Interested in creating a high-performance culture on your team or in your company?

I just finished Chris Edmonds’ new book, The Culture Engine. Three BIG IDEAS…

1) Companies should have an “organizational constitution” which is a written document that clearly states
– purpose
– values
– strategy
– goals

2) A company (or person!) shouldn’t just list their values, but should also list examples of behaviors that reflect those values. We all know (or work for!) those companies who just have a generic altruistic values listed on posters etc. Things like Service, Integrity, Respect and on and on. But these values come to life for team members when there are specific examples tied to each one.

The value of “Mutual Respect” could be supported with these “I” statements:

– “I trust that everyone has the customers’ best interests in mind, so I attack problems not people.”

– “If I am unable to keep a commitment or deadline, I immediately inform all people who will be impacted.”

3) We need to evaluate team members not just on PERFORMANCE, but also on VALUES. (This was a big mistake of mine early in my career.) I’ve heard it stated elsewhere as evaluating people on both on their results, and how they got them.

You can get a sample chapter at http://thecultureengine.com/