Getting to 2020: Redefining the Culture (Part 3)

This is the third in a series of four articles that offer a “road less traveled” to Agency 2020. The first article focused on your agency in the marketplace’s current reality. The second article considered the world as it might be in 2020. Today, we address the processes necessary to ensure you have the “seed corn” to grow the culture and structure necessary to produce Agency 2020 and win in the marketplace of tomorrow. Mohan Nair, in his book, Strategic Business Transformation, diagrams a world of yesterday where 80% of change was incremental/cyclical and 20% was structural/transformational. Today, he says, “When the unknown are threatening every variable we have counted on, 80% of the variables that shift are structural while 20% are predictable. We cannot use the strategic data used in the past to find our ‘true north.'” Your successful organization today is driven by its culture: “the house rules,” “what’s tolerated.” This organization and culture were created for the world of yesterday (“Daddy, may I?”) and today ("What do our carriers say?"). If you believe the world of 2020 will be different, you must create a culture appropriate for that new world. The Gospel of Mark (3:25) and then Abraham Lincoln stated that “a house divided cannot stand.” This was true in their world of incremental change. Theirs was a world that moved at the pace of a tortoise. Tomorrow’s world will move at the pace of the hare (but never stop for a coffee break).  As has been said: “It’s not the big that eat the small. It’s the fast that eat the slow!” Most people are reluctant to change. As Maxine puts it, “Change is good as long as I don’t have to do anything different!” In your organization, most folks are comfortable in their jobs, see the world as it is and are terrified that things will change. A minority of folks who are enthusiastic about the new, virtual world and global economy see the world as it will be and are terrified that your organization won’t change. Your house is already divided.  What you need to do is merely focus each segment on the role right for them. Both groups are necessary for success, but you must answer one question for each group and each individual. WIIFM? – What’s in it for me? Do this, and they’ll embrace your plan; ignore WIIFM, and they’ll sabotage your future. Be respectful of all. Understand that there are different “tolerances” for risk and that people discover, learn and adapt at different speeds. Gather your team. Put them at ease. Make the environment safe for them. Explain that you want to structure change to give every contributor an opportunity to continue their success today and find the right fit in the world of tomorrow. Celebrate your past and thank them for their participation. Clearly articulate your embrace of the inevitable change necessary for tomorrow and your commitment to your team's success in the future. Announce your plans to begin an Agency 2020 initiative. Explain that to build a foundation for success you need two teams. This process will not be instead of their existing roles but as an extracurricular activity. This initiative is about assuring a future with opportunities for each other. This is about each voice being heard. The first group will immediately focus on the existing organization – making it more efficient and effective to create the “seed corn” (profits) necessary to finance tomorrow. The group’s task will be to create an operational “to do list” defining and acting on what is necessary for enhanced success today and to quit doing those things carried forward from yesterday but no longer needed today – “we’ve always done it this way.” The “tomorrow team” will be the young at thought and the young at heart. They will be your pioneers. They will be charged with discovering tomorrow as it will be and creating a blueprint to build your organization as it must be to fit in 2020. This process is not intended to exclude the traditionalists. Both teams will be encouraged to share their discoveries and enthusiasms - to create excitement about today’s improvements and refinements and tomorrow’s innovations. Don’t create competition between the teams – encourage collaboration so that respect and trust will build. This will work because each group is focusing where “they live” – their comfort zone -- and you are not forcing them, at this time, to go to where they don’t want to be. Assure all team members that, as the blueprint for 2020 is designed and new roles are defined, each person on staff will have the right to be considered for jobs right for them and your organization. Promise them the training necessary for success. If they can’t or won’t fit into the world of 2020, facilitate their exit. Make it as painless as possible. For the Today Team, some ideas to consider and questions to ask (there are more):

1. Focus – take out the microscope and study every function you perform.
2. If “we’ve always done it this way” – it can be changed for the better.
3. What are five things we do today that no longer need to be done?
4. What are five things we do today that remain important and can be improved?
5. What are the jobs skills that remain important today? How do we improve these?
6. What are skills no longer needed in the world of today? How do we let them go?
7. Do we have the technology (systems and social media) needed for today?
8. What and how can we maximize our results from this technology?
9. Does our “client experience” differentiate us, or are we “the same old same old?”
10. Are we capturing the data available and converting this to actionable knowledge?
11. Where must we invest our time and energy?
12. What must we leave behind?

Please remember – the Today Team is about updating (remodeling) the organization you have. Its role is small steps – process improvement. Think outside of the box. Remember the words of Einstein – insanity is “continuing to do what you’ve always done and expecting a different result.” The world has changed more in the past 10 years than the previous 50, yet most agencies continue to do what they’ve always done. Don’t be crazy. Discover and do what needs to be done today to prepare for tomorrow. The Tomorrow Team is about designing a blueprint and facilitating the building of the organization and culture you’ll need for the future. The team's role is “giant leaps” – innovation. You are moving from the mechanical processes of yesterday to a new “living” system for tomorrow. Be bold. Don’t be afraid to fall – just do it, and learn from the experience. For the Tomorrow Team, some directions and innovations to consider (there are more):

1. Scan the horizon of the world and technology. Look outside your comfort zone.
2. Determine if “place” will matter -- where you, your employees and clients are.
3. Determine if “time” will matter? Is “Working 9 – 5” only right for Dolly Parton?
4. Determine the role of cultures and generations for buyers and those who influence decisions.
5. What are the talents needed? Prioritize communication, technology, insurance, etc.
6. What will be client needs? How can you deliver solutions profitably?
7. Shift your focus from products sold in the past – to client needs in the future.
8. What will be the demographics and psychographics of the populations served?
9. What will be the industries/market niches in collapse/decline? Avoid them.
10. What will be the industries/market niches in ascendancy? Focus on these.
11. How do you manage in a “virtual” (no time, place and more non-verbal) world?
12. What will be the role of big data? What will be your ability to use it effectively

The questions are offered as a starting point for discovery. You have many more questions to ask and answer. Yours is a world yet to be – not a world that is. Nonetheless, the better you ponder and plan, the better your head start on the future – the New World of 2020 - will be. Learn from the great change architect Peter Drucker, who said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”