Building a positive organizational culture

Chamber Connect with Kent Fortune, Regional Vice President, USAA. Phantom Canyon, Colorado Springs March 6th, 2018

Kent Fortune (@USAA), the Chamber & EDC’s 2017 Business Citizen of the Year, defined culture as the glue or fabric of your organization and "the jaws of culture" as what "eats organization for breakfast." Employees will watch and mimic what you do, say and wear. He required his leadership team to wear shorts for one day in order to make the dress-code change already instituted but not observed actually put into effect.

However, Kent remarks that "culture is tough to change." If senior leaders don't change, the culture won't change. In today's world where the unemployment rate is really low, you need to adopt a compelling culture to attract top talent. He outlined key points needed to create a compelling culture:

• Mission Statement (that you're actually following) -- too many mission statements are written down but not remembered, let alone observed. Take your mission statement seriously
• Try Different Things -- the innovative atmosphere of the USAA campus has been key to retaining the talent the firm has worked so hard to attract. Improved communication is key. Kent reports spending the last few years fixing USAA's development plans which traditionally were viewed as a negative under the assumption that only employees with poor performance needed a plan to develop. But the revised development plan policy makes this often misunderstood HR tool into a genuine two-way street such that every employee gets a development plan and looks forward to making gains from following it.
• Take Leadership -- foster and reward independent thinking so that smart ideas rise to the top. Kent notes it's important to acknowledge good behavior because a leader must always call out bad behavior, and "The more deposits you can make, the better because there will be withdrawals along the way."
• Ethics -- Just as he said to the Colorado Springs Business Journal in June when USAA won the publication's prestigious Best in Business Award, Kent reiterated that, "Like the military, USAA operates with the core values of honesty, integrity, loyalty and service. Together with our mission, they drive our behaviors and underpin our dedication to serving our members whenever and wherever they need us today and in the future."