3 Ways to Simplify Your Company Culture and Build Trust

The 2015 books are closed and the 2016 kickoff meetings have concluded. Now is the perfect time to take one final look at what went well last year and what we could have done better. It’s also a great time to review our 2016 priorities. Which areas demand better performance? Which programs will we emphasize in the coming months?

Simplification is a major initiative for many organizations, including SAP. By reducing complexity and striving for simplicity, we know that companies can develop new opportunities for competitive advantage. In contrast, firms that cling to complex processes, structures, and tools hold themselves back. In a recent Knowledge@Wharton study, 74 percent of respondents said that complexity hurts their ability to meet goals.

And the cost of complexity is significant. Authors Simon Collinson and Melvin Jay characterize complexity as one of the biggest challenges facing modern business. They write that complexity “is slowing companies down, costing them on average 10 percent of their profits and harming employee morale.”

Complexity also has a negative impact on employees. Studies have shown that trust, diversity, and innovation suffer when employees are overwhelmed by complexity. In contrast, trusted leaders experience greater innovation and better performance. Yet only four in 10 employees trust their boss. I view this as a huge gap that can potentially shrink when we reduce complexity.

Leading by example.

Some leading executives of highly innovative companies clearly understand the need to share their authentic selves as a way to build trust. In 2014, Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly came out in an opinion piece published in Bloomberg Businessweek. In an essay advocating for human rights, Cook said he set aside his privacy and publicly declared that he is gay in the hopes that he could help others who might be struggling.

Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote movingly about her grief over the death of her husband Dave last year. In discussing her painful loss, she talked about how she decided to be open about her feelings with employees. “I realized that to restore that closeness with my colleagues that has always been so important to me, I needed to let them in,” Sandberg wrote on Facebook. “And that meant being more open and vulnerable than I ever wanted to be. I told those I work with most closely that they could ask me their honest questions and I would answer. I also said it was okay for them to talk about how they felt.”

Closer to home, our own SAP CEO Bill McDermott recently suffered an injury that led to the loss of his left eye. He reached out to SAP employees and spoke from the heart about the accident, his gratitude to family and colleagues and his optimism about the future. SAP employees responded with heartfelt wishes for his recovery, many inspired by his willingness to be so open about such a tragic accident. The tragedy inspired him to increase his focus on individualized healthcare and the role SAP might play in making it better -- and simpler -- for people around the world.

Getting started on simplification.

These executives turned difficult situations into opportunities to build trust. But you don’t need a tragedy to begin simplifying your company culture. Why not consider ways to begin simplifying your corporate culture as one of your key 2016 initiatives?

Let’s define our terms. A simplified corporate culture strives to:

• Do things in the way that creates the most value and engagement for all, with the least effort for all
• Make it easier for people to be their best and do great work

According to a report by The Jensen Group, a simpler environment gives employees the power to get their work done, to make a difference, and to control their own destiny. Simpler workplace cultures also make it easier for employees to do their best and be their best selves. But how can you create an ideal balance of deep trust, real inclusion and maximum engagement within your organization?

There are three key steps that can help you simplify the company culture:

1. Develop senior executive alignment and commitment to the cause. Business leaders need to embrace the idea that ease of use and ease of effort can help create corporate return on investment. For example, at SAP, we have a shared aspiration to "make the world run better and improve people's lives." This is a bold but simple statement - and a sincere goal -- that is at the heart of everything we do and every business decision we make. Our executives and leaders are unified behind this goal. It is repeated and shared often so there is no doubt about our commitment.
2. Train mid-level managers to make simplicity for all a priority. Ensuring that managers on the frontline understand their role in simplifying, communicating, and exemplifying the organization’s messages and goals is critical. At SAP, we are proud of the training we offer to address the needs of those colleagues. There is often no greater representative of a group’s goals than the mid-level manager with whom you interact on a day-to-day basis.
3. Design work tools, communication, training, and development using simplicity criteria. SAP’s own CEO, Bill McDermott, sets the tone for simplified communication -- starting with our internal communication and meetings. He rarely relies on typical tools such as PowerPoint to share a message. Instead, Bill prefers to speak directly to audiences when possible (often via global broadcasts), engage in open Q&A sessions, or to send a simple one-paragraph mail -- no “bells and whistles.” We offer programs to help colleagues break messaging down to its most basic components, conduct “design thinking” training to enable out-of-the-box approaches to innovation and encourage simple storytelling whenever possible. While there’s still work to be done, I’m proud of my company’s commitment to be more engaged “human to human” -- and less reliant on slides or fancy presentations that can often complicate things.

Simplification won’t happen overnight, but with proper planning and commitment, you can begin moving your organization in the right direction. Resolving to simplify your company culture is a great first step toward meeting your 2016 goals.

Anka Wittenberg

How Your Leadership Skills Will Determine Your Company Culture

Build a culture of teamwork.

In 2012, chef Niki Nakayama was living her dream, preparing traditional Japanese kaiseki feasts at her Los Angeles restaurant, n/naka. Then her sous chef quit without notice. “I had been accustomed to splitting tasks with him,” she says, but now everything fell on her shoulders. She dove in, preparing exquisite, labor-intensive meals of nine or 13 courses -- but with less leadership available, her minimal staff suffered. 

What was going on? The problem may have been culture. In traditional Japanese kitchens -- not unlike some traditional American offices -- subordinates are expected to watch and learn, rarely ask questions and never debate the head chef’s ideas. “I am not a great teacher,” Nakayama admits. That’s why the loss of her sous chef was so acute: The staff had lost a certain kind of leader, someone who could “speak Niki,” bringing order to her creative chaos and translating her instructions for everyone else. Nakayama couldn’t fill the hole herself.

She came to a realization: Everyone should be aware of their weaknesses and overcome them as a team. Nakayama fixed her own problem by hiring Carole Iida, a fellow chef whom she was dating at the time. Where Nakayama was messy and spontaneous, working off the top of her head, Iida was organized and reliable, and could guide the staff. “She brought in her organizational abilities, and we were able to put everything together for other people to understand,” Nakayama says.

As a result, the 2016 Zagat guide has awarded n/naka the top spot for food among L.A. restaurants, a dramatic rise from eighth place the year before. Now Nakayama encourages all her workers to focus on their strengths -- “to pull out that best part of ourselves and just contribute that all the time, without spending too much time trying to fix the weaknesses that we have,” she says. “It’s far more productive in a team environment. It’s knowing and respecting each other’s strengths and weaknesses that makes a great team.”

Build a culture of rigor.

The Santa Fe Institute, an extremely well-regarded nonprofit research center, sets a high bar for scientific inquiry. The more than 250 researchers affiliated with SFI are investigating the fundamentals behind the world’s biggest problems -- cancer, fast-spreading viruses, global economies, you name it. And its president, accomplished scientist David Krakauer, knows one thing for sure: When working with all these great minds, he cannot always be the smartest one in the room. He sometimes thinks of himself “as a colonel leading an army of generals.”

So how does he lead them? “The authority of my position is not worth shit,” he says. “When I’m talking to someone who is more accomplished than I am, my opinion is not the most compelling argument. The most compelling argument is rigor. You have to speak the language of rigor.”

Speak the language of rigor. That means supporting every idea with observation, evidence and analysis -- and maybe even conducting experiments to determine the best course of action. It means trusting a clear, quantitative approach that everyone can understand. And it means not using language that’s limiting. Here’s a phrase Krakauer hates: “That’s not how we do things around here.” No. He is adamant on this point: Anyone caught uttering that phrase, he says, “should be put down.”

Like scientists, business leaders should wield evidence as a tool of persuasion, Krakauer believes. He quotes physicist Richard Feynman: “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.” It’s a hard lesson to learn, but a necessary one: Your gut instinct is not sufficient. If you want to persuade top talent to follow your lead, you’d better be able to back up your arguments with more than your job title.

Build a culture of inquiry.

Contently, a tech startup that helps Fortune 500 companies and other brands do content marketing, was founded by three guys in New York in 2010. That trio has since grown to a staff of about 100. And along the way, cofounder and chief creative officer Shane Snow feared a disturbing change: The energy driving that growth -- that scrappy, do-anything attitude -- could easily cool. Employees might become timid in large groups, afraid of earning the ire of the majority. “Most people and most companies reach a plateau at a certain point, and at many points,” says Snow. “It’s crazy how quickly even a disruptive, rebellious startup can get to the point where they say, ‘That’s not the way things are done here.’” (There it is, that phrase again.)

So Contently made sure not to let that happen.

For example, Snow limits meetings that involve problem solving -- where employees really need to speak up -- to three or four people. And challenges keep Contently’s big team feeling scrappy. For example, Snow often asks for “10X ideas” -- say, “How can we improve customer happiness by 10 times?” Employees are game, he says: They do want to keep things fresh. A leader’s role is to create the right opportunities.

Time for another forbidden phrase: “Don’t bring me problems; bring me solutions.” Leaders use that phrase because they think it inspires employees to take initiative, says Adam Grant, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and author of Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. But instead, it teaches employees not to speak up about a need unless they have a proposal for fixing it. “When you ask for solutions, you create a culture of advocacy rather than a culture of inquiry,” Grant says. “Most creativity, most innovation happens when somebody points out a problem that’s not yet been solved.”

Snow wants to hear it all. He and his cofounders set aside a few free hours every week so any employee who wants to chat (in or, preferably, outside the office) can do so. It’s an invitation to hear about those problems that are in search of solutions. “When someone brings in a perspective that hasn’t been heard yet,” Grant says, “it often forces you to reconsider your decision criteria, to bring in new information -- and that ultimately is good for your process.”

Build a culture of accountability.

Bridgewater Associates is the world’s largest hedge fund, managing $154 billion in assets for sovereign wealth funds, corporate and public pensions, foundations and university endowments. Its founder, Ray Dalio, is widely seen as a financial genius. And yet, after a meeting with a potential client one day, an employee several levels down on the org chart fired off a blistering email to Dalio. He accused the boss of being unprepared and disorganized, and gave him a grade -- D-minus! -- for his behavior. 

“I don’t know many organizations where you can send an email like that to the billionaire founder and keep your job,” says Grant, the Wharton professor who shared the incident in his book, Originals. But instead of lashing out, Grant says that Dalio asked others who had participated in the meeting to assess his performance. The email exchange was then forwarded to the entire staff, effectively turning Dalio’s misstep into a case study.

This is how Bridgewater’s culture works, according to Grant: Everyone is accountable to everyone. The staff is expected to routinely rate coworkers on a range of 77 qualities, including some -- like the willingness to touch a nerve -- that might not be prized at other companies. The firm’s 1,500 employees can even assess their bosses, and the more incisive the critique, the better. And all this data, including the name of each person who left feedback, is available to any employee.

It’s extreme. It wouldn’t work for most companies. Thirty-five percent of new hires don’t make it past 18 months. But consider what Bridgewater is going for: It wants employees to feel that hard work is recognized, and that the company values transparency. Find ways to bring those traits into your workplace -- because when an employee feels comfortable enough to challenge you, and you’re able to turn that into a lesson in leadership, then you’ve created a culture in which everyone can do their best work.  

Brian Patrick Eha

The Profound Quotes From Robin Williams That Helped Shape Our Generation

As we just reported, the iconic and lovable Robin Williams was found dead in his California home at the age of 63.

The actor was struggling with drugs and depression and was no stranger to the darker parts of life; these things all perfectly articulated through the variety of roles he undertook in his career that inspired and changed us all.

While he was made famous for his roles in “Patch Adams,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Jack” and “Aladdin,” he had a surprisingly deep, dark and profound side… as most great comedians do.

Starring in roles, such as “The Dead Poets Society,” “Good Will Hunting” and “What Dreams May Come,” he not only alluded to the idea that he was a master philosopher, but changed all of our former conceptions of him as just America’s favorite funny man.

Because only a true philosopher can pull off both slapstick humor and profound depth.

He will be sorely missed for the light humor and deep philosophical lessons he imparted on Millennials and the rest of the world alike.

Here’s a list of the most insightful and beautiful quotes from the late actor who so tragically left this earth far too young. You will be missed Robin Williams.

There’s nothing wrong with being alone

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone, it’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people that make you feel alone.

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Learn to forgive yourself, not just others

Good people end up in Hell because they can’t forgive themselves.

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It’s OK to be crazy

You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.

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The modern man has real struggles

See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time.

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Pick your battles wisely

Never fight with an ugly person, they’ve got nothing to lose.

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The gun debate is not a debate

The Second Amendment says we have the right to bear arms, not to bear artillery.

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Even God supports weed legalization

Do you think God gets stoned? I think so… look at the platypus.

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The hook-up culture is very real

Ah, yes, divorce… from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man’s genitals through his wallet.

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Never stop reaching for greatness

No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.

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 Surround yourself with the right people

When you have a great audience, you can just keep going and finding new things.

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All marriage, gay or straight, is the same

You could talk about same-sex marriage, but people who have been married say ‘It’s the same sex all the time.

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You can’t appreciate the good until you’ve felt the bad

You will have bad times, but they will always wake you up to the stuff you weren’t paying attention to.

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Women deserve to rule the world

A nuclear bomb is a man’s way of saying, ‘I’m gonna fuck up the earth.’ A woman would never make a nuclear bomb. They would never make a weapon that kills. They’d make a weapon that makes you feel bad for a while… That’s why there should be a woman president, there would never be any wars. You know this, it’s the truth. There would never be a war; just every twenty-eight days: some severe negotiations.

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When you think about death and the after-life

Death is nature’s way of saying, ‘your table is ready.’

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Music, like food, is necessary for survival

You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe; harmonic connection between all living beings, every where, even the stars.

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There’s no such thing as a perfect person

She is not perfect. You are not perfect. The question is whether or not you are perfect for each other.

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Selfies are pretty narcissistic

Nobody takes a picture of something they want to forget.

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Everyone has a purpose, every action has a meaning

I believe in destiny. There must be a reason that I am as I am. There must be.

  Lauren Martin
 Photo Courtesy: Buena Vista Pictures/Dead Poets Society