Honesty and Growth
A Real Look at the Power of Truth:
- Honesty in the Modern World
- Your Personal Assessment
- Why Honesty Matters
- Truth Creates Confidence Creates Cash
- Making Painful Changes
- Sustaining a New Paradigm
The six-part series will explore The Role of Truth in Business Today. Living personal honesty is an essential and sadly missing power component in our modern business culture.
Honesty and Growth: Part 6 of 6
Sustaining a New ParadigmAssuming you have prepared adequately and not the kind of buy -in you need up and down the organizational chart, with your key suppliers and stakeholders and you have launched your initiative with the best of intentions, you will undoubtedly face challenges.
It’s one thing to start something new with high expectations and loud noise and proclamation. It is quite another to sustain a substantial initiative over a period of time through bumps in the road, adverse outcomes and necessary retooling.
The long-term success of any initiative, particularly one where we are expecting a change that flies in the face of societal norms in general, will require an iron stomach, a velvet glove, and teeth-gritting determination.
After having key metrics in place, you must establish regular monitoring periods and contingency plans for changes. Simply requiring that the truth be the standard of every interaction is a nice thing to say but will be very difficult to do.
Everyone is still going to want to ͞cover there but when potential problems arise. You must make it clear to your behavior that heads will roll,is not he answer as you move this initiative to the company.
It may sound like I’m only speaking to larger corporations. Smaller corporations or even entrepreneurial companies with few employees are in exactly the same situation. Every single person at any level in any company is always worried about their job, the perception of their superiors, and the longevity of their paycheck.
One of the most important things about any change in this regard will be creating an environment of safety. Safety to make mistakes, safety to make some suggestions, and safety to say the Emperor has no clothes if you as a leader are not holding true to the standard you describe.The real keys to any sustainable and difficult organizational change lie in three key areas.
- Creating appropriate metrics.
- Regular measurement and assessment.
- Appropriate and timely adjustment.
- Total truth and honesty throughout the process.
The obvious irony here is that the very honesty that is the subject of the changes one of the key components in creating and assessing any changes made and the successful implementation of the new paradigm.
Any regular measurement and assessment will also need to include customers and suppliers if it is to be effective for the long-term.
Creating a customer study group or other featured customer group, is an effective way to allow your customers to participate in your change efforts. You will find that as you are successful, they then also become advocates for what they see as growth in your company.
Assessment of effectiveness, of necessity, will include effect on the bottom line. You will need to be creative about how you measure the effect of positive word-of-mouth created by your customer advocacy groups who witness the change in openness, cooperation, truth and fair dealing with your clients.
Circling back to the beginning. You may still maintain that i t is impossible to create a culture and Company that is founded on truth and honesty in our current society.
You are wrong. It is not only possible, but necessary if you want to be a thought leader, a powerful contributor to the community and the true Creator of employee development. The path may be long, the task may be daunting but the rewards are substantial and real.
Take the challenge today and become an organization that every customer and every employee is proud to own and happy to talk about.
