Ep. 023: Beyond Quick Fixes: The Truth About Transforming Organizations

0:02Welcome back Bridge Builders to Bread to Lead, the podcast transforming leadership across industries. I'm your host, Dr. Jake Taylor Jacobs, and I'm thrilled that you're here. We're currently ranked as the 30th top business and leadership podcast nationwide. And it's all thanks to listeners like you. Bridge builders, if you haven't already grabbed a copy of my book, Bread to Lead on Amazon, it's packed with strategies to elevate your leadership game. Got questions or ideas for the show? Visit us at breadtolead.com. And if you're finding value here, please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.

0:37Your support helps us reach more leaders. Now let's dive in and continue breeding excellence in leadership. Today's episode awaits Bridge Builders. Bridge Builders, Bridge Builders. This is actually the second episode that we have going live. And I was contemplating on going live again because I wasn't really for sure on if I wanted to continue going live. But I had some good feedback with going live. And if you're new to watching Bread to Lead, You heard on the introduction, we are the number 34 ranked business and leadership podcast in the entire country, the United States of America. I'm extremely excited about that.

1:16If you don't know the origin of Bread to Lead, Bread to Lead is a podcast from our company, Sips Healthcare. If you know anything about healthcare, healthcare is the number one industry that literally touches any and everybody. And what we wanted for this podcast, of course, we want to continue to elevate our community in the healthcare space as we do provide support for perioperative services and central sterile processing in hospitals. We're known for turning around departments all over the country in hospitals. We wanted to provide a podcast that was longstanding. It was broadened and it's in this reach because we believe just like health care leadership is a broad topic that we believe that the principles that we're learning and turning around hospitals all over the country.

2:11And those departments that definitely deal with saving lives that are at risk of dying or or, you know, dealing with major illnesses that those principles can definitely be added going forward. So today's episode is something that is going to be a good one. If you are new to the podcast, this is not a podcast that was created for entertainment. This podcast is a podcast that specifically focused on creating transformational change and leadership. We believe that leadership is a dying breed here We believe that there's a lot of people who have the aspirations to be managers But no one is doing the work to be leaders and we want to ensure that there is a platform That is truly teaching people the principles needed to truly engage in in true change So that we can be able to not only keep quality leaders in health care, but all across every industry every sector we need So if you're new to this podcast, please, please, please go to bread to lead dot com.

3:17Leave a comment. Go in review this podcast after this episode. And let's just get right into it. Today, Bridge Builders, we're diving into a critical truth about organizational transformation. And this episode is called Beyond Quick Fixes, the truth about transforming organizations. And I'm and I was watching a Colorado Buffs actually this past weekend and seeing what Coach Deion Sanders primetime is doing with that organization, taking an organization that historically had created such a environment of toxicity that losing and mediocrity was inbred in its DNA. And this is something that when coach prime took the job The biggest thing that he was focusing on and reinforcing in this transformation was first changing the culture And when coach firm took over the job at colorado, they were one in 18 The first year and he brought so much attention and notoriety and expectation to his organization it forced the world to look at what he was doing with his team and with his organization.

4:39His first year, they were four and eight. And of course, it let a lot of people down. But a lot of people don't realize that you can't go from a decade of one in 18 to the very next year, getting someone who is bringing belief into an organization and expecting a winning record. They started off strong, but a lot of the games they were in, they were tough losses, but they were close. This is letting you know that they're right on the precipice of change. But belief was something that was missing. And so Coach Prime in Colorado had reinforced something I've been teaching leaders for years. That real transformation starts with belief in culture, not metrics in processes.

5:25And this resonates deeply with my work in organizational transformation. When I step into a struggling organization, the first thing leaders typically show me are their metrics, their process maps, their improvement initiatives. But here's what I've learned through the years of turning around organizations. If you don't change the belief system first, none of those technical changes will stick. Let's break down what real transformation looks like. And if Casey, again, you're new to the podcast, as you can tell, my I'm a trainer by nature. I went to school for education. So I just like to get into the meat of it because I do believe that you don't have enough time to waste.

6:11I think that this this real estate that you have that you call a brain has so much stuff going in and out. I just tried to get into the meat of the lesson. So when we break down what real transformation looks like, it starts with understanding that there are three distinct phases every organization must go through to achieve lasting change. The first phase is what we call cultural reset. This is where most transformation efforts fail because leaders try to skip straight to technical solutions. They want to implement new systems, new processes, new metrics. But if your people don't believe change is possible, if they don't trust in the direction that you're going, those changes will never take root.

7:06Think about it. Think about what what happens with most struggling organizations. People have accepted certain limitations as truth. Here are some of the sayings that they will say. That's just how things are done here. We've tried that before It won't work in our industry These aren't just statements These are symptoms Of a deeper cultural issue That has to be addressed First In my work in turning around organizations All across industries Especially now in healthcare I found that cultural reset phase Requires three key elements belief system standards and leadership alignment if you miss any one of these three and your transformation efforts will begin to stall before they truly begin so we're going to talk about these three elements because culture has to be the first thing you focus on before you get to the technical things so we're going to first break down this first phase of transformation which is changing the heart.

8:18And here's the biggest piece. Everyone tries to change the mind. We try to work on the hard developmental skills, the technical skills in health care in our industry. A lot of people, we talk about all of these other things, you know, how to clean an instrument. We talk about patient safety. We talk about water quality. We talk about all these technical things. But the one most important thing that's needed is training on the heart. The belief. Things that will make people truly move. If you believe in something internally inside, your brain will want to learn the technical skills to be able to back up and support that thing that you believe in.

9:04So let me share something I see repeatedly. Leaders will come to me frustrated because their improvement initiatives aren't sticking. They've invested in new systems, bought new technology, brought in consultants, implemented new processes, but nothing changes. Why? Because they haven't addressed the underlying the underlying beliefs that drive behavior in organizations. And before we get into the three elements that drive this this change in an organization, one thing I have to have to say in order to be able to just set the tone. If your leadership is focused more on their personal income and their personal glory, their personal story and their personal accolades, it's going to be absolutely impossible for you to actually build an organization that creates substantial change.

10:04If the way that you're recruiting your organization and your talent and your leaders is by way of how much they get paid, how much commission they'll make, what their job position is going to be. If you're hiring people that are just focused on job hopping, this is going to be the crutch of your entire organization because there is no way you can truly build belief with temporary mindsets. When you talk about leaders that truly create indefinite change, they don't come to an organization for a period of time until they get the next promotion or the next raise. And unfortunately, I meet a lot of leaders across sectors all over the world.

10:56That when the first thing they talk to me is about money, their position, the impact they want everyone in the world to bring to them or to hear from them, I immediately know they won't last long. Because any great leader that's really great at transformation, you create the opportunity where you are. You don't go hunting for it. So that first element. That belief systems, it requires you to understand what your organization truly believes about itself. Not what's written in mission statements or posted on walls, but what people actually believe is possible or impossible in your organization. I've worked with organizations, organization recently where every conversation about improvement started with a litany of reasons why change wouldn't work.

11:56We're different. You don't understand our unique challenges. We've tried that before. Y 'all, these weren't just excuses. They were deeply held beliefs that had become a part of the organization's identity. Changing these belief systems start with creating visible evidence that contradicts these limiting beliefs. You have to engineer small wins that challenge the that's impossible here. Mindset. But here's the key. these wins that you bring the organization have to be visible they have to be undeniable and are directly connected to the beliefs you're trying to change oh I'm teaching I'm teaching today I'm telling you I'm teaching because if I'm coming into an organization and you're talking about changing beliefs and you're not getting quick wins in the areas that they say they said originally were impossible.

13:13You're not going to get any buy in to the level that you actually need. So this is why as we're curating and we're building true change in an organization, we have to go and get those wins quickly. Now, those wins are not always wins that will show up on a scoreboard, meaning the money or meaning contracts or meaning clients or more surgeries or more customers. customers, those wins are internal things that you need to be able to show and prove that whatever your mindset or mentality was prior to me can no longer exist because what you considered impossible is something I created a possibility that I made possible in a short period of time.

14:03And what it's going to do is either going to is going to anchor people in or root people out or push people out because of resentment. The second element of truly changing the culture. Our standards. So the first element was changing the belief system. once people's belief has changed. Now you have to create standards that keep that belief intact. Now notice I didn't say anything about money, anything about promotions, anything about raising pay, anything about the result of these things being implemented. Contracts. Cost savings. More revenue. Pay raises. Are all. A response to standards and belief changing.

15:12Wins have to happen after full commitment takes place. So this second element, standards, this is where many leaders think they should start. They want to implement new performance standards, new metrics, new expectations, new KPIs. But without addressing belief systems first, these new standards will never stick. Real standards aren't just about performance metrics. Holding people accountable.

15:50Creating boundaries. Real standards are about how we operate. How we communicate. How we carry ourselves. They're about the small daily behaviors that either reinforce excellence. or perpetuate mediocrity. And in my space in healthcare, what I'm seeing is that you find a lot of consultants, specialists, subject matter experts that speak a lot about standards, processes, systems, KPIs, because these are buzzwords. But in order to truly change an organization, you can't change an organization in 13 weeks with a temporary staff. You can't change an organization in 26 weeks with it doesn't matter how great.

16:42How great that subject matter expert is. None of those things matter. Because if belief isn't there. If true belief is not there. True change can happen.

17:00So it's not about metrics standards. It's about how we see ourselves in this organization. Then the third element to completely changing culture is leadership alignment. It's crucial. Your leadership team needs to understand that transformation isn't a program or an initiative.

17:32Y 'all, we're going to take this leadership program. We're going to have a leadership initiative.

17:40That's not leadership alignment. Leadership alignment is a fundamental shift in how we operate and take accountability. Your leaders, when creating this change, they have to be prepared for resistance, prepared for setbacks and prepared to maintain standards, even when it's difficult.

18:12When I talk about leadership alignment I'm not just talking about verbal agreement I'm talking about demonstrated commitment Your leaders need to be the first to embody the new standards The first to challenge limiting beliefs The first to show what is possible And if you as a leader. You're only thinking, hey, my technicians or my entry level workers or my or my working professionals that are not in any leadership position, they need to change first. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If your organization is underperforming, that's a telltale sign you need to change first. If your organization is not getting it done, it means that you need to create change first.

19:09Then down to your next level of leadership, then down to the lower level of leadership, then down to the rest of the staff.

19:26so no we're not talking about verbal agreement we're talking about full commitment to the plan and full commitment to transformation within an organization we'll be back after this after this commercial Are you ready to transform your leadership journey? Get my book, Bred to Lead, on Amazon now. In it, you'll discover the proven frameworks and strategies I've used to help leaders across industries master each phase of their leadership development. Don't just lead, be Bred to Lead. Get your copy today on Amazon. So as I said, this is my second week going live. I kind of liked just giving clips and driving people to the podcast.

20:18if those that are watching it live you want me to continue to go live with the podcast please send me comments on the video please uh reach out to us on bread to lead.com or sips healthcare.com if you want us to continue going live if not um this will be a short pilot because i want you to be more concerned with what i'm saying than the visuals of how i'm saying it So after we get through the first phase, which is resetting the culture. The second phase of transformation is what I call technical evolution. This is where most organizations want to start. But if you don't get the culture reset right.

21:09This phase becomes. More. Ineffective. But if you get the cultural reset right. Technical evolution is guaranteed to happen. In the technical evolution phase, you're focused on systems, processes and capabilities. But here's what makes this different. When you reset the culture first, people approach these technical changes with a different mindset. Instead of resistance, you get engagement. Instead of this won't work, you get how can we make this work? Let me share something I see often in this phase. organizations that skip the cultural reset try to force technical changes through mandate and I see this all the time where leadership will say you're mandated to operate in this new scope because we can no longer accept this anymore how can you mandate when you're the one who accepted this culture.

22:26In order to really effectively implement a new mandate, a new process, a new system, a new technical approach, you have to reset the culture to ensure that they're ready. It's like tilling the land. In order to truly get good value out of your crop that season, you have to make sure you truly till the land correctly.

22:53The organizations that skip cultural reset and try to force technical changes through mandates, they rely heavy on authority and compliance. And you will hear a lot of novice leaders in transformational change speak a lot about authority and compliance. And this is this is no offense to anybody. These are just things that are. proven. If I'm coming into an organization that has a terrible culture talking about compliance and regulations, when as a culture in our organization, we've never adhered to compliance and regulations. What makes you think that coming in and bringing in a subject matter expert or a consultant or a company or hiring someone else that's going to really enforce compliance what makes you think that they're truly going to shift the organization because in truth they may your your staff may get along to get along but the moment that that person is gone the moment they're going to either try to run that person away I've seen it all the time the calf the the staff will form a coup and they all will be in agreement just like that you know when you get a new teacher and the students don't want a new teacher or your parents or your children you you know you move on and you get married you got a new step a parent that you want to introduce to your children and your children wants the old parents so bad back so they act absolutely crazy until it really runs off the person that you're in love with this is exactly what happens in organizations all the time where your your team will literally form a coup and when they form that coup they'll work together to push out whoever you felt like you hired to bring that change especially when they're coming with a hard hammer.

25:04So usually organizations will hire the hard hammer. And before you know it, that hard hammer, it's not hammering as hard as you thought they would.

25:21And this is what organizations that have done the culture reset right. The ones that have done the cultural reset right first find that there are people actually pulling for these changes and they're looking for ways to make them work. In the technical evolution phase. It evolves in three key areas. The same way that cultural reset involved in three key elements. The three key areas that the technical evolution phase changes is process optimization, capability development and system integration. Each of these three areas requires both technical expertise and cultural alignment. You cannot have high efficient organization, highly efficient organization where their processes are optimized.

26:25The development is is the capability development is off the chart if they don't believe in the organization, the leadership or their environment. Process optimization isn't just about making things more efficient. It's about creating processes that reinforce your new culture and standards. When you're redesigning workflows, you're not just thinking about speed and efficiency. You're thinking about how these processes either support or undermine your cultural transformation. Capability development goes beyond just training people on new skills. It's about building capabilities that transformed organizations need.

27:16This might mean technical skills, but it also means developing the problem solving capabilities, the leadership capabilities and the change management capabilities that your organization needs to sustain transformation. Because here's the deal. You'll find yourself teaching people new technical skills that will become outdated. And if they don't have that proactive spirit or nature in them, leadership capabilities, problem solving capabilities, change management capabilities. What will happen is you're going to find yourself in the same situation over and over again. Over and over again. So you can't develop technical skills.

28:02without as successfully, without also successfully developing the leadership, change management and problem solving capabilities. How many people do you know? They're really good at what they do, but because they're not good at being around or being involved with anyone creates a toxic environment and that toxic environment becomes a environment that's inefficient. And then system integration. System integration is where many organizations struggle. They implement new systems without considering how these systems interact with their culture. But when you've done the culture reset right. You can design and implement systems that reinforce a new culture rather than fights against it.

28:54Let me share something crucial about this technical evolution phase. Many organizations see resistance during technical changes as a process problem. But in my experience, when you're getting significant resistance during technical changes, it's usually a sign that your cultural reset isn't complete.

29:24Let me repeat. Many organizations see resistance during technical changes as a process problem. But in my experience, when you're getting significant resistance during technical changes, it's usually a sign that your cultural reset isn't complete. the resistant isn't to the change itself it's a system of underlining cultural issues that haven't fully been addressed i've worked with an organization that was trying to implement a new operating system they tried three times before and in each attempt it failed when we came in, we didn't start by looking at technical implementation plans. We started by understanding the cultural barriers.

30:26And here's the thing, especially healthcare. Because in healthcare, a lot of systems are so reactive and not proactive

30:40versus investing and support and help when you feel like you don't need it. they wait until things hit the fan. Then they call us in to completely change or provide support. But imagine sending my specialists or my technicians or my consultants into a culturally toxic environment and you want them to create lasting, transformational, technical change with a culture and an environment that is opposite of what's needed for change.

31:26So with this organization in particular, we started by understanding the cultural barriers. and what we found was that people didn't believe the organization was capable of successfully implementing major changes and this belief had been reinforced by more than three failed attempts

32:01before we even touched the technical aspects We had to rebuild the belief. We did this through a series of smaller successful changes that demonstrated the organization's capability to implement change effectively. Only then did we move forward with technical implementation. Here's something A lot of organizations When you're hiring a consulting firm You want the consulting firm to come in And create all this change And not realizing That the human element is still involved You cannot