Author Archives: Tom Foster

About Tom Foster

Tom Foster spends most of his time talking with managers and business owners. The conversations are about business lives and personal lives, goals, objectives and measuring performance. In short, transforming groups of people into teams working together. Sometimes we make great strides understanding this management stuff, other times it’s measured in very short inches. But in all of this conversation, there are things that we learn. This blog is that part of the conversation I can share. Often, the names are changed to protect the guilty, but this is real life inside of real companies.

Quickest Way to Change Company Culture

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“What’s the quickest way to change your culture?” Pablo asked.

“Great question,” I replied. “Shifting culture usually takes time and intention.”

“But, there is a way,” Pablo nodded.

“Is this a trick question?” I wanted to know.

Pablo continued to nod. “It’s not a trick, but it’s generally not where you look. The quickest way to change your culture, is to bring in new people. They bring a culture with them.”

I smiled.

“Unfortunately,” Pablo continued, “that culture they bring with them may be counter to the culture you intend. If, based on surveys, we find that most people are disengaged at work, then I assume most companies have cultures that are disengaging. In companies where people feel undervalued, underutilized, not challenged, team members will engage in coping behaviors that may be counterproductive. They quit, and get hired by you. Guess what assumptions they bring with them? And, that is where culture starts, with their assumptions, their beliefs, the way they see the world. Your initial employee orientation may be the most important time they spend to ensure they understand the new culture they will become a part of.”

I Can’t Wait

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I can’t wait to wake up in the morning, leap out of bed and head into work.**

  • What has to be waiting for you, at work, for that to happen?
  • What connections have to be there to create that mental state?
  • What importance is linked to the contribution you make, at work?

For a manager, it is not about motivating your team, it’s about team engagement, in the work that we do each day.
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**Inspired by Dr. Bill Kent, HornerXpress, National Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award Winner

Too Much Appreciation

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Pablo smiled. “Have you ever asked anyone if, at work, they receive too much appreciation?”

“That’s funny,” I said. “No, I have never asked, but I am sure the answer is a light-hearted NO.”

“This is not about gratitude, though gratitude is a worthwhile expression,” Pablo started. “It is more than just saying thank you. Gratitude is acknowledgement. Gratitude says, I see you, here, in front of me. And, you are valuable to my experience. Your presence is a contribution to me. Never underestimate the value of appreciation.”

Disconnection

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“In evaluating the health of any team, I need to look for states of connection and disconnection?” I asked.

Pablo nodded. “When you see a team in disarray, you will find disconnection. The team doesn’t go there intentionally, it goes there without thinking. Facing any dilemma, the team wants to remove the discomfort. The four typical responses of any team under stress is to fight, flight, freeze or appease. When they do, the group panics and fractures.”

“And the leader?” I asked.

“The inexperienced leader follows. In a meeting, you have seen it. A project is behind schedule because someone dropped the ball. Everyone knows who dropped the ball, but no one wants to call it out. People get defensive, engage in blaming behavior or avoid the subject altogether. There is silence, eyes look down. Then someone looks at the leader, who becomes the target for all eyes around the table. The body language clearly communicates that it is the leader who must save the team.”

“You said inexperienced, how so?” I prompted.

“The leader is being seduced,” Pablo replied. “The seduction is subtle, for the team is looking to be saved by the leader, but needs the leader to be complicit in the saving. And, the leader cannot resist the opportunity to be the savior. It is the hero incarnate. I know it sounds religious, but the mythology is there to illustrate the principle.”

“So, how does the leader prevent the seduction?” I looked sideways at Pablo.

“The team is attempting to put the issue squarely on the shoulders of the leader. The leader must resist and put the issue back on the team.”

“But you already described that the team is in panic, a state of fracture and disconnection?” I said.

“The leader must simply outlast the panic. The issue that has the potential to blow the group apart, has the same potential to weld the group together. It’s all about connection and disconnection.”

Working Relationships

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“If people do their best work in a place where they feel safe, what is it that managers can do to create that space?” I asked.

“We always want to do,” Pablo started. “If managers would only do this, do that, things would be better. It is not so much a matter of what managers do, it is a matter of the relationship between the manager and the team member. Do we have relationships built on dominance, pressure and compliance, or relationships built on cooperation, support and commitment? Organizational structure is the way we define the working relationships between people.”

“This sounds like culture,” I replied.

“Organizational structure defines the working relationships between people. Organizational structure is culture.”
—–
With inspiration from Lee Thayer, Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing

Give Them a Problem to Solve

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“It’s all about connection,” Pablo said. “If a team member is connected closely with their manager, most likely they will remain engaged. If the team member becomes disconnected from their manager, or connected to a toxic manager, the job search has already begun.”

“Only the manager?” I asked.

“The manager relationship is the key, with a supporting cast of the team,” Pablo explained. “Conceptually, a manager’s accountability is simple (not easy). Create connection, prevent disconnection.”

“That’s the popularity of team exercises,” I said.

“The problem with exercises is just that. Exercises are exercises. They startup muscle memory, but if you really want to build a team, give them a real problem to solve. Stand back. Allow the team to struggle. In that struggle, you will see some things occur. Leadership will emerge, automatically. Leadership takes the form of restating the problem, clarifying the obstacles and laying down the challenge. If the problem is complex, it will require expertise in specific areas, team members will consult, rely on each other to help carry the burden. In essence, problem solving builds connection.”

Three Questions

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“Team members have three questions,” Pablo continued, “and they all have a bearing on retention.”

  • What is expected of me?
  • How am I doing?
  • Who do I go to for help?

“The third question is the key,” I replied, “and, we can use that key to help us with the first two questions. It is a question of WHO?”

  • Who helps me set expectations in my role, to which I agree?
  • Who helps me understand how I am doing?
  • Who do I go to for help?

Pablo nodded. “How does the saying go? People join companies. People quit managers. People will work (for a while) with substandard pay, substandard benefits, as long as they have a great relationship with their manager. But, even with competitive pay and superior benefits, people will quit if they have a lousy manager.”

“So, it’s not just the role, its the working relationship with their manager,” I said.

“And, working relationships is how we define organizational structure,” Pablo stepped on my line. “Organizational structure is the way we define the working relationships (accountability and authority) between people. Organizational structure is the context in which people work. It is the context in which people engage in work or engage in non-work. Change the context, behavior follows.”**
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**Famous quotation from Gustavo Grodnitzky, Culture Trumps Everything

Separated From the Group

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“And, what happens when that social network of people is interrupted, where the person becomes separated?” Pablo asked. “And that separation could be physical separation, or mental separation.”

“Do you mean, like sending a technician out in the field, alone, as a team of one?” I floated.

“Perhaps,” Pablo replied. “Or excluding someone from a meeting in which they had a vested interest. Remember, the lions, tigers and bears are not so physical anymore. There are a hundred things leaders can do to disconnect team members from the group. Sometimes, as leaders, we create that disconnection without thinking. And when we create disconnection, it shifts the mental state of the individual into distress. That mental state of disengagement, can be incredibly corrosive. I bet you already have someone in mind, who is in a state of disconnection, and whose behavior you see as counterproductive (at best).”

I nodded. “Stands out like a sore thumb.”

“But, let’s bring this down to work, because that’s what we are really talking about. It is not my purpose to teach you to be warm and fuzzy with your team. We are here to get work done. Let’s create a list of characteristics where the mental state is in work mode vs non-work mode.”

  • Work vs Non-work
  • Positive vs Negative
  • Productive vs Unproductive
  • Cooperative vs Collusive
  • Scientific vs Unscientific
  • Conscious vs Unconscious

“And what is more contagious that a positive attitude?” Pablo smiled.

I nodded again. “A negative attitude.”

The Modern Tribe

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“So, I am not crazy to want people to come back into the office?” I asked the rhetorical question.

“Look,” Pablo replied. “There are circumstances where Zoom works just fine, especially when travel isn’t practical, or the need for communication rests in the data to be shared. But, the connections we seek out are those that provide safety, in which we can do our best work. In the plains of Africa, that was our tribe. The modern tribe is our workplace. Where else do we spend more waking hours with other adults in the pursuit of goal directed behavior? In addition to our families, our places of worship, some of our most meaningful connections are at work.”