Are you unwittingly brewing a flat company culture?
With news that a midwestern natural gas pipeline closure next month could put the flow of Anheuser-Busch products in jeopardy just as holiday parties get into full swing, this live episode of The Energy Detox will help you examine how well your company's approach to engagement and team-building—including parties with open bars, of course—reflects the culture you think/hope you're brewing.
The headline: 𝐁𝐮𝐝𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐓𝐋 𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬 (by Jim Willis of Marcellus Drilling News)
The goal: to (𝐆)𝐫𝐨𝐰, (𝐏)𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐒)𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:
💡 In what ways can you extend your employee engagement growing season?
💡 How might letting your guard down actually protect your reputation?
💡 Is your current bag of team-building tricks unsustainable...if not antithetical to your organization's DEI intentions?
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Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
Hello and welcome to another edition of the energy detox a petroleum based blend of leadership conversations guaranteed to boost your professional and personal output by flushing away the hidden and often toxic barriers to peak performance. I'm your host, Joe Sinnott, a chemical engineer, executive coach and 16 year energy industry veteran helping you tap into the same resources fueling today's most successful and sustainable leaders. And today, we're gonna talk about how some of those leaders are better than others at recognizing what it takes to build a better culture to build engagement and morale and pull people together. And again, this is very common topic among the leadership development world in the Human Resources world, especially in light of the last 18 months where many companies are trying to figure out how to do that differently. How do you build culture? How do you maintain culture? How do you sustain everything that was working before the pandemic in an age where people are in many ways, disconnected, disconnected, physically disconnected mentally with everything else that might have been going on in their lives, even as they are more connected in some ways from a digital standpoint. And to drive this conversation, we're going to talk about the fact that we are now after Halloween, which means that we are in full swing when it comes to holiday party preparation. The Christmas decorations are in most stores right now. Most companies already have on the calendar, some sort of holiday party if they're going to do something in person. Certainly industry organizations have their holiday parties already scheduled out and I know internally in our family, again, the conversations are happening on which weekends, we're gonna get together and celebrate Christmas this year. So things are in full swing. However, there are some potential kinks and plans this year, especially if you happen to be a fan of any Anheuser Busch products, because and as our Busch based in St. Louis, went ahead and announced recently that the threat to the spire STL pipeline that carries natural gas to the St. Louis area could mean that come December, they might have some issues from a supply chain standpoint, moving their products, because many of their trucks run on compressed natural gas. And if the flow of gas is interrupted, they might have issues fueling their trucks. And of course, if they have issues flowing, they're fueling their trucks, they're gonna have issues, fueling the the needs and the demands of their clientele. So with that being said, we have this Thirsty Thursday edition of the energy detox, where we're going to use that pipeline story there from the Midwest as an excuse to talk about holiday parties. And we're going to build on some of the commentary that is included in the article that we link to today in the show notes. And that comes from Marcellus, drilling news, where Jim Wallace has always does a very good job with some some pithy comments to again, point out how impactful it is, when you try to shut down the flow of reliable, affordable, plentiful energy. And again, this doesn't just apply to beer. Of course, this applies to everyone in the St. Louis area, so much so that even the, you know, left leaning mayor of St. Louis said, Hey, we need this natural gas, we're not just talking about beer, of course, we're talking about heating people's homes. And the very real possibility that if this natural gas flow is interrupted, if this pipeline, which has been in service for two years is not allowed to continue, then there's going to be dire consequences. And now, building on yesterday's conversation about being overly dramatic, and building in too much doom and gloom, I will say that, at least in my personal opinion, and based on reading various articles, not just the Marcellus drilling news article,
03:57
I'd say the odds are pretty good that the pipeline will continue flowing. But for the purposes of today's conversation, we are going to assume that things might not always be flowing as smoothly as possible, from a figurative standpoint, when it comes to the tips and the tricks and the tools that you're using to maintain engagement and to build your culture. And so with that being said, we're going to jump into the first question today, which is, in what ways can you extend your employee engagement growing season? And by that, I mean, what ways can you ensure that you're engaging employees, you're motivating them, you're building morale, 12 months out of the year, and again, it's a noble goal it gets talked about, but it also gets lost in the normal cycles of performance appraisement periods and bonus periods. And, again, of course, you know, holiday season, and the parties that ensue and some of the normal milestones that occur that lead to some ups and downs and engagement and morale and visibility at times between the higher ups in an organization and You know, they're, you know, everyone else along down the line. And so the question for you is, in what ways can you extend those seasons, if you feel that there is a rush of excitement and enjoyment when you guys have a Christmas party that that brings people together and perhaps brings in, in spouses and family members and, and really helps the company feel like a family? If that is a word that you use to describe your culture? Well, then again, how can you continue that throughout the rest of the year? But we're not just talking about, again, putting on parties and events and picnics and barbecues? You guys can brainstorm about that all you want. The bigger question is, how do you ensure that level of engagement and visibility that often occurs when you have events like that, where you might have senior management interacting again, with every rung in the organization, especially in a family environment, where people's guards are kind of brought down, and where they're able to have a more free flowing conversation and again, in turn, reveal things about themselves about their observations about the culture and about what's ultimately important to them to, to the stakeholders that can actually make some decisions. So all that being said, Ask yourself, in what ways are you limiting yourself to holiday parties, and other things that you were doing, again, pre pandemic that you're trying to replicate? Now in this in this new age, ask yourself, instead of maybe replicating some of those things, or trying to find the equivalent of a holiday party, if your company is still remote, or mostly remote or, or you have people scattered about? Don't just try to replicate what was there before? Because, again, there's many ways to achieve the same results. And most of them start with fostering an environment where you have normal human conversations and can ask questions. And Ken, as we move to the second question, can let your guard down. Because the ironic thing at times is in order to protect whatever culture you have, and then think you have, and assuming you think it's actually a good culture, despite what the statistics say, which is that you probably don't have as good a culture as you think. But in order to protect what's actually working, and to protect your reputation and your effectiveness as a leader, the ironic thing is that, in many ways, letting your guard down is one of the best ways to ensure that you can continue along a positive path and you can build upon that. So again, ask yourself, in what ways can you let your guard down more, and it doesn't just have to be at a party, it doesn't just have to be over a couple beers or drinks or whatever, whatever equivalent Anheuser Busch is pumping out from a from a carbonated hard alcohol standpoint. But all that being said, what other ways can you let your guard down? Can you come across as human? Can
07:34
you interact? And again, let me answer that question here, you probably have some ideas yourselves, but but that's the goal. And too many leaders that I work with, when they find themselves in a position where they're not connecting with their employees, or they're not connecting with their stakeholders. In some cases, even customers or board members or investors, whatever the case might be, many times not all the time, but many times it comes down to a lack of humanization. Many times it comes down to a lack of real genuine connection. And it doesn't have to be deep. You don't have to go besan hunting or go on some week long excursion somewhere with with your stakeholders, you don't need any of that many times you just need to pick up the phone and give a call. And I love hearing anecdotes from leaders who have done this, you know, well before the pandemic, when they probably could have popped into somebody's cube in some cases, actually just picking up the phone and calling is a much more effective way. You you get that a couple seconds of disarmament where you need to convince somebody that yes, you are reaching out to them. And no, you don't have any ulterior motive other than just maybe checking in or acknowledging something that they've done. But what ways can you do that? What ways can you replicate that without needing a full blown party without needing a free flow of Anheuser Busch products to to help people let their guard down from my, from texel toxicologic toxin making up words here anyway, regardless of your mechanism, ask yourself how you can let your guard down and how they might actually solidify and protect what you've already built to this point. And then finally, ask yourself if the bag of tricks that you're using, if you will, it's sustainable. And we've already talked about this a little bit in some of the other questions, but how might the things that you've been doing in the past actually no longer be relevant? And in fact, assuming that your organization is focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, are there things that you're doing that are undermining those? And again, it could be as simple you know, these conversations aren't meant to be terribly complicated. It could be as simple as the fact that you lean heavily on, you know, company golf outing, for example, ignoring the fact that many people don't call for, again, a clay shoot, or, again, coming back to the theme of this episode, something that involves drinking and not heavy drinking. Clearly, there's many different ways that you can be alienating folks and not allowing them to come into the fold. And again, this is overly simplistic. I don't need to tell you that. But the bigger question the deeper question that I often get to in conversations with people is, how might you be unwittingly alienating? People, how can you get to the people who have no interest in a party who have no interest in, quite frankly, engaging with other human beings? How can you extract from them the insights that you would like to gain and you need to gain from some of these holiday extravaganzas? Where, again, people's guards are down. And you can pick up tidbits and information that you can use not only to better the company, but to better your relationship with individuals within the company. How might you be putting on gatherings and get togethers again, you know, pick from a full list of things, whether it's an event, a top golf, or bowling, all good things, all things that you would assume should bring people out and at least bring the majority of people out to enjoy themselves. But many cases, it is those silent ones, those people who have no interest those people who don't show up, how are you connecting with them? Or are you just dismissing them? And if you're dismissing them is that running counter to your stated intentions when it comes to inclusion, and diversity, and equity. And from an equity standpoint, again, talking about equitable access to leaders, equitable access to the eyes and the ears of leaders who need and should want to get the opinions of those around you. And again, we've talked in other episodes about a times the effectiveness of corporate surveys and employee engagement exercises that, you know, bring people together. But nothing is more effective than engaging one on one with an individual. And if it's not in, again, a team building setting, then what can it be? How can you get those conversations doesn't have to be with everybody. But if you're not capturing at least a sizable portion of those people who have no desire to engage in activities that don't tickle their fancy, if you will, then ask yourself, how can you get to that point. And all that being said, as always, I appreciate your time and energy and, and your engagement with the energy detox podcast, we will continue doing these morning additions here at 630, Eastern Time and taking a relevant headline, or at least a quasi relevant headline and reading in energy industry themes, and most importantly, leadership themes to help you continue growing, protecting and sustaining success. And so with that,
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I welcome your feedback. As always, I encourage you to visit the energy detox.com For other episodes like this that are weaving in relevant topics and themes that I'm hearing in the people that I work with, that I'm seeing in the in the broader leadership world and of course, that are topical for you and for me, who support the energy industry. So with that being said, I hope you have a great rest of the day a great rest of the week. And if you happen to be in St. Louis, I hope that as you head into the home heating season, if not the the you know, start drinking at 5pm season because it's getting dark early. I do hope that the spire STL pipeline issues are resolved that things are able to keep flowing and that all of the doom and gloom issues that Budweiser and other companies within that region are claiming do not indeed come to fruition. So again, thank you as always and have a great rest of the day.