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Building a High Performance Culture: How Long Does It Take?
April 30, 2008
One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is “How long do you think it will take?” Usually, the question is in reference to implementing some recommendations we’ve made about how to positively impact performance.
Unless the company is in a survival crisis, our experience indicates that building a high performance culture usually takes about 12 – 15 months for each layer of management. For many entrepreneurs and early generation businesses, that seems like a couple of lifetimes, which leads to the next question:
“What can we do to speed that up?”
The answer: “Not much.”
As an example, if the directions on a cake recipe call for oven time of 20 minutes at 350 degrees, cranking the oven up to 700 won’t give us an edible cake in 10 minutes. What it gives us is a mess. And the same thing happens with forcing organizational change to “occur” at a faster-than-workable rate of pace than people can absorb. In simplest terms, your Business Performance depends upon how well your people perform.
Most of the people who will come to work for you will be dependable and productive. They might even be accurate and conscientious. They will probably want direction, strong leadership, security, and stability.
So how do you build a high performing team with a group of people who want to stay close to the shore? Here are seven simple steps to build organizational value:
- Make sure your vision is shared with everyone. If you don’t have a vision for your company, you’ll probably not get very far.
- Hire visionary leaders and talented managers who can share your vision, optimize your resources, and inspire your people.
- Engage those leaders and managers in creating strategic and operational plans that are aligned with your vision.
- Invest enough in those visionaries to make sure they hire people who know how to execute.
- Insist on rigid adherence to organizational values and principles in the execution of plans, strategies, and human interactions.
- Give people a scorecard that measures what you want to have happen.
- Make sure people know the score.
Success is never certain. These seven steps increase the probability of developing a high performing culture, higher business performance, and Succession Success with both business and family.
Next Posting - Peak Performers: How to Recruit Them
Posted by Dan Schneider on April 30, 2008 | Comments (0)
