In 2013, media firm Thomson Reuters took a big risk; they decided to stop driving growth through acquisition and start driving growth through innovation. While acquisitions had been the company’s main source of growth for years, they were proving to be too costly. Instead, Thomson Reuters decided to tap into a huge source of growth potential: its own employees.

The firm developed something called the Catalyst Fund, which gave employees a platform to present their ideas in front of a panel of company executives (and secure funding to explore them), including the CEO himself. The results from their Shark Tank-esq program was the ability to tap into a bank of creativity that was at their fingertips the whole time. Employees began creating new products and innovating in the realm of organization, saving the company time and money with innovative process improvements. This wasn’t just good news for the company; employees became more engaged, as their voices were heard, helping lead the company to new heights.

Thomson Reuters transformed their company culture to enhance innovation. Unfortunately, not many organizations see the same benefit of transforming their culture to embrace innovation.

According to a report from the National Science Foundation, just 14 percent of U.S. companies are considered product or process innovators. While this low number isn’t exactly inspiring, it’s not surprising either, achieving true innovation takes hard work. There are plenty of hurdles that companies face when they try to innovate, time constraints and budget issues among them.

One of the biggest hurdles to innovation, however, the organization’s attitude toward innovation; the tendency to kill ideas before they even get the chance to develop into something worth pursuing. And it’s a more pervasive issue than most companies even realize.

But before we dive into what’s flatlining your organization’s ability to innovate, let’s take a closer look at what we mean when we say “innovation.”

What Is Innovation?

There’s a common misconception about innovation: Innovation is not just about coming up with new ideas, that’s called ideation; and while it’s an important part of innovation, it’s just that: one part. Think of innovation as a process, where you start by identifying the issue and then move on to coming up with ideas, creating and implementing an action plan, and finally achieving, and measuring results. In sum, the process of innovation involves:

• Defining the issue
• Ideation
• Action
• Results

Innovation is all about making something better by doing it in a new or different way. The first step is ideation, or coming up with new ideas’ you’ll never see the results stage if you don’t start at ideation. getting new or different results.

There are two sides to supporting innovation, and it is important to evaluate which side your team falls on. There are innovation killers: they name everything that’s wrong with an idea, without acknowledging an idea’s benefits or offering alternatives.  And there are innovation enhancers: who will acknowledge the merit of the idea and then encourage the team to brainstorm ways to make it work. Which side does your team fall on? Check out the common tactics of innovation killers and innovation enhancers and see which sounds like the more familiar refrain in your company.

Stifling Ideation: Common Innovation Killers

“It’s too expensive”

The team has been brainstorming new ideas that give some team members sticker shock. An innovation killer will dismiss the idea based on the price tag alone.

“You don’t know all the facts”

Sharing ideas with a team puts the idea sharer in a vulnerable place—at a company full of innovation killers, it’s an invitation for scrutiny and judgment. An innovation killer creates an atmosphere in which team members feel uncomfortable sharing, out of fear of ridicule. An innovation killer is all around negative about any new idea or change, even when it comes down to body language and tone of voice. The result: Ideation halts altogether. What’s more, the innovation killer doesn’t just object to new ideas—they make their objections personal, focusing on what’s wrong with the idea sharer, rather than the idea itself. That’s destructive for true innovation.

“I like it in theory, but it’s not very practical”

An innovation killer expects an idea to be fully formed when shared with the group. This, of course, is an unrealistic expectation—and a dangerous one at that. When colleagues feel that they can’t share their ideas until they’ve addressed every angle (like practicality), the ideation process will move at a snail’s pace.

“That’ll rock the boat”

An innovation killer, essentially, is scared. Scared to make a splash, take a risk, and possibly face criticism for it. An innovation killer doesn’t want to rock the boat—not realizing that that’s exactly what leads to real, life-changing innovation. They are chained to old ways, unsure of how to (or unwilling to) break free.

“Just to play devil’s advocate…”

Playing devil’s advocate may seem like a way to examine an idea from another perspective. But if someone on the team is playing devil’s advocate “just because,” it’s a diversion tactic, not an authentic effort to improve upon an idea. An innovation killer only looks at the negatives of an idea, doing so to the point that playing devil’s advocate becomes a game of wasting time.

Fostering Creativity: Innovation Enhancers

“How do we make it work?”

Every new idea can and will be met with some type of objection. To move forward in the innovation process, though, you must turn an objection into exploration. Saying that an idea is “too expensive,” for example, shouldn’t be the end of the idea but rather the beginning. Either finesse the idea until it overcomes objections or set aside the idea only after your team has determined there’s no way around the objection (and that the objection is a deal breaker).

“Building on that idea…”

An innovation enhancer is encouraging while still acknowledging—respectfully—that an idea needs work. For example, it’s very possible that someone may share an idea without knowing all the facts (that’s why working in teams is a smart approach in the first place). Rather than attack the team member for “daring” to speak up, an innovation enhancer will add their knowledge to the idea, positively steering the ideation session in the right direction while sharing vital information in the process.

“What about reshaping it?”

An innovation enhancer knows that truly great ideas hardly ever start out that way—they undergo lots of massaging, revisions, and input from the group to finally become great. That’s precisely why brainstorming sessions and team meetings exist: to help move good ideas from the realm of “theory” to practical, action-oriented ideas that get results. To get there, an innovation enhancer will encourage the team to look at a seed of an idea with fresh eyes and different perspectives to determine if that seed can truly grow into something more.

Keep in mind, though, that someone who encourages and validates every single idea shared in the group may seem like an innovation enhancer—but that’s really not the case. It’s crucial that ideas are examined carefully before being pursued further. But even “bad” ideas can inspire new ones, which is why an innovation enhancer shifts the ideation conversation, rather than just shutting it down altogether.

“How can we get senior management on board?”

An innovation enhancer knows taking risks when it comes to dreaming up big ideas is necessary—but they are also realistic about the pushback that a risky idea may attract. That’s when an innovation enhancer switches to “strategy” mode. For example, if an idea doesn’t seem like it will pass muster with senior management, an innovation enhancer will work with the team to figure out how to frame the idea so that it’s appealing from management’s perspective, like illustrating how the idea is linked to business goals. Not to mention, senior management at a company with a high-performing, innovative culture won’t be afraid of a little “boat rocking” from time to time. Innovative leaders know that taking risks is a part of the innovation game—as long as their teams fail early and learn from their unsuccessful risks.

“Let’s come up with more good ideas like this one”

An innovation enhancer understands that good ideas tend to snowball—once a team gets on an idea streak, the good ideas can keep flowing. Creativity begets creativity. Going through the process of coming up with an idea activates your brain; the more you work on ideation, the more active your brain becomes. Pointing out every little thing that’s wrong with an idea just for the sake of playing devil’s advocate can throw off the whole group’s ideation groove, halting the creative process. If a group seems like it’s on a roll, an innovation enhancer will encourage the team members to keep on rolling, aware that they can submit their best ideas to greater scrutiny at a later time.

Innovation killers may be more subtle—and more pervasive—than just a single team member who’s resistant to innovation. Seemingly high-performing employees may have a block when it comes to innovation. Often, innovation killers even come from the top, particularly in workplace cultures that unwittingly discourage innovation. Luckily, innovation can be taught, and organizational cultures can be transformed when innovation is linked directly to results.

Obvious news flash: Many decisions go into planning a corporate event, from finding the right location and determining menu selections to agenda constraints and giveaways or no giveaways. You even need to consider lighting. Before you can plan the details of your event, take time to brainstorm what will truly make it successful. These four tips will help you plan an event that’s memorable, informative, and dare I say, fun.

1. Determine the Goals of Your Corporate Event First

Educate, inform, drive behavior change, introduce, celebrate, or improve skills—these are all potential goals. Whatever you choose will drive the rest of your event planning, from your budget and venue choice to content and approach. Ensure the goal is strategically aligned with the company’s overall business goals, which will improve the chances that your executives are more eager to buy into your plans. Determining goals first also allows you and your team to clarify a plan of action for measuring event ROI, something else near and dear to the executives.

2. Incorporate a Fun, Relevant Theme

Pick a fun theme to excite and engage your participants throughout the event. You can even get them involved beforehand by asking them to  brainstorm ways they can come to the event fully immersed in the theme—outfits, bringing theme-related items, viewing related videos prior, or team-related pre-work. Themes don’t just present an opportunity to amp up excitement; they can also be used to make your corporate event feel more cohesive, especially if it spans multiple days. Weave elements of your theme throughout different activities to connect the dots for participants.

When you do decide to incorporate a theme into the event, make sure you pay close attention to the details. A half-hearted attempt at carrying out a theme may deflate participants more than it pumps them up, whereas a carefully considered and well-executed one sends the message that your company has invested time and energy into creating this event—and participants are expected to do the same.

3. Keep Participants Engaged with Immersive Activities

If one of the goals of your event is to teach participants new skills, explore training approaches that require active participation. Getting your participants out of their chairs and interacting with one another creates excitement throughout the event. Plus, participatory learning is often more effective in the long term for retention. When participants learn by doing, that knowledge stays with them much longer in comparison to passive learning strategies. We have all been there before and know it’s far easier for participants to “clock out” on a lecture or PowerPoint presentation than it is with an engaged a hands-on learning activity.

If you’re thinking about including immersive training activities at your event, be sure to consider experiential learning. In an experiential learning exercise, participants are tasked with working together to tackle a fun but challenging “project” and the skills needed to successfully complete the challenge are the same ones needed to succeed at work. One of the biggest benefits is that it teaches participants new skills and allows them to practice them during the same exercise. Allowing participants to practice in a conference setting, wherein they’re able to get immediate feedback from facilitators, gives them a chance to refine and perfect those skills before they use them on the job. Plus, experiential learning is a good fit for all types of learners, thereby making it ideal for events put on for a diverse workforce.

4. Invest in Retention Tools and Strategies

No corporate event should be a “one-and-done” affair. If it focuses on teaching participants new skills and information, make sure you have a plan in place to help participants remember the lessons learned. Some post-event retention tools may include:

• Online videos or webinars that serve as refreshers on event training
• Interactive online games that test participants’ knowledge and retention of key concepts
• Group discussions that explore the challenges and solutions addressed during the event
• Forums on which participants can post follow-up questions and discussions

Keeping retention in mind throughout the planning process also helps you design components that support long-lasting learning.

If you planned a particularly well-received corporate event before, let us know what elements you think contributed to its success.

Contents

• Empowered Culture
• Culture of Innovation
• Sales Culture
• Customer-Centric Culture
• Culture of Leadership Excellence
• Culture of Safety

Introduction

Whether they know it or not, every company has a culture. There are many different types of corporate culture. Some evolve naturally and some are intentional, but all of them fit the same definition. When we look at culture, we are looking at the sum-total of the behaviors of all employees; culture is defined by what the people of the organization do.  Culture is not to be confused with your company mission, vision, and values. The mission of the company sets the direction, whereas culture describes environment around how the mission is achieved, and values define what the culture will be.

So, why do you need to identify your corporate culture? There are a few important reasons:

• Operate with intention – Understanding both the type of culture you want and the type of culture you currently have will allow you to forge a path to get from Point A to Point B.
• Uncover gaps – When you evaluate your company culture, it allows you to identify areas that could be improved so you know where and how to take action.
• Identify opportunities – Similarly, taking the time for self-reflection can potentially highlight opportunities that you might be missing out on.

Examples of Corporate Culture

Just as people from across the globe live in different cultures, so do companies; and in some cases, even divisions within a company can have their own culture. Listed below are a few common corporate cultures you may wish to create at your organization.

1. Empowered Culture

The epitome of an empowered culture is when every individual in your organization feel fully engaged and actively participates in the success of the business. People initiate new activities that will benefit your company, take ownership of their work, and are willingly responsible for the outcomes.

People that thrive in an empowered corporate culture are those that are not afraid to take initiative and exhibit confidence in their decisions. Some of the benefits of fostering this type of culture include:

• Potential issues are identified and addressed before they become problems
• Employees feel comfortable coming to superiors with new ideas
• Individuals are engaged in making the organization better
• People feel accountable for their actions and take ownership of their ideas

2. Culture of Innovation

In some industries, innovation is highly valued and necessary for the ongoing success of the organization. A culture of innovation focuses not just on coming up with new ideas, but also on following a rigorous process to bring those ideas to fruition.

In a culture of innovation, having a diverse set of personalities will enable ideas to percolate more readily. While some people may be better at the creative elements of innovation, others may be more adept at implementing the processes to bring them to life. The benefits of developing this type of culture in an organization include:

• A unified commitment to innovation among all members of the organization
• Competitive advantage in the marketplace through ongoing innovation
• An environment where everybody feels comfortable communicating their ideas

3. Sales Culture

Creating a sales culture at your organization may signal that there is an underlying impetus to support the activities that generate revenue for your company. For companies with a large sales force, undergoing a culture transformation to focus on sales within that group can make them better able to promote new products and services, approach new markets, develop a sales process that is in line with your company’s values, and use the tools that will help them maximize sales.

The individuals who thrive in a sales culture tend to be focused on delivering the product or service that best meets customers’ needs. Implementing a sales culture at your organization can provide the following benefits:

• A salesforce that is fully informed about every product and service the company provides

• A commitment from all teams to support the salesforce as needed
• Accountability in committing to targets and trying to exceed those expectations

4. Customer-Centric Culture

A customer-centric culture is all about the consumers who buy your company’s products or services. This type of culture permeates your entire organization, including those who have no interactions with customers at all. Employees in a culture of customer centricity are empowered to see everything through the eyes of the customer and to make appropriate decisions based on their observations The benefits of a customer-centric culture include:

• Company-wide accountability in all aspects of work
• An increase in customer satisfaction
• A workforce committed to delivering an exceptional customer experience every time

5. Culture of Leadership Excellence

In a culture of leadership excellence, individuals at every level have confidence that company leaders are committed to continuous improvement. In turn, leaders demonstrate their commitment by participating in ongoing training, leadership development programs, mentoring, and coaching.

In this type of culture, individuals who have natural leadership tendencies will readily rise to the top. Perhaps more importantly, those individuals who have inherent leadership skills but are not aware of them will be recognized and nurtured to fill their natural role. A culture of leadership excellence benefits from:

• A robust leadership pipeline
• Better employee retention through internal employee development
• Strong leaders in every area of the organization

6. Culture of Safety

In industries that involve physical labor, heavy machinery, or hazardous materials, having a culture of safety means that you are committed to protecting the health and well-being of every individual. This includes having certain safety procedures in place, requiring specific behaviors, and ongoing training to ensure that everybody has all the necessary information to perform their job safely.

In a culture of safety, employees inherently protect not just themselves, but also their colleagues. The benefits of a culture of safety include:

• Fewer incidents and associated cost savings
• A universal feeling that employee safety is valued by the organization
• A proactive approach to safety and compliance

It is important to note that each of these types of corporate culture does not necessarily have to stand alone; there can be crossover. For example, you can have an empowered culture that is also committed to customer centricity.

Which type of culture best fits your company? Which culture do you want for your organization? If these two answers don’t align, it’s time to start planning your transformation. Culture transformation is challenging, but it is possible. When done right, you can achieve lasting behavioral changes that will propagate for the life of the company. Are you ready for a change?

The overarching goal for healthcare organizations is to deliver patient care that heals and saves lives. With advances in technology and a highly skilled workforce to deliver exceptional patient care, healthcare organizations also need a highly engaged workforce that is productive and committed, in order to reduce turnover and gain a higher patient satisfaction. In fact, in a study conducted by Gallup of 200 hospitals, it was found that the engagement level of nurses was the number one variable correlating to reduced patient mortality, even more important than the number of nurses per patient. In other words, patient outcomes improve when employees in healthcare are engaged with their job.

While it can be challenging to tackle employee engagement in healthcare, it is a realistic and achievable goal. The key is to focus not on engaging those that are disengaged, but to focus any efforts on improving the engagement of those who already are engaged. There are three ways you can begin to increase employee engagement in your organization:

1. Deploy Employee Engagement Assessments and Use the Data to Make Changes
2. Provide Training for Leaders
3. Create Opportunities for Mentorship and Coaching for New Employees

Now, let’s discuss these in more detail.

1. Deploy Employee Engagement Assessments and Use the Data to Make Changes

The data and results these assessments show have the potential to identify and execute improvements related to employee engagement. However, the issue is often too much measurement with too little action. To highlight this point, 80% of executives say high engagement (the employee experience) is critical to their organization, yet only 22% have a plan on how to improve it. If healthcare employees are to feel that their opinions are valued and it was not a waste of their time, actionable steps must be taken.

2. Provide Leadership Training

According to a study conducted by Gallup, leaders account for at least 70% of the variance in team engagement. So while the importance of technical skill programs is not to be underestimated, a great deal of the patient and employee engagement has a human element involved. By training leaders with people skills, such as communication, conflict management, and collaboration, they are more likely to be successful for their employees and patients. These skills are also important so healthcare leaders can work through any challenging situations and provide the best customer service to their patients.

3. Create Opportunities for Mentorship and Coaching for New Employees

The most engaged nurses have only been on the job less than six months. In those months they are enrolled in a carefully crafted onboarding program and are just beginning to familiarize themselves with the culture and the job. When this time comes to an end, engagement begins to fall.

Counteract this with a program that gives them coaching, networking, and mentoring opportunities. When employees in healthcare are paired with people that have a track record of success, they can learn valuable lessons about the nuances of the job and the organization they are just beginning to work for. Mentorship also allows for further on-the-job observation and in-the-moment coaching so questions or challenges can be handled effectively and efficiently.

Conclusion

For healthcare employees, excessive or unpredictable overtime, a stressful workload, and lack of workplace flexibility can all contribute to low engagement. Though you can increase employee engagement in healthcare, improve retention rates, and improve patient outcomes, by starting with these three things.

Many B2B organizations recognize the importance of focusing on customer experience in order to drive results and growth—being customer centric is simply good for business. Despite this, most companies are not quite there yet. According to Forrester, only 23 percent of B2B companies have embraced a customer centric approach to their organizational structures. Becoming a customer centric organization may seem like an overwhelming challenge, but making the investment in this culture shift is worth it. When striving to become a more customer-centric company, consider the following strategies to ensure success.

Create Corporate Clarity

Building a culture of customer centricity requires a clear vision and set of values to create a shared foundation. These ideals must be reflected in the actions, behaviors, and thoughts of both leaders and employees when making decisions. The message of customer centricity should be distributed clearly and consistently throughout the organization via meetings, everyday conversations, emails, and company message boards over a sustained period of time. Throughout the transformation to a customer centric culture, reiterate the vision in multiple ways and make it part of the company’s DNA to keep people motivated and engaged.

It’s also important to recognize that just spreading the vision of customer centricity is not enough to create lasting change. It’s essential that every person sees their part in the vision and knows what individual changes they need to make in order for it to become reality.

You’ve heard about the importance of company culture and how it can both attract new employees while keeping current ones engaged. However, you might still be wondering what exactly makes up company culture, why is it important, and does my own company even have a defined culture?

Company culture may seem like a vague and elusive concept, yet there are several ways to define it. Here are four keys to understanding your organization’s culture and the necessary criteria to determine whether yours may need to evolve.

Key 1: Recognize That You Do Have Company Culture

Every organization has company culture, whether intentionally cultivated or not. In short, it refers to the combination of values, goals, ethics, and expectations that govern and influence employee behaviors. If negative behaviors have been left to develop unchecked, with no guidance or direction, then yes, a company culture that supports bad habits may have taken root.

Simply put: There’s no blank slate when it comes to company culture. If you’re envisioning a specific kind—for instance, a customer-centric one—it’s not enough to simply announce that vision. You must first figure out what (and how) current behaviors need to shift in order to develop a roadmap to achieve those changes. That’s why it’s so important to define your current company culture before you try to steer it in a new direction.

Key 2: Analyze Your Company’s Priorities

If you want to better understand your culture, look at your company’s priorities. These goals and initiatives reveal what your organization values and what it does not (both explicitly and implicitly). Questions to ask yourself about company priorities may include:

• Do your employees hear more about increasing the bottom line or increasing customer satisfaction?
• Does your company give employees the freedom to experiment and innovate when it comes to solving problems, or is following protocol more important?
• Is taking calculated risks seen as a distraction or opportunity?
• How much (or how little) does your company invest in ongoing training efforts, both in terms of money and time?
• When your company considers adopting certain efforts or changes, are the thoughts and feelings of both leadership and employees considered?

Exploring questions like this can give you clues as to what kind of culture your company has cultivated. Is it one with a workforce that’s empowered, engaged, and encouraged to innovate and improve? Or a culture where the bottom line is often prioritized? If your company’s priorities give you pause, it may be time to explore a culture transformation.

Key 3: Inquire About Company Culture

Your company culture is made up of behaviors, those that are encouraged, permitted, and hindered. To understand what kind makes up your organization, it’s best to go directly to the source: your employees.

Consider ways to get feedback on which behaviors currently serve the company well and which need to be discouraged or changed to elevate your organization. Gather feedback from all levels of employees, from executives to front-line managers. Surveys, company-wide assessments, and focus groups can all help create a clearer picture of the behaviors that define your current company culture. Again, the key is to engage every employee as you ask for feedback because the sum total of all employee contributions and behaviors are what make up your culture.

Key 4: Look to Your Leaders

While every employee contributes to company culture, leaders have more impact and influence. Examine the messages your leadership team puts forth, and whether action follows those words. Leadership may espouse values and a mission that excites employees, but if leadership itself doesn’t “walk the walk,” their behavior can contribute to a culture of distrust and disengagement. Culture starts from the top down, and your leadership sets the tone for what’s permissible and encouraged in your company and what’s not.

After examining your culture using the four keys listed, where do you think your company culture needs a tune-up—or is a complete culture transformation in order?

A big part of any leader’s job is to persuade others. Sometimes it’s to get everyone on board with their vision for the organization. But often, the persuasion is more subtle, such as when inspiring an individual to strive to reach their fullest potential.

Regardless of the end goal, when leaders understand how to use persuasion in their communications, they can be more thoughtful and intentional about their language and, ultimately, be more effective. Consider these five factors to improve your persuasion skills every time you communicate.

Approach

When trying to persuade others, it is useful to begin by making sure they have the facts and information that led you to the position you are trying to champion. This can include stories and lessons learned in previous situations, data related to the current landscape, and any emerging trends that can help predict future direction. When you show people how you arrived at your vision, you have more credibility, and people are more likely to get onboard.

Timing

Timing is everything when it comes to persuading others. By considering what else is going on in the organization or in an individual’s specific situation, you will find it easier to identify times when people will be more approachable and receptive to new ideas. Because gaining alignment is a two-way process, it is also often better to address specific topics face-to-face and with more time than you think you might need. This allows you to read the situation, connect with how people seem to be interpreting your message, and provide opportunities to explore the vision through questions and open discussion.

Trust

The amount of information shared correlates with the level of trust between a leader and the people they are trying to persuade. In situations where it is necessary to build trust, providing more information earlier leads to a higher degree of trust. Delivering information in digestible chunks allows time for it to sink in. Receiving information is also critical to build mutual trust, so hone your listening skills and learn how to elicit feedback.

Keep in mind that if there is a high degree of mistrust early in the process, too much information delivered too early can backfire. First address the reasons for the trust issues, and then provide more information as the relationship evolves.

Predictability

When persuading others, the final outcome has to be reasonably predictable to both sides in order to get to the same conclusion. When two parties start with two different sets of expectations, the gap between them should be narrowed incrementally over time. This serves to build trust and results in an outcome that is acceptable to all concerned.

Mutual Benefit

The final piece of the persuasion puzzle is mutual benefit. Ensure that both parties gain something from the decisions made and that everybody feels that the encounter was successful. As you approach the deadline or the final outcome, make sure that you can see what the other person will gain from it. Keep track of these gains and share them along the way so that it’s clear how they are benefitting from being persuaded to your view. This also helps to generate buy-in throughout the process.

Persuasion Is a Key Communication Skill

The art of persuasion is not about learning sales tactics. It’s about communicating effectively to convince others to adopt your position or share your perspective and feel good about it. By understanding what others want and need—information, time, trust, and so on—leaders can be more persuasive, whether inspiring an individual to do their best or rallying an entire organization to support their vision. To learn more about how you can be more persuasive as a leader, read our Guide to Mastering Communications in the Workplace.

Leaders are often responsible for implementing change, promoting a new approach, generating enthusiasm for a given course of action, solving a problem, or seizing an opportunity. All of these actions have one thing in common: they require conviction. Can a person be a leader without conviction? Possibly, but they can’t be a great leader who motivates and inspires others to change. Although senior leadership sets the strategy and the course for the organization, it is up to mid-level leaders and supervisors to execute it. Without conviction from leadership, it is difficult to maintain the momentum necessary to capture hearts and minds at every level.

Put simply, conviction is a prerequisite of effective leadership. Let’s discuss why.

Conviction Breeds Results

Conviction serves as the foundation for any type of initiative, whether it’s changing a culture or executing a strategy. When an initiative starts without conviction, the team often has to double back and reassess, reducing productivity and delaying deadlines. On the other hand, when leadership has personal conviction about the plan, they are far better able to lead their team and instill the same conviction in their employees.

Conviction allows individuals and teams to overcome obstacles when they arise because they have a strong belief in what they’re doing, regardless of the struggles and challenges faced along the way. Without this conviction, obstacles can quickly become permanent barriers to success. Conviction also sparks passion, which is a great energizer because passion and energy are infectious to those around you. Conviction helps overcome resistance, both external and internal. Resistance comes in many forms, but having a foundation of conviction allows you to persevere in the face of it.

All of these benefits of having conviction—overcoming obstacles, sparking passion, and overcoming resistance—lead to results.

A Formula for Conviction

Although it’s true that conviction can come naturally to some leaders, it is also a concept that can be taught and nurtured. From a kernel of passion, conviction can be fully developed by ensuring that these four elements are present:

1. Knowledge

Conviction must be built on a foundation of knowledge. This can come from a variety of sources, such as research, observation, experience, and judgment. Leaders must have deep subject matter knowledge to support initiatives that require conviction, whether it’s a product launch, culture change, or market expansion. Without this solid foundation, there is very little to build upon. Knowledge lays the groundwork for conviction because it gives a reason, most often based on data and metrics, for change.

2. Passion

Passion is the essential element of conviction that enables leaders to inspire others. Passion is persuasive and it has the power to ignite conviction because building an inner fire helps light the fires of those around you. However, in order to be effective, it must be genuine, deep, and heartfelt. Passion is the emotional element of conviction. It gives people a reason to care about the greater strategy. One way leaders use passion to get their employees to care is by relating how achieving a shared goal will affect them on a personal level.

3. Purpose

In order for a leader’s conviction to transmit to others in the organization, there must be a clear understanding of the reasons, rationale, and benefits of the expected outcome.

• Reasons demonstrate why we are taking a specific action or adopting a certain approach.
• Rationale explains why we were motivated to take action. This serves as a window into the leader’s thinking that led to their personal convictions.
• Benefits describe the value of this course of action and what consequences we should expect.

Passion alone will not keep others excited about initiatives; there must also be a purpose. Purpose is the logical, intellectual element of conviction. It gives everyone something to work toward and a basis for holding each other accountable, even when things get tough.

4. Belief

Leaders don’t always know for certain that the approach they are taking is the right one, but a key element of conviction is that they believe that it is. However, belief can’t stand alone when building conviction. It’s not enough to just feel that something is a good idea; it has to be backed up with knowledge, passion, and purpose. Without the belief that a new, different future is possible, conviction can fall flat. Leaders must believe that the untested, unproven, untried approach will work because they can visualize its success. Belief is the visionary element of conviction.

Proceed with Conviction

All four of these elements are necessary for conviction in leadership. Without one, the others can falter. The combination of knowledge, passion, purpose, and belief is a powerful one, and the leaders who master it will drive organizations to success. When a leader shows conviction that they’ve chosen the best course of action, they create certainty in everyone who follows them and allow them to absorb this belief and the accompanying emotional state. The next time you find yourself in a position of leading change in your organization, ask yourself if you have the knowledge, passion, purpose, and belief to inspire others to follow you.

Employee development is a high priority for many organizations because it helps increase engagement, build loyalty, and achieve organizational goals. The types of training available to companies as part of an employee development strategy are countless, from self-directed online courses to immersive multi-day experiences. Using multiple training approaches helps ensure that you reach all types of learners and allows you to maximize your training budget.

Including experiential learning in your development program offers several important benefits, such as:

• Driving conviction to change behaviors
• Connecting conceptual ideas to actual situations in the workplace
• Delivering a fun and engaging training experience for employees
• Producing measurable results and the ability to track progress
• Providing a training framework that can be used in multiple areas

Let’s dig deeper into each of these benefits so you can see how experiential training can support your professional development strategy.

Drives Conviction

The main objective of any training initiative is to change behaviors in order to achieve a specific outcome. If participants are not aware of that outcome or not invested in accomplishing it, they are less likely to change their behaviors.

Experiential learning starts by building conviction so that participants learn not only how to do something in a new way, but also why it matters. They see the positive effects of using their new skills in the training environment and become motivated to test them in the real world because they have both the confidence that it will make a difference and the conviction to make the effort that will lead to change.

Connects Concepts to the Workplace

Many training formats effectively teach new concepts, but do not provide a safe environment to practice applying those concepts. For example, a classroom-based lecture about leadership skills can enhance the knowledge of participants, but that doesn’t mean they will know how to apply new skills in the real world.

Experiential learning is different because participants not only learn new concepts and skills, they also have the opportunity to try them in a scenario that indirectly mimics their reality. Because the scenarios are metaphors, many people don’t realize they are learning new work skills until the debrief at the end of the training. At this point, a facilitator guides a discussion that prompts participants to make strong connections between the lessons they learned in the activity and similar scenarios on the job.

Participants Have Fun

Employee development is serious business, but that doesn’t mean training has to be dry or boring. The importance of engaging participants during training cannot be understated. If they are not paying attention, they simply will not learn what you need them to.

Experiential learning fully immerses participants, making the full length of training fun and engaging. They aren’t interested in checking their phones because they want to solve the next challenge or see if they can improve their team’s results in the next round. Being fully engaged means that participants are more likely to absorb the information being presented to them, and because they are doing something that has immediate consequences, the experience is much more meaningful.

Provides Measurable Results

Training ROI is a high priority for anybody working with an employee development budget. Collecting feedback surveys or testing participants after a seminar is one way to gauge training results, but these methods do not guarantee long-term behavior change.

Experiential learning provides some of the best results of any type of training program because participants retain more information when they learn by doing. The learning decay curve shows that most people forget up to 70 percent of what they learned within the first week of learning it. Experiential learning, especially when combined with a retention strategy, helps overcome learning decay by instilling conviction, connecting the training concepts to actual behaviors in the workplace, and giving participants a common experience to reference.

Can Be Applied across a Wide Variety of Topics

Some training methods are better than others for certain topics or types of learners. For example, learning new software should include hands-on training. Similarly, digital training platforms are not always effective for people who are not comfortable using new technology without assistance.

Experiential learning can be used to teach to a broad spectrum of skills and competencies. Whether you want to teach time management to every employee or leadership skills to rising stars, experiential learning will produce results. Participants of every age and experience level benefit from this type of training. Programs can be customized to your organization, and even specific teams, so that they incorporate the company culture and internal language that will resonate with participants.

Next Steps: Adding Experiential Training to Your Development Initiatives

Experiential training has quickly become a favorite among HR and training professionals, as well as employees, because it creates conviction, connects the training experience to the real world, and delivers measurable results. Not to mention it’s fun and engaging, and can used to train a variety of topics, including leadership, customer centricity, and sales effectiveness. As you design your employee development initiatives, incorporate multiple types of learning methodologies, and be sure to include experiential training.

As more companies are asking what it takes to provide a customer experience that will set them apart, people are getting hung up on definitions and feeling unsure of where to concentrate their efforts. To differentiate themselves, organizations need to adopt a customer-centric mindset. But how is that different from providing excellent customer service?

What is the Difference Between Customer Service and Customer Centricity?

Customer service is what happens at the front line between someone receiving a product or service, and the business that is providing it. In B2C organizations, this includes the interactions between the paying customer and the business. In B2B companies, customer service most often happens between the end users at the organization making the purchase (individuals and departments), and the provider of the product or service (most often the sales and customer service departments).

Then, what is customer centricity? Customer centricity is a value that informs the behavior of the entire organization. It involves every individual at every level of the organization operating under the assumption that everything they do has the potential to affect the overall experience of the customer. Customer centricity includes customer service, but it doesn’t begin or end with frontline staff. Instead, a customer-centric organization considers the entire customer journey, and anticipates customer needs beyond the single transaction.

Adopting a customer-centric culture can have a tremendous impact on the organization and its employees. In fact, researchers at Forrester found that employees at 93 percent of customer-centric companies are happy to work there, compared to only 20 percent of employees at companies that are less focused on the customer experience. In addition, 95 percent of customer-centric companies said their customers are satisfied with their products and services, compared to only 46 percent of other companies. Meanwhile, a Walker study found that even a moderate improvement to the customer experience can impact the revenue of a $1 billion company by an average of $775 million over three years.

With such an impact on employees, customers, and the organization’s bottom line, it’s easy to see why more companies are putting a focus on customer centricity.

What Do Customer-Centric Organizations Do Differently?

Adopting a culture of customer centricity can be a major shift in mindset for some organizations. By definition, it requires the organization to put the customer at the center of business decisions, and work together to consider the total customer experience at all times. Here are just a few of the ways that customer-centric organizations approach work differently:

1. Place the customer at the heart of all decisions and actions

Customer-centric organizations don’t just promise excellent customer service. They define the customer experience they wish to provide and create policies, frameworks, and procedures to make it happen.

2. Empower individual employees

Customer-centric organizations make sure that every individual knows they can take action to impact the customer experience, and that they know the balance between personal judgment and corporate policy when taking such action. These organizations inspire accountability within their workforces; by giving people the ability to do what needs to be done, each individual is able to take ownership of their part in the customer experience.

3.Communicate effectively

Customer-centric organizations break down silos. They understand that the flow of information between departments and functions has a huge impact on the customer experience – especially when something that “looks good” for the customer’s experience when examined in isolation actually causes friction when considered in the context of the entire customer journey. Open communication helps everyone understand and create the desired customer experience.

4. Obsessed over data

Customer-centric organizations seek out data and use it to improve the customer experience. They watch the market and emerging trends in order to anticipate evolving customer needs. They obtain permission to use customer information to personalize individual interactions. They examine referral rates, customer satisfaction surveys, online reviews, and so on, to understand how effective the organization’s customer experience initiatives really are.

Consider Customer Centricity a Journey

Customer centricity is so much more than just providing good customer service, and becoming a customer-centric organization doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a shift in mindset, new policies, and changes in behavior across the organization. To learn more about customer centricity, the impact it can have on your organization, and how to make the shift, check out Eagle’s Flight founder and CEO, Phil Geldart’s book, Customer Centricity: A Present and Future Priority.