Introduction

Is your workplace frustrating and lifeless, or is it engaging and inspiring?

When you think of your work environment, what descriptors come to mind?

For many people, descriptors such as “dreary,” “discouraging,” “fear-based,” and “missed promises” apply to their organization's culture.

Today, people spend more time at work than with their best friends or family members. When the workplace is an inspiring, respectful, creative place to be, people engage deeply, serve customers effectively, and produce quality goods and services consistently.

The problem? Most leaders put greater thought into their organization's products and services than they do its culture. Yet culture is the engine—it drives everything that happens in an organization each day.

Leaders don't want a dreary or frustrating organizational culture, but most don't know what to do about it. They've seen inspiring workplaces but have never been taught how to create or maintain one.

Of course, understanding the need for a safe, inspiring culture is one thing. Creating and managing a productive, engaging culture is another thing entirely.

How does a leader go about creating something that, on one hand, is so important, but, on the other hand, seems so amorphous?

It can be done through the creation of an organizational constitution.

An organizational constitution is a formal document that states the company's guiding principles and behaviors. These liberating rules present the best thinking on how the organization wants to operate. The constitution is a North Star that outlines the company's or team's defined playing field for employee performance and values.

Stephen Covey said that a personal “mission statement becomes a personal constitution [italics mine], the solid expression of your vision and values.”1 Marcus Luttrell, former U.S. Navy SEAL and author of Lone Survivor, said in that book, “As with many big corporations which have a dedicated workforce, you can tell a lot about them by their corporate philosophy, their written constitution [italics mine], if you like. It's the piece of writing which defines their employees and their standards.”2

Your organizational constitution builds on this foundational understanding of the power of formal, liberating rules for citizenship, values, and teamwork. An organization's constitution is the solid expression of its purpose and values, of its corporate philosophy.

Your organizational constitution describes exactly how its members will engage with each other, suppliers, vendors, and customers, as members act to fulfill their organization's purpose, values, strategies, and goals.

An organizational constitution outlines your team's purpose, values, strategies, and goals. It paints a vivid picture of success, values, and behaviors. It maps out how to work from that picture each day.

An organizational constitution gives employees' jobs and roles meaning and clarity.

The organizational constitution eliminates unspoken assumptions. There is no more confusion about what the “integrity” value really means or why a decision was made (or not).

Through their organizational constitution, leaders make expectations explicit and describe what a good job and a good citizen look like in specific, tangible, observable terms.

Once your organizational constitution is written and shared, leaders can live by it, lead by it, and manage to it. Your constitution provides the organization's managers and employees a clear understanding of how they can do their best work, treat others respectfully, and help the organization prosper.

This is what The Culture Engine is about: it teaches you how to formalize liberating rules that transform your work environment from frustrating and lifeless to engaging and inspiring.

How Did I Learn about Organizational Constitutions?

Forty-five years ago I joined the workforce. I've had a lot of jobs. I've had some good bosses—and some lousy bosses, too.

One of my lousy bosses made grand promises—to staff, to volunteers, and to customers. Yet he kept few of his commitments. I learned that his word was not trustworthy.

Another lousy boss was skilled at pointing out my mistakes and failures, but he was quiet when I exceeded expectations and moved the organization forward. I learned to insulate myself from his presence because all I heard from him was disappointment.

My worst boss asked me to lie. My staff and volunteers raised $25,000 in my first year as branch executive, double what that branch had ever raised before. At the campaign's closing dinner, with 300 people in attendance, my boss told me to announce that we had raised $30,000. I refused and announced our actual total. My boss wasn't happy. Neither was I. I left that job as quickly as I could.

It took one great boss to open my eyes to the power of organizational culture. Jerry created a team of high performers who exceeded performance standards while, at the same time, demonstrating great team citizenship. Jerry set high standards for values, outlining how team members were to behave to ensure we were modeling our team's values.

Jerry paid attention to more than our performance traction and accomplishments—he paid attention to how we treated each other and how we treated customers. He called us on our bad behavior promptly and cheered our aligned behaviors loudly.

During this time, Jerry handed me the project of a lifetime. He wanted me to take the ideas he used to build his staff team's culture and apply them to YMCAs in the country's roughest neighborhoods.

I went to YMCAs in South Central Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, cities that had heavy teen gang presences. Some of the kids in these gangs were drug users. Others were into prostitution, robbery, even murder.

It was our job to make the YMCA a compelling enough place so that teens would leave their lives of crime and violence.

We created a strategy built upon what teenagers want: a sense of belonging, cool activities, and meaningful contribution. These same wants explain why kids are attracted to gangs.

Slowly, our ideas on creating a more inviting culture started taking hold. YMCAs began seeing teenagers return to their programs and buildings.

Some of the kids became Y-camp counselors, bus drivers, and camp directors. Others became YMCA program directors; a few went on to become YMCA executives.

I remember one kid in particular. He told us he had been a member of a street gang. But he was intrigued by cool happenings at his local YMCA, so he joined the California Youth & Government program. In Youth & Government, he learned parliamentary procedure, wrote bills, and served as a legislator in the actual Capitol facilities.

His finest moment was standing on the floor of the California Assembly in a borrowed suit, passionately presenting his bill to his Assembly peers. He was articulate, inspiring, confident—and immensely proud when his bill passed the house.

Jerry taught me how powerful a great culture is for driving performance and values alignment (or not, in the case of a lousy culture).

Jerry also taught me that aligned behaviors are the pathway to workplace inspiration—and that misaligned behaviors lead to workplace frustration.

I was so transformed by my experiences with Jerry that I wanted to expand those ideas out as far as I could. I figured that if having a more values-aligned culture could turn around gang members, perhaps it could work in other places.

Over 25 years ago I started teaching these same principles to organizations, divisions, departments, and teams, helping them clarify their organizational constitutions, helping bosses be great, and helping to build engaging, inspiring workplaces.

This book presents best practices of high-performing, values-aligned work environments. It provides insights from my decades of experience and research on proven ways leaders can craft a safe, respectful, dignified workplace where employees thrive.

It pulls back the curtain and reveals how to refine your team's or company's culture—your company's engine and work environment—so your people feel trusted, valued, and engaged in wowing customers every day.

How Is the Book Structured?

The book is organized around three themes: defining an organizational constitution, crafting your organizational constitution, and managing to your organizational constitution.

The first theme, defining an organizational constitution, resides in Chapter 1. In this first chapter, you'll learn the elements of an organizational constitution and why you need one for your company, division, department, or team.

The second theme, crafting your organizational constitution, is found in Chapters 2 through 5. In these chapters, you'll learn how to create your personal constitution as well as how to create your organizational constitution, using real client examples and worksheets to craft each element.

The third theme, managing to your organizational constitution, resides in Chapters 6 through 10. In these chapters, you'll learn how to demonstrate, measure, and coach others to embrace your organizational constitution, bringing values to life...