leadership, comunication and teamwork

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dependable means of focusing atten-

tion where it needs to be.

Enables accountability. Numbers

do not lie, and thus it is impossible to

hide behind them. Organizations,

departments and individuals must

maintain defined standards when faced

with the reality of measurement.

Facilitates feedback. It often proves

difficult to discuss a person’s or depart-

ment’s weak performance without

them taking constructive criticism per-

sonally. When this happens, the

accused person(s) assume a defensive

position and, ultimately, little produc-

tive communication takes place. How-

ever, by discussing departmental stats

or a person’s performance record, theconversation flows freely because the

focus has shifted to a neutral, third

party—the number or measurement

itself.

Increases problem prevention.

Measures by themselves are worthless.

However, measurements can be used to

identify negative trends before they

blossom into full-blown problems.

Removes bias. Focus groups, inter-

views and conversations all use sub-

jective interpretation to reach conclu-sions. On the other hand, well-crafted

measures are inherently consistent and

objective, removing individual biases.

How MeasurementRelates to Your Business

Robert Kaplan, of Harvard Univer-

sity, famously states: “If you can’t meas-

ure it you can’t manage it, and if you

can’t manage it you can’t change it.” A

simple translation of this sentence is: If

you don’t measure something, you can’tmanage it, which means you won’t be

able to improve it.

The intangible drivers of leadership,

communication and teamwork (LCT)

are key employee-performance factors

that are not frequently measured.

According to Kaplan’s theory, lack of

measurement means these funda-

mental building blocks of your organ-

ization are not being managed nor

improved.

Considering wages, benefits and

training, what percentage of your oper-

ating budget is dedicated to person-

nel? One third, maybe more? How can

you afford to ignore exactly how this

asset is performing?Interestingly, according to the book,

Cracking the Value Code: How Suc-

cessful Businesses Are Creating Wealth

in the New Economy, by Boulton, Lib-

ert and Samek, only 35 percent of exec-

utives who expressed a belief in the

importance of investing in their

employees actually walk the talk.

Failing to measure the intangible

drivers—LCT—can cost a company its

competitive advantage. Too many exec-

utives become lulled into a false senseof security by merely implementing

standard industry measures. The flaw

in this strategy: If you only measure,

manage and improve the same items as

your competition, you will not differ-

entiate yourself. Use LCT to your

advantage to ensure that your compa-

ny ends up on top.

The OrganizationalDrivers of LCT

Whether you notice an increase inemployee mistakes, a decrease in cus-

tomer satisfaction or a drop in reten-

tion, the root cause can be attributed

to the quality of leadership at all levels

of the organization; the effectiveness

of internal communication; or the

ability of employees to work well

together.

More specifically, the cultural chal-

lenge results from a combination of all

three drivers due to the synergistic rela-

tionship among them. Envision three

concentric circles, with leadership in

The measuring cycle begins by measuring leadership, communication and team-work to create a benchmark from which to track your progress. You then must work to understand the meaning behind the resulting measures and their impact on

performance. Then, share the information and its meaning with the entire organization; work collaboratively to tackle organizational challenges at the root, not superficially at the symptoms; and, finally, remeasure and begin again.

M E A

S U R E

U N D E R S T A N D

S H A R E

W O R K

R E -

M E A S U R E

THE

MEASURING CYCLE

the outermost circle surrounding and

impacting communication, which

influences the inner circle of team-

work. While it is possible to isolate each

intangible for the sake of conversation,

in practice it proves impossible to dis-

entangle them.

Consider this story about a compa-

ny CEO working with an independent

consultant to increase productivity.

One day the CEO and consultant spied

an employee raking the company’slawn using a rake with only seven of its

12 tines. Obviously the employee’s per-

formance was poor, leaving behind a

considerable amount of leaves.

The CEO became enraged and

asked, “Why would a supervisor allow

an employee to work with such a poor

rake?” The consultant replied, “Are you

sure the supervisor is the only one to

blame? To which the CEO answered,

“No, of course not, you’re right—it’s

my fault for not ensuring that all super-visors understand that the company

strongly emphasizes the importance

of their employees having the proper

tools. I will meet with my managers

this afternoon to make sure they under-

stand that.”

To the CEO’s surprise, the consultant

pressed further. “Isn’t there someone

else who should take some responsi-

bility?” The CEO shrugged her shoul-

ders, not sure who else might be at

fault. “What about the employee?” sug-

gested the consultant. “Where is the

32 MetalForming/August 2011 www.metalformingmagazine.com

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employee’s responsibility to make sure

he has the right tools?”

Creating a Strong CultureThe short parable above illustrates

how LCT impacts performance. The

consultant guided the CEO toward a

cultural model described any number

of ways: innovative, high-performing,

one with shared management, or one

that provides for employee empower-

ment. With a slight variation in empha-

sis, all of these models productively

blend the company’s intangibles—

LCT—to create a strong culture that:

• Is greater than any one individual;

• Is aligned along a common purpose;

• Values multidirectional commu-nication;

• Holds individuals accountable for

their own behavior;

• Encourages new ideas and accepts

constructive criticism; and

• Builds leadership at all levels,

ensuring that it will never be without a

next generation of leaders.

But other than by anecdotal evi-

dence, how do you know when you

truly have established the business cul-

ture as intended? By introducing meas-urement into the sustainable-culture

equation. Strategically, you must pro-

vide proof; you must measure. Like the

CFO who can share profit-growth fig-

ures through measurement of revenue

and expenses, and the COO who can

discuss the drop-in widget output as

the result of counts, LCT must be quan-

tified for two reasons:

1) Companies only value what they

can measure. “The unmeasured must

be measured, for if it cannot be meas-ured, it isn’t considered of value,” notes

Debra Amidon, CEO of Entovation Intl.

Ltd., Wilmington, MA.

2) While a company’s financial,

operations and marketing efforts are

routinely included in its strategic plan,

talent management and the strategies

for developing the personnel required

to implement the strategic plan often

are absent. Without the proper people

having the proper skill sets in place, a

company’s strategies will not be

implemented.

Measurement in and of itself will not

sustain a culture. Measurement is an

invaluable indicator of the direction

in which a company is headed and the

trends being experienced. In fact, if

measurement is viewed transactionally

and exclusively as a number, the most

valuable component will be missed:

the information that can be garnered

and used to create sound actions.

The Measuring Cycle…consists of these six steps:

1) Measure leadership, communi-

cation and teamwork to create a bench-

mark from which to track your

progress.

2) Understand the meaning behindthe resulting measures and, above all,

their impact on organizational per-

formance. For example, what are the

consequences to the organization if:

• Your employees report a percep-

tion that the leaders are playing

favorites?

• Your workers lack the information

they need to do their jobs?

• The existence of silos prevents

cross-departmental teamwork?

3) Share the information and its

meaning with the entire organization,

because engagement increases when

the larger picture becomes clear.

4) Work collaboratively to tackle

organizational challenges at the root,

not superficially at the symptoms.

5) Remeasure. Use the benchmark

from step 1 to quantify your progress.

6) Repeat the cycle of strengthening

leadership, communication and team-

work with each iteration.

Gaining control of leadership,

communication and teamwork will

bring significant savings, as absen-teeism is reduced, time spent on per-

sonal conflict drops and turnover

decreases. These savings will be aug-

mented by a quantifiable improve-

ment in employee engagement, inno-

vation and trust, all of which have

been documented to provide signifi-

cant increases in revenues. MF

www.metalformingmagazine.com MetalForming/August 2011 33

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