eKourier Oct 2018

FEATURE Culture, It’s Not Set And Forget

Then I asked the questions: - What do I do well that you want me to continue doing? - What don’t I do well that you want me to stop doing? - What is it that makes you feel that way? Many of you that did this with me at the time will remember the exercise. You didn’t spare my feelings and gave it to me straight. You were direct and specific. I documented it all, shared it back to the Teams and developed an action plan that the Team agreed to. In my case it highlighted to me the power of how people judge you on your behaviour and not your good intentions. It helped me gain an understanding of the impact of my language and changed the way I spoke with many in the Team. For me, there were many good and unexpected consequences. I’m the first to admit, I was a bit rigid in the past. A bit politically correct or corporate and business focussed in my language. It slowed me down a little too – to enjoy the growth and passion that you all have and help encourage that to build a better KSS. The honesty, sincerity and importantly warmth I experience now across the entire business these days is inspiring. It’s more productive and genuinely loads more fun. I hope by sharing this story it demonstrates we are all human. That we want the best for all Team Members and customers in this business. That the journey along understanding and building the Constructive Culture doesn’t require corporate or HR magic. When it comes to understanding the impact of your own behaviour I heartfully encourage anyone to ask those three simple questions. Slow down and listen. If you’re committed to learn and improve; you never know where that journey will take you. Darryl Hodgson NSW Operations Manager

L ast year in the Blue 17 document I wrote an article about a few key things that the Team did to achieve the cultural results they did. This year I thought I’d take that a little bit deeper. The Operations Team, including Anthony Rous and Darren Marshall have been working more deeply over the last 12 months to improve the culture. The 80% Blue Workshops are one example. We all had the opportunity to learn what it really means to us to be constructive. As well, to understand how our thinking and behaviour affects the workplace. The new Employment Agreement was done to be fairer and clearer for us all. The newly introduced Operational Excellence courses, especially Leader- ship Excellence were designed to clarify expectations and build skills; especially in supporting each other. We’ve employed new steps, techniques and questioning in the recruitment So what did we do?

processes that we follow with the aim to find a better fit within the Team for our new applicants. With this though, no culture and leader- ship efforts will be complete without a little self-reflecting and understanding for each of us about our behaviour. This is where the OCI and 80% BLUE really add value. It’s not talk. It’s a commitment to improvement and growth. Constructive Teams are happier and achieve better results. We all want to be part of Teams like that. For my personal story, baring all; around 2012-13 the OCI results for my parts of the business did not reflect as Constructive Culture as I wanted to achieve. It was clear team culture was being impacted by my behaviour. I was and am genuinely passionate about the success of this business and my part in supporting that achievement. That being the case I wanted to find out what existed, what I was doing and what people felt that resulted in the culture I was seeing. I sat down in front of every Team Member in my portfolio, starting with reaffirmation to that commitment.

4 Kennards Kourier Oct 2018