In last month’s Ambassador Update, Ambassadors entertained the question ‘how to build community—that sense of belonging—within the organization?’  Creating community allows a sense of belonging to develop, and when done internally within the organization, it can mobilize employees to build relationships with one another and engage in the issues that help them to answer their ‘why’ question daily.  This month, we take a look at scalability and innovative ways that organizations, including HCL Technologies, are starting the momentum towards building organizational community.

 “There is an organized, useful, knowable, learnable way of doing this that is not dependent on personal style.”  Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies – an India based IT services provided—made this comment in his recent article that discusses his management philosophy when he first took the leadership challenge at HCL.  It’s a culture that he calls Employee First, Customers Second (EFCS) and was explored in last month’s Ambassador Update.  This month is about understanding how the philosophy works and is illustrated by a borrowed term from Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne—Blue Ocean Droplets (BODs).  BODs are those small steps or catalysts that jump start the momentum towards building community through demonstrating the organization’s commitment to employees.  

The first BOD implemented by HCL Technologies was sharing financial data.  Core to the Employee First, Customers Second philosophy is building trust through transparency.  Financial data was now shared vertically, as well as horizontally across divisions and business units throughout the organization with the goal of increasing trust, increasing employees understanding of the company’s realities, and allowing work teams to compare their performance with others.  

Inverting the organizational pyramid is another pillar of the Employee First, Customer Second philosophy and is demonstrated by HCL Technologies Smart Service Desk—an online system where employees can submit ideas or complaints, and where each manager is responsible for addressing the request.  Employees who submit requests then determine if their idea/complaint was adequately addressed.  Through the Smart Service Desk, the organization was inverting the organizational pyramid and managers have become accountable to front-line staff.  As Nayar states, it “brings clarity and meaning to the structure.”

The third BOD implemented by HCL Technologies was comprehensive 360 degree feedback; however, with a twist.  The company had 360 degree reviews in place but they were ineffective as front-line staff very rarely provided feedback to their managers.  Nayar added a twist by encouraging managers to post their reviews on the company’s intranet site and have open discussions about their performance.  Nayar lead the charge by posting his own performance review.

Lastly, and part of HCL Technologies’ philosophy to talk honestly about the realities and future of the organization, was the creation of an online planning process.  Rather than submitting business plans and budgets to the CEO for feedback, the top managers in the company were asked to make a video discussing their business plans and ideas for the future and posting those videos on the company’s intranet site.  The purpose was to increase transparency and allow all managers to review, comment, discuss, and provide suggestions for others business plans, increasing collaboration across the organization.

HCL Technologies provides an example of how an organization is scaling and distributing the notion of building organizational community and empowering employees.  Palo Alto provides an example of a local government organization working towards building their own momentum and engaging employees.  In an interview with Jim Keene, City Manager of Palo Alto, CA, he stated that “It’s about creating a framework for those who want to assume autonomy and if it works, creating opportunities for those who buy into the idea.  In Palo Alto, we are working on a change initiative and we’ve created a steering committee to create design teams.   70 employees applied and interviewed to be on the teams – employees from all across the hierarchy and organization – we spend a lot of time working up and down and across the organization.   The test then is what happens in these teams and how does the initiative grow and sustain itself.  We carve out time to work on it and are starting small, asking ‘what are the suggestions that can be made to begin building momentum?’  We have taken the approach of starting small and tapping into the places where there are inclinations are for change.”

Give us your thoughts on the Ambassador Group Wall!  What are you doing to create organizational community—that sense of belonging that mobilized employees to build relationships with one another and engage in the issues that help them to answer their ‘why’ question daily.

References
1. Drive! Interview with Jim Keene, Victor Lauria, and Karen Windon.  September Ambassador Update, September 2010.
2. How I Did It: A Maverick CEO Explains How He Persuaded His Team to Leap into the Future. Nayar, Vineet. Harvard Business Review, October 2010.