Getting your team to think like owners.

One question I hear a lot is how to build a team that thinks and acts like owners.

You know that type of self-accountability and care we dream of seeing people bring to the team?

The problem is, most business owners are waiting for it to just magically turn up instead of doing something about it.

Their strategy is 'hope' instead of looking at:

• Training
• Incentives
• Recruiting

But there's also another way that we stumbled upon by accident.

It's about creating an environment where emotional buy-in can happen naturally.

Let me explain…

Some of the best wins we’ve had trying to align our people and get them to unlock higher-level thinking have happened during offsite workshops.

A dedicated time and space to leave normal work behind and focus on something different.

The results have been unbelievable for us over the past few years but I remember the first few were far from perfect. 

• The presentations were clunky
• I was nervous to speak infront of the team
• The ‘corporate’ environment was a bit awkward for most.

But none of that mattered when it came time to solving problems together and sharing ideas. 

When we got around the right questions, something magic happened. 

People naturally shared similar (amazing) ways to solve problems we faced as a business.

We did the typical post-it note exercise; writing down our ideas and sticking them on the wall.

Reading them out demonstrated how aligned and committed we were to building something special.

Still to this day, I wish I started holding offsite workshops sooner in my business.

I didn’t because I thought we were too small.

I figured we could just meet at work and talk about it which was free and easy.

I was so wrong...

Getting away is often the key to solving your biggest problems.

And it doesn't have to be hard or expensive.

To help you get started, here’s how we launched them:

OFFSITE MEETINGS

We booked a room for about 6 of us in a shared office space not too far from our HQ.

Nothing fancy, but it was private and tidy.

The day before, we set the agenda:

To discuss and agree on the type of culture we wanted to build and live by.

We used a whiteboard and sticky notes to write words and sentences from everyone in the room around the following key questions:

1. What emotions do we want our customers to feel?
2. What behaviours will we reward in our team?
3. What behaviours will we punish?

Here’s what our first go looked like: 

Just doing a word dump helped start to uncover our company values and expected behaviours.

The reason they’re important is that they start to define your:

• Service
• Recruiting
• Incentives
• Recognition
• Performance 

But the biggest benefit is the clarity it brings for who you are as a team. 

There’s one thing to avoid during this time…

Don’t use generic terms that the business world has destroyed the meaning of. 

You know, things like: 

Integrity

Honesty

Quality

(YAWN!)

They’re so ambiguous and lame these days that they’ve lost all meaning (unfortunately).

Instead, uncover the reason or emotion behind those words and use that instead.

The next bit is about sticky stories. 

STICKY STORIES

It’s your job to find compelling stories inside your company that demonstrate these values and behaviours.

(If you can't find them then use stories from other businesses)

Stories are way stickier than a word or catchy phrase. 

For example, one of our values is generosity. 

On its own, it’s pretty ambiguous. 

But if I tell you about how a regular cafe client came in really upset one day after losing their favourite ceramic cup given to them by someone who’s no longer in their life.

And how our cafe team took the initiative to search the internet for another identical one, purchase it, and then present the customer their coffee using the cup on their next visit...

It's soooo much more compelling.

That customer nearly died of surprise and delight btw.

There's no way I could have fabricated something that good summing up generosity, kindness, curiosity and service to show our team what it means to be generous at Three Mills.

That’s a story that sticks with people.

Even new people joining us years later which is pretty powerful.

The good news is that you and your team have stories like this everywhere in your past. 

Ways to connect people to the meaning behind your values and why you made certain decisions to get to where you are.

Using them inside your business is one of the best ways to connect people to the behaviour you expect them to demonstrate and get them thinking like owners.

The next step is to recognise and reward for it. 

(but that’s the fun bit)

Let’s leave it there today.

I hope this helps you understand how to lay the foundations for building a team of people who think of the business as their own.

Have a great week!