem obvious, but adding new team members is change.
  • When your organization is growing or goes through any major leadership shift, repeated clarification may seem like overkill. But consider this question: How many ripples does growth or a shift create? When you finish the list of all the ripples, that number multiplied by no less than two is how many clarifications are needed to avoid confusion and misunderstanding and their potential fallout. One truth to grab on to-growth is change.

Change equals a clarification need. If that stresses you out as a leader, then this task is most likely not in your wheelhouse. Odds are you know the team member that lives in that wheelhouse. Talk to them soon. It’s critical.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash