How to create a culture of GAS - lessons learned in creating a culture where employees feel valued and Give a Shit (GAS). Presented at Next Jump Leadership Academy on June 7, 2017 to PACE attendees
1. Culture of GAS
Lessons learned in creating a culture where
employees feel valued and Give A Shit (GAS)
John Hilliard
NxJer since 2008
Coach: Recognition
Eric Lee
NxJer since 2010
Coach: Team Boston FitNut
2. 2
Building GAS – we invest our energy into…
1) FOOD (+ other strategic perks)
HEALTHY & DELICIOUS IS HARD
2) COMMUNITY
A LOT OF DOING THINGS TOGETHER
3) RECOGNITION
SERVANT LEADERSHIP
3. 3
Investing in strategic perks
Key Programs
• Health and Wellness
• On-site gym, fitness classes, Yoga Nidra
• Healthy Food
• Life Events
• Birthdays, anniversaries, marriages
• Saving time (laundry)
• Coaching (additional investments)
• personal fitness sessions
• Leadership coaching sessions
Be deliberate with where you invest –
what really matters to your employees?
4. 4
How we invest in Food
• Breakfast every day
• Healthy snacks
• Fitness lunches
• Dinner every night
5. 5
Why Food is important to me
University
(7 years ago)
NxJ after 2 years NxJ today
7. 7
Investing in our community
Key Programs
• Adopt a Public School
• CEO Happy Hour
• American Heart Association 5k
• Annual Dance Battle
It doesn’t matter if you’re a new hire or the CEO.
The entire company does it together.
9. 9
1) Food is the fastest way to impact morale.. You can
feel it almost instantly. If the food is good = morale is
high. If the food is bad = morale goes down. Also, food
is a huge responsibility, watching expiration dates,
cleanliness, etc. [HEALTH.. higher GAS]
2) The number one thing that people remember from the
deployment is not the hard work/suffering but instead
the comradery and bonding that everyone invested
in everyone else’s success and growth.
Lessons from the NAVY
11. 11
President’s Award: Where we came from
The President’s Award: AKA “BOS” Award: Setting New Standards
How it worked:
- Leadership team would pick
- Awarded during company staff meeting
- Monetary award
12. 12
Avengers : Our Highest Honor Today
“At Next Jump, we aspire to build a company that makes our Fathers and our Mother’s Proud. The Avengers award is our award that
celebrates our mothers.”
– Charlie Kim
alone we can do good, together we can do great
How it works:
- Company picks
- Awarded after CEO talk with Family.. Awarded by peers (speeches)
- Vacation experience with family
13. 13
Recognition: Lessons Learned
RIGHT BEHAVIORSWRONG BEHAVIORS
CROWD SOURCE
STANDING OVATIONMGT PICKS
RECOGNIZE 1, PISS OFF ALL
LINEMEN
WHO HELPED YOU SUCCEED?
CONSISTENCY
RITUALS, BEHAVIORS, AND STORIES
QUARTERBACKS
ALREADY COMPENSATED AT TOP
INTENSITY ONLY
1X EVENTS
14. 14
Quarterbacks vs Lineman
Wrong people,
wrong behaviors
incented
Who scored the most?
vs.
Who helped you the most?
Culture of GAS is reinforced when
everyone doesn’t try to be QB
15. 15
Changing Behavior : rituals vs willpower
ISIS NOT
INTENSITY
CONSISTENCYINTENSITY
CONSISTENCY
NUTRITION
3-DAY LIQUID DIET
EXERCISE
2-HOUR RUN
NUTRITION
EAT BREAKFAST DAILY
EXERCISE
20 MIN 2X/WEEK
17. 17
Servant Leadership : Coronitas (weekly)
Informal end of week
Peers show gratitude with a
Coronita
Share stories of the week
Gratitude
Going above and beyond
Investment in loss
19. 19
Little ideas on ways to maximize impact
• Sharing Stories Publicly
• President vs Avengers
• CEO Quickfire
(servant-leaders are great participants)
• CEO Spotlight
23. 23
Recognition Key Takeaways
CROWD SOURCED
POWER OF PEER RECOGNITION
LINEBACKERS VS QUARTERBACKS
WHO HELPED YOU SUCCEED?
POWER OF STORIES
CREATES EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
CREATE SYSTEM OF DESIRED BEHAVIOR
CONSISTENCY VS INTENSITY
Notes de l'éditeur
Personal intro: John Hilliard, Software Engineer.
Creds: I’ve been involved with our recognition programs and avengers for many years
What I’m talking about: Our journey… We’ve gone 180 from how we started
Won’t get full ownership or GAS from your EE’s in business unless you’re fully investing in them. 3 ways we invest in culture of GAS
Strategic investment in EE’s. Food is a baseline investment we take seriously here at NxJ
Community – shared experiences – creating opportunities for people to be doing things together
Recognition – John will go in deeper
A few ways we invest in strategic perks
For Top 10 winners, MV21, etc. there are additional investments including personal fitness sessions, leadership coaching sessions.
Goal: making the healthy choice the easy choice
Breakfast every morning
Snacks across office – healthy drinks, snacks, fruits
Take a fitness class -> fitness lunch
Dinner every night
Was healthy when I was in college. 145 pounds in this picture. 2 years later I gained over 40 pounds. Hard to sleep at night, unhappy, unpleasant to work with. Health-wise, cholesterol skyrocketed.
2 years ago I started owning food in Boston office. I had most to gain from it succeeding.
Last picture is where I am today. Healthier, happier, but still working hard to bring my cholesterol down.
Food is a big responsibility. Not someone’s full time job. Food is owned by NxJers as part of culture.
Practice making judgement calls - keeping it healthy and delicious. You’re taking care of your employees.
Food is practice ground for accountability. Opportunity to show you are accountable, can be trusted.
in military, everyone goes through boot camp
Recruits bond through their shared suffering
We’re a tech company. Our version of it is our annual dance competition
2 months every year come together as office to dance together. Ups and downs, but we do it together.
For me this year - being able to share a victory with your office brings you that much closer together (5 years since we won)
in military, everyone goes through boot camp
Recruits bond through their shared suffering
We’re a tech company. Our version of it is our annual dance competition
When I started… Impressions of the award
Fitness Competition… Many years struggled for participation
Fitness competition, story with Nellen. Reached a new standard. So proud to recognize Nellen.
Surprise narratives:
- Only reason he got the award is because he’s the manager’s pet…
- Or the only reason he got it was because he was a slave driver and forced everyone
Despite the best intentions and despite the really great work by John, but the rest of his team felt demotivated and not recognized.
A few years later… This is me and my mom on the day that I won the avengers award.
It works totally differently….
My impressions on stage:
Celebrating who you are vs what you’ve done… It wasn’t just about achievement
Let me try to distill of the differences and what we’ve learned over the years
All of our awards were management drive before. Now they are all crowd sourced.
Originally recognized the star performers.
Intensity didn’t really change the behavior