S. Chris Edmonds - The Culture Engine: A Framework for Driving Results, Inspiring Your Employe

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Copyright 2014 by Edmonds Training and Consulting LLC. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Edmonds, S. Chris, 1952

The culture engine : a framework for driving results, inspiring your employees, and transforming your workplace / S. Chris Edmonds.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-94732-6 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-118-94733-3 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-94734-0 (ebk)

1. Employee motivation. 2. Strategic planning. 3. Leadership. I. Title.

HF5549.5.M63E334 2014

658.3'14dc23

2014023100

To my wife, Diane, and my family (especially Mom, Karin, and Greg, and Andy and Dana), who keep me on track with coaching, humor, and love.

This book is also dedicated to:

My best (and worst) bosses, who taught me more about the impact of values in the workplace than any professor or any class could have.

My culture clients, who accept my coaching (and prodding and pushing) with grace and enthusiasm as I help them create safe, inspiring work environments.

Special gratitude goes to Jerry Nutter (19382012), my greatest boss ever, who taught me volumes about values, culture, leadership, and workplace dignity.

I have been a big fan of Chris Edmonds for over 20 yearsever since I coaxed him into leaving the Federal Reserve Bank and joining our consulting partner group. Chris has been and continues to be one of our most requested consultants. One of the main reasons for this has been his deep interest in helping organizations produce high-performing cultures. I know few people who are better qualified to talk about this subject. Why? After you have read The Culture Engine, the answer will become clear: Chris understands what constitutes a culture that drives results and what it takes to make that culture come alive.

As a student and proponent of servant leadership, I love this book. When I mention servant leadership to many organizational leaders, they think I'm talking about the inmates running the prison, pleasing everybody, or some religious movement. What they don't understand is that there are two aspects of effective leadership. The first is the strategic leadership aspect of servant leadership. Leadership is about going somewhere. If your people don't know where you want them to go, there is little chance they will get there. That's why Chris spends a great deal of time helping you develop an organizational constitution that outlines your team's or company's purpose, values, strategies, and goals.

While there should be widespread involvement in the development of your organizational constitution, the responsibility for making sure you have one lies with top management. Once everybody is clear on your business purpose and values, the next aspect of effective leadership kicks inliving according to your organizational constitution. That involves turning the traditional hierarchical pyramid upside down to emphasize that everyone is responsibleable to respond for living the constitution and getting the desired results while modeling the organization's valued behaviors. Now top management becomes responsive cheerleaders for actualizing the organizational constitution. This brings in the second, servant aspect of servant leadershipthe operational/implementation aspect.

While our research indicates that 80 to 85 percent of the impact on organizational vitality or success comes from operational leadership, without a clear organizational constitution there would be nothing to implement or serve. Chris believes in these two aspects of effective leadershipand so will you when you finish this wonderful book.

Thank you, Chris, for helping everyone who believes that culture trumps everything to make that belief a reality.

Ken Blanchard

Coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Cofounder and

Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies

I'm indebted to a number of people who have paved the way for this book.

Ken Blanchard has been a proactive supporter of mine for more than 20 years. I'm grateful for his belief in me as a thought leader, consultant, and speaker. My first experience with publishing was to contribute a chapter in the revised and enhanced edition of Ken's best seller, Leading at a Higher Level. Ken has been a beacon of brilliant light for me to follow and learn from.

My clientsthose of my own firm and my Blanchard clientshave given me access to their most precious resource: the hearts and minds of leaders and team members in their organizations. I appreciate their willingness to let me be a disruptive force and to consider these ideas as they refine their organizational cultures. Thanks, too, to my sales colleagues who open the door to client opportunities for culture refinement.

Matt Holt and Shannon Vargo at John Wiley & Sons have been champions of this book project since the moment they reviewed the proposal. I'm grateful for their enthusiasm, professionalism, and diligence to help me get these ideas into print and into the hands of leaders around the globe. Thanks also to Liz Gildea, editorial assistant, for her willing guidance and support of this project.

Mark Levy is a vital member of my branding brain trust. I appreciate Mark's humor, passion, clarity, and wide knowledge base of publishing, branding, and the New York Mets. Mark helped me find my sweet spot championing an organizational constitution. Mark helped me refine my brand, my voice, and this book concept, and he continues to open doors for me today. Mark made this book a reality and I'm indebted to him.