Kriegel Suggests Strong Organizational Culture Drives Results
Workplace culture is more than ping-pong tables in the lobby, happy hours after work, leadership retreats and other office perks, said Dr. Jessica Kriegel during the first Deputy Director for Management Seminar Series lecture of 2024.
“Culture is the way that people think and act to get results,” said Kriegel, chief scientist of workplace culture at Culture Partners.
Our concentration is pulled in many directions. In addition to the responsibilities of home and work, our phones constantly notify us of new messages, likes and comments. “We’re just so scattered that we take surface-level solutions for surface-level problems,” she noted. “We’re not going deeper.”
The key to creating an intentional workplace culture is the Results Pyramid Model, Kriegel explained. Results—what we all want—are at the top of the pyramid. Actions—what needs to be done to create results—sit just below.
“That’s where most leaders stop their thinking,” she said. “They’re like, ‘results come from actions. Let me get people to take a bunch of action.’”
In the business world, for instance, these actions look like restructuring organizational charts, implementing new technologies or strategic planning. They fall into what Kriegel calls the “action trap,” where “you just focus on results and actions.”
It’s the hamster wheel of work, where leaders start micromanaging their employees. Nagging isn’t motivational. To avoid getting stuck there, she suggested, leaders must dig deeper into the next layer of the pyramid. That’s beliefs—they are what drives people’s actions.
Early in her career, she had a performance review. In the meeting, her supervisor said, “You millennials, you need to bake a little bit longer.” Kriegel felt misunderstood, overlooked and undervalued. The feedback was unclear and it wasn’t tied to any action.
Effective feedback, on the other hand, concentrates on action. By doing that, a leader can focus on a cultural belief. The employee then understands what they did, the impact of their action, and how it demonstrated the right beliefs.
“The foundation of the results pyramid is where you, the leader, come in,” she said. “It’s how you intentionally shape people’s beliefs.” Everyone has experiences over the course of their lives that influence what beliefs they “hold about the nature of the world and what’s important.”
Telling stories is a “powerful” tool to create new beliefs. Recently, she worked with the director of a hospital’s emergency room (ER) department to ensure staff collect next-of-kin information for every patient. Staff believed collecting the information wasn’t important because they were trying to save lives.
The director worked with Kriegel to come up with two stories to highlight the importance of data collection. In the first story, a woman was admitted to the ER and fell unconsciousness during her stay. When she woke up, staff did not ask about her next of kin. They had no information about her medical history. They followed the standard treatment for her condition. Despite their best efforts, the patient passed away.
“They found out later she had a medical condition that if they had known about, they would have possibly been able to save her,” Kriegel recounted.
For the second story, the director described an older man in the ER. This time, however, staff collected his information. He also fell unconscious during treatment. Staff called his daughter and got his medical history. They adjusted their treatment based on what they were told. Staff saved his life. The stories got staff to understand that collecting patient details wasn’t a waste of time. Data is potentially life-saving.
To sum it up, experiences form beliefs, beliefs drive actions and actions produce results. Kriegel said aligning each level of the pyramid is the first step to creating to an intentional workplace culture.
After leaders define the type of culture they want, they must think about their purpose and vision, she said. Purpose is the answer to “why does your organization exist?” For example, Kriegel’s purpose is “to unleash the power of culture.” The shorter the purpose, the better.
“Once you understand your purpose, then you can identify the vision, which is ‘where are you going?’” she said.
To implement the vision, leaders must identify key results. These are short-term, meaningful and memorable outcomes. She recommended that companies focus on three key results.
After major results are set, organizations must define “strategic anchors,” which are the bets a leadership team believes will lead to success. Defining anchors forces leaders to think about strategy.
Finally, leaders must answer the question, “How do we need to shift our thinking, in order to be aligned with the actions we need to take…so we can get our vision and achieve those results?”
Together, these components make up what Kriegel calls the culture equation. Companies that have clear visions, key results, strategic anchors and cultural beliefs can concisely and quickly tell their story. It can also make it easier to navigate a larger company and identify prospective employees who share the same values.
Having a well-thought-out culture equation “keeps our eye on the prize,” Kriegel concluded. “It makes me feel like there’s meaning in the work that we’re doing. We’re aligned. It makes such a difference.”
NIH’ers can view the full seminar at https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=53995.