Quick Tips to Drive Employee Engagement, Innovation and Loyalty

By all accounts, low engagement levels and employee turnover rates plague organizations of all sizes and shapes. In fact, recent data from Gallup put employee engagement rates worldwide at about 15 percent and estimate that 51 percent of employees are looking to leave their current jobs. These statistics have significant economic consequences, as unengaged employees tend to be less productive, and organizations are forced to expend significant resources on recruitment and training to replace employees who leave.

Even the most high-performing organizations struggle with the ability to retain and engage high-quality employees. Nevertheless, despite incredible odds, we can also see some “bright spots” – organizations that have higher engagement rates and below-average turnover. Their secret sauce? These organizations promote “intrapreneurship” by encouraging employees to learn and apply entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and mindsets within their current organization. When done well, this approach increases employee engagement and retention by giving creative and growth-seeking employees opportunities to develop new products, services and business ventures – all without having to look elsewhere for these opportunities.

What’s more, there are three basic “leadership actions” taken by leaders who successfully advocate this approach in their organizations: they provide the right types of leadership development opportunities and employee engagement training program, they provide the necessary resources and they enable a culture of innovation. Let’s look at each of these leadership actions in more depth.

Provide the Right Types of Employee Leadership Development Opportunities

Not all leadership development is created equal, and as Deborah Rowland, change management researcher and author, notes, the most effective leadership development is experiential, influences participants’ intrapersonal emotional intelligence along with their external actions, is linked to participants’ specific contexts, and enrolls facilitators who act as guides rather than subject matter experts.

Not all leadership development is created equal. The most empowering intrapreneurship-focused leadership development experiences also specifically target the following proficiencies:

• Being proactive and taking initiative
• Embracing design thinking (solution-focused and oriented toward a desired future)
• Enhancing emotional intelligence, especially coalition-building skills
• Implementing project management
• Taking risks and learning from failure

In other words, while general leadership development, when done well, adds value for all participants, leaders and managers who want to cultivate intrapreneurs in their organization also need to ensure that they are providing training that addresses these specific competencies.

Provide the Necessary Resources for Self-identified, Employee-Driven Projects

More than talking a good game about innovation and creativity, leaders and managers who inspire an intrapreneurial mindset put their money where their mouth is by providing the time, space and financial resources necessary to support employee-driven initiatives.

For example, at Centiva Software Solutions, a Utah-based technical services organization, developers are given two days per month to work on a project of their choice. After learning about the problems faced by a local homeless shelter, developer Blake Kohler and his team were inspired to create a software solution that helped the shelter prioritize beds for clients. After developing and presenting an initial mockup to senior management, their team was given three months to further develop the product – the offshoot of which was a new product for the organization’s commercial line.

Similarly, with Kickbox, an innovation process designed by Adobe, employees or teams with an idea are given $1,000 and instructions and tools to measure progress, along with a Starbucks gift card and candy bar (purportedly to provide the necessary caffeine and sugar boost that innovators need). To date, Adobe has distributed more than 1,000 Kickboxes to employees around the world and made the program instructions available to others under a creative commons, share-alike, attribution license.

Design, Build and Encourage a Culture of Innovation

According to Clinton Longenecker, director of the Center for Leadership and Organizational Excellence at the University of Toledo, and Dale Eesley, director of the Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Franchising at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, organizational culture is the “key gateway” to intrapreneurship within a company.

In our experience, there are four defining features of this type of culture:

1. Employees are given a high degree of freedom and flexibility, which promotes autonomy and, thus, motivation.

Suzanne Smith, social entrepreneur and blogger, recalls how she started her career as a social intrapreneur within the American Heart Association: “The leadership, including now-CEO Nancy Brown, let me invent, lead teams, and grow in multiple roles within the organization.” Smith believes that by following the same methodology, other organizations can better tap into their existing talent pool and especially the Millennial base (those people born between 1981-1996).

2. Employees are encouraged to test out the competition and compare their company’s product or service to products and services from a different industry.

Justin Reilly, head of customer experience innovation at Verizon Fios, describes how he made the case for improving the company’s MyFios app: “On my phone, the Uber app is right beside the MyFios app. If I open Uber and hail a ride in two or three intuitive clicks, and then open the MyFios app and the experience isn’t as easy or fast, I’m going to judge Verizon Fios service on that experience. That means we’re competing against every customer’s last best experience. So that’s what we use as our guidepost to innovation and improvement.”

3. Employees are encouraged to ask questions and challenge processes.

Tim Houlne, a Fortune 500 intrapreneur-turned-startup entrepreneur, recalls that he received a lot of pushback for asking questions early in his career. Now, as CEO of Humach, an organization that provides customer contact solutions, he aims to create an culture where employees are encouraged to poke holes and rethink solutions: “As a tech startup, we must constantly look for better, cheaper and faster ways to operate; we have a culture where everyone feels comfortable presenting their ideas and innovative solutions are recognized.” So create an culture where employees are encouraged to poke holes and rethink solutions.

4. Employees have permission to fail (or understand which types of failures are acceptable and unacceptable).

Most researchers agree that risk-taking is a defining feature of entrepreneurs (cf, Antoncic 2003); however, one of the defining features of intrapreneurs is that they are actually more risk-averse than their entrepreneur peers. With this in mind, organizations that want to enable and empower intrapreneurs should regularly communicate that failure is a natural part of the innovation process and even celebrate failures. In situations where failure is not an option, leaders and managers need to make that clear.

At the end of the day, there are many factors that drive high levels of employee disengagement and turnover. As leaders and managers, we often assume that these factors are entirely outside of our control, which is a mistake. Promoting and enabling intrapreneurship is one strategy that can benefit both employees and organizations. While successfully implementing all three leadership actions is a significant undertaking, it’s also one that organizations would do well to consider, especially if they are struggling to engage and retain high performers.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, find me on Twitter.

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Eight Steps to Create a Learning Culture

Gallup’s report, How Millennials Work and Live, shows that 59% of Millennials say learning and development (L&D) opportunities are extremely important to them when considering a job. Comparatively, 44% of Gen Xers and 41% of Baby Boomers say the same about L&D. Gallup also reports that “An impressive 87% of Millennials rate ‘professional or career growth and development opportunities’ as important to them in a job — far more than the 69% of Non-Millennials who say the same.”

Since the Millennial generation has now surpassed the Baby Boomers as the largest generation in the U.S. labor force, paying attention to what they value in a workplace is crucial to attracting (and keeping) the best talent.

Yet L&D also has an impact on the bottom line. Top-performing organizations are five times more likely to have learning cultures, according to the U.S. L&D Report: 2018. That implies that L&D opportunities are a key component to an organization’s success.

It’s clear that Learning and Development is more important now than ever before. So important, that assimilating it into your organizational culture is a must. But how do you promote a learning culture in your organization? Let’s take a look at eight steps to get you on the right track, based on the findings of the U.S. L&D Report.

1     1. Know that there is no singular model of a learning culture

Unfortunately, there is no clear blueprint for creating a learning culture. Every organization is different—the size, culture, leadership, environment, and industry—all have an impact on what will or will not work. So, while you can have strong principles in mind, truly integrating L&D into your culture will be a process of discovery and adjustment. Don’t get disheartened if you’re not seeing progress—make an informed pivot to try something else.

2. Keep employee impact at the core of all programs|
 

Always communicate the big picture to employees when it comes to L&D programs. Learners should understand how their individual learning makes a direct impact on the organization’s success. Being able to see their personal development as a key component driving the business encourages employee engagement and gives employees a sense of meaning. Research shows that employees who attain meaning and significance from their work are far less likely to leave their jobs. In fact, companies without staff engaged in learning are twice as likely to lose staff before three years.

3. Get executive-level support

Transforming company culture is not possible without leadership involvement. 90% of companies with strong learning cultures said that senior executives were actively engaged in L&D initiatives. In Finding Courses’ survey of U.S. L&D departments, they found that “the number one comment from professionals about how they encourage a culture of learning is through meaningful and overt support from senior leaders.”

What does this support look like? It could be leaders personally engaging in learning, allotting the budget to fund research, creation and implementation of programs, or offering promotions directly linked to L&D.

4. Work with your in-house cultural influencers

While leadership is vital for culture change, working with company influencers is also a powerful tool. One place to start is with the internal communications team. They have direct lines of communication with both leadership and employees and can help promote programs in ways your staff will respond to.

You might also dig a little deeper into the staff itself, seeking out employees that embody the learning culture you are trying to create. Allow them to work as catalysts for change by getting them involved in L&D programs.

5. Use technology to assist, not lead, cultural transformation

You can’t expect technology to inspire and manage a strong L&D culture. Instead, use it as a tool to engage, motivate, and distribute information. For example, creating learner groups on video or app platforms will increase engagement and promote learning.

Not sure what the best technology is for your L&D programs? It might help to take a look at what other organizations use. When surveyed about what types of technology L&D departments would use, the top runner was e-learning at 32%. Up next was virtual classrooms (22%), micro-learning videos (17%), game based-learning (12%), mobile learning (11%) and virtual reality (6%).

At the end of the day, you’ve got to use what works best for your organization, which could include some trial and error. But that’s all part of the learning process!

6. Champion accountability

Accountability is absolutely necessary for the success of any L&D initiative. This means holding employees accountable with feedback and recognition. This also means holding leadership accountable. If a leader isn’t able to commit to learning, the learning culture will not succeed.

7. Measure specific impact

Before you can measure the progress of your learning culture, you have to decide what type of impact you are seeking. Are you looking to increase employee engagement? Lower attrition? Increase promotions to roles being vacated by retiring Baby Boomers?

Once you have a clear understanding of the impact you seek, it’s time to measure progress. You can measure employee engagement with anonymous surveys, analyze attrition data based on previous data points, measure employee promotion and movement compared to years prior, and more. Using data is the best way to know whether or not your programs are succeeding. Otherwise you are relying on intuition, which isn’t accurate often enough to guide the direction of large-scale decisions and investments. HR analytics are powerful—check out the possibilities with our summary paper.

8. Make L&D part of a larger cultural transformation

Building a learning culture can positively impact the organization for years to come. This is an investment in the organizational culture as a whole, as the two are intertwined. It’s not possible to have a powerful learning culture without a strong organizational culture, so both need effort. What might that simultaneous effort look like?

Finding Courses writes, “In order to inspire a learning culture, organizations that we spoke with recommended promoting learning from failure as well as success, advocating for employee freedom to challenge the status quo with new ideas, supporting and publicizing innovation that springs from learning, and if possible, giving learners encouragement and a platform to collaborate with each other after training events have taken place.”

I’d love to hear from people who have strong learning cultures in their organizations. What makes them work? What results have you seen on the culture as a whole?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Tips to Adapt to the Multi-Generational Workforce

The workforce is more diverse than ever with different generations working side by side. Each generation is distinctly different from the other, which can be an organizational challenge. However, it is also an opportunity to leverage generational strengths for improved organizational performance.

Want a quick summary on this topic? Watch our short webinar synopsis before reading on.

According to Statista, Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) are 22.6% of the US population, Generation X (born 1965-1980) are 20.2% of the US population, Millennials (born 1981-1996) are 22.1% of the US population and Generation Z (born 1997 and later) are 26.5% of the US population.

What does this mean for your workforce?

Baby Boomers: The Aging Workforce

By 2029 20% of the total U.S population will be over the age of 65. In addition, the Baby Boomers will soon retire. As Baby Boomers leave the workplace, it’s important to capture their knowledge so that the transition can take place for future generations.

How do you do this? Have the younger generations use technology to conduct experience interviews with Baby Boomers; this allows each generation to learn more about the other. It also gives the organization videos or podcasts of these interviews which can be archived to preserve institutional knowledge or help with onboarding.

Gen X: The Next Leaders

The Millennial crazed media has totally forgotten who our next leaders truly are. Gen Xers founded Google, Twitter and Amazon.  They have the capacity to bridge the generational gap between Baby Boomers and Millennials. Almost two-thirds of Xers (62%) say they “want to be mentors”, and 40% see themselves as teachers. That’s more than any other generation.

So how can you help your Gen X leaders? Provide formal emotional intelligence and communication classes. In addition, ensure they understand the organizational vision and purpose.

Millennials: The New Majority

Millennials are the majority of the US workforce. As per Dr. Mary Donohue’s research, strong Millennial relationships in the workplace can decrease employee turnover by 50% and increase productivity by 11%. Yet 58% of Millennials expect to leave their jobs in three years or less; 52% think that corporate norms are totally outdated, and professionals are successful if they carve their own path.

The Millennials believe that ideas matter more than experience, and work output is valued more than the time put in. Coaching in the workplace is an important aspect for them so ensure that your managers provide coaching, along with frequent feedback for better employee engagement. To increase creativity and productivity, offer opportunities to work remotely.

Generation Z: The Most Diverse

Generation Z is the most diverse generation; according to Frank N. Magid’s estimates, Gen Z is 55% Caucasian, 24% Hispanic, 14% African American, 4% Asian and 4% mixed race or other.

The majority of Gen Z resides in underdeveloped or developing countries. Relatively low in mature European markets, Generation Z is largest in India, China and Nigeria.

Gen Z considers honesty as the most important leadership quality. They are less influenced by money and more motivated by opportunities for advancement. They have the capability to handle multiple plans and projects. To fully leverage this generation’s strengths for organizational effectiveness, a strong company culture is required.

Want to learn more? Watch our short webinar synopsis.

Managers, we want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience with managing Baby Boomers vs. Millennials. What has worked and not worked for you in managing a diverse workforce?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Building and Leading Cross Functional Teams – A Navy Boot Camp Instructor’s Perspective – Part 2

In our previous post, we introduced what we find to be an extremely effective team building model – Tuckman’s Model. It involves four phases, forming, storming, norming, and performing. Each of these phases is necessary for the team to grow, overcome challenges, and deliver results. To read this in detail, check out part-one of our series on Building and Leading Cross Functional Teams.

Today we are going to discuss Adair’s Model to illustrate leadership processes, and a Cross Functional Team Integration concept.

Action Centered Leadership, Adair’s Model

At Recruit Training Command (RTC), everything is biased toward action.  John Adair’s Action-Centered Leadership™ illustrate how tasks are achieved and how the teams and individuals are managed.  According to Adair, the task, team, and individuals have six core functions:

1.    Planning

2.    Initiating

3.    Controlling

4.    Supporting

5.    Informing

6.    Evaluating,

All of these are vital to achieve the common goal.  How did we use Adair’s model for RTC team leaders?

The Task Circle

John Adair identifies the responsibilities for “task” as the vision, mission, and purpose for the group. At RTC, training is the purpose, graduation is mission or the common goal, and excellence is the vision. Achieving the task, or series of tasks, is different for each team and individual, and is necessary to complete the task circle. The three teams, Recruit, RDC, and support, each have their own tasks with purpose, resources, and processes to follow. A recruit’s task is to learn, including learning to rely on each other, and complete every requirement to graduate. RDC’s task is to ensure strict discipline and present a pristine example of leadership, while facilitating completion of all requirements. The support team’s task is to help execute the schedule, fill in gaps as needed, and demonstrate exemplary standards. As the training timeline progresses, the task circle is completed.

The Individual Circle

It is important for each leader to understand the team members as individuals. The responsibilities for the individuals are to visualize the goal, maintain perspective, be supportive, perform in key roles, earn rewards, complete training, and develop as individuals and as team members.  For the Recruits, it is imperative they remain aware of why they volunteered for RTC.  The RDCs find creative ways to motivate, train, and develop recruits.  Support staff focus on recruits, RDCs, and themselves.

The Team Circle

Dynamics at RTC are similar for each team, with differing perspectives.  The recruit team, RDC team, and support teams are defined by their culture, roles, communication, performance, cooperation, and capabilities.  By design, recruits experience challenges such as swim qualification, physical fitness tests, weapons familiarization, academic tests, firefighting and shipboard casualty training events which culminate in a 12-hour overnight capstone event called Battle Stations.  RDCs face unique and often repetitive situations in their teams, such as recruit health and family issues, scheduling changes due to weather, and division performance.  The support team evolves slowly as team members are added and removed over time, and whose culture is primarily established through the training command’s directives and influence.  Through adversity and resolution, each team assumes an identity, standards, and style which forms the team circle. 

As noted by Adair and observed to be true at RTC, achieving the Task, Developing the Team, and Developing Individuals are mutually dependent, as well as essential to the overall leadership role. So how did the three teams work as cross functioning teams?

Cross Functioning Team Integration

Cross functioning teams are defined as a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. RDCs, recruits, and support staff teams are comprised of a leader and key people in contributing roles. The cross functional model below displays how we worked as cross functional teams.

Recruit Teams

The recruit teams are a division of up to 88 individuals, ages 17-34, from the United States and overseas, with unique skills, abilities, and motivations.  From the first day, recruits are assigned real and functional leadership positions complementing their skills and abilities; the roles were leader, assistant and specialists; responsible tasks included laundry, mail, medical and more.  These assignments help introduce rank, structure, and instill leadership qualities that last a lifetime.  After eight weeks of training, recruits are tested in the final evolution problem, called Battle Stations.  Those who succeed earn the title of United States Sailor and go on to the next phase in their career.

RDC Teams

There are typically three RDCs per division.  One is established as the lead.  Each has nearly half a career’s worth of fleet experience in addition to their own personal skills, RTC experience, and occupational expertise.  All are trained to be interchangeable and can operate with any division of recruits as necessary.  Some RDCs will perform inspections as practice for other divisions, as well as give advice or training to recruits and RDCs from other divisions.  They rely on each other to meet daily requirements.  Family time, personal life, and extracurricular activities are often sacrificed for team responsibilities and the common goal.  This sacrifice doesn’t come without reward, however.  The recruit training and leadership development experience results in the highest promotion rates, nearly double, of any enlisted occupation in the Navy.

Support Teams

Underneath the overarching command structure at RTC, the layer of support leadership is vital to success.  In short, they are a finely tuned hierarchy of leaders who are specially trained to help in any given situation.  By design these leaders occupy the “hold” positions.  They are experienced RDCs who are strategically positioned with the massive number of employees to ensure smooth daily operations at RTC.  This cadre of leaders are experienced and possess a keen understanding of even the most unique problems.

Cross Functioning Team Interaction

From recruits leading other recruits, to RDCs facilitating daily routines, to leadership support teams providing solutions, the Navy’s Recruit Training Command has been at the forefront of modern leadership practices, refining and redefining the basics of leadership and management for Sailors. Each team is trained and designated to communicate and interact within their teams and across other teams for the good of the Navy. The teams together operate like a machine toward a common goal.

The Team Interaction model shows how independent, cross-functioning, teams connect and influence each other directly and indirectly. Each team’s connection is dynamic, which means multiple points of connection between teams. While their responsibilities may differ, they are part of the same organization and contribute to its mission in ways that correlate to each other. For example, recruit divisions interact with RDC teams and support teams. Support teams interact with RDCs and organization management teams. The curriculum development team may never interact directly with the recruit division but has a certain effect on their mission and performance. Meanwhile, all the teams within an organization move forward at varying paces toward a common vision, mission, and purpose.

Three Tips to Successfully Manage Cross Functioning Teams

Here are a few tips to build and manage successful cross functioning and interactive teams, along with three important ingredients (Communication, Common Goal, and Rewards).

Tip 1:  Communication is essential to all members and teams for the duration of the task.  Make the organization’s vision, mission, and purpose ubiquitous.  Encourage familiarity within the organization to facilitate engagement between team members, and teams.  You can do this by scheduling team activities, sharing the history of the organization, creating events focused on the purpose of the organization, and by structuring teams in a way that promotes reliance on another team for success. 

Tip 2:  Teams must be focused on a never-changing common goal, and even small goals leading up to it.  Scheduling is key to accomplishing this, but even more important is to never “move the goal posts”.  Ensure your goals are solid and cannot be easily moved or changed.  Make smaller goals, which can be adjusted within reason, part of the larger goal.

Tip 3:  Having a rewards system in place from the beginning, to avoid extra work at the end, is a great way to create additional incentive and foster motivation.  Aside from monetary, time, and personal rewards, you may wish to offer a certification, or a title upon completion.  A hand-written letter or note for meaningful and important work is also valuable.  Small rewards for completing small goals are also highly encouraged.  Sometimes a verbal “thank you” is just enough to demonstrate gratitude and appreciation from the team or organization. 

What teams do you have in your organization? Have you assembled the right team? Is the team focused on a common goal? Does your communication system allow you to interact with other teams effectively and efficiently? Is there a reward system in place? Does your organization have a higher purpose?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Building and Leading Cross Functional Teams – A Navy Boot Camp Instructor’s Perspective – Part 1

“These recruits are entrusted to my care.  I will train them to the best of my ability.  I will develop them into smartly disciplined, physically fit, basically trained Sailors. I will instill in them, and demonstrate by my own example, the highest standards of Honor, Courage, and Commitment.” 

This was the Recruit Division Commander’s (RDC) creed when I trained future U.S. Navy Sailors at Recruit Training Command (RTC) in Great Lakes, IL. The creed contained succinct and clearly defined goals that helped me, and others, successfully train 10 recruit divisions.

How did we do it? Using Tuckman’s Model to illustrate team lifecycles, Adair’s Model to illustrate leadership processes, and a Cross Functional Team Integration concept, I’ll demonstrate how three separate teams (Recruits, RDCs, and Support) came together every week to change civilians into Sailors who are ready for follow-on training and service to the fleet.

Team Building, Tuckman’s Model

Bruce Tuckman asserts that teams navigate four phases: forming, storming, norming, and performing.  Tuckman’s model established that each phase is necessary for the team to grow, overcome challenges, and deliver results.

This is what Tuckman’s model looks like at Navy boot camp.

Forming

On the day recruits arrive, they are assigned to a division of approximately 88 civilians.  Prior to their arrival, an entire support staff prepares for every need or incident that can arise during training. In addition, a team of RDCs is assigned to that division and familiarizes themselves with the upcoming, intense, 2-month boot camp schedule. Processing days, including day of arrival, take 3 to 5 days to complete; akin to herding cats, these forming days are the most challenging days for all teams, yet everyone has one goal in mind: graduation.

Storming

Each day, between 4:30 am and 6 am, recruits are awakened by “reveille”.  The first person to greet them is their RDC, barking out instructions for all to hear, and preparing each future Sailor for the day’s events.  Their day flow includes uniform of the day, assemble for breakfast, march, arrive at medical, eat lunch, become familiarized with training standards, attend classroom instruction, have dinner, conduct hygiene and evening routine (letters home) and more!  Lights go out at 10 pm, which is called “taps”.  During the storming phase, recruit leadership is identified and established.  Though at first they are usually hesitant to step forward, those with apparent leadership skills or High School ROTC experience will stand out and be appointed to lead in several different roles.

Norming

After only a few days, a routine takes hold and divisions, RDC’s, and supporting teams norm and begin to function like clockwork.  The strict scheduling of events, and common goals provide a foundation for stability.  Along with proper assignment of roles and responsibilities and repetition of a few basic functions, training is in full swing.  Practice inspections, practice marching, and practice for everything is the norm.  This phase lasts from approximately week 2 until week 6.  Then the heat turns up!

Performing

Leading up to graduation, recruits and RDCs alike are encouraged to strive for excellence throughout training and receive recognition for outstanding performance in several areas.  Everything they have practiced for the last several weeks will now be graded.  Physical training, inspections, academics, and other disciplines are meticulously observed and judged by exacting standards.  The results of which, if positive, are rewarded with recognition flags and pennants displayed during graduation in front of families, peers, and leadership at a graduation ceremony. 

Every week new divisions form, while other divisions graduate.  New teams of RDCs are assigned to train the next cycle.  Some RDCs rotate into the support staff, while others return from their supporting roles.  It’s a never-ending cycle of team building.  How does it all go so smoothly?  Quite simply, leadership.

In part 2 of this blog, we will discuss Adair’s Model of team building and three tips you can use.

What teams are in your organization?  Have you assembled the right team?  Is the team focused on a common goal?  Does your communication system allow you to interact with other teams effectively and efficiently?  Is the team forming, storming, norming or performing?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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