The Fastest Way to Align Your Culture

I love hacks. Hacks are high leverage. Like a good investment, a hack requires low input for maximum output. 

And when you're in the culture game, hacks are looked down upon. Culture is about the fundamentals: Values, vision, engagement, alignment. These things don't come overnight. And yet we all want fast change. So if the deep work takes a long time, how can you align a culture, fast? 

I discovered this technique in a very painful way. I would get hired to go into companies and evaluate their cultures. I would spend a week with them, meeting with many employees, doing 360 evaluations, putting together survey results. After a long and tiring week for everyone involved, I would put together a report of recommendations and hand it over to the CEO. A month later I asked how it was going yeah, but they hardly read it. I thought I simply had a bad client and I did this with another client in the same thing happened... Nothing.

Why aren't they making any changes? I gave them all the answers! And then I realized the problem... It was me.

I was giving information. I was barking orders. I wasn't giving them what really creates change, which is a transformational experience. Experiences create an opportunity for people to change themselves and learn from their own direct engagement.

It was then that I started to apply what I consider the currency of culture:  Time.

Time is the great equalizer. Think about it. We all have different skill levels, salaries, positions, titles. But the one thing that we have equally is time. 

I noticed that really strong cultures respect people's time equally. At Zappos, our CEO was never ever late to a meeting. And our training program held a standard that everyone arrives by 7 am for 4 weeks or they'd be let go.

So now, rather than doing long evaluations, I simply ask one question: Do your meetings start and end on time? 

I noticed that when leaders show up late they're not only disrespectful, they are conveying that they are not in control of their own schedules. How can we have faith in our leaders when they seem to be out of control? 

Also, when people run overtime in a meeting, that means they don't respect people's other deadlines and meetings. 

Here's the hack: Be EARLY, for everything, for 2 weeks, and set it as a standard. Not just on time, because that means you're stressing to arrive right on time. Interesting things happen when you're not stressed during your travel time, and you have the chance to meet people randomly that you would otherwise not have time for.

Now, remember, it's an experiment, not a new policy. No one has to change their beliefs.  

You will experience a sense of alignment, respect and control that you didn't think were possible. And with this foundation, you will have the time and energy to develop what really matters, such as your vision and your values. 

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