#30 Dan Urquhart | Who's Really Shaping Your Team's Culture?

Who's shaping your culture? If it's not you, who is? So your culture is being shaped by the strongest influence in your organisation. And if that's not you, someone or something is shaping it for you. Just like a sporting team, you can't separate performance and behaviour from your culture. Your culture essentially, is how you do what you do. We've maybe given this example before, but if you go to a cafe and you get an amazing coffee one time out of five, is that a good culture? What about if you get an amazing coffee, five times out of five it's the best coffee you've ever drank, but it takes half an hour to get to you and they're really grumpy while they serve it. Is that a good culture? You see, you can't separate culture from performance because culture is performance. It's how we do what we do. And today we're going to talk about the culture of communication because just like a sporting team, just like any performance driven team, when you get communication right, you start to win. When you don't, inevitably somewhere along the track you're going to hit the wall. Communication is a foundational element of a performance driven team. You might say this is just the way we do things around here and anybody that comes on board knows that this is the way we communicate, this is the way we deal with problems, this is the way we serve our clients, this is the way we follow process. This is the way we respect each other. This is the way we communicate. Culture is how you do what you do, and how you do what you do needs to be consistent. Otherwise you have a sporadic culture. I've used this quote before, but I think it's an absolute cracker. George Bernard Shaw said this. He said the single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place. We're going to give you 2 tools. One's called the scale of urgency and the scale of Concern, and one is called the emergency button. So what are they? When we think about ways to think, not more to do. We're not giving you more to do. You've already got enough to do. We're going to give you ways to think. When you think communication, we want you to think there's lots of different tools, but these two particular tools are very helpful. Scale of urgency and scale of concern. All right, let's dig into the scale of urgency and the scale of concern. So a leader's time and leaders and US team's time is filled with interruptions and issues to deal with. But if we allow those things just to be a part of our day and we don't work out ways of being able to prevent or minimise them, what we find is that we're going to be sporadic with our quality because we're interrupted. We're going to be limited on our time because we're interrupted and we never actually quite get to the things that we do that only we can do. Often we'll be reactive instead of proactive. We'll be putting out fires instead of preventing them because the hustle and bustle of the day is going to be even in good teams that sometimes the urgent overcomes the important. We don't get to the important because we're always dealing with the urgent. Now this tool, the scale of urgency and scale of concern, helps you manage that. Communication's one of those things that we manage as attention. We don't necessarily solve it as a problem. It is a problem to not communicate well, but it's forever going to be a tension in our lives that we have tools and Ways and Means as teams to be able to deal with the tension of communication. Good communication is super important for consistent teams. And so rather than solve it as a problem, we give you tools to manage it as a tension and scale of function. Scale of concern is one of those tools that we're going to give you today so that you can manage the tension of great communication because you're going to get interrupted. Leaders and teams get interrupted everyday with things that are aren't necessarily important but are very urgent. So it might be a fire that you got to put out. Here's what we want to do rather than just putting out fires all the time, we want to actually go upstream to prevent them. A really good book just for anybody listening would be Upstream by Dan Heath. I think it is, and he talks exactly about this. He talks about being the kind of organisation that goes upstream to prevent the fires that happen daily, rather than just putting them out all the time and again. Communication just happens to be one of those things where we always seem to be putting out fires and this tool is going to help us, so let's dig into it at least time. It's filled with unexpected things to deal with and solve. But not every problem is created equal. Some problems just aren't all that urgent. They might seem urgent, but they can wait. And So what we want to be able to do is just before we slide our work across the desk and prioritise somebody else's urgent, we want to be able to ask this question on the scale of urgency concern. How urgent and how concerning is this? And it just stops people in their tracks to go, oh, OK, all right. Well, actually it's very concerning, but it's probably not all that urgent. OK, give it a number. Well, it's very important that this person gets called back. That's a 10 out of 10. But I feel like we can probably do it by this afternoon. This is the problem. You write it down in your day book and you say absolutely no worries, I'll make sure that call gets made. That's just an example of how this tool might work. It could be that someone burst into your office or you get an email and it's a 10 out of 10. So it's both urgent and concerning. And it's like, I'm sorry guys, we're going to have to drop all this thing needs sorting. That's fine, that's going to happen. But at least you have a way of being able to communicate what's urgent and what's concerning. It might be a situation like this, somebody burst into your office or you get an email or you get a phone call. You're in the middle of something and all of a sudden they making their urgent, your concern and you go, hey, mate, I'm in the middle of something. How urgent and concerning is this? And they go, oh, well, no, to be honest, it's probably a three out of 10 and say, OK, let's talk about this. Can we deal with this issue in tomorrow's meeting? And they go, oh, OK, Yep, let's do that. You write it down your day book, you make sure it's part of the agenda item for tomorrow's meeting, and you move on and you get on with your job. What we're trying to do is give you guys ways to think, not more to do. That simple tool is an absolute game changer. We just ask how concerning is it? Because there are some things that are going to come across your desk that are both urgent and concerning. And there's going to be some things that just not to think that we can be interrupted everyday and we're still going to be accurate and we're still going to be time efficient and we're still going to be proactive is an illusion. And if you allow people to spend your time, they will spend it and they will spend it in full whether the matter is urgent or important or not. So it's on each team member to be actually asking, is this a fire that needs to be put out right now because it's going to turn into a raging Bush fire. If so, drop everything and sort it. But if it's something that can wait, you need to be able to ask. And this is just a really good way to ask. OK, so here's some integration. Next steps. Quite simple. As a team, we, we just need to understand that this helps you evaluate issues on the spot. So you don't need to wonder and you don't need to drop everything. You don't need to be broken away from what you're doing. You can evaluate issues on the spot. So if it's super important, you'll know it by question. If it's not so important, you'll know by question and you can relegate it to another time, another day, another way to be able to sort it. Secondly, it helps you understand what's important to others. Now, this is really, really, really critical because as teams, and I know this is very true of my wife and I, what's not important to me is maybe 10 out of 10 important for natty. And so maybe she's not asking me to deal with it right now, but maybe she's saying, hey, Dan, as a matter of urgency, it's a three. But if as a matter of importance, it's a 10, this is really important to me that this gets sorted and I can go absolutely no worries. Let's make sure that we talk about that in our next meeting or let's make some time this afternoon to deal with it. And so one of the things that this tool does as well is it helps us as team members to be able to understand what's important to others. Just because it's not important to you doesn't mean it's not important to them, but it also doesn't mean that they're important needs to become you're urgent. And so this is again, a really good tool to be able to make sure that people's concerns are respected. And so that's why we're asking is it urgent or what on the scale of 1 to 10 is it in regards to urgency? And what is scale of 1 to 10? Is it in regards to concerning this is concerning to you? If this is important to you, I'll make it a priority, but I need to do it at a time that actually works for my schedule. And so again, guys, we're just upping the level and the clarity of communication. We're giving ourselves as teams a way to be able to respect each other's concerning, but also not making their urgent your urgent. And that's really, really critical for a team that wants to be consistent, for a team that wants to be a, what's the third thing that it does? The third thing it does is it helps you as a team to be able to prioritise the best of teams, prioritise even the urgent, the best of teams have worked out ways to live in productivity and not reactivity. And the way you do that is you don't lose time with those things that just can't be a priority right now. You schedule your priorities, where's teams need to be able to prioritise what is important and what is urgent, and this gives you a way to be able to do that. Fourthly, it also teaches you guys's teams to be able to prevent fires because sometimes people going to come to you with a 10 out of 10 and you just need to drop everything, deal with it. I remember even in my business, there'd be some things that just absolutely needed to be dressed there and then. Maybe it came to me as a 7, but every moment that went on without it being dealt with was clicking it closer to a 10 out of 10 and becoming a raging fire. If you've got a customer that's complained, if you've got a problem that needs to be solved right now, otherwise it's going to become even bigger problem. This is a really good tool to be able to prevent fires rather than just always putting out raging forest fires. And lastly, it helps you guys as a team to be actually able to define what is a one out of 10 and what is a 10 out of 10 issue and concern within your organisation. So it helps you prioritise as you get better at this. Every team member will be able to say in their mind, where does this fall on the scale of urgency and concern? Actually, it's only A2. I won't go to that person with it now. I'll put in the agenda for tomorrow and we'll deal with it then. And so there's going to be less interruptions because you're teaching each other that let's not get caught up in the urgent while not getting to the important. It helps train every member of the team to be able to discern for themselves what is a one out of 10 issue, what is a 10 out of 10 issue and what to do about it and how to communicate it. So that was the scale of urgency and the scale of concern. Remember, it's not more to do, it's a way to think, it's a way to communicate. It's a way to be able to move through the urgent and the concerning and be able to prioritise where it fits, whether it's urgent right now, let's drop everything or whether it can wait and when can it be dealt with. OK, another really good tool that partners well with the scale of urgency and the scale of concern is what we call the emergency button. So what is the emergency button? This is the best way to frame what it is that we're talking about in regards to this tool. And it says this, if this ever happens, I want to be the first to know. So let's think about this as a team now. What are the five things that could happen in your departments and that if you were the last to know about it, that would be very detrimental and it'd be very frustrating. For instance, if my accounts team knows that there is somebody that hasn't paid a bill and it's 21 days overdue, and I, as the business owner, the last to know, that would be very detrimental and very annoying for me. And so I will go to my accounts team and say, hey, if there's any invoice that's more than a day late, I want to be the first to know. I want you to press the emergency button. That is something that I absolutely need to know about. What's another example, For instance, if there was an official customer complaint, maybe the general manager or maybe the director, maybe the business owner or maybe the department head would go to whoever, to the receptionist or whoever needs to know. Or maybe it's spoken about in the staff meeting and you go, OK, guys, if we ever get a customer complaint, I need to be the first one to know because I want to know that we're going to deal with that within an hour. We can't be dealing with it anyway beyond an hour. That is now our KPI. Our KPI is if we have a customer complaint, I want to be the first one to know where we, I want you to press the emergency button. As far as the scale of urgency and scale of concern, let's just agree that it's a 10 out of 10 within an hour that needs to be dealt with. Press the emergency button, Come to me. I don't want to be the last to know because if I did, I'll be very annoyed. OK, so why does this work well with the scale of urgency, scale of concern? Because you pre agreed that this is an emergency. Come to me, drop everything. This is something that needs to be dealt with absolutely urgent. And so when we're deeming what falls into emergency category, we ask this if it will be a 10 out of 10 or if it will become a 10 out of 10, we need to press the emergency button and alert whoever needs to know. It could be any number of things that would deem be deemed a critical failure of the operations of your business. Whatever it might be, it's deemed as an emergency in advance. The best type of communication and the best type of accountability is pre agreed communication and accountability. And these two tools, the scale of urgency and the scale of concern, they're just a pre agreed way in which we communicate. A really good way to frame why this is important is to say it like this. If you know something that's alarming and you don't raise the issue, it's on you. So everybody in the team now knows that if there's an alarming issue and it doesn't get dealt with or raised, it's on you. What would this look like? You know, and I think we've probably all seen this in teams that somebody comes and says, oh, such and such has said this and, and nobody got back to them. And now it was a little issue. And now it's become this raging fire and somebody goes, oh, yeah, I remember. Yeah, such and such rang about that a week ago. I just forgot to pass the message on, but that little tiny flicker of a flame just became this raging spot fire because somebody didn't press the emergency button on something was already pre agreed as a potential 10 out of 10 issue. Between the scale of urgency and scale of concern and the emergency button, we have two ways of communicating that help us as teams to say if this ever happens, I need to know whilst also dealing with the tension that not everything is a 10 out of 10. And you can ask on the spot and find out where things fall. But the emergency button is that thing that it's like, no, no, this is a 10 out of 10. These are the 5 or 10 scenarios. If this ever happens, it's a 10 out of 10. Let's deem it a 10 out of 10. Let's draw a line in the sand. Let's never let this happen. Don't think that things aren't important because they often are. Remember, not all problems are created equal. Some are one out of 10, some are 10 out of 10. Someones will become a 10 out of 10 if they're not dealt with quickly. But let's not think that everything is a 10 out of 10. But that doesn't mean that it's also not important. So what could this look like? It could like the non payment of a major account or invoice. It could look like the potential loss of the sale. That is an emergency button issue. If you're going to potentially lose a sale and somebody can help you, maybe the general manager needs to step in, try to pull it out of the fire. You pull it out of the fire and you press the emergency button and say hey mate, so sorry to help you. But we pre agreed that if I ever go to lose a sale, it's a 10 out of 10 issue, I'll press the emergency button. I need your help because that is super, super, super important and you can agree in advance that it's important. Alright, what's your integration? Next steps? This is what we want to do. We want to categorise and communicate those pre agreed hot button or emergency issues. What are they? What are the scenarios? What are the things that you as a team need to know that constitute an emergency button issue? We're on a predetermine who needs to know. So if it's a sale issue, who needs to know. If it's account issue, who needs to know. If it's a customer complaint issue, who needs to know? If it's a health and safety issue, who needs to know? Predetermine who needs to know. We also want to help your team feel supported with high level issues. That's what it'll do. You know that you are supported. You're not carrying this thing on your own. You know in advance who it is that you're going to, and so that is a good support mechanism for you as a team. So what do we do next? Now what we're going to do is break out in our teams and we just want one take away and one next step from every single member of the team. What has resonated with you today and what next step are you going to take in order to make sure that this is integrated into the culture? But then as a team, what I love you to do is I want you guys to talk as a team about what is the scale of urgency and scale of concern look like in your organisation? Everyone, you might use it a little bit differently. How's it going to work in your organisation? Maybe you can come up with three different examples of what might be a one, what might be a 10 and how you guys are going to communicate to each other. Remember, it's actually a way to think, not more to do. You can deal with things very quickly when you use this as a tool. And then with the emergency button, how about we pick three things that constitute an emergency issue? And then also of course you want to delegate. Who needs to know? Hey guys, this will help make your communication efficient. Remember, great organisations don't have more time, they just manage it better. Great organisations don't not have issues, they just manage it better. Great organisations don't communicate perfectly, they just have tools in which to be able to communicate. These are ways to think, not more to do. So break out in your team and think about how this is going to work in your. Organisation. This is going to make you guys better communicators because remember, the single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it's taken place. See you guys, all the best.