CULTURE CHANGE
Background
The agency’s previous MD had spent 20 years client side working for our biggest clients, a very corporate client. We were as a result, very corporate. I always felt that this did not help build a creative environment when the focus was always on the margin and never on the work. Because this one client dominated our balance sheet, the agency often felt like an extension of the client. This was not great for our internal culture and, nor was it great for our client as we ended up always playing safe.
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This culture resulted in us delivering BAU work for the client and we struggled to land new business pitched that were a stretch as our thinking had been so driven by the culture. Although our staff churn was industry average, we were based outside of London and therefore I would have expected a lower %.
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I got the opportunity to change the culture when I took over as MD.
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Action
My succession to MD had been talked about for some time, so I had time to create a plan to express what I wanted the agency to be. I knew that I would need to address the company to talk about how I wanted us to behave and to operate but that on its own would not be enough. I needed a process to deliver the plan from the ground up. I needed a way that department heads would own their part of the plan and would make it relevant to all.
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So, I wrote a vision statement that outlined in simple language what my vision of the business was. I developed various facets of the business, through which I could drive our performance (these are covered in the Business Goals case study).
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I defined what I wanted out culture to be. This was about putting people first, about the need to be client focused and the need to innovate as well as deliver for our clients).
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I worked with my Leadership team to develop our Values. These had to run through everything that we did. They talked about creativity, Innovation, Accountability, and Authenticity.
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We developed internal communications plans around the values to ensure that we were meeting our own values.
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At the start of my third week in the role, I held an offsite with all of the agency and talk about what I wanted the agency to be. I discussed my Vision, our Culture, our Values and how I wanted to make our staff the centre of what we did.
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I also told people that working from me they would work hard, have fun, and develop as people. I Explained that I wanted them to grow and develop as people so they could get a job anywhere they wanted to. At the same time, it was my job to create an environment that they would enjoy so much that they would never want to work somewhere else. To back up this pledge we redecorated one of the meeting rooms, mounted my pledge on the wall, and asked people to come and sign the wall as their commitment to my pledge. I promised myself that I would never go and count how many people signed the wall, and I have stuck to my promise. All I know it the wall is covered with names.
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Results
Our values flow through everything from performance appraisals to interview questions.
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I met all new starts to talk about the values and culture and I held quarterly meetings with all the new starters where I talked about the role of an agency and I presented all the elements that were at the off-site.
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We held numerous social events prior to lockdown and the key element being the role that the Leadership Team played in those events. For example, we cooked the BBQ in the carpark and we gave out the hot chocolate in reception on frozen mornings.
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Our staff churn is down by about a quarter, staff are far more engaged, and it is fair to say that we got our mojo back!