Anil Bahnsali at the Culture Wall inauguration at the Microsoft Campus in Hyderabad, India
Align and Simplify.
Where are you going? Not for dinner…I mean, what’s your big picture?
Is everyone on board?
No matter what you think, no matter how many times you have repeated yourself, sadly the answer is that your people probably don’t quite get it… yet. But, as long as you remember that the job of communicating this is never ending, there is hope.
Great leaders know this. Last week, as part of a project at MIT, Jake Cohen, Senior Associate Dean at the MIT School of Management, said to team GV, “Every meeting starts with reviewing four principles at MIT”. Jack Welch had his “8 Rules of Leadership“. The Koch brothers, who took their dad’s $20 million business, and turned it into a $120 billion juggernaut, have their Market Based Management principles, that they relentlessly reinforce.
A few weeks back we posted about some work at Microsoft’s IDC for their 20th anniversary. Helping morph that event into a celebration around purpose and connection to the future.
The benefit of visualizing the celebration with a permanent Culture Wall is that the narrative about the core beliefs, mindsets, and values, that we celebrate together, lives on. We used the images in an engaging, energetic, ebook and told the story of celebration; and of what the future might hold. It helped people imagine where they are going together.
One of the great insights we have gleaned over the years is the idea that what aligned culture does, is reduce complexity. If everyone is on the same page if we all know where we are going, and if we agree to how we are doing it, then everything happens with greater agility and adaptability. Resiliency is baked in. Amazing outcomes are facilitated.
We’re honored that IDC asked us to help them celebrate. The below are photos from their facilities both in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
PS- We’re off to the Genius Network Annual event at the Arizona Biltmore. Looking forward to seeing all of our old friends there. Next week, onto an innovation project ongoing at Edwards AFB.
Debi Mishra at the Culture Wall inauguration at the Microsoft Campus in Bengaluru, India
Millennials unveiling the Culture Wall at the Microsoft Campus in Hyderabad, India
