Business Processes Determine Culture, Culture Determines Success!
Culture is the greatest determinant of success in an organization!
Randy Pentington, author of Results Rule! Build a Culture That Blows the Competition Away, put it this way:
"An organization's purpose and goals set the direction. Measures focus the energy on the outcomes. Processes create habits, and habits drive the culture. You can teach skills and concepts. You can even create momentum (and a few smiles) through inspiration. But investing in skills and inspiration is a waste of money if there are not processes to reinforce your purpose and principles. The creation and continuous refinement of work processes is a mandatory practice in the Results Rule! organization, regardless of the industry" (Results Rule!, 111).
Discover the Magic
People are deeply influenced by their work environment. Weaker people can become highly productive and stronger people can lose their edge, depending on your company culture. The magic really begins to happen when the right people come together with remarkable business systems to create a culture of discipline, enthusiasm, and high performance.
In a workshop I taught, a participant was a little upset that I was placing so much emphasis on systems. It seemed to him that I was de-emphasizing people and characterizing them as robots that you just plug in.
OK, I do get a little excited about systems, but I have always said, that people are the most important component of any system.
I think Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, sums it up best:
"A culture of discipline involves a duality. On the one hand it requires people who adhere to a consistent system; yet, on the other hand, it gives people the freedom and responsibility within the framework of that system."
Processes Shape Culture
Every business has a culture of some kind. (There are many books on this topic.) But you can't change your culture any more than you can change your brand just by talking about it, or even teaching it. You have to make systemic changes in your organization that transform the way people think and behave.
Let me paraphrase the counsel of Randy Pennington. If you want to have a culture of discipline, where results rule, you have to begin by creating measurable processes. Processes create habits, and habits drive culture. It is profoundly simple!
A culture of excellence begins with a single step, a single outstanding system! Get started today.
Wishing You Prosperous Times,
Ron
P.S. - If you follow the principles of Box TheoryTM described in my eCourse, the culture you desire will naturally follow! Check out the ebook at Box TheoryTM: Double Your Profit with High-Performance Systems and Processes. Then get the software, Box TheoryTM Gold, to make it happen in half the time.
P. P. S. - In my blog last week, I commented about a glitch in a notification system component of Rocky Mountain Power. To my great surprise, I got a call from a very nice woman who apologized for the inconvenience it caused, and explained to me what happened. I was very impressed! Some companies are not too big to listen to their customers, and Rocky Mountain Power is one of them.
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Transform Your Business into a Culture of Excellence!