Building an Ownership Culture

One of the most fundamental and important changes an organization can make is to build an infrastructure and culture where every employee understands what their contribution is, how important they and their team are to the success of the enterprise and how well they are doing in meeting the needs of their customers. This is a culture of accountability, where each employee owns the results they create.

It happens after everything else comes together correctly -- after you streamline your workflows and systems, put in the best organization structure for your situation, have core success measures throughout the company, implement profit center manager techniques and provide managers and employees with the right tools. It comes after you implement all of the elements that allow teams of employees to be accountable for their results. And it comes when you introduce a team based incentive plan where your employees share in the results they attain when they attain results above expectations.

We call this type of all employee incentive plan a Gainsharing plan because employees and the company share in that portion of your financial results that are above expectations.

An interesting thing occurs when you introduce this type of plan. Since no payment is made until above average results are attained, above average results become the target for everyone. And once attained a few times, above average becomes their new standard.

How would you like to compete against a company where every employee was clearly focused on attaining above average results every quarter? We can show you how to be the competition.

For additional thoughts on the value of building an ownership culture in your company, click on the following monthly letters. They are found in the Concepts and Ideas section of this website:

What's the Secret Behind High Intensity Organizations?
Employee Incentive Plans
Do You Have Everyone Pulling on the Same End of the Rope?

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