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Guest post by: Dianne Crampton Become an Author

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For some people success is everything. Winning at all costs define the rules of the game and little deviations from truth and honesty are minor blips on the radar. What matters is getting from point A to point B from the most direct route possible and if that means obliterating an obstacle to get there … then so be it.

For other people success is the quality of the journey. Getting to point B from point A is sometimes a meandering route. The goal is often obscured by side trips. Relating to others and enjoying work is often more important than the goal. Loyal followers abandon ship when they are uncertain that success can be achieved or when their personal values and work ethic require achievement rather than continually mucking through process.

Other people know success involves achieving goals, building relationships and improving processes. Success is a matter of balance. And, when goals are reached, there is time to celebrate, evaluate, fine-tune and lay the foundation for future success.

Success means effectively achieving what an organization has set out to do. It is a fundamental rationality for why teams are formed. For this reason, it’s essential that team members clearly understand and commit to organizational values and to the organization’s vision, mission and goals. If people resolutely believe that goals aren’t achievable, they often will demand a change in leadership or look for a better organization to share their time, talent and commitment.

Likewise, success is the second of two TIGERS collaborative core values that are highly correlated with the other values. This means that if people believe their organization will be successful then the core values trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy and risk can also be positively affected. Therefore, building core value supported behaviors is facilitated by employees who understand how what they contribute supports success.

The second correlated value is interdependence. By definition interdependence means if “WE win I win.” Success is in the definition but instead of suggesting one person can win without the mutual success of others, the success of everyone defines the successful outcome. This means that if people believe that their efforts will be successful in a balanced way, they will dig in and make the sacrifices necessary to achieve success – for everyone.

For example, Michael Hoseus, co-author of Toyota Culture, the Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way, McGraw Hill 2008, autographed a copy of my book with the inscription, “Always take are of the people.” When I asked him to give me a Toyota business example of this he shared the following scenario.

Work teams and the work teams accomplish at Toyota are put at risk when people fail to show up for work. Maybe family issues cause the absence. Maybe illness is the reason. Maybe people call in sick and spend the day at the beach. For what ever reason, other team members must pick up the slack or production goals fall putting Toyota at risk.

As a result, Toyota establishes an annual zero absence goal and supports it with a family-wide incentive. If an employee has no unexcused absences during the year (an aggressive advance notice of excused absence is required), then the family wins an opulent celebration that includes travel and lodging for the family, and activities for children and adults of such a grand scale that families look forward to it every year.

As a result, families do their own problem solving to plan in advance for important school functions, and build their own family support networks to address unexpected life issues. This includes taking care of their health and working safely to minimize the risk of absence.

The bottom line is that there are employees with a formidable work ethic who are proud of never missing a day of work. Yet, in some organizations, employees look for excuses to stay home or outright lie to take a day off. From the Toyota perspective, this hurts the company, fellow employees, the integrity and trustworthiness of the employee, and the success of the company.

With this in mind, what behaviors damage success?

• Lack of personal commitment and accountability for organization goals
• Withholding information caused by unhealthy competition among work groups and managers
• Poor morale
• Lack of direction
• Short-term problem solving

What behaviors build success?

• Building commitment and ownership of company goals at all levels of organization
• Involving as many workers’ ideas into goal implementation as appropriate
• Establishing and communicating quality standards, planning, work design and system refinement strategies for all levels of operation.
• Celebrating successes
• Giving credit to employees who make a difference
• Evaluating and removing operational barriers
• Training to improve both work, process and relational skills

Success as a collaborative core value strikes a balance between how work is done and the people doing the work. When the six TIGERS collaborative values are recognized and held as important, the resulting behaviors produce greater harmony and improved communication among people, which results in less strife. The payoff is increased creativity, productivity and improved morale.

In those organizations where behavior standards are spelled out and expectations of how people are to treat one another are commonly known, both group harmony and increased productivity follow.

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