CHAPTER 4

The Path to Commitment

When the organization has a clear sense of its purpose, direction, and desired future state, and when this image is widely shared, individuals are able to define their own roles both in the organization and the larger society of which they are a part. They gain a sense of importance as they are transformed from robots blindly following instructions to human beings engaged in a creative and purposeful venture.

—Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, Leaders

So How Do You Get People Committed?

In an age when the on-ramp to the career expressway is shorter and steeper than ever (just ask Tim Tebow), forgiveness for mistakes is practically nonexistent, and the average job tenure is a little more than three years, it is imperative to get your employees up to speed quickly. That certainly includes enrolling them in the organization’s journey before they get lost, run over—or just drop out.

There are four specific information needs you must meet as a prerequisite for achieving high levels of employee Commitment. In short, these are things your employees need, want, and have a right to know.

1. What Is This Organization All About?

Your people need to know what the organization stands for and what it believes in. What is really important? What kinds of things can they do to get support—or promoted? What will get them voted off the island? Because we all walk around with a healthy dose of skepticism these days, they also need to hear some stories that illustrate, validate, and anchor those claims, stories that involve heroes, villains, and victories snatched from the jaws of defeat by their coworkers.

No Identity Crisis at J&J

One organization that has demonstrated clear and consistent superiority in communicating its identity is Johnson & Johnson (J&J). In a short, 308-word document known simply as the Credo (http://www.jnj.com/connect/about-jnj/jnj-credo), they have effectively articulated just about everything anyone needs to know about what the company stands for and deems important. The Credo isn’t something they cooked up just last week. It has been around about as long as their Band-Aids (since 1943, to be exact). Although it is subjected to regular internal review, they have hardly changed a word over that time. Indeed, in the 13 years since the original edition of this book was published, not one word of the Credo has been altered. Although many companies may have such hallowed documents stashed away in their vaults, it is doubtful that any could demonstrate as convincingly as J&J has that they actually mean it and believe what’s printed on the paper.

J&J openly discusses their Credo with prospective employees, makes sure new hires get a copy of it, publishes it on the cover of their annual reports, and most important, they live it.

By his own admission, former J&J chief executive officer Jim Burke spent upward of 40 percent of his time communicating the Credo—not developing it, but explaining it. Although some might find it excessive for a CEO to spend that much of his or her time engaged in communicating what the organization stands for and where it’s going, we would argue that it’s the single most important job a CEO has!

According to Burke, “All of our management is geared to profit on a day-to-day basis. That’s part of the business of being in business. But too often, in this and other businesses, people are inclined to think, ‘We’d better do this, because it’s going to show up on the figures over the short term.’ This document allows them to say, ‘Wait a minute. I don’t have to do that. The management has told me that they’re really interested in the long term, and they’re interested in me operating under this set of principles. So I won’t.”1

Sellin’ Chicken

The mission at Chick-fil-A is about as clear and uncomplicated as it gets. While I was conducting a Coaching Skills Workshop at the company’s headquarters near the Atlanta airport, one class member volunteered that “[Founder and CEO] Truett Cathy has always been very clear about what we do here at Chick-fil-A: ‘We sell chicken.’ It’s as simple as that. No matter what you’re doing, if it pertains to sellin’ chicken, then you’re probably doing the right thing. If what you’re doing gets in the way of sellin’ chicken, or if it doesn’t have anything to do with sellin’ chicken, you better not let Truett find out about it. And he finds out about everything.”

Truett Cathy never saw any reason to micromanage. He had been very clear for nearly 50 years and told his people in simple, easy-to-understand terms that as long as their activities promoted “sellin’ chicken” (within the parameters of the company’s unusually high standards of ethics and professionalism), they was sanctioned, condoned, and encouraged. That answered a lot of questions and eliminated the need for a lot of hefty policy manuals.

At one point in the workshop, I accompanied a small group from the class to a breakout room on another floor. As the elevator door opened, there stood Truett, on his way up to his office from the basement. After warm greetings to each of the seminar participants by name and an introduction to me, whom he didn’t know, he asked interestedly, “Whatchall doin’?” They all chimed in chorus, “Sellin’ chicken!” Truett beamed and probed no further.

Core Values on Display at Zappos

Online retailer Zappos operates by a list of Core Values (http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values), and it does a very effective job of making sure people understand and can live with them—both before and after they’re hired.

I was initially a little skeptical of these claims. Then I took the Zappos tour and was amazed—not just by the degree to which the company really opens the kimono (nothing was off-limits), but by the extent to which the Core Values were on display, both in words and deeds. It was also refreshing to note that the very distinctive Zappos culture seems to have thus far survived their acquisition by Amazon.

Zappos was celebrating customer week while we were there. In mid-afternoon, the “normal” business environment was suddenly punctuated by a group of costumed workers parading through the cube farm, to the beat of loud music, passing out Jell-O shots (yes, Jell-O shots). By my count, at least three of their Core Values were on display that afternoon, to include #3 which involves “Creating fun and a little weirdness.”

Subsequent to the tour, the company’s values were put on display in a more somber way in early 2012, when they reacted quickly and in a very straightforward manner to a massive hack of their customer data files. The announcement to customers was lightning fast, crisp, and to the point: “We got hacked . . . we’re sorry . . . here’s what we have done . . . here’s what you should probably do,” etc. No lawyerly weasel words or obfuscation were involved, thereby satisfying Core Value #6, “Build open and honest relationships with communication.”

I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It’s seeing what other people don’t see and pursuing that vision.

—Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks

2. Where Are We Going, and Why?

People want to know what journey you are asking them to sign up for. Do you plan to go to the moon by the end of the decade? The White House in 2013? Achieve $10 billion in revenue by the year 2015? The World Cup championships in five years—or what? Sadly, most organizations fail miserably on this one. They either have no credible sense of mission, or they can’t articulate it. Either way, it spells disaster.

If people don’t know full well where your ship is headed, they can’t possibly help you get there. Former General Electric (GE) CEO Jack Welch said that a company must define its destiny in broad but clear terms: “You need an overarching message, something big, but simple and understandable.”2

Former Southwest Airlines president and CEO Howard Putnam explained the very practical implications of the problem: “Most companies fail in their growth because they don’t have a vision. They don’t know where to go. When you have a vision and someone comes to you with some convoluted idea, you can hold it up to the vision and ask, does it fit? Does it fly? If not, don’t bother me. A vision must be so strong that it can outweigh the egos of managers that might want to take off in a different direction.”3

Lost in Space

Quick: What was the program goal of NASA’s 135 space shuttle missions (launched over the course of 30 years at about $1.5 billion/copy)? What has been the goal of America’s space program since 1969, when standing on the shoulders of their predecessors, the Apollo 11 crew fulfilled President Kennedy’s 1961 promise that Americans would put a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade?

If the answers aren’t coming to you quickly or clearly, don’t feel bad. You are in good company, to include those members of Congress who vote to fund NASA, and even some at the agency itself. Is it really any wonder that America’s space program as we have known it seems to be riding off into the sunset?

We discussed the eminent conclusion of NASA’s shuttle program on our way to Titusville, Florida, to view the final shuttle launch in July 2011. In the pre-dawn darkness, some eight hours prior to the launch of STS 135, I hadn’t yet sorted out my emotional reaction to the program’s ending. However, what was clear is just how similar NASA’s situation is to other entities (governments, companies, et al.) that lose their way, their funding, and their mojo.

The Bible’s book of Proverbs 29:18 suggests that “where there is no vision, the people perish.” This is yet another instance of an agency that has long operated with a very cloudy—or at best, misunderstood—sense of purpose, direction, and priority. It is one that is in real danger of going away, not because our nation has grown tired of space venture, but because of the persistent failure to clearly articulate a credible and compelling vision for the future.

The very same thing happens to companies, business units, departments, and teams that fail to credibly articulate and maintain a compelling sense of purpose and direction. As leaders, we must determine, communicate, and then permanently illuminate—with one of those big five-cell flashlights—the path ahead. What are we about? Why does our organization exist? What is, as the French put it, our raison d’être? Where are we going? Why does it matter?

Fail to connect the dots on any one of these items and slowly (at first), but inexorably, the lights go out, and the party is over. A few suggestions:

• It is not enough once you’ve decided upon the “vision/mission thing” to simply announce it once or twice and then hang some relevant testimonial junk on the wall. To overcome the understandable cynicism that exists inside organizations, we need to practically litter the place with repeated signs that this is much more than some new program. Rather, it is to be our way of life. Words are important, but actions trump syllables.
• To breathe life into those words and make them part of our daily actions, we should make it clear to the people on our team that good faith efforts on their part to enact the vision will never get them in trouble. Similarly, they should stop doing anything that does not line up with that purpose as soon as practical. On an institutional level, we must take pains to be sure that budgets and reward mechanisms support our declared purpose and direction.
• To be sure, Level 1 and 2 managers (those closest to the front line, and the ones with the toughest jobs in any organization) are responsible for ensuring that their teammates get the big picture. But because people don’t operate day to day in the big picture, they must see to it that those around them clearly grasp the top two or three priorities.

The “Crayon Test”

In his book Beating the Street, former Fidelity Magellan Fund manager Peter Lynch makes the case that investors ought not put their money into anything that cannot be explained with a crayon.4 Given the complexity of today’s financial markets, that’s probably good advice. It is every bit as useful, however, for those of us who are entrusted with the responsibility of explaining to others where our organization is headed. If you can’t convey that message, graphically and credibly, with the very same crayon (literally), then you can’t explain it and your people ought not (and probably won’t) invest in it!

Once you’ve made the journey and its purpose impeccably clear, however, it’s time for everyone (no exceptions) to either enthusiastically get in the boat and start rowing or be thrown overboard. As the late David Packard of HP fame pointed out, “There can be no place for half-hearted interest or effort . . . A high degree of enthusiasm should be encouraged at all levels; in particular, the people in high management positions must not only be enthusiastic themselves, but they must be able to engender enthusiasm among their associates.”5

3. How Do We Plan to Get There?

The process an organization uses to determine its destination is far less important than the methods it uses to communicate it and the level of discipline it employs to get and keep people moving in the same direction. After the destination becomes clear, people have a right to know how you intend to get there. What’s the game plan for achieving your destination? Although you don’t need to lay out the entire plan—in fact, you are probably better off if there’s a little room for improvisation—clarifying the first two or three steps would be a great start.

Play Scripting

Many National Football League (NFL) teams today use a practice first developed by former San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh called play scripting. On the day before a game, coaches simply make a list of the first 10 or 12 offensive plays the team will run the next day, and then they share the list with players in their Saturday night meeting. According to Walsh, players like it because it eliminates some pregame anxiety by allowing them to know ahead of time what they’ll be doing on the first few series and giving them a chance to think about and visualize it. Some might even sleep better.6 The benefits for young first- and second-year players are immense; it helps them compartmentalize their responsibilities at a time when they are still trying to master a very fast game. Sound familiar?

And we could all do worse than achieve Walsh-like results. In 10 seasons under Walsh, the 49ers won three Super Bowls and six NFL Western Division titles.

4. How Do I Fit In?

Finally, people need to know what role you want them to play and what it is you’ll be expecting of them. We made the point earlier that you’ve got to get the big picture indelibly burned into your employees’ gray matter. And you do. But people don’t work day to day in the big picture. Instead, the proof is in the details, which—individually and taken together—send powerful messages that either confirm and support or contradict the big picture.

As organizations get larger, it’s virtually inevitable that people will begin to lose sight of where they fit in and how their contribution matters. Without regular and vigorous reinforcement on this point, many employees ultimately reach the conclusion that their contributions really don’t matter all that much, and the decline in their effort is at hand. People who have come to believe that their role isn’t all that important fail to shout “stop” when they discover a defective product or process or when a disgruntled customer walks out the door—and they definitely don’t hustle.

We all want to be a part of something important and to play a meaningful role. Imagine for a moment how difficult it would be for you to remain Committed to something if you were at all uncertain about whether or not your efforts really mattered. We’re often reminded of this point whenever there’s a snowstorm of any size in our nation’s capital, and the airwaves are immediately filled with announcements for government employees that only people in essential positions need report for work. Now, deep down, who in the world wants something they spend 8 hours a day doing to be deemed “nonessential”?

The nanosecond your people feel that it’s no longer important for them to do their very best work, your company has started down a very steep and slippery slope. Sorry for the replay, but the point bears repeating: “High expectations breed high performance.”

If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.

—Steve Jobs

Chapter Summary

Notes

1. Francis J. Aguilar and Arvind Bhambri, Johnson & Johnson, Harvard Business School Case #384-053, 4.

2. Noel Tichy and Stratford Sherman, Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will (New York: Bantam, 1993), 245–246.

3. Kevin and Jackie Freiberg, NUTS! (Austin, TX: Bard, 1996), 49.

4. Peter Lynch, Beating the Street (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 27.

5. David Packard, The HP Way (New York: HarperBusiness, 1995), 126.

6. Ray Didinger, Game Plans for Success (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1995), 181.