Cast a wide net
Dawes has one word he follows when
driving large-scale concepts throughout
the organization: Simple.
If a mission statement is too long, a vision is too complex or core values are too numerous, the message can get lost in translation.
Dawes says you want statements that
express the foundational principles of your
business without getting bogged down with
too many words or too much industry jargon.
“Short and simple is good,” he says. “If
you have a two-page mission statement,
that is way too long. One sentence is probably good. Even two or three sentences is
probably too long. You need to keep it
short — something where at least the gist
of it can be remembered.”
Simply stated messages can help you
reach a wider audience. But even though
you’re trying to communicate the over-arching goals and principles of the organization, your method of communication
can’t always be as broad.
There is a time and place for speaking
from a podium or making a companywide
webcast. But Dawes says you can’t stop
there. You need to take the big-picture concepts and drive them down to a more personal level for your employees.
At Hendricks, employees, managers and
board members all receive personal communication. For employees, it starts with
orientation.
“When new employees come on board,
they go through a fairly lengthy orientation
program, and part of that program includes
an explanation of our vision and our values
as an organization,” Dawes says. “That is
where it begins, and throughout the year,
myself and our human resources director
will hold meetings with associates. We’ll do
that anywhere from quarterly to a couple
of times a year, and I try to refocus our
vision, mission and values. We always
come back to those.”
Laying out a compelling case for the mission
and core values will likely help draw in the
vast majority of your employees. But there
might still be some who either won’t or can’t
get with the program. At Hendricks, those
people are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
“I would not expect someone in our support services who is cleaning patient rooms and so forth to be able to recite to me our
company mission or our vision if I asked
them,” Dawes says. “But I would expect a
department manager to give me a fairly
decent description of what that is.”
In the end, job performance is the key indicator of whether someone is buying in or
resisting the direction in which you want to
take the company.
“No. 1, you let people go from their job,
you change their job, or you would give
them an opportunity to leave the organization if they’re not doing their job,” he says.
“Part of the stated job description is not
necessarily following the mission and
vision of an organization, but that’s certainly a piece of it.
“People lose their job because they’re not
doing their job. But you have to take into
account some of the other factors, as well.
Part of our organizational values deal with
teamwork. If someone is not a team player,
that has to be looked at in their evaluation,
as well.”
