In Thursday’s post, “The Best Corporate Visioning Story – Ever,” Heather Hindle shared with you her experiences participating in Maritime Life’s Odyssey 2000, a visioning initiative in which all 1,000 Maritime Life employees participated.
Today I’m honored to share with you the first half of my interview with Maritime Life’s CEO, Bill Black, detailing his perspective on what was behind the success of Odyssey 2000 that ultimately enabled them to triple shareholder value… (* Note, I am paraphrasing Bill – I did not record the conversation.)
Lisa Petrilli: So how did Odyssey 2000 come about?
Bill Black: In 1992 I was a Senior VP at Maritime and was asked by the then-CEO to look into the quality movement that was gaining traction at the time. What I discovered was that the common element between “quality organizations” of that time was a well-articulated, well-owned set of values.
I went to the CEO and told him that we needed to create a Values Statement for Maritime, and he agreed.
At that time we had a somewhat dysfunctional senior leadership team and we needed to turn this around. We brought the top 40 members of this leadership team together for an in-person meeting to begin the process of creating our values. I asked each of them to come to that meeting with written answers to 6 or 7 questions I had sent out in advance.
At the meeting we went around the room, one by one, and each leader was required to read aloud exactly what they wrote in answer to, “What is it, apart from making money, that you want to get from your job?” It led to a lot of great sharing and a process of “discovered convergence” – the realization that between 40 people who’d had a dysfunctional relationship we agreed on a lot more than we’d expected.
The level of agreement created a palpable excitement around the process, which led this Top 40 group to request that the next level of 60 managers in the organization be included in the process of creating our company values. Those 60 requested the same thing in regard to the rest of the employees.
As a result, we divided the entire organization into 60 focus groups – with each manager leading one group. The groups were told, “Don’t focus on the answers, agree on what the right questions are.” It was these questions that were then used to write the values statements.
What came out of this process was an inverted-triangle model for our company – with customers at the top (the broadest side of the triangle), front-line employees underneath our customers, managers with tools to enable the front-line employees below them, and so on…with the CEO at the point of the triangle at the very bottom providing the support – through leadership and by living the values – for all of those above him/her.
This was a change from our previous “command and control” model.
Lisa: Did you get any pushback on this from the rest of the leadership team?
Bill: Yes, some people didn’t agree with this model or with the values we created and they had to leave.
Lisa: About how many?
Bill: Maybe 3 or 4 out of the Top 40 leaders.
Lisa: How long did this values-creation process take?
Bill: 6 months from the time we first got those Top 40 leaders in the room to the time we published our Values Statement.
Lisa: Do you think this is the best way to create a corporate Values Statement?
Bill: I don’t think there is any one “right way” to do it. I think there are some key imperatives that must be included but this was the way that worked for Maritime given the type of leadership we had and where we wanted to get to.
Look at J&J for example – their Values Statement was written in the 1940’s by the founder and his descendants and is very forward-thinking. As a matter of fact, look at the Tylenol crisis… It was because of J&J’s Values Statement that they handled the crisis beautifully. Many people mistakenly call it a “great exercise in PR” – it wasn’t, it was a great exercise in values!”
Lisa: So what are the key imperatives around the Values Statement that you identified during this process?
Bill:
- The fact that employees could see their own words in the Values Statement – that was empowering to them
- It’s imperative that values say “we” and not “you” or “they”
- The statements must be short
- The statements must speak to and for the employees
- They must describe a behavior
- The CEO and leadership team must be very visible – the commitment must be palpable and they must show they mean it to build credibility in the company
- The values must be constantly talked about
- It takes a full 2 years for the majority in the company to see this as the standard way of doing business. There will always be early adopters and people who have an emotional ownership of the outcome and who are very involved from the beginning. Others will stand back with a “wait and see” attitude to see if you mean it. You need to prove you mean it
- Once the majority of the company sees you mean it and recognizes it as standard business practice it is still another 1-3 years before these values become the DNA of the organization
- Most importantly – the CEO is more accountable than anyone else in the organization to live the values and he/she is the one most subordinate to them
Lisa: So then how did you go from understanding the importance of creating a Values Statement, and then ultimately publishing it, to Odyssey 2000 and the visioning process?
Bill: I told the employees when the Values Statement was published that we were at “the end of the beginning” and now we had to make it real…
Coming Thursday… Leadership 201: Paddling Towards a Vision (the final piece of our interview, how they tripled shareholder value, and the impact that the values and vision had on Maritime). Read the Maritime Life Values Statement
What do you think about this process that Bill created for Maritime? What resonates for you as a leader? What stands out the most? Please share your thoughts and insights in the comments…
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Photo is Covered Bridge, Old Sturbridge Village – Massachusetts, Sturbridge – Autumn 1997 by Ilcaripawi
13 Response Comments
What I love about this article is that it touches upon the trust issue. So often we focus on getting the right words down and thinking we are done. I appreciate that Bill shared the timing it took for the entire company to “live” its values, and the pointers for getting there.
Another great post Lisa! Can’t wait for the second half of the interview on Thursday.
Nia,
I agree – it was a breath of fresh air to talk with Bill because he was very up front about the process and the timing – which I, too, appreciated. I think you pick up on something intensely important – the trust that he showed his employees and that they demonstrated for each other. I was impressed by this because of the fact that Bill admitted that Maritime started out with a dysfunctional leadership team!
You’ll see more about his level of trust on Thursday… 🙂
Thanks for the kind comments, Nia!
Great interview. Looking forward to part two.
Thanks, David! See you on Thursday. 🙂
Lisa,
“Values as a Bridge to Vision”—I love this title and I am even more excited that you chose a photo of a covered bridge. I love the imagery…there is something safe and sturdy about a covered bridge. Many bridges can be scary…high above water, they freeze first; however, covered ones offer you an opportunity to be safe and dry, a shelter of sorts. Actually the roof protects the trusses, as well, and adds TIME value to the structure (think organization).
I think the most important element of Mr. Black’s process is that he was willing to devote the necessary TIME to work with his employees, peers, and senior management (C-Suite). As Nia said, it appears that Mr. Black felt it was important to share the TIME commitment.
Thanks for introducing us to Mr. Black…I look forward to reading more.
Judy
Hi Judy,
Thank you and it had special meaning to me – we used to go to Sturbridge Village when I was little… 🙂
We had Heather to thank for introducing us to this story and yes, he clearly understood the importance of time and of *valuing* each person in the organization. I think you’re going to like the last piece on Thursday when he talks about what kept them strong as they were acquiring other companies, and shares some stories of how change came about…
See you then!
Love the point about the Tylenol crisis – I’ve never thought about that in that way but it makes perfect sense. Without clearly defined values, you don’t have a map for the forks in the road. Great interview, Lisa!
Thanks Jeannie!
I found Bill’s comment about the Tylenol crisis very impactful as well – it certainly brought home the importance of having a Values Statement as a “genuine” foundation for a company from which to build, and a compass in a “storm.” 🙂
Lisa, this is fabulous! Bill’s initial words, “a somewhat dysfunctional team” could be used for many executive teams and this initiative is central to healing or better still, to preventative medicine. Just as your passion is vision mine is values. I see values and vision as the (twin children of the) mother of success. The folly is that many companies skip over values or fabricate them and move directly to vision.
Because (in large part) values cannot be trained, I suspect that the early adopters probably shared the values; I deeply respect that 3 or 4 leaders had to leave. The wait and see “rank and file” may fall in line but may slow or impede progress if the values are fundamentally different than their own. The good news is that going forward, they can assess and hire people whose personal values align with those of the company!
The Tylenol crisis was a perfect example of how leadership values saved the business and how resting on those laurels or just stating values without hiring them can lead to poor outcomes. Recently, their good reputation was badly tarnished by looking the other way and attempted coverups of infractions in manufacturing practices.
Thanks to you and Mr. Black for providing practical reinforcement of the importance of values and vision on shareholder value. I’m looking forward to part 2!
Thank you, Jeanne – I was honestly in awe of Bill and his brilliant experiences throughout our conversation! I love your analogy of vision and values as twins of the mother, success! The post now has the link to the follow-up; hope you enjoy it! All the very best and please join us tomorrow night!