A Better Workplace --- Meridian Group's Newsletter, Number 42, 3-15-05

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The Necessary Structure for Culture Change

Successful culture development requires a structure and a process similar to that used for managing and controlling the operational side of the business. But what do you do if your company is not familiar with such structures?

I recently led a day-long seminar for a group of 50 managers from a half dozen large companies in the Seattle area. The topic was " Driving Cultural Transformation, One Conversation at a Time ". As part of the seminar I outlined the structure and process I use with clients to quickly build a more productive work culture. I suggested that this structure should be similar to the structure that their company uses to manage everyday activities. I asked them to think about the structure they participate in that handles operational issues such as planning, coordinating, scheduling, and making daily decisions.

More than half the managers in the room said that their companies do not have such a structure to properly manage daily work. I was surprised and saddened. If they didn't have a satisfactory structure for managing operations, how could they hope to put one in place to build a more productive and satisfying work culture?

Most of my clients are large and relatively mature companies that have developed adequate structures and processes to manage their operations. This is why they can turn attention to the culture. As one CEO, of a Fortune 100 company (regularly cited as among the best managed in the United States ) proudly told me, "Our light is so bright that we see a large circle of darkness. That's why you are here."

The Operational Structure and Process

The right structure and process gives everyone the information they need to do a good job. The right structure ensures that everyone gets up-to-date facts on problems, plans, customers, and markets. It brings together the right people to agree on what to do and who will do it. Such a structure is essential for properly managing both the operational and the human halves of the company culture.

(For more on this see: http://www.companyculture.com/basics/twohalves.htm)

There Is No One-Size-Fits-All Structure

In some companies the operational communication and decision structure is quite simple. In a small firm it might just be the owner touching base each day with the handful of employees and holding a weekly general business meeting.

In contrast, in a large company or in a complex manufacturing operation, such as a continuous process chemical plant or a computer chip fabrication lab, the structure must be formal and thorough to avoid problems and keep the business running smoothly.

What Is an Operational Structure?

There are an infinite variety of companies and operational structures. Let's look at the operations managing structure of the Acme Chemical plant in Centerville , USA , one of eight Acme plants nationwide. Our hypothetical plant runs three eight-hour shifts (Day, 7 a.m. ., Evening, 3 p.m. ., and Graveyard, 11 p.m. ) seven days a week. What the company produces is fairly straightforward, but doing this well is very difficult. At Acme's Centerville plant, everyone relies on the fixed meeting structure as the place where their problems will be solved and their successes celebrated.

The Centerville plant authority structure has three operating divisions, Production, Maintenance, and Engineering. The chain of command is the Plant Manager, Division Managers, Supervisors, Lead Crew Persons, and the Crew Members. (Staff functions such as Human Resources, IT, and Finance are typically not a part of the daily operational meeting structure.)

The Daily "Manager's Morning Meeting"

Our Centerville plant has 400 employees. Each day begins with two 30 minute Morning Meetings. The first meeting is at seven a.m. It brings together:

    • The Production, Maintenance, and Engineering Supervisors from each area of the plant and from both Graveyard and Morning shifts.

The agenda is a quick information exchange. Decisions are made. People leave knowing what's going on and what needs to be done.

Daily "Area Meetings"

Each supervisor leaves the Manager's Morning Meeting to join a 20-30 minute meeting in their own area of the plant. This meeting brings together:

    • The area day supervisors from Production, Maintenance, and Engineering.

    • The area lead crew members from Production and Maintenance.

    • Some Maintenance and Operations crew members from the area.

The meeting agenda is unchanging. The supervisor summarizes what he learned at the Manager's Morning Meeting and moves immediately to address issues in the work area. Everyone exchanges information, decides the plan for the day, and heads off to join their work crews. A similar but scaled-down process occurs at the other two shift changes.

Each meeting takes about 30 minutes of management's time. They ensure that problems will be solved and that what needs to be done will get done. This is time very well spent.

Weekly Meetings

1. In addition to the daily meetings, the Production and Maintenance departments of Acme Chemical hold two fixed meetings at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. respectively on Monday and Thursday. Led by their respective division managers, and attended by the supervisors and division staff, these meetings deal with issues broader than those essential for basic daily operations.

2. Also once a week, the Plant Manager meets with all the division managers. Joining the managers from Production, Maintenance, and Engineering, are the managers from Human Resources, Finance, IT, and Sales and Marketing. In this 60 minute meeting, managers discuss issues from their own division that affect the overall plant, and the plant manager reviews new corporate information that affect the plant or need input from the plant. About half the meeting is reserved for general discussion. This is the plant's key integration meeting.

The Operations Management Structure Is Reliable

Everyone relies on the certainty of this operations management structure. They know that if anything is falling apart, this is where it will be held together. If new opportunities arise, this is where they will be understood and committed to. These are the meeting where divisions communicate—or don't, where issues are resolved—or not, and where the plant culture is most directly reinforced and shaped—for better or for worse.

The Parallel Organization of Culture Change Meetings

The parallel organization for culture change is a very simplified version of the above described operational structure and process. Just as operational meetings are designed to improve plant performance by focusing on production efficiency and problem solving, the parallel culture change structure is designed to improve plant performance by focusing on communications, relationships, values, and attitudes.

1. At the Centerville plant, the Manager's Culture Meeting brings together the plant's upper management structure for 90 minutes once a month to discuss the human side of the culture, where it stands and what needs to be done. (For more go to, http://www.companyculture.com/change/formal.htm)

2. Each Manager holds a similar 60 minute monthly meeting with their Supervisors, or, if they are staff department, with their department personnel.

3. Each Production and Maintenance Division Supervisor has a 30 to 60 minute monthly meeting with their respective crews. These first line meetings may spawn tightly focused volunteer problem-solving task groups that meet weekly until the problem is resolved. These task groups frequently pull in employees rom other divisions, corporate headquarters, and outside suppliers.

The Right Process Guarantees Success

At Acme, the structured operations and culture meetings invite everyone to participate. It has built trust so people are comfortable putting their issues on the table and bringing their creativity to solving problems, wherever they are. Because some people sit in on more than one level of meetings, there is an immediate channel of communications up and down the chain of command. The structure and process ensures that nothing gets lost, everybody knows what's going on, and problems are resolved usually before they bloom.

This is why Acme Chemical's Centerville plant runs so smoothly, garners a disproportionate share of corporate performance awards, and is tapped frequently to fill vacancies, or head special projects at the company's Houston headquarters.

Could You Combine Operation Meetings and Culture Meetings?

Managers sometimes ask me if they might combine the culture change meetings with the operation meetings. I do not recommend this at the beginning. Most managers and employees have difficulty discussing relationships, feelings, and attitudes. It is easier to talk about operating issues, so that is where the discussion moves, pushing aside the human issues.

Later, when people are comfortable discussing human issues and see how the culture meetings are improving overall performance, these special culture meetings will merge naturally into being an important part of the operations process. This blending does not occur before a minimum of six or eight culture meetings have been held, i.e. in six to eight months.

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This Month's Statistics

Right Management Consultants, a Philadelphia-based career transition and organizational consulting firm, surveyed human resource leaders from 133 organizations. They said:

47% cited good communication abilities as the most valued quality. Next came a sense of vision, then honesty. When asked what managers need to improve most:

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For more information on how Company Culture affects performance read http://www.companyculture.com/basics/benefits.htm