Tag Archives: Culture

community associations, condo associations, Cooperatives, Culture, HOAs, leadership, Uncategorized, values

Culture – The Missing Piece

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The culture of an organization either creates the space for sustainable, defined success or makes it difficult, if not impossible.  A healthy culture allows the organization to tap into the knowledge, talents, experience, energy, and intellectual capital of participants.  It does not permit ego, politics, or dysfunction to get in the way.

In this context, culture can be defined as the environment that establishes norms of behavior for the people in the organization.  It involves the connection between the goals and values of the individual and those of the group.  Culture is embodied in author Seth Godin’s statement: “People like us do things like that.”

Organizational culture provides the context in which the stakeholders understand their roles and can concentrate on doing their best. Healthy cultures in community associations put boards in a position to establish desired results and provide the necessary resources to achieve them.  Focusing on those results delivers rich payoffs. Building a healthy culture yields exponentially compounded interest in terms of time, energy, progress, and community spirit.

Culture is the difference-maker, and yet, community association managers and volunteers almost never talk about culture directly.  It’s about time we did.

Three Cultures

Organizational culture tends to fall into one of three general categories:

  • Intentional Culture- Values, goals, and norms have been identified, codified in some form, and provide the basis for principled action.  People in the organization are clear on “The Why.”
  • Unintentional Culture- Values, goals and norms are left to chance.  Defining them depends on who the influential people are in an organization at a particular time.  Frequently, decisions are made and actions taken on an ad hoc basis.  Sometimes leaders focus on rules and written procedures without explaining why they matter. Other times, there is no focus at all.  Everybody works too hard at reinventing the wheel or making it up as they go.  If such a community is fortunate, things will go well riding on the backs of a few good people.
  • Actual Culture- Values, norms and goals have been identified.  There may be mission, values, and vision statements with lofty aspirations printed on glossy marketing materials and plaques on walls.  Yet, leaders and members of the organization violate those ideals on a regular basis without correction.  The inherent hypocrisy of the organization destroys morale and trust. 

Most organizations fall into the unintentional category.  Their leaders may have no concept of culture or fail to recognize the benefits of the time investment necessary to build a successful one.  They cannot see that the hard work up front will significantly decrease their time and effort in the long run.  They are so caught up in the day-to-day operation that they miss the bigger picture.

What About Community Associations?

Why, specifically, do many community associations tend to have an unintentional culture?  First, boards can be mired in tactics, too busy putting out fires and stuck in the weeds to elevate their perspective.

Second, exclusive devotion to the standard board meeting model can cause an unintended consequence. Leaders and managers are trained to follow the legal requirements for board meetings.  They correctly conduct the association’s business in accordance with open meeting requirements and the standard meeting agenda.  Well-planned and executed board meetings are highly effective in handling the day-to-day business of the association.  However, regular board meetings are horribly ill-suited to address bigger picture issues, complicated projects, and strategic planning.  These discussions will never fit into a standard board meeting agenda in the best of times.  Switch it up by scheduling some town hall or special meetings to listen to what members have to say, get ideas flowing, and deal with big picture issues.

Getting to Higher Ground

Getting out of the weeds is not easy.  Leaders and managers first need the awareness that business as usual leaves too much to chance.  Then, they must recognize that the work to build healthy organizational culture is a time investment that will pay dividends.  For some groups we’ve worked with, it took disgust borne from crashing and burning to motivate them to meaningful change.  In our next segment, we will offer a roadmap to intentional culture for community associations. 

business life, Culture, leadership

What’s The Question?

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Everybody has a “tell” – that one, involuntary reaction that gives them away. Tells reveal themselves more readily in the face of crisis and stress. We may say that we hold to certain principles or beliefs. But when the fecal matter intersects with the air circulating device, an ugly truth may reveal itself.

A Test of Organizational Health

Pay attention to what happens when a mistake is made. What is the knee jerk reaction in the heat of anger or flash of embarrassment? If the first question is, “Who did it!?!,” you’ve got a problem. If that’s the go-to response, it is a sure sign of a sick culture. People in such organizations are motivated to stay under the radar. They fear sticking their neck out or owning up to mistakes- and for good reason! The culture fosters a fixed mindset that hinders the people and the organization from growing.

System or Performance?

Lazy leaders assume that every problem is a performance issue. The blame game is expedient, but it masks reality. When you fail to distinguish the difference between a performance problem, a system problem, or a combination of the two, you make false assumptions, ask the wrong questions, and get the wrong answers.

We’ve seen this play out in interesting ways. Sometimes the worst thing that can happen is having a superstar on the team for a long time. When they finally leave or retire, none of their replacements seem to make the grade. Only upon a more in-depth analysis of the situation does it become clear that one of the old superstar’s abilities was overcoming crummy systems. Their success masked the deficiency and set up their successors for failure.

Listen and Learn

If you listen to your organization…or yourself…and realize Bang & Blame (great song, by the way) has infected the culture, it’s time to change the game. How? By changing the question.

Organizations with healthy cultures react to errors and crisis with the following questions, in this order:
• What? Determine precisely what happened. Make no assumptions.
• Why? Was this a performance issue, a systems issue, or a combination?
• How? What factors contributed to the issue? And only then….
• Who? Now you can address the matter, take the appropriate action, and help people grow and learn.

Reality and Success

Without mistakes and challenges, there is no innovation, no progress, and no growth. As Tom Peters would say, “Fail forward fast.” Indeed, if the answer to “Who?” shows a pattern of performance issues, a tough decision may be in order. More times than not, there is something more to be learned. Follow the disciplines of a healthy organization. Ask the right questions in the proper order. You will create a space for yourself and others to see reality and the way forward. Your organization will take appropriate and forward-thinking actions, benefitting everyone.

business life, community associations, Culture, Human Resources, leadership, Management

Do You Want To Keep Good People? Build an Intentional Culture

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Turnover is Expensive!

The struggle to attract and keep talented employees and volunteers is universal. For businesses, the hard cost of employee turnover includes hiring and onboarding, initial training, ongoing development, and integration with the team. Finally, it includes the interim costs incurred while a position is unfilled. Yet, soft costs can be far more impactful. Turnover loads a burden on the backs of everyone in a company. These can turn into hard costs with loss of business due to poor performance.

Not-for-profit community associations have different metrics. On-site staff and volunteer turnover result in soft costs such as service gaps and overburdened remaining staff and volunteers. This, in turn, takes a toll on member satisfaction. Increased stress and pressure result. Over time, this can lead to increased turnover and lack of volunteer interest.

Another common and insidious cost of turnover can be an intentional or unintentional lack of investment in employees and volunteers, which inevitably leads to more turnover.

The vicious cycle of churn is costly. And it sucks – it sucks the life out of organizations of every sort.

Strategies

There are plenty of strategies out there to retain employees and volunteers. Google the subject and you’ll find scads of them. They range from simple recognition to the adoption of lofty ideals designed to motivate the troops. Volunteer retainage is its own animal because compensation is defined differently. In all cases, strategies are focused on showing appreciation and providing benefits that are designed to reward people and keep them in the fold. And they might not work.

Don’t get me wrong, many strategies can be beneficial. They may help keep some folks around for a while. But they cannot stand alone. Strategies need to be part of a broader context to have lasting value.

Want Retention? Engage

Retention is a useful metric, but it’s not a goal. It’s a byproduct. According to a 2018 Gallup poll, 53% of U.S. workers are not engaged. Gallup states, “They may be generally satisfied but are not cognitively and emotionally connected to their work and workplace; they will usually show up to work and do the minimum required but will quickly leave their company for a slightly better offer.” Another 13% were reported to be “actively disengaged.” Let that sink in. Two-thirds of American workers spend a significant part of their waking hours at a job they don’t really want to do. Yikes! If they don’t leave, they should.

In their seminal work The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes & Posner conclude that people tend to look at their jobs in one of 3 ways; as a job, as a career, or as a calling. The difference? Engagement. The higher the level of the synchronization between the work someone does and their values and goals, the deeper the engagement.

Want Engagement? Lead

“Engagement is not an HR issue. It is a leadership issue” – Simon Sinek, Author & Organizational Consultant

If the key to engagement is the connection of values and work, it begs a couple of questions. What does your organization stand for? What deeper connection does it offer? This is where many leaders fail. Kouzes and Posner offer an approach to address this. They boil it down to what they call “The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership:”

  • Model the Way
  • Inspire a Shared Vision
  • Challenge the Process
  • Enable Others to Act
  • Encourage the Heart

All five practices directly impact engagement. Leaders who are hypocritical, directionless, non-communicative, myopic, micromanagers with low EQ  kill engagement. If there is a serious weakness in just one or two of these areas, you can count on good people walking out the door.

So then, effective leadership begets engagement and provides a context for strategy. Putting this all together, what are the leaders charged with doing? They must develop and nurture organizational culture.

Build an Intentional Culture – Defining the Organizational “We”

Culture is who we are, proven by what we repeatedly do. Its engine is the shared values of the organization. Shared values lead to aspirational vision. The vision drives goals, which sets the mission. Goals and mission drive strategies, which then dictate day-to-day tactics. We do what we do because we are who we are.

All organizations have a culture. Leaders are responsible for making it an intentional one. That includes community association volunteer leaders. It’s not easy, but it is always worth it. Leaving it to chance leads to disconnected strategies and tactics. And churn.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – Peter Drucker, Legendary Management Educator

As the stewards of intentional culture, leaders must make sure that what we do stays in line with who we are. They must walk the talk. Disconnects must be addressed. Few things cause disengagement more quickly than an organization that espouses values that are violated in the way things are done. A dedication to a values-driven culture draws like-minded persons and engages them. Engaged people not only tend to stay awhile, but they also draw others who will find a satisfying place in the culture.

“Culture is caught, not taught” – Rolf Crocker, CEO, OMNI Community Management, LLC

But They Won’t Let Me!

What if your boss doesn’t get it? What if you are an on-site manager with a board full of clueless non-leaders that make it difficult for you to lead your staff? What if you work for a soul-crushing CEO? You still create a culture with those within your sphere of influence. In fact, you must…or leave. That will be the subject of another blog.
If a public high school department head can create a pocket of excellence despite deeply entrenched policies and bureaucracy, the odds are good that you can build a culture that makes a difference. Leaders don’t ask permission to lead. They may sometimes have to ask for forgiveness afterward. But results tend to take the heat off.

If You Want Them to Stay, Forget the Fence – Build a Fire

External rewards without engagement are like a fence. Engagement produces internal rewards. If you want to keep people in the fold, stop worrying so much about the fence. Instead, build a fire of culture at the center of the organization. That fire gives team members light so they can see the vision and the warmth of shared values and mission. Create a space where people are drawn and want to stay.

Recommended Study Material:

 

The Leadership Challenge, 5th Edition by James Kouzes & Barry Posner 

The Excellence Dividend, by Tom Peters 

Gung Ho!, by Ken Blanchard & Sheldon Bowles 

The Culture Engine, by S. Chris Edmonds 

And if you are REALLY serious, go to Tom Peters’ website  www.excellencenow.com  for his 50- page “Extreme Humanization/Extreme Employee Engagement PDF 

change management, community associations, condo associations, Cooperatives, Culture, HOAs, leadership

Just Don’t

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Silly Human Tricks

We work/live/hang around with certain people for a while. We have experiences with them. We get to know them. We disagree on a few things. We begin to get annoyed with them. We draw conclusions about their motives. We remember the disagreements.

Here’s where it gets weird.

We strategize to get the results we want, with assumptions about evil intent and ugly history close in our mind and heart. We overstate. We accuse. We blame. They are doing the same thing with us. The disagreements deepen. On the surface, conflicts appear to be about the matter at hand. But just under the water line, the real conflict lurks. We are simultaneously talking about the issues of the day and the distrust of the past. These bi-level communications can last forever. Things bog down. Nothing gets done. History repeats again and again in the vortex of a vicious failure cycle. Dysfunction reigns supreme.

Sound familiar? Congress, anyone?

The pattern can set in with any organization where we silly humans are involved. The more emotionally or physically close the people and the longer the relationship, the more entrenched the pattern. I’ve seen it happen in social circles, in businesses, in families, and yes… in community associations.

Learning How to Break the Cycle

Breaking the failure cycle is not easy, but it’s achievable in most circumstances. It took me a while to appreciate the uniqueness of my career in the community associations field. Since my first on-site management contract, my main, though unstated, role had been to fix broken things and build trust. In the ensuing years, I was thrust into similarly challenging situations. I’m not complaining. The experience turned out to be the best education I could have gotten. It led to me doing most of the consulting for a management company and the formation of Association Bridge.

Here’s what I learned…

Don’t Let the 5 Percenters Rule the Roost

One of our silly human tricks is to focus on the negative. 95% of things might be working well, but we only focus on the 5% of that which makes us unhappy or divides us. Community association leaders and managers will always spend a significant amount of time fixing problems. It’s a big part of their jobs. But that can create a challenge. A constant focus on the 5% makes it hard to see the other 95.

I learned a secret. There is a reason people decide to move into a particular community. There are shared goals, values, and aspirations there. I’ve never worked with a community where its members didn’t have more in common than that which divided them. They just couldn’t see it at first. They were so into the weeds that they could not see the forest. The weeds are where the 5 percenters live and flourish. And yes, that includes those with wildly diverse demographics.

The problems are real. Different opinions are real. But the bigger picture is just as real. Getting out of the weeds of distrust and dysfunction requires elevation.

Get to Higher Ground

There are a few strategies that can help to elevate the discourse and begin to turn failure cycles into success cycles. Here are three of my favorites:

  • Use Affirmative Inquiry:  Identify that which members have in common. Establish shared values and goals. Then apply those to the 5 Percenters. Seeing the bigger picture helps to set a context and changes the game.  
  • Let Data Drive the Discussion: Much conflict comes from what I call “Theoryworld.” Absent reliable data, people will always rely on what they know – their opinions. Do the homework, communicate the data vigorously, and let that drive the discussion.   
  • Fresh Blood: Sometimes new leaders with a fresh perspective can help groups come together. In other cases, a “disinterested third party,” a facilitator with no dog in the fight, can help bridge the gaps.

Trust is almost always the key. Stephen M.R. Covey made an astute observation in his excellent book The Speed of Trust. When trust is present, things happen quickly and cost-effectively. When trust is absent, things take longer and cost more. Who doesn’t want cheap and easy? Getting to higher ground begins the process of melting distrust and creating a culture of trust.

Yeah, Sounds Great, But….

Does this stuff actually work? Here are some real-life examples of “Breaking the Cycle”:

Case Study #1

One association had an incendiary newsletter that torched the board over every decision. They undermined confidence and deepened divisions in the community. After about a month, I realized that its editor was a board member’s wife.

I expanded my “Board Orientation/Tune Up” program into a two-part community leadership program. The community had several committees, including the newsletter committee, which were contributing to the dysfunction to one degree or another. The first session was for all committee members and board members. This was followed a week later by a board-only session. There was a clear communication of both the letter and spirit of the law and governing documents. Both sessions included a section about best practices in leadership. We applied universally accepted principles to the community association paradigm. This created a space where the group could follow up with a productive planning session. They were able to agree on goals for the year and a program to reach them. Two years of progress ensued.

Case Study #2

Another condominium we took over had severely underfunded reserves and an unrealistic budget. They had also been the victim of theft from their prior attorney, who had pocketed the fees provided by members in collections. The stories were heartbreaking. Community members were equally upset about the condition of the property and the prospect of higher condominium fees. I facilitated a town hall meeting to share the difficult news. The Board, worried about a violent reaction, made sure to hire an off-duty police officer to keep me and them from being attacked.

By the end of the presentation with the data clearly shared, we had unit owners offering to organize to perform some repairs and property clean-up as volunteers. Once members saw clearly the reality of their situation, working together to find solutions became the obvious alternative to blame and complaint. Despite the increase in fees and many challenges, there was a palpable improvement in community spirit at the next annual meeting.

Case Study #3

At an annual meeting 16 days into a new management contract, I had a unit owner point her finger at me and tell me she was going to hold me accountable for everything the board did. In the ensuing months, she took full advantage of owner comment periods at board meetings to remind everyone of every bad decision that had been made over the last 30 years and to call into question board members’ intelligence. I got to know her and at one point suggested she consider running for the board to be a part of the solution. She declined. I still remember the look on her face when I told her that at some point the community would need to learn how to agree to disagree in an agreeable fashion. You would have thought I had two heads. After a pregnant pause, she whirled away and exclaimed disgustedly, “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”

After a full analysis of the operation and a particularly vigorous and expanded budget process, the community understood the needs of the building and where their money was going. At the next annual meeting, my finger-pointing friend rose to deliver her usual diatribe, only to be encouraged to cease and desist by her fellow unit owners. Deferred maintenance projects were eventually initiated. The turnaround put this previously notorious community in a position to win a Community Association of the Year award.

The Bottom Line

We spend too much time and energy allowing our opinions get in the way of getting things done. We are missing opportunities that are right in front of us. Imputing the motives of others has no value. Even if you are right, it doesn’t help.

Stop. Just don’t. Find facts and stick with them. Get to higher ground. Focus on strengths. Find the shared values, goals and aspirations. Let that create context and culture. Put people in a position to be their best. And then…watch success happen.

The iconic Sgt. Joe Friday had the right idea…

Best Practices, business life, Culture, Emotional Intelligence, Human Resources, leadership

Oops

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What happens when the fecal matter makes impact with the circular air-moving device? How individuals and organizations react in this moment of truth will say a lot about individual and group emotional intelligence and the culture of the organization. The secret lies in the questions asked when a mistake is made and the order in which they are asked.

What Are You Really Made Of?

Here’s how effective people and healthy organizations approach every mistake:

1. WHAT? Exactly what happened? Do we have all the facts? Only when this is clear, go to question #2.

2. HOW? How did the error happen? Have we identified the root cause, differentiating them from the symptoms? After diagnosing the mechanics of the issue, it’s time for question #3.

3. WHY? Was this a system issue, a performance issue, or a combination of the two? Do NOT shortcut this step with assumptions. Now finally…

4. WHO? Time to talk about the lessons learned – a constructive follow-up with whoever may have been involved (INCLUDING BOSSES!). Now we are all a little smarter.

Post mortem, the healthy organization will make adjustments to address root causes. It will improve systems. And it will take opportunities to learn from mistakes. Look for patterns. If all the other questions are addressed and the same “who” keeps popping up, only then is a tough personnel action warranted.

Is that what you and your organization do? Or…

The Flip Side

Guess what question unhealthy organizations and ineffective leaders ask first? ”WHO DID THAT?” Sadly, every single time I’ve shared this concept, the people in the room give me the answer before I have to say it. They’ve all seen it at some point. The problem is that starting with “Who?” makes it difficult, if not impossible, to accurately answer any of the other more crucial questions.

Why?  Because Bang & Blame is a horrid leadership model.  In a culture where blame is the rule, people will rarely stick their necks out to do more than absolutely necessary.  It’s just not worth the risk.  Their defensive mindset kills any hope for excellent performance.  They are unlikely to be forthcoming when things go wrong.  And that applies to those who choose to stay, because Bang & Blame pushes self-starters out the door.

Give Up Perfection To Get Closer To It

I know that might sound ridiculous, but it’s true. Everyone will err from time to time. In the human condition, all mistakes are opportunities to learn. There’s a classic business tome about an IBM exec from the sixties whose ill-fated decision cost the company dearly. Upon being summoned to CEO Thomas Watson’s office, he prepared for the inevitable firing. Watson reportedly asked, “Do you know why I’ve asked you here?”

The executive replied, “I assume I’m here so you can fire me.”

“Fire you?” Watson replied, “Of course not. I just spent $10 million educating you.”

There are two choices. You can hold everyone to an unrealistic standard, punish imperfection, drive people into butt-covering cocoons, encourage bare minimum performance and build a culture that will aspire to mediocrity at best. Or you can embrace mistakes as opportunities for learning and find that error rate actually decreases as you build a culture of empowerment, personal responsibility, trust and growth. Only one of these is a sustainable model for profit and customer service success.