The Stanton Marris Blog

• Making safety a priority

  This week leaders in organisations that claim to make safety their priority have probably had a sustained aha moment.

  On Wednesday I attended a leadership forum, alog with about 100 senior safety leaders, organised by AKT productions. It put the spotlight firmly on leaders by getting them to ‘Think Again’ through an engaging dramatisation of BP’s Texas City and Deepwater Horizon tragedies.

  On Thursday there was a full page feature in the Financial Times under the hard hitting headline: ‘A sea change needed’. It was evaluating the last chance BP’s new CEO, Bob Dudley, has to transform the organisation’s culture to embrace safety and risk awareness at all levels. The decisive action needed is much more than setting up a separate safety and risk department. Safety needs to be integrated into every activity and, as one industry expert commented: “the question is : has BP got the leadership to drive these changes through?”

  Today I am Reading about the environmental impact of the Hungarian chemical spillage that has reached the River Danube. I am sure that these recent events are enough to create the momentum for a radical rethink of leadership accountability for safety and sustainability. It should now be top of every leader’s agenda.

  Read the full article "Making safety a priority"

  Published October 8, 2010
  Written by Virginia Merritt. This article is filed under: organisational culture, safety
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• How to demand less and get more

  I recently read an article about how Sony Pictures gets more out of people by demanding less. I was intrigued to find out that burnout and employee disengagement were the major contributors, and that helping them manage their energy not their time turned this around. A shift in the way leaders manage employees, viewing them as human beings not computers, and investing time in meeting their core needs helped people feel more energised and inspired to be able to cope with personal and corporate demands. Interestingly the single biggest derailer is not having full sponsorship and engagement from the leadership team.

  We agree that by addressing what people feel within the organisation you can identify and manage your organisation’s energy and most importantly not waste energy. To manage energy it is necessary for us to discover where it comes from, what influences it, understand how to focus it, and find ways to release it.

  Organisational energy has two measurable dimensions: level and direction. A headless chicken has energy without direction. A chain gang has direction without energy. The high energy organisation not only energises its people but also channels that energy purposefully towards results.

  We have found that organisational energy comes from four sources, each with an emotional and rational element. Why the distinction between rational and emotional? Because we know organisations are often good at managing the first and struggle with the second. These sources of energy are known as ‘the 4C’s’: Connection, Content, Context and Climate. You can identify your organisation’s energy and, crucially, re-direct if for better performance, by working on these ‘Cs’.

  Find out more about organisational energy index.

  Read the full article "How to demand less and get more"

  Published October 5, 2010
  Written by Katrina Coulson. This article is filed under: employee motivation, organisational culture, organisational energy
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• Getting to basics on culture change

  If the term ‘culture change’ has you reaching for the metaphorical remote control to change the channel, you may have heard one too many pious exhortation to change the culture.  I’ve heard two apparently contradictory views on culture recently that reminded me of what is at the root of organisational culture.

  John Seddon of Vanguard Consulting can be relied upon for trenchant and provocative views and he recently took the head of HM Customs and Revenue to task for talking about and investing in culture change.  The point he makes is that if you can get the flow and organisation of work right then many of the organisational conditions around the work will take care of themselves.  He reminds us that organisational culture is not an end in itself – it is a property of the organisation that can serve the purpose and work of the organisation for better or worse.  If the work is inefficient, wasteful and chaotic how can the culture be healthy?

  Ed Schein of MIT who is a guru of organisational knowledge if anyone is, held a seminar at the Improvement and Development Agency at the end of last year.  He pointed out that when clients ask him for help on culture change he cannot tell them whether he can help or not as he does not (yet) know what they mean.  His response is to pursue a line of questioning that takes their often vague concept of culture change and narrows it down to a specific shift in behaviours that is required if work is to be done differently.  Culture change that is not specified in this plain language of work related behaviours is a  recipe for wasted effort….continue reading the March Inside Track newsletter

  Read the full article "Getting to basics on culture change"

  Published March 25, 2010
  Written by John Bruce-Jones. This article is filed under: culture change, organisational culture, values
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