The Business Reason for Building a Bluprint

BLUEPRINT
Does Your Company Have One?

What do the world’s best companies—think Southwest Airlines, Google, Virgin, Wegmans, Cisco, Starbucks, McDonalds and Medtronic—have in common? Each of these companies have created branded cultures.

A BRANDED CULTURE is a place where the culture is as well known as the company’s products and services. Branded cultures are famous for being extraordinary magnets for world-class talent where impressive productivity and, cost efficient operations are a norm. Employees want to work in these places and choose to stay because of the way they are treated. The result is a reciprocal effect where employees create an experience that blows customers away by lavishing them with great service.

Think about your brand for just a moment. Your brand is NOT your logo or tag line, your brand is a PROMISE OF A PENDING EXPERIENCE. It says to your employees: Come to work for us and this is the kind of experience you will have. These are the kinds of people with whom you will rub shoulders. This is the kind of work environment you will have and this is the value and difference you will make.

Your brand says to your customers: Do business with us and this is the kind of experience we will create for you. This is the kind of quality you will experience in our products and services. The question is: Does the experience match the promise?

The Power of a Blueprint

Every organization has a corporate culture. The critical question is: Is yours intentional or accidental, purposeful or haphazard—established or serendipitous?? When it comes to the creation of a corporate culture, great companies let nothing go to chance. This is because culture touches everyone and affects everything—including your ability to attract, motivate and retain world-class talent. The power of a BLUEPRINT is that it helps you define your culture and then identify the attitudes, behaviors and attributes that both drive it (enable and promote) and detract (inhibit and conflict) from it.

Just as a builder consults a set of plans to stay focused, a BLUEPRINT serves as a rallying point, standard bearer or performance plan. It becomes a consistent message that keeps people focused on the performance and attitudinal standards that promote a purposefully defined culture. The kind of BLUEPRINT we’re talking about here is:

Defined in Mathematics
Expressed in Art
Measured in Statistics
Lived in Culture

Let us show you what we mean.

Defined in Mathematics: Imagine an algebraic formula that appeals to left-brain thinkers. The numerators or top line symbols are the drivers that enable you to create the culture you envision, a branded culture. The denominators or bottom line symbols are the inhibitors that disable you from building the culture you desire.

Expressed in Art: Now imagine that each of the drivers in the top line of the formula and each of the inhibitors in the bottom line are illustrated by icons—artwork that appeals to right-brain thinkers and illustrates behaviors associated with each driver and each inhibitor.

Measured in Statistics: Now, what if the formula could be measured through a quantitative and qualitative online survey that evaluates the degree to which the organization and individuals within the organization are living the behaviors and attitudes—the culture out loud. And, what if an online scoring system enabled the organization and its people to compare themselves against the norm?

Lived in Culture: You would have a tool for culture change. You would have a feedback mechanism that reminds people to consciously think about the degree to which they are protecting and promoting the culture, an instrument that inspires people to internalize the values driving the culture and live them out loud. After all, what gets measured can be managed and what gets managed usually receives our focus and attention.

By having a mathematical formula, expressed in art, measured in statistics, and lived in culture, every member of your organization can evaluate how their behaviors and attitudes at work contribute to or get in the way of creating a branded culture. You will also have a competitive advantage over competitors that have a work environment where people float aimlessly under a haphazard corporate banner because there is no unifying BLUEPRINT.

As the sayings go, a picture is worth a thousand words and if we can see it we can create it. The genius of conveying corporate culture through iconic art is that it can adorn the walls of a company and speak to people with laser clarity. It’s simple, elegant, evokes passion, and inspires action. The BLUEPRINT becomes a cause and what follows is a movement.

So, how intentional is your culture?

Not sure? Perhaps you need a BLUEPRINT. The truth is, competitors can emulate your products and services making it extremely difficult to rise above the sea of sameness, but it’s almost impossible for them to replicate a branded culture, a place where impassioned people show up to work everyday, turned-on, evangelistic, and entrepreneurial because they are inspired and empowered by a BLUEPRINT.

Does your company have one?