In the consulting world, I do a lot of discovery interviews with employees who work at companies to try and peel back the layers of the onion. My technique is structured to allow me to help me draw a picture of the situation and how a refreshed approach may help. Sometimes marketing isn’t the challenge. Often, it can be cultural.
Through discovery sessions, I attempt to get a more authentic look at the circumstances, not the company talking points or meaningless cliches. Whether it is a specific marketing challenge or a cultural topic, discovery sessions provide insights and a fresh view to see a situation.
I’m trying to discover, what’s the real issue? Why aren’t things humming along? My goal is to see if I can help show them an alternative path forward.
Hello, this way
It is easier to ask tough, probing questions when you are outside of the company if your approach is patient, human and a good listener. I often will ask, how do you know this or why – to keep them explaining their viewpoint.
I conducted one of these sessions last summer and found that the no one at the company was on the same page about what problems need to be solved. The CEO believed that the problem was weak sales. The VP of sales thought the core issue was a product problem. The Director of Products complained that it was a marketing issue. And so on. Fingers were being pointed, and no one was clear about a solution.
It turns out the big problem was fear.
Everyone was afraid that the company’s core growth was slipping away. What used to work wasn’t working. The marketplace was shifting too fast for them to keep up. The CEO, an incredibly sharp woman in her late 40’s, was determined to fix the problem, but the team was stuck on what to do.
From Discovery to Alignment
After about a dozen interviews, I got the senior team together, and we listed everything that they were afraid was happening or might happen in the near term.
We put it on the whiteboard and cluster it into buckets of fear. Most of the time we argued around what is sales versus marketing versus product problem. It was like on Seinfeld at Festivus, the airing of grievances. We got it out on the table after several hours.
Everyone took a few days after the session, to return and refine the problems and to assign a number from one to ten to get an urgency score.
From Alignment to a Plan
With a prioritized list, we built an action plan of things that needed to change, to improve and to reinvent.
As the fear dissipated, folks were able to act and work together in good faith. Instead of the blame game, they knew that they were all in it together if they were going to succeed. Fear has paralyzed the organization from acting. It took more than six months to help dissolve some of the anxiety as the team build a more realistic plan.
Three Takeaways:
- What is the core emotion felt within the culture of your company? Fear, excitement, anticipation, distrust, etc.? Culture kills strategy. Without a strong, resourceful trust-based culture, I don’t care how great your technology works. You are in for problems.
- Healthier cultures tend to have happier, more productive teams. It isn’t easy to solve problems with a clenched jaw and a tense atmosphere. Trust and the truth can act like lubrication to make a team work better together. I’m sure there are plenty of examples of fear-based, top-down companies that succeed. But good luck retaining employees in that environment.
- An outsider can offer radical honesty, that might get suppressed by a fearful environment. When someone can be frank, without a fear of reprisal, they may tell you the things you need to hear. Think of how only a best friend will be ruthlessly helpful when you need it because you know they have your best interest at heart.
Over the years, I have worked with many different companies in a range of cultures. I have first-hand experience working with a collaborative team that achieved great things together and companies that were laced with fear and intimidation.
Building a culture takes a strong leader who is smart and emotionally present. Willing to be bone-dry frank with constructive criticism but also understands the power of compassion to motivate people.
Is your organization aligned, growing and as healthy as you’d like it to be?
Would you welcome having an outsider do some discovery interviews on a challenging issue you face? Perhaps an outside perspective would shine a new light on the situation? Call me at 919 720 0995 or email me at jeffslater@themarketingsage.com – or book some time to talk on my calendar.
Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash
