The Culture Fix Audio Companion: Chapter 1
Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down once again with Will Scott to discuss the origins and inspiration for Will’s new book The Culture Fix. In this episode, Will and Jeremy highlight some bad examples of Corporate Culture, as well as discuss the importance of keeping your list of Values short and to the point. Even families can benefit from Core Values!
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In this episode, you will learn:
[02:00] Core Values gone wrong: The example of Wells Fargo
[04:40] Leadership is required to truly implement Core Values
[06:15] Core Values need to be succinct
[07:50] Even families can benefit from Core Values
[09:20] The cautionary tale of Uber
[10:49] How Lyft has built a better Culture
[13:41] Culture can give meaning not only to employees but even to management
Resources Mentioned In this episode:
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Episode Transcript:
Speaker 1: From core values to valued culture, here is your host, Will Scott, interviewing another CEO about leading culture in their company.
Jeremy Weisz: Jeremy Wise here. Today, we have Will Scott, founder of Culture Czars. And in addition, he owned and grew two software companies. One of them is actually over 20 years old. I mean, in human years, compared to software, that's 300 years old. It's amazing. He talks to CEOs that care about corporate culture. And his purpose is to help CEOs create environments so that employees love where they work and why they work. And today's episode is brought to you by The Culture Fix. And this is Will's life's work poured into this book. And it's on culture. It's boiled down to the most important aspects you need to know. You can go to CultureCzars.com to pick up a workbook and that will help you start implementing the great culture. And he's been sought after by many companies to create this. So he finally did and it basically helps you bring your core values alive in a graphical way and much, much more. So check out CultureCzars.com.
Jeremy Weisz: What we're going to talk about, I'm excited to talk about is this is part of his first chapter, which is discover and what is contemplation worth. And it's basically about when your culture train goes off the track. And there's a story that you love about Wells Fargo. What happened?
Will Scott: Okay…
Jeremy Weisz: I like when you get passionate. So I have to bring up the Wells Fargo first.
Will Scott: Right. Well, Wells Fargo's been in the news a lot lately, right? They recently had the largest fine in history in America. I think it was $1 billion or something crazy like that.
Jeremy Weisz: That's crazy.
Will Scott: And so when I did a bit of research on this ... Whenever I hear about a story on that, I think, "Hmm, I wonder what their core values are and what their culture is." So sure enough ... And you can see it on the internet. They've got this 25 page beautiful PDF full of all their core values. And essentially a lot of it is around we do right by our customer. We don't sell our clients things or financial services that they don't need. And of course, we do everything with integrity and so on. But the fact was that they were in fact incentivized with internal sales programs to sell and provide services to clients that they did not need, did not even sign up for. And the CEO that basically wrote this manifesto of values also presided over and was leader of the company for many, many years while these behaviors were going on.
Will Scott: And Jeremy, this is something that really, really bothers me is companies saying one thing and just flagrantly doing something that's contrary to their values. I mean, values are things that should matter and are important to us as individuals and certainly to corporations too, I believe. And there are plenty of examples where companies do behave in concert with their values like Southwest Airlines, like Apple. And you know it. You feel it. You see it. And they're the opposite. But yeah, Wells Fargo really ... And there's still stuff coming out about them, which ... And I think ... Sorry if this answer's ending up being a bit long. But I'm very passionate about this. So one of the things at Wells Fargo, I mean they probably were doing those things to drive shareholder value, right? And to increase revenue. But I believe the fines and all the bad press has cost them far more than any of the gains they did by gouging and stiffing their customers. And so we'll only respect Wells Fargo again, I believe, when they've got a set of core values that they are really adhering to and behaving throughout that organization and keeping with their values.
Jeremy Weisz: If you rewind, where do you think the breakdown occurred?
Will Scott: It's hard to know. I mean, that CEO did end up leaving the company in shame. And had bonuses withdrawn from him and that sort of thing. So, but-
Jeremy Weisz: Does a rewind back feel like there's a board room of five people and they're trying to figure out their core values and they maybe went about it the wrong way? Because I know you have a specific way that you should go about with coming up with your core values?
Will Scott: Yeah, yeah. I mean, clearly, they probably dreamt up core values that they thought were the right ones even though they didn't really believe them, weren't really acting, like I said, in concert with those values. Their values probably should even be more about will grow at any cost. Right?
Jeremy Weisz: Right, despite our customer.
Will Scott: Yeah, that's probably what their values should've said. And that can work. That could work for certain organizations and for certain clients. But yeah, so it's hard to say. But again, with all these examples, and I write about this in my blog, basically it takes leadership to have the right values which have to be discerned and there's something that exists in the organization. And then they have to be lived. And that's why my podcast, Jeremy, is about going from simply having core values to truly having a valued culture. Because a lot of people have core values, but they're not really living by them. And they're not bringing them alive, and making them thrive, and they're not getting the benefits when they try and drive performance.
Will Scott: Can I say one more thing about Wells Fargo and their core values?
Jeremy Weisz: You could ... Totally.
Will Scott: So this document, this document is so long. It's unmanageable. Right? How can any employee carry around all that stuff that's put in there? And that's why really succinct core values. I like to see no more than four, if possible. A descriptive behavior for each one brought alive graphically so that people really can remember them in the first place. And then that there's some programs in the company that make sure they're constantly applied, and used, and brought so that they're thriving. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz: Yeah, I mean when I hear you ... I want you to talk about actually another example that you like to talk about, which is Uber. But before I do, when I hear you talk about this, what I find interesting and I remember when I first heard you talk about this, I went back to someone else and I said, "You know what? What's cool about this and what you do with the culture fix is, yes, this is valuable for businesses." But it made me think about what kind of household values we should have. Bring it actually into which is the most important thing is you have kids or whatever. Bringing it into family values. You can probably use the example ... I'm sure people do use the exact same methods to have family values and point to the wall, right?
Will Scott: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So actually a great example of that is Verne Harnish, author of Rockefeller Habits and Scaling Up. He talks about that and he actually shares how he brought core values to his family and put them up on the refrigerator at home. And, I believe, also Patrick Lencioni. Yes, he does. Patrick Lencioni talks about having values for the family. And again, they're very, very powerful because once people subscribe to them, you don't need to kind of be authoritarian. So as a parent, it can be a really great easy way to encourage the kids and maybe the extended family to behave in a certain way. My good friend Jim Leotard also did the same thing with his family where he established values for everyone. So yeah, I definitely believe that those families will be better environments where the individuals thrive compared to families that don't have values, yeah.
Jeremy Weisz: Yeah. Yeah, and so anyways, check out Culture Fix because there is a recipe for you to do it. You shouldn't reinvent the wheel and try and figure it out. So I follow your lead on that, Will. But let's talk about Uber.
Will Scott: I would like to remind your listeners, Jeremy, that The Culture Fix was actually coming out in June. And so ... But where they can get a sample of this right now is by a free download of my workbook from the website.
Jeremy Weisz: Culture Czars, yeah.
Will Scott: Which also lays out the nine deeds in 90 days, as I call it, that basically is going to be described more in more detail in my book, The Culture Fix. Yes.
Jeremy Weisz: So Uber.
Will Scott: Uber.
Jeremy Weisz: Uber boils you.
Will Scott: Yeah, another good example. Yes. So Uber also famously, right, had some bad press. It's quite a complex story. There's a number of pieces to it. But for the sake of this podcast, I'll keep it down to the one that came around sexual harassment. And which, of course, is very damaging for a brand like that. And one actually, which Lyft has been able to take advantage of. Lyft is a better example of a company, I think, that's been more keeping with their values.
Jeremy Weisz: How so?
Will Scott: Yeah, but in Uber's case, one of their core values was toe stepping, which I kind of get. It was meant to mean, I think, people stepping up to the plate and not being afraid of bringing new ideas forward and so on. But this kind of got, I think, misused. And what they needed was a descriptive behavior that actually explained what do we mean by toe stepping. So you put some guard rails around it. But what it meant was, I think, it was basically some individuals could invade the personal space of other employees. And so they've actually rewritten their core values now and taken toe stepping out of it. And again, on my blog, on my website, I've written about the kind of Uber kind of case study, if you like, in some detail.
Jeremy Weisz: So Lyft, you were gonna say, how does that embody a better example of embodying core values?
Will Scott: Yeah, so Lyft, I think those of us that use both, and I do. And by the way, I love the service. I think they're fantastic products and they of course have definitely disrupted an industry.
Jeremy Weisz: I mean, I know people, because of that what you're saying with the core values in the news and everything, just switch to Lyft.
Will Scott: Right, right.
Jeremy Weisz: Even though they even maybe love the Uber service and technology, just based off of that.
Will Scott: Yes, that's right. And Lyft, I think they've come through with their values in terms of that they'll, on certain days, they'll help charities and they'll give money off. And I think they do live and put the values of the owners into ... And the founders are there in the service that they provide.
Jeremy Weisz: Mm-hmm (affirmative). And that kind of transitions to Uber with the toe stepping sexual harassment, it kind of transitions into a company you worked very intimately with. And talk about the Pink Pepper Spray. What does that have to do with?
Will Scott: Well, so SABRE are the largest pepper spray manufacturer in the world. And a few years ago, the CEO there David asked me to come and help with their culture and begin by defining their core values. And the Pink Pepper Spray story is I was actually in St. Louis going to their headquarters. And the driver had Pink Pepper Spray hanging on her key chain. And I asked her about that and she said that she signed up to be an Uber driver but then didn't have the courage to go driving and putting strange men in the back of her car. Until she got herself a pepper spray. And it happened to be a Pink Pepper Spray from SABRE. And that empowered her. And that was the word she used. "I had suddenly felt empowered with this now, that if anything goes on, I've got my defense here." And so that story ended up being a SABRE story. And we started coining the SABRE clients as heroes because they have done things like prevent car jackings in Walmart parking lots or empowering a woman to run through Central Park in New York carrying her Runner's Pepper Spray.
Will Scott: So guess what, empowered ended up being one of the core values at SABRE. And we came up with that from three or four different ways. And a lot of it was getting into the stories of the way people use the product. So yeah, thanks for giving me the chance to tell that story, Jeremy.
Jeremy Weisz: Yeah, I love that. And even it extends beyond just the staff and the employees because you talked a little bit how the sister of the family run company. How did that change her view once you started digging in the values?
Will Scott: Well, as you said in the introduction, I love helping employees understand or help CEO's to provide environments where employees love where they work, which is about the culture, and why they work, which is about the core purpose, or why we're in business, and what are we doing because people want to at the end of the day want to feel like they've done something meaningful, right with their day. And doing something meaningful for the world. And all companies can actually put that into words that help those people feel that way. Especially millennials, it's not about a paycheck for them. They want to feel like they're doing something meaningful.
Will Scott: So Negan, the CEO and David's sister of this family run company, when we determined their why, she actually felt better about going to work in her own company, which is pretty cool. And again, this story is told in the book. So we determined their why because we're digging into the stories of the way clients use their products. And sure enough, they are basically preventing harm and saving lives. And we figured out that David's company is going to save or protect and save 70 million lives, including the history of their company, which is since 1975 I think it is. Their history, they're gonna protect 70 million people by 2021. And they're not just shipping aerosol cans, which was kind of the mentality of the workers in the factory. No, they're not just shipping aerosol cans. They are since shipping products that save lives ultimately. So pretty cool. And that just makes everybody feel different about how they work. And then at David's coming, he was able to go from two shifts to one shift and still have a greater output.
Jeremy Weisz: Wow.
Will Scott: And he talks about double digit growth since we put in the culture there and also figured out their why, their core purpose.
Jeremy Weisz: Love it. Everyone go to CultureCzars.com. You can pick up a workbook that starts to walk you through on this journey. Will, thank you so much.
Will Scott: Thanks, Jeremy.