Three Questions to a More Enlightened Business
By regularly
“checking-in” with employees, leaders create emotionally sound companies able
to help drive organisational change.
Rabobank, the Dutch
multinational financial services company, came from humble but proud beginnings
as a cooperative of small agricultural banks providing finance to Dutch
farmers. So, when the push for fast growth through derivatives and secondary
market trading left it mired in the LIBOR interest rate-rigging scandal,
the consequences shook the organisation to its foundations. Morale
plummeted, stakeholders were anxious and employees ashamed of their workplace.
Many questioned where the bank’s values now lay and how, or even if, the
organisation could redeem itself in the eyes of its stakeholders.
With the workplace
stressed and unable to move forward, a cultural programme was introduced to
revitalise its internal culture by turning around morale and changing the way
the organisation went about its business. Recognising that company culture
stems from collective behaviour, the bank set out to change “group thought” by
getting closer to individuals, assisting them to take a closer look at their
own values, drivers and behaviour.
Through a series of
two-day modules, interspersed with fieldwork, the cultural transformation
programme encouraged employees at all levels to take a closer look at their
actions; the way they interacted with their colleagues and subordinates; and
the implications this had for the shape of the organisation. In between
the modules, participants returned to the workplace and integrated what they
had learnt into practice, supported by mentors chosen for their integrity
rather than seniority within the company.
Central to this
programme, and key to encouraging a change in the way people interacted, was
the introduction of the check-in, a process by which team members took time at
the start of meetings to enquire about each other’s mental, physical and
emotional health.
Checking in is a
concept well developed in airline and education industries, but still quite
novel in the corporate world, and requires leaders to open team meetings by
getting members to ask each other three questions:
· How are you
feeling?
· Is there
something distracting you from being fully present at this meeting?
· What is your
intention for this meeting?
To better understand
the effects this procedure had on employee emotions and decision making,
co-author (and then, chief HR officer at Rabobank) Gerlinde Silvis conducted
14 case studies and surveyed 767 bank employees - research which formed the
basis for her paper, Emotional boarding using
the ‘Check-In’. Although a positive result was expected, the extent to which the
three questions changed both the culture of the bank and the way it operated
were vastly underestimated.
A “red thread”
linking the entire organisation
Silvis found that the
process of checking in created a communal focus amongst employees and a
willingness to cooperate. More people were open to exposing the difficulties
they were facing, both personally and in the workplace; they felt able to show
their vulnerability and to seek and offer help.
“Doing a check-in
gives energy,” the chairman from one of Rabobank’s head office departments
noted in his responses to the survey. “It is a process you start and you learn
as you go, delving deeper to gain a better understanding of how people operate.”
Some respondents
stated that sharing emotions and identifying a common goal led to a reduction
in competition and brought out a readiness to help each other, instead of
trying to address and push through only their own discussion points. Tensions and
uncertainties were brought out into the open and discussed.
Another said, “Asking
questions deepens the way you interact, it creates trust. The check-in creates
a space to share emotions.”
People cultivated
empathy; they learnt to see each other from a different perspective and
interacted accordingly. It also created a mutual understanding for individual
positions and questions. The check-in was described by one respondent as a “red
thread” which stretched across the organisation connecting people, creating a
starting point for discussion.
Interestingly, about
60 percent of those surveyed found that as well as creating closer emotional
binds, checking in before a meeting created a moment of reflection which helped
individuals to become ‘fully present’ and allowed the group as a whole to close
the issue of the previous meeting and focus on the topic at hand. In short, it
helped them to ‘land’ and to be more aware of the ‘here and now’.
Customising the
check-in
Managers used the
check-in in different ways. Some checked-in once a week – first thing
Monday morning – others would check-in at the start of every meeting, up to
three times a day. While most used the questions as originally stated, others
changed the language to suit the team. ”You shouldn’t get lost in the process,
it should be effective,” one leader noted. Overall, leaders recognised that to
be effective they had to set the right example and have the courage to display
their own vulnerability.
Of those interviewed,
63 percent regarded the check-in as a valuable tool while 34 percent considered
it of limited value.
A bank transformed
It is fair to say
that the check-in led to a new management style within Rabobank, one not based
solely on rationality, but founded on a degree of emotion. The quality of
discussions within meetings improved and leaders were encouraged to listen
more, creating a more balanced decision-making process.
The bank‘s cultural
transformation programme had extraordinary results. In less than 18 months, it
had connected with 45,000 staff. There was a visible change not just within
teams but across the organisation. Morale was noticeably more positive as the
frontline people in the company were given a voice, they felt listened to and
felt that their values were more in touch with the organisation.
A new culture had
developed by asking three simple questions.
Loic Sadoulet, INSEAD Affliate Professor of
Economics,
and Gerlinde Silvis, Rabobank’s former Chief Human
Resources Officer | July 22, 2016
Read more at http://knowledge.insead.edu/operations/three-questions-to-a-more-enlightened-business-4824?utm_source=INSEAD+Knowledge&utm_campaign=731e07d4f7-28_July_mailer7_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e079141ebb-731e07d4f7-249840429#SfegfArISMlJBXFL.99
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