Every company has a culture. Some are appreciative, some are toxic. Some evolve over time and others occur as a result of deliberate design. All are fundamental to determining the way people in the company get things done. Today I want to talk about an underappreciated but critical building block of a culture that creates winning companies:
The Diving Catch.
What is it? If your team or your company has ever rallied through a crisis due to the unforeseen triumph of individuals or groups, you’ve seen it. Do you remember that time you launched a new facility and the project team’s plan hit a snag, but a few people close to the problem came up with a solution that nobody else could see? Or the time when the customer told you they were leaving for the last time, but your partners in your fulfillment department made a change in packaging that gave you a solid competitive advantage? Or the time your customer ran out of your product because of a flood in their store and your service tech went outside his area of responsibility to make an emergency delivery?
Related: Problem Solving Style. Does your Team have One?
The Diving Catch seems to come out of nowhere for everyone who isn’t directly involved in making it happen. It is unexpected. A solution is found where none was possible. Often a solution that was hiding in plain sight that those too close to the problem overlooked. But how did it happen? Was it an accident? A one-time thing?
No.
Organizations that experience The Diving Catch take deliberate actions that create those opportunities. Before we look at four actions that make the diving catch possible, let’s agree on something. Management teams in all thinking organizations try to plan for everything. They build coherent strategies, select appropriate tactics, construct solid operating plans, anticipate gaps and contingencies. But the best planning is imperfect, because the business environment is dynamic, competition is constantly improving, capabilities are changing. There will always be problems that need solutions.
Leaders in companies that consistently make The Diving Catch do these four things intentionally and consistently:
Establish Sensible Goals
Effective leaders establish goals that are compatible across functions in an organization. Their goals are connected to the overall strategy and don’t undermine any other functions’ goals. But leaders in organizations that make The Diving Catch do something else. Goals are cascaded to the team and individual level, but are not overly granular. They communicate priorities, but don’t break down the deliverables to the equivalent of piece work in a drycleaner. Many management teams like to turn goal setting into a simple math exercise. The revenue or product goal for the organization is made up of ascending totals from the lowest customer facing contributor. If they cascade the goal down to that lowest level, then every person needs to deliver an individual total of those units, and the sales year is made. But those crystal balls never work. Business flows in uneven patterns. Once a few individuals start coming up short, a game of survivor ensues and blame begins to win the day.
Create multiple paths to reach your part of the annual plan, and don’t put too much energy into performing perfect math on who needs to deliver what. Establish a healthy balance of individual and team goals and establish a shared understanding that making the team goal, however that occurs, is paramount. Don’t get your team rallying around a sales initiative without giving Finance and Operations plain line of sight, and a role in achieving that objective in their sales supporting functions. If you avoid placing too much pressure on individual performance and spread the responsibility, it will be easy for team members and supporting employees to come together to solve any problem that shows up.
Related: Are you a Crisis Ready Leader?
Implement Appropriate and Flexible Incentive Plans
One of my favorite things to do on a day when I’m not feeling well is to hit the couch and watch Westerns all day. There is something appealing to me about that cowboy culture. But you don’t need cowboys at work.
Incentive plans that overweight individual rewards stifle collaboration, problem solving, and yes, The Diving Catch. They create cowboys. Again, find a healthy balance between individual and group rewards. Connect those incentives cleanly to your established goals, and reinforce the principle that winning as a team is more important than individual statistics and bonuses. Recognize that salespeople are not coin-operated. They do not respond only to financial incentives. Individual recognition of a job well done meant as much to me as getting a fat bonus. I used to have a VP that like to say, “I could tell that your fingerprints were all over that success.” That was all I needed. I hadn’t claimed the credit, but I was ready to contribute to the next win.
Flexibility is also key to your incentive plans. Bonus programs and commission structures are traditionally used as carrot and stick propositions. They are win-lose equations based on the performance of individuals against goals and incentives, which are established based on an understanding of the business at a moment in time at the start of the sales year. The truth is that the day these plans are written they are often obsolete. Conditions are simply changing too quickly. At the start of the year, you budget variable compensation to help you achieve a result. It is simply a tool to help you get there. Don’t be too married to your imperfect incentive plans. If they are not helping you achieve your results, change them, even if that means doing so during your sales year. Put your carrots and sticks away. Your objective is to achieve your intended result. You won’t see The Diving Catch very often if your salespeople think their year is lost because of a misaligned incentive plan. Don’t worry about saving that money you budgeted. Spend it.
Create Space for Collaboration
We live in a streaming, hyperactive world that demands ultimate productivity from each of us. Schedules aren’t just booked solid, they are double and triple booked with meetings and commitments. That’s not productivity.
Here’s a secret about The Diving Catch. It needs space. Space to imagine. Space to create. Space to collaborate outside the competing buzz of the streaming life.
As leader, you must first set a good example. In my schedule, I had built-in spaces for nothing. Gaps in my commitments to devise strategy, solve problems, imagine possibilities. To dream. I made sure that my team members followed my lead. If you have no gaps in your schedule you are busy, not productive. Almost certainly not creative.
Related: The Productive Leader – Let Your Team See Your Routine
The Diving Catch often solves the problem with a solution that is hiding in plain sight. If you don’t stop moving, you’ll never allow yourself the space to absorb the entire picture in front of you. You’ll miss that solution that is waiting for you to see it, you’ll go to your standard toolbox of solutions, and you’ll probably end up living with that problem for longer than necessary. I liked to let others know when my open spaces for thinking were on my calendar. If they wanted to join me in imagining possibilities during that time, I invited them to do that. Not to solve tasks, but to really collaborate on things that were stuck or seemed out of reach of our normal thinking.
When you do coalesce around a new potential solution or process improvement, give it life. Encourage experimentation and failure. Show up when the team gets stuck again. Bring resources to bear to turbocharge their efforts. Invite people who can infuse new insights. Just keep it going and see what emerges. You’ll be surprised how far the solution will seem from your starting point.
Celebrate The Diving Catch
You’ve been to many sales conferences. Marketing reviews results and presents their product and promotion plan for the coming year. Human Resources leads an initiative designed to build teamwork and connect everyone to the company strategy. Sales brings a parade of individuals to the stage to talk about all the big wins from the past year. Yawn.
My most memorable sales conferences included generous space to highlight The Diving Catch. All those examples when a few people or a significant team came together to achieve a result that was unimaginable. A success that seemed out of the organization’s reach, or was simply inconceivable. The groups were brought to the stage. Everyone had a speaking role. It was real. These were people from across the company, representing all functions. Everyone in the audience had a first or second person connection to somebody on stage. They admired the accomplishment and aspired to do the same and stand under the lights at next year’s conference.
When you are helping to design your big annual meeting, find The Diving Catch. Devote time to bringing the people who saved the day out of the shadows and into the light. Signal to your organization that you want to see more of their behavior. Recognize it and reward it.
Creating your Culture – The Job of the Leader
The Diving Catch is inspiring, culture building. The stories become the fabric of your company. The fabric becomes the quilt that represents your culture. Your culture tells today’s and future employees, “this is valued here.” When your company needs The Diving Catch, it doesn’t mean it is broken. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed at establishing water tight processes or flawless operating plans.
It simply means that as an organization, you can handle anything. You can solve any problem. You are not fazed by daunting new obstacles. You’ve created a culture that thrives on allowing your employees the space to imagine new possibilities. You don’t constrain them with myopic goals or static incentive plans. And you celebrate their ability to collaborate, improvise, and execute to help your company succeed.
Now that is your culture. Who wouldn’t want that?
Lead well.
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