1 Get in the Wheelbarrow Why Aren''t They Giving Their All? Some twenty-five thousand onlookers had turned out on June 30, 1859, as a flamboyant, mustached Frenchman known as the Great Blondin stepped out onto a three-inch cord that stretched across roaring Niagara Falls. They were in high spirits, curious to see if the daredevil would become the first person to cross the chasm on a tightrope or if he would plummet to his death. Either way it would be a day to remember. Blondin had been born as Jean-François Gravelet and had been an acrobat since childhood, raised in the circus tents of Europe. He knew his craft, and the showman had no doubt he would be successful. It was not bravado; it was merely something he took to be a fact-as true as the sky being blue. And, as history shows, he not only crossed the fifteen-hundred-foot-wide falls without a stumble but even paused to perform a back somersault on his return trip. The breathless crowd erupted into wild cheers when he set his feet on firm ground.
The Great Blondin would cross the gorge eight times over the next decade, all with theatrical variations-blindfolded, on stilts, but most often trundling a small wheelbarrow. As you can imagine, crowds flocked to see him and he began to draw loyal devotees. According to accounts, the mob on one summer day was especially boisterous, and they gave him a chorus of hurrahs as he approached pushing his familiar barrow. "Do you believe I can cross the falls with this wheelbarrow?" he called out. "Yes!" they yelled as one. "Wonderful," he said. "Then who will get in?" Many in the crowd laughed but then fell silent as they realized he wasn''t joking. Blondin waited as the seconds ticked by; a haze of gray cigar smoke hung just above their heads.
They stood awkward and immobile. There were no takers. Blondin had hoped his fans would believe, as he did, in his infallible prowess on the high wire. They said they did, but they really didn''t. Then someone did. Blondin''s agent, Harry Colcord, took off his silk top hat and waved it high above his head. He was volunteering. Blondin was greatly moved by the gesture.
Despite the drama of the day, he actually hadn''t intended to wheel anyone across the falls, but Colcord''s offer sparked an idea. Instead of pushing his agent then, he returned a few months later and carried Colcord across the falls on his shoulders, an amazing feat considering the man was only a few pounds lighter than the showman. Let''s stop there. This book is clearly not about daredevils or tightrope walkers, but about a related drama that is taking place in organizations every day, all around the world. While most managers by now understand that their most reliable competitive advantage comes from their people, few of them actually know how to get people "all in"-convincing employees to truly buy into their ideas and the strategy they''ve put forward, to give that extra push that leads to outstanding results. It''s not for lack of effort. Most leaders we meet seem to be bending over backward for their people. They walk the floor, listen respectfully to their employees'' ideas, and try to be accommodating.
They''ve been taught they need to be people managers, not slaves to process, and as a result they''re focusing more, one-on-one, on the needs of each person in their care. And yet overall performance isn''t improving, or not nearly enough. This is backed up by the data we see. Employee engagement scores haven''t improved much at most organizations after many years of effort, and companies aren''t seeing markedly greater amounts of innovation or employee initiative. As hard as managers have been working, something''s missing: It''s culture. Whether you manage the smallest of teams or a multicontinent organization, you are the proud owner of a culture-congratulations-and it''s important to understand that the effectiveness of that culture will have a big impact on your performance. If your culture is clear, positive, and strong, then your people will buy into your ideas and cause and, most important, will believe what they do matters and that they can make a difference. That pervasive enthusiasm and energy will spread like perfume in the atmosphere.
On the other hand, if your culture is dysfunctional-chaotic, combative, or indifferent-employees will most likely spend more time thinking about why the people sitting next to them should be fired than getting fired up themselves. Now, a reader might ask why the carrot guys are writing a book on culture. The answer is simple: We''ve worked with clients on leadership issues for almost twenty years now, and hardly a week has gone by that we haven''t excitedly called each other to talk about a fascinating corporate culture we''ve just stumbled upon. For a long time we''ve believed that culture is what makes teams and organizations great, and yet no one was talking about it in popular business literature and it seemed that no one really wanted to. Perhaps culture seemed the sole purview of CEOs and human resource departments. Unquestionably the boss of a small IT department or regional call center wouldn''t have the audacity to claim he had a culture, right? But over the last few years something has changed. As we meet with new clients, expecting them to want us to work with them on the more focused ideas of employee recognition or teamwork, the subjects of our two last books, they keep steering the conversation back to culture. And not just their overall corporate culture; they have awoken to the fact that if the culture in their Cincinnati office isn''t working, then no amount of thank-yous or esprit de corps will help.
They have learned that if a culture works, then everything works better. Take the case of Andrew Heath, who when we met him was the newly appointed president of the energy business of Rolls-Royce, one of the four sectors of the iconic British firm. Heath''s face lit up as he described a business improvement team of seventy people he had led years before in the company''s aerospace business. With more work than the team could reasonably achieve, he knew he needed to create a "special environment" where people would truly care about the success of the venture. He needed more than discretionary effort; he needed to create a culture "where employees would see the problem before them as a challenge rather than as something to drag them down." Heath realized he couldn''t achieve the assigned goals by force of character alone. He needed to change his leadership style and engage the whole team by asking them what they thought would increase their commitment to the job, what help they needed, and what would give them greater satisfaction. They came up with ideas to pair new employees with senior people, identify training needs, present above-and-beyond awards for great work (a favorite became bottles of champagne), hold regular update luncheons, and so on.
Unassuming things, really, but the outcome was not only increased employee ownership and dramatic business results but also a level of camaraderie that is rare. "We achieved more than we thought possible. The team and I had never worked so hard in our lives. It was a tough assignment, but we had such fun in the process," Heath said. "I knew we had created a special culture together, but it only really struck me how much impact it had on the individual team members when we got together for a reunion a few years later. Everyone spoke of the profound effect it had had on their subsequent leadership styles." Savvy leaders like Heath realize it is culture that will differentiate your team or organization and drive real business results. John F.
W. Rogers, distinguished partner of the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, put his finger on the crucial role of culture when he said, "Our bankers travel on the same planes as our competitors. We stay at the same hotels. In a lot of cases, we have the same clients as our competition. So when it comes down to it, it is a combination of the execution and culture that makes the difference between us and other firms. That''s why our culture is necessary-it''s the glue that binds us together." Those words stuck with us and bear repeating: Culture is the difference; it is the glue that binds us together. Over the years we''ve been asked to work with some pretty impressive organizations all over the globe, including American Express, the National Football League, Cigna, the U.
S. Army, Rolls-Royce, and Johnson & Johnson, to drop a few names. It''s probably no surprise we found great cultures in those places. And yet we have found similarly amazing places to work in every industry we''ve studied-even in workplaces where you might not expect culture to thrive or make a difference. Consider this example. A few years ago we were asked to conduct a workshop at Crothall Healthcare. With thirty thousand employees, this is one of the largest and fastest-growing companies you''ve probably never heard of. They clean hospitals and offices, maintain facilities, transport patients, process linens, and so on.
It''s not sexy stuff, but stick with us on this. Every five years Crothall doubles in size. At less than twenty years old, the company has annual revenues in excess of a billion dollars-which is a heck of a lot more than we were making when we were twenty! We were halfway through our presentation to the senior leadership team, and just about to reach the crux of our argument, when the chief executive officer, Bobby Kutteh, made a mad dash for the door. It was disappointing but not unexpected; CEOs are, after all,.