Communicate the game plan
During orientation, new employees meet the arch-nemeses of values, green cartoon monsters such as the two-headed Vic and Tim; thoroughly-pierced, belly-baring Lola Vel; craggy, cigarette-smoking Nora Sponse; and the roller skating Lou Polle, with a flashy smile donning a sharp suit and shades.
Gilbert spends Day 1 of orientation with employees, and these cartoon characters help illustrate mistakes and situations that poorly reflected on or affected the companies in the past. These character puns also help communicate the values and add humor to the colorful and easy-to-understand handbook. It’s important to Gilbert that the company and the way he presents its values are attractive both externally and internally.
“These are great concepts, but unless it’s packaged and presented right, it’s never going to give,” he says. “The typical corporate culture is so broken because the package you’re presenting is so, almost offensive, in a lot of cases. Even if the message was good inside, the wrapping is so unappealing, it may not even get to people.”
To ensure his message gets through and employees buy in, Gilbert views himself as the Chief Ism-ologist.
“The leader is setting that foundation, setting that culture and, No. 1, living it, and No. 2, being a champion of it and really carrying that flag throughout the organization,” Gilbert says.
“When they see little things or see things that don’t go with who you are, they take action, and they’re always teaching and telling people.”
Having upper management actively involved in the training process helps new employees realize that the big guys in charge execute their own game plan.
“They know the very senior leaders of the company live it, breathe it, believe in it,” Gilbert says. “They hear it, so that’s important. I get so many e-mails from people that say, ‘I can’t believe you guys would spend the time with us as new employees,’ and my question back, or to anybody, is, ‘What could be more valuable from a chairman or CEO’s business life than spending all these hours or whatever it takes with new people to engrain who you are?’
“The bigger you get, the harder it becomes, and if you don’t spend your time on that, you’re going to become the typical, bureaucratic company, and that’s not good for anybody.”
As Gilbert notices both good and bad things in his companies and life, he communicates his observations via e-mail and adds them to his training materials so he can cite specific, real-life examples. For example, several employees have scheduled auto-response e-mails when they’re away from the office, yet failed to give a last name of the alternative contact person or that employee’s full phone number and e-mail address.
This is how Vic and Tim creep in to help Lola Vel in making that customer a victim of low service levels.
“You might as well put a [middle] finger on it because that’s basically what you’re telling your customers and clients, right?” Gilbert says.
These examples help people comprehend what each value means and how it applies to everyday actions.
“You make assumptions that people understand things, and not everybody does,” Gilbert says. “Everybody comes from different backgrounds, different cultures. … Everybody’s different, so you have to explain it.”