How a TIGERS Consultant Corrected a Client's Genuineness and Risk Culture Issue

A Case Study

The Board deliberated the Consultant's findings. The TIGERS 360 Workforce Behavioral Profile exposed a sizable risk and genuineness issue in the work culture and between departments. This explained some of high turnover and low productivity problems facing the organization.  Now what?

The background

The Assessment findings were illuminating for the Board President. As the business owner of a family owned business, he shifted his activities to the board when he hired a “system’s person” to install a quality monitoring system and placed “HeShe” (the name we are giving this manager) in the CEO seat. So, how could the culture behavior indicators, risk and genuineness, be responsible for the yawning gap in collaboration between manufacturing and warehousing?

What had surfaced were inefficiencies and lost productivity on the financial side of things. There was also higher than normal turnover on the human resource side, but no one was saying why.

The problem was financially significant and the core business functions such as goals, roles and relationships were also out of synch.

The discoveries

The Consultant had a track record of getting the right people in the right seats on executive teams. She ran the initial survey and raised the question as to why risk and genuineness were performing poorly in workforce behavior.

It was eventually discovered that the HeShe could not tolerate any questioning of the systems put in place. Employees who brought attention to problems they were having in any department including manufacturing or warehousing were quickly dismissed and in some instances ridiculed. It was not helpful to bring problems to light.

Frustrating the efforts of the Consultant at every turn, HeShe was given the opportunity by the Board President to improve his performance through coaching. This opportunity failed and HeShe was let go. A temporary CEO from a supply chain provider with a good track record of empowering employees took over for a short stint.

The story behind the story

The Board President and business owner made an erroneous assumption. He assumed that HeShe would naturally be a good leader. He figured that since HeShe was in place and accomplished in laying down systems, operations would run smoothly. So, he paid little attention to how HeShe was leading others.

Even through HeShe was removed and a temporary CEO was put in place, risk and genuineness still recorded low the following year. Further investigation showed that goals and roles had been streamlined and managers were hitting more targets. Employees were happier and more engaged in some departments, but there was still a risk and genuineness culture behavior gap in manufacturing and warehousing.

Ultimately, it was discovered that one senior executive who was hired by HeShe directed both the manufacturing and warehousing departments. This individual was similar in temperament to HeShe. The executive was accomplished at getting along well with HeShe and other senior department executives including the Board so the finding was a surprise. Hidden was the similar behavior HeShe exhibited in shooting down ideas and making the work-life of employees who brought problems to light miserable.

Solutions

Most common among mid-level managers and applicable here, the Senior executive managed up very well. The executive got on very well with HeShe and the temporary CEO. The executive also achieved goals in a professional and polished way and got on well with other senior executives. His work deliverables were more than acceptable.

However, similar to HeShe, there were command and control management issues. The executive micromanaged and displayed intolerance for employees who respectfully brought sincere, frank and forthright ideas and problems to light. And, if given the chance to throw “complainers” under the bus, the executive did so.  

Knowing this, the Board President put the following strategies in place:

• Assurance that employee psychological safety is a non-negotiable requirement for every executive, supervisor and mid-level manager. To measure this, KPI's for psychological safety were installed in the annual performance reviews of all leaders and supervisors. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, psychological safety is a risk mitigation strategy. It is the freedom to learn from mistakes and express ideas and problem solving solutions. It is a process that is secure from the threat of judgment, harsh criticism or threats to your identity and value as an employee.
• Employee ideas and suggestions that produced cost savings and/or productivity improvements in the year they were delivered were tracked. The savings and productivity improvements that led to a more positive bottom line were shared in the form of a year-end bonus for employees.  This meant that collaboration successes were rewarded not at just the senior leadership level. Successful collaboration benefited everyone. This began a gradual shift in culture from command and control to collaboration with interdependent agile problem solving teams.
• Decision making and problem solving processes were formalized. Leaders and interested employees were given the opportunity to build skills in decision making and problem solving for future team roles on agile problem solving teams.
• Employees were empowered with the autonomy to correct problems at the level they occur through training and employee development. Catalytic coaching was applied.
• Group process and behavior norms were created with input from all employees. They applied to everyone.

Correcting genuineness and risk behavior problems in organizations often points to leadership. It’s a problem that is often hard to discover when middle and senior managers are good at managing up but not down. And when toxic leadership behavior continues after the pandemic is over and we have returned to business as usual with more manufacturing opportunities, we predict that turnover and disengagement will still be problems.

This is why the TIGERS Workforce Behavioral Profile comes with three assessments for the same group. Change need not occur as a single event. A sensible approach is to resolve problems at one level, established measurable KPI's, remeasure and tackle the next task. It is easier on the organization and more successful for Consultants who surface root behavior causes that result in measurable return on investment for the organizations they serve.

Copyright (c) TIGERS Success Series, Inc. by Dianne Crampton

About the TIGERS 6 Principles.

TIGERS emerged from a 4 year study of group dynamics in the Business, Education and Psychology fields. Six root cause behaviors required for high performance teams and work cultures surfaced from the study and independent evaluations. The six principles are trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. They form the TIGERS acronym. To learn more about the TIGERS 6 Principles, view this complimentary 30 minute Webinar. https://learn.corevalues.com/courses/6-principles-that-build-high-performance-teams There we share how to recognize if your organization is impacted by deficiencies in any one of the six principles.