People will support what they helped create!

So, how does a business put this idea into action?

In a nut shell, you need to create a culture of continuous improvement.

You need to accept that as business owner, you don’t have all the answers.

You need to be able to listen to your people. Your business is not all about you! It is all about your people and your customers.

You need to be humble enough to take constructive feedback and listen to other ideas and points of view.

You need to be able to shut up and listen. This can be a very hard skill to learn for a passionate business owner.

You need to build a workplace environment where your peoples ideas and feedback can be heard.

This means you need to set up a structure and routine which fosters continuous improvement in all areas of the business.

This sounds a lot easier than it actually is.

Yes, you can implement the morning meeting which is a big step forward but this is not enough.

Because if you don’t get all the pieces of the business puzzle aligned your morning meetings can quickly become little more than a whinge fest or a lifeless tradition.

You must create a culture which is driven and guided by a meaningful mission, an exciting vision and clear core values.

So, when new people join your team, they are 100% clear on why the businesses does what it does, where it is going, how it is going to get there and the behaviours and principles that hold the team together.

Then you need to teach and train them intensively from day one so that they too can start making small improvements from the day they join.

So each day you have a situation where all your people are contributing to the improvements and growth of the company. This effectively means that they are helping in the creation of the company day by day. Improvement by improvement.

So, you must keep improving your morning meetings so that there is 100% participation and buy in. This means that no one person is excluded. This gives everyone a voice every single day. This is up to you as a leader to first set the scene and keep working with your team until it becomes habitual. The morning meeting is the drum beat. The heart beat. It provides much needed rhythm for the team.

In these meetings we learn and grow and solve problems together. We are improving the business together. We are effectively creating the business day by day. And because everyone is involved, they will support it. Not 100% at first, but as you improve the meetings and as your leadership and culture improves, and your people can see that you are 100% genuine in your desire to treat them and train them like owners, they will get 100% onboard.

And the ones that don’t get onboard? Simple, you change the people or you change the people. (more about this in other chapters)

Then there is the weekly meetings in each department. Eg marketing, sales, operations, strategy etc. These meetings give your people another opportunity to help build the business together. Typically these meetings are made up of the key leaders or people from applicable departments. Eg your weekly sales meeting should include your sales team, you CX team leader, your operations team leader and your GM.

Another example is your business development or innovation meeting. This should include reps from your sales team, marketing team, operations team etc.

So, what am I getting at? People will support what they helped create!

Here are some more practical examples of ways you can get your team involved in the business creation process:

1. Regularly review your mission, vision and values. Email them out to all staff for feedback. Say things like: Hey team it is time to review these key areas of our business! I am open to any and all feedback on how we can improve these! You have till 4pm today to give some thoughtful and constructive feedback and I will add it all into the melting pot for review! (you now have to treat all feedback seriously and thank each individual for their help. You also need to be clear that whilst their feedback is super helpful it is not always possible to implement all or any of it as there is a lot of moving parts in the business and the impact of every change has to be considered carefully. But in the same breath I challenge you to quickly implement any great ideas and improvements quickly or you will fast lose the valuable input from your team.
2. Once all the feedback is in I recommend that you collate it all and send it out again for the team to review and maybe some key discussion points for the next morning meeting. This way you are fostering a collaborative improvement environment which really elevates your people and gets them truly involved.
3. Any good improvements that the team agrees on (you are looking for 80% consensus ) then make those changes quickly. This shows the team that you are actually listening and that you do really care about them and their opinions.
4. Celebrate the improvements on your good news group chat! This reinforces the culture of collaboration! This makes the team proud to be part of an epic business and culture!
5. Rinse and repeat!

Challenge yourself right now: Are my people involved in our business decisions? Or am I trying to do it all myself? If you are trying to do it all yourself you are on a one way track to lots more drama, stress, high blood pressure, long hours, poor health and at very best, an average life.

It is time for you to take a powerful little pill called humility and make some serious changes to the way you run your business.

The 8th lean waste is: wasted employee genius. And this is the worst waste of all! And sadly, this is the waste we see in 99% of the businesses we visit.

The good news is, you can make positive changes fast to turn your culture around and get your people involved in the creation of your business!

People will support what they helped create! And once you have the unfettered support of your people, the sky is the limit!

TBC….

For lots of valuable resources to help you improve your business and life go to: www.premierbusinessacademy.co.nz