Marcourt Communications Inc. - …And the Silo Walls Come Tumbling Down

Every leader faces management challenges, but one of the toughest we discovered in our recent examination of the problems that put managers at risk is an inability to see beyond the four walls of the department, the unit or—as well call it—the manager's "functional silo."

That last word conjures up images of barriers that reach skyward, and sometimes the walls that managers erect around themselves and their teams seem almost insurmountable. One top leader says she feels like she has to climb the world's tallest ladder to get inside one manager's unit. Getting through is not an easy task, but discovering the prize inside—an able and skilled manager who needs clarity about his job—can make the climb worthwhile.

Haven't we all watched a strong manager who believes that his duty to his department holds more importance than his obligation to the organization? Such devotion to the team is admirable, but when carried to extremes, it's likely to keep the manager stuck in his silo while others who can see the big picture climb over him to get to the top.

As we note in our report, "Five Critical Management Derailers," silo-building managers risk their organizations' well being as well as their own. You can recognize the signs in your own organization if you have managers who:

Refuse to deal with co-workers outside their immediate unit
Habitually make decisions beneficial to their team but not beneficial to the organization
Balk at making changes that affect them, even if the change helps the organization
Keep beneficial information inside the "team tent"
Appear not to grasp the organization's mission/vision

One organization deals with the problem of silo-managers by never letting the manager build the silo in the first place. How? One way is by establishing regular meetings in which different departmental leaders share information, discuss problems and plans, and generally see the organization from different perspectives.

The same organization also annually appoints a different manager to a committee made up of leaders outside the organization. This panel of appointees serves as the fundraising arm for a community non-profit agency. The organizations participating raise their profiles in the community while performing good works. Each manager on the panel learns more about his organization and the role it plays in the community.

This appointment accomplishes several in-house goals as well:

First, it avoids continually drawing water from the same well. Every CEO can point to one or more departments that turn in exceptional performance year after year. The temptation of working with thoroughbreds, however, is that we go back to them—and only them—race after race. At the very least, this practice risks tiring high performers to the point of indifference.

Second, passing around the committee membership gives new performers a chance to develop and show off new skills. The thoroughbreds set the benchmark. Others can then strive to meet it, or even reach beyond.

Third, regularly working with people outside of a unit brings down the silo walls more quickly than any well-chosen words of a CEO. Why? People often learn best while doing. Envision reaching over a wall to grab a hand. Doing so is almost impossible when the walls are silo-high. For effective collaboration, committee members must emerge from their silos and meet in a brand new environment.

Leaders can also use a cross-functional in-house team. One example is a team that examines the impact of implementing a change in customer service or some other crucial operation. Such a committee could be composed of managers in each of an organization's departments.

Other remedies to bring down the silo walls include:

Explaining how each spoke is important to the wheel. In other words, establishing in clear language how the manager's team fits into the organizational big picture. This is especially important for a new manager who may just be learning how to run his department. Direct supervisors should demonstrate early on that the wheel is only as strong as its individual spokes, and that one spoke alone isn't strong enough to support the wheel.
Establishing a cross-functional goal for the manager. In this scenario, the manager reports to someone else who can monitor progress, facilitate discussion, offer advice, and drive accountability. This is ideally someone who has been in charge of a department and now holds more than departmental responsibility.
Three-point monitoring to hold the manager accountable. The three points of access are the manager's manager or boss, his peers and his subordinates. Why three points instead of just one? Because it's next to impossible to monitor a person's performance all by yourself. You would have to be at the same place as this manager all the time, from the time he reports to work to the time he leaves the parking lot at the end of his workday. Most supervisors have more than one person and one task to attend to in a day, so this helps establish a way for the manager to be accountable to his peers and subordinates too. Make it known that you will be asking each point of access to evaluate his performance. Do this for everyone and it becomes less threatening—and everyone is accountable to everyone!

If you are tired of looking at the silo walls from the outside, imagine the limited view from within. It's time to bring those walls down, permanently.

Jim Sirbasku, CEO
Profiles International

Strategies for Winning

Dare to Be Different*

Differentiation is Key

Are you a "me too"? Do your prospective customers know why they should buy from you rather than from your competitors?

If your customers can't see any significant difference between you and your competition, the only reliable basis you will have for consistently winning business is price—and that road ultimately leads to disaster. Selling on price is selling to your competitors' strengths.

As a company, Profiles has never attempted to compete based on price. Our intention is to offer our customers the highest-quality products available at a fair price. We focus on value because people know quality and value when they see it. We think that if a business’s primary competitive advantage is low price, then that business is only as smart as its dumbest competitor.

We have further differentiated Profiles from our competitors with our interesting and independent customer service philosophy. We believe that the best service in the world is no service at all. In other words, if your product always works well and is of the finest quality, no further service is required. Everything we do, everything we build and everything we work on is imbued with our intention that only a bare minimum of customer service will ever be required.

We also believe that business goes where it is wanted and stays where it is appreciated. For this reason, a large part of our customer service has to do with showing our customers how much we appreciate them and the fact that they do business with us. We also seek to gain their loyalty by continually demonstrating the excellent return on investment they receive as a result of using our products. The motto of our customer service department is T E A M: Together Everyone Achieves More.

We know that all of our customers assign a value to Profiles and to our products. We are also well aware of the value we intend to deliver to them, but all customers are not created equally. We also assign a value to our customers. Although we strive to provide a high level of service to all of our customers, we are aware that we have to generate a certain level of income from each customer in order to justify our expenditure on service. We view the service we provide to our customers as an investment in the future of Profiles.

You can differentiate your offerings using the following four steps.

1. Look at How You Stack Up to Your Competition
What can you do that they can't? What do you do distinctly better? What can they do that you can't? Look at your product or service using five main headings, seeking your particular strengths and your competitors' particular weaknesses.

Price
Are your products more or less expensive? Are you considered to be at the top, middle or low end of the spectrum in your market? Is your pricing policy something that sets you apart from your competitors?

Customer Service
Is your customer service unique? Do you provide more implementation assistance? Better ongoing backup? Friendlier staff? More attractive terms of service? Better delivery?

Customers
Who are your best customers? Who are the people for whom you can do the best job and still make a respectable margin? Are you best with large, medium or small customers? Do you fare better in long-term relationships or short-term flings? Are you local, national or international (or all three)? Who are your ideal customers?

Product/Service
Are your products or services superior to those of your competitors? Are they faster, more efficient, quieter, easier to understand, easier to use, or quicker to set up? Anything that is unique about your product or service is an advantage.

Reputation
What's your brand reputation like? How well-known is your brand? By whom? For what? Who is traditionally attracted to your offerings?

This exercise should ideally involve anyone in your organization who can offer insight into how you stack up against your competition. Resist the temptation to do it alone—the more minds, the merrier. As you work through the exercise, capture your outcome on paper. For each of the five categories above, put your analysis on a sheet with two columns—Strengths and Weaknesses.

The mistake most people make at this stage is differentiating their business according to the category in
which they are most strongly positioned against their competitors. This is a mistake, for it fails to take into
account the most important person of all—your customer.

2. Become Your Customer and Think "WIIFM?"

What makes the difference between a good accountant and a mediocre one? If they say they want good backup service, be sure that you understand what they mean by that.

3. Now Decide How to Differentiate Yourself
Analyze the five factors that you considered above. Which category is by far the strongest—the one with the most compelling list of strengths and fewest weaknesses? Which category ranks second, third and so on? Now, using the research you conducted in Step 2, determine which of the five factors will interest your customers the most. There is no point in presenting yourself as the lowest price if your customer thinks that price is immaterial and that quality and service are most important; or there's no point in stressing your excellent backup service if the customer can’t afford your price.

You will know you've been successful when you have identified some categories that represent areas in which you are truly strong, with attributes that your customer truly values and that your competition cannot easily copy. Always try to identify more than one category and rank the value of those categories accordingly. Remember, not everyone will be impressed by the same message.

4. Focus Your Marketing through the Lens of Your Differentiators
You know what sort of messages you need to communicate about your products or services to ensure that you grab the attention of your target market. You know what messages will most effectively differentiate your business from your competition. Now ensure that these are the only messages communicated by your public relations, your advertising, your sales collateral, your sales force, and your support force. Don't confuse your target customers by sending conflicting messages. Continually position yourself as the number one—the expert in your particular sphere of differentiation.

Be sure to repeat Step 2 on a reasonably regular basis, however. Customer values evolve, and so must your basis for differentiation. Differentiation is an ongoing process. Follow these suggestions and your prospects will know what you do, why what you do is better than what your competitors do, why they should buy from you first, and what's in it for them if they do. This is your competitive advantage. Dare to be different and you can really start to win in business.

Case Study

PXT Helps Conquer Fear of Change in a Healthcare Organization
Although leaders often notice certain behaviours in managers who are resistant to change, leaders may not recognize these behaviours as symptoms of resistance. Here is what to look for:

• expressions of frustration at the mere suggestion of change
• skepticism when someone notes that change is necessary
• resistance even after concerns are addressed
• reminiscing about "the old way" instead of embracing what will come
• doing things the same way but expecting new results
• obvious discomfort with the ambiguity that change brings
• communicating a different message to team members than the one they heard from top leadership

ProfileXT® offers a plan to combat these symptoms, as the leaders of a healthcare organization with more than 600 employees discovered when they decided that changing the work culture was essential to more efficient operations.

Background
The organization had grown too large for a centralized decision-making system. After the topmost leader envisioned the changes his organization needed, he talked to managers about their concerns. This was essential in helping him understand how change sometimes threatens managers.

One specific issue that needed to be addressed was continuous training and development of employees. The PXT revealed job candidates' learning abilities and job skills, as well as what motivated the candidates. The leader found that he could use ProfileXT in almost any stage of an employee's career, even when he was trying to fill an important job from the inside.

Summary
• Within the first two years of using assessments, the healthcare organization saw 170 people leave voluntarily out of an employee pool of 640—a turnover rate of 28 percent. The workers who left did not want to go through the change process.

• Leaders used assessments as they began replacing the workers who left. In two years, the turnover rate dropped to about 18 percent, the organization's lowest turnover rate in more than a decade.

• The departure of employees who did not fit the new culture gave leaders the freedom to bring in new individuals that did match, and leaders used a scientific approach in the hiring process.

With new hiring processes in place, top leaders found that the culture was changing in the way they envisioned. Although changes did not happen quickly, they discovered that when employees and positions match each other, the path to change was smoother.