A major food and beverage company was already experiencing great success and growth over the years, but senior leadership knew that there was still a lot of room for improvement if they wanted to get to the next level.

Although a lot of the key business objectives and organizational goals were being accomplished in the short term, there was underlying cultural concerns that paralyzed further growth and the development of its workforce. The silos within the organization between different departments were growing rapidly, employees had no clear-cut idea as to what the culture was or stood for, and there was no shared sense of purpose and focus.

With these cultural challenges escalating and a digital transformation on the horizon, senior leadership wanted to take action before productivity and performance became hindered and effected the organization’s ability to exceed expected growth.

A cultural change is no easy task and doesn’t happen overnight. One of the biggest challenges with changing an organizations culture and the current behaviors of its workforce is to have complete buy in from the senior leadership team. Many leaders talk about the importance of culture, but then let the hustle and bustle of everyday demands get in the way of gaining real traction to create long-term change and eventually go back to their old ways.

The senior leadership of this major food and beverage company was all in and partnered with Matt Mayberry Enterprises to lead and facilitate a yearlong cultural transformation.

OUR APPROACH

Matt Mayberry Enterprises collaborated with the senior leadership team to develop a cultural change game plan.

1. Define the culture. Multiple meetings with top leadership early in the process was strictly geared towards defining the culture and creating a purpose statement for the overriding theme of the new culture.
2. Cast the vision and unite. We took the senior leadership team through our in-depth values process to identify new values and behaviors. We also engaged managers and every department within the company to unite the entire organization through a very collaborative process.
3. Roll-out plan developed. Working diligently with the senior leadership team, a roll-out plan and communication strategy for the cultural change was created.
4. Integrated behavioral guideline plan. For most organizations, their values are aspirational at best and never create real change. After the roll-out plan was developed, we designed a behavioral guideline plan to initiate real change within the organization on how employees can incorporate the new values into their daily activities.

CULTURE ROLL-OUT

Through a series of workshops and focus groups, leadership training and development was a main priority. Everything starts with leadership, and for a successful cultural transformation to take place, courageous and exceptional leadership is required.

We guided senior leaders and department representatives through the development of new initiatives to embed the new culture and values into everything that the organization does on a day to day basis.

We helped the senior leadership team execute the communication strategy, strengthened accountability and feedback systems to improve performance, and held on-going training workshops for employees.

THE RESULTS

The impact and results from this cultural transformation for this major food and beverage company has been nothing short of extraordinary. They are experiencing a more collaborative workforce, less negativity in the workplace, key employees who are shifting from good performer to ultra-performer, and shattering expectations.

A few months after the roll-out of the new culture in the middle of a global health pandemic, they flawlessly executed a major digital transformation and revenue is currently up 60%. Taking the time to build a winning culture has paid off big time as this organization will not only weather the Coronavirus pandemic, they will come out of this crisis much stronger than before.

The communication and vulnerability showed from the senior leadership team has been incredible.

Employees across the board are taking extreme ownership and there is a strong compelling vision of the future.

Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” and this organization is a shining example of the truth in that statement. They have always been a top player in their industry with winning strategies, but the moment they spent most of their time developing their culture and the behavioral change needed in order to get to the next level, powerful organizational shifts started to take place.

This is just the beginning for this organization. Culture is the name of the game.

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Here are three characteristics that all high-performing teams instill within their organizations and never lose sight of.

1. High-performing teams are unselfish.

You will never find a championship-caliber team at any level that doesn’t model unselfishness in everything that its members do. Even though the star running back wants to break all the records and the employee wants to earn the big promotions, they put the team first in everything that they do. They fully understand that when the team is better, they will grow and become better as individuals.

Amazing things begin to happen when you have a group of unselfish people that all come together for the betterment of the team. But a team that is completely unselfish is very rare these days because of the individualistic world that we live in. It’s all about glitz, glamor, status and money for most. However, the thriving teams that year after year continually dominate know that those things will eventually come to them if they perform better as a team.

2. High-performing teams operate like a strong family.

Mike Krzyzewski, in my humble opinion one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, once said, “When your organization operates like a strong family, you can’t be knocked out by one punch.”

Walk down the halls of a sports franchise such as the New England Patriots and companies such as Apple and it won’t take you long to figure out that they operate out of love in all they do. These institutions truly love their employees. The employees believe in and absolutely love the organization they work for.

Operating as a strong family and truly loving and appreciating your teammates builds a healthy and thriving culture. Even if employees and teammates don’t hang out much outside of the workplace, they understand that putting the team first and appreciating each other is an absolute must.

3. High-performing teams listen.

An underrated characteristic, but an absolutely crucial one when referring to building strong and powerful teams is the power of listening: Leadership willing to listen to employees within the organization, employees having constant communication with other team members, and listening to the marketplace and current customers on where the company can grow and become better.

Being willing to listen shows that you care. One of the more powerful things that a leader can do to create an exceptional and healthy culture is to let everyone know that there is an open line of communication and he or she is willing to listen. All high-performing teams not only communicate better than most teams, but they are willing to listen more than most teams.

There are so many different qualities and characteristics that make the top teams tick, but the above three cannot be ignored when looking to build a stronger organization and team. Just like anything worthwhile, the above characteristics are not easy and will take some time to successfully implement, but the long-term results and the culture that will be built will be well worth it.

Originally Posted on Entrepreneur.com

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

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