Build consensus. There is some degree of collaboration. It’s not a dictatorship. We talk about why we’re in business and with that, we come to a consensus.
The people that are attracted to our company have an entrepreneurial spirit, so it’s not hard to get buy-in when you’re talking to fellow entrepreneurs. We call it ‘intrepreneur.’ We give them an opportunity to practice their business philosophies, thoughts, experiences.
Buy-in is a difficult phrase when you’re trying to shove something down a person’s throat. It has come easy for us because I think we are all entrepreneurs and we talk in terms of entrepreneurship and we all understand the importance of servicing the customer. When everybody understands why we’re in business, it’s easy for buy-in. We don’t even use the phrase buy-in [at] our office because it comes naturally. We all agree that we’re here to service the customer, that the customer drives our business.
In going through that process, you’re eliminating ad hoc statements. You’re really boiling it down to, ‘All of the management team agrees we’re here to service the customer.’ So it’s not something I dreamed up one night. It’s something that we talked about over the years and have refined over the years. It has evolved into this process of constantly talking about: Are we accomplishing that? Are we really doing what we set out to do?
Keep discussing. [My] advice to others would be not having a hidden agenda. [My] advice to others [is to] put themselves on the other side of the table. What is it that they would want to know in joining an organization, and how would they really want that organization to be? And then practice that. It’s that old do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Solicit input. It’s kind of like brainstorming — no idea is a bad idea, so let’s just have an open forum. One of the reasons we do the one-on-one is to promote an open forum feeling that people can ask any type of question that they want at any time. It’s not something that we can read in a textbook, take a pill and now we can do it. It’s understanding what would drive oneself: What would I like in an environment to work for? And then create that environment.
Embrace a brainstorming process. We jot those [ideas] down, and we honestly take a look at them. Everyone is constantly looking at better ways to service the customer. We don’t have a suggestion box. We have people say, ‘Well, hey, let’s try this.’ Well, OK, let’s talk about it. Let’s see how that will better service the customer. And then we will decide.
It doesn’t take an act of congress to have a process change here. When someone’s making a suggestion, we see how beneficial that is for the masses.
How to reach: The Epitec Group, (248) 353-6800 or www.epitecgroup.com