‘Greggs eats Strategy for Breakfast’

Culturing is the new Culture

Michael Henderson, leading corporate anthropologist, says ‘Your company culture starts fresh every single day’ hence culturing, it’s not a one-off event, it refreshes daily.

Family firm Greggs is a triumph tale of doing right by your people (culture) makes for great business. They prioritise communication, encourage innovation, focus on outcomes, operate an open-door policy, constantly and consistently promote a clan culture and trust their employees – all these are refreshed daily (culturing) through welcoming smiles and a hearty good morning.

The third in our 2023 Business Leader Group series focussed on ‘Implementation’ addressing those everyday challenges of time, working practices and moving beyond people’s comfort zones both personal and in the workplace.

In a more volatile, increasingly uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, it is ‘Culture’ that determines the levels of implementation and ultimately change success. The culture impacts on your leadership effectiveness, drives collaboration and that ‘extra mile’ from employees helping delivering customer experience and loyalty.

Trust underpins culture – building that workplace trust requires a healthy dose of open and honest debate mixed with fair execution across the business. Build trust by osmosis, highlight the ‘bright spots’ where individuals are doing things differently, creating value without belittling those who have a more transactional relationship with the business, everyone has a part to play!

Regular Rightsizing 4 Success

Prioritising regular rightsizing focusses on profitable growth and getting the best from people, for those firms that have a plan it supports strategic objectives set out in your 1-page plan. 

A key tool in achieving cut right first time is the Mindshop ‘Seven Wastes Audit’, a reportedly 30% of business activity can be categorised through a waste audit with inappropriate processing (I know best) high on the list.

So how do you get cut through, allow people room to be proactive, avoid building your own barriers to success (the first step to implementation is your change!), daily ‘stand up’ storming meetings for consistent execution (get challenges to the surface early), avoid hierarchy in team, everybody has ownership of the direction of travel.

Weaving ‘Red Threads’ through your Business

Red threads enthuse us, the fabric of our business defined by clear links between our priorities and team / individual activities to hit that collaboration sweet spot. 

With 80% of business leaders saying they need to adapt their business every 2 to 5 years sounds big, but our Business Leaders Group solves in bite-size chunks with takeaways focussed around capability gaps, shifting from client focus to strategic implementation, repositioning the ‘we could have done better’ into a process of positive rightsizing continuous improvement.

Whatever your stage of implementation, all our Leaders agreed ‘Consistency is Key!’

Save the date – Dafferns Business Leaders Group 21 November, ‘How will you win in 2024!’