May 27, 2024
Show Notes:
Lindsay McGregor discusses her
firm's focus on building high-performing organizations. She
explains that the highest performing organizations motivate people
in a specific way, unlocking play, purpose, and potential for the
problem they're solving. The firm trains leaders to be
inspirational and consults with organizations on designing their
operating models. She shares a story about how the firm explained
the deeper concepts of play at work and how implementing these
concepts of play was worth millions of dollars to the fund's
portfolio managers every year. Play is often seen as something we
do during our hobbies, but when we feel engaged by what we're
solving, we perform at our best.
Utilizing
Play Concepts for Growth
Management
Lindsay
talks about the tools used to facilitate the play process and
shares a sample engagement with a client who was the founder of a
tech company that had scaled rapidly and the former processes no
longer worked. Lindsay shares examples of the challenges faced in
managing a team due to the rapid growth of the organization,
including issues of talent retention, burnout, and AI adoption. To
address these issues, Lindsay’s firm found three simple,
easy-to-implement routines: goal checks, health checks, and skill
checks. She shares a story that demonstrates the benefit of
problem-solving activities. She explores each routine and explains
that, by focusing on these strategies, companies can ensure their
teams are equipped to handle the demands of their rapidly growing
environment and maintain a competitive
edge.
Outcome-related
Goals, Process-related Goals, and Idea-related
Goals
The
conversation moves to outcome-related, idea-related, and
process-related goals in a company. Lindsay emphasizes the
importance of tracking process metrics and idea metrics to track
how many ideas or experiments are being run. Aggressive goals can
lead to increased effort, but it's crucial to manage
experimentation and work smarter instead. For example, a tech
company's recruiter had to fill double the number of jobs in the
coming quarter than she normally does. By breaking down her goal
into six categories, AI helped her create five sub-goals that
focused on working smarter, not harder. This allowed her and her
leader to focus on creatively adapting their
approach.
Team
Alignment, Strategy, and Outcome
Goals
In
some organizations, having a senior leader join the goal meetings
and challenges can be powerful, as it allows senior leaders to help
block the team and identify blockers that are outside of their
control. This creates a sense of understanding and cooperation
between the team and the executive. The quarterly health process
and skill check are essential for ensuring the right goals are set
and the team has the necessary skills to accomplish them.
Motivation in the workforce is a key factor in achieving success. A
study found that people who learn valuable skills on the job and
have good work-life balance are more motivated. However, many find
learning new skills difficult, as it is often seen as a big
training or time-consuming process. Lindsay talks about the problem
of skills gaps and how to deal with this issue. Lindsay also
mentions the benefits of remote work culture, which can be great
but requires more intentional skill building and offers a few
approaches to team skill building.
Vega
Factor Certification for
Consultants
The
discussion revolves around the firm's resources and tools for
consultants to access, such as goal checks, health checks, and
skill checks. One of their current offerings is a platform called
Factor, which enables consultants to run goal checks, health
checks, and skills checks. They train and certify consultants to do
these checks with their organizations. The certification and
training process for using the platform is a six-part learning
session that goes deep into how to conduct these checks. The
platform is designed to help consultants and leaders retain top
performers by putting in place good processes, making it easier for
them to problem solve with their teams. Lindsay talks about the
popular training sessions, including how to solve problems
cross-functionally and how to make cross-functional collaboration
and problem-solving easy for high performers. One of the leaders
mentioned that this way of asynchronous problem-solving brought
depth, breadth, and lightness to his job. He was able to go deeper
into the problems, look at the solutions, and make informed
decisions. In conclusion, the firm's platform offers valuable
resources and tools for consultants and leaders to improve their
work and retain top performers.
High
Performers and the Play Processes
Companies
need to focus on retaining high performers and fostering a culture
of play, purpose, and potential. High performers are more likely to
leave a company that is bureaucratic and dysfunctional, while
non-high performers are more likely to stay due to the perks and
benefits they receive. Millennials are more skeptical than ever
about the value of work, and they tend to see it as a transactional
decision. However, high performers know that work can be
meaningful, important, and impactful. To help them realize this,
companies should focus on fostering a culture of play, purpose, and
potential.
The
Genesis of Vega Factor
Lindsay
explains that the firm’s journey began with researching what makes
a high-performing company and culture. They wanted to understand if
there was a quantitative, productive way to build a high-performing
culture. They measured hundreds of factors from psychology and
business best practices across thousands of people and hundreds of
companies. They found that employees from companies like Home Depot
and Lowe's answered questions differently and that their
performance management systems and leader behavior were also
different.
The
research was conducted through market research firms, where they
found that employees from companies with similar systems answered
questions differently. They also found that when the survey was
administered internally by the company, there was a consistent
increase in positivity, which they believe occurs because people
don't trust the anonymity of their survey. The firm's website
offers screenshots, interactive tools, and tips for implementation.
They also provide links to download
research.
Timestamps:
04:43 Using goal, health, and skill checks to improve company performance
09:35 Goal setting and performance, with a focus on problem-solving goals
13:04 Using AI to help teams work smarter, not harder, and improve team health through goal setting and problem-solving
17:40 Teamwork, motivation, and skill development in the workplace
23:30 Apprenticeship-based learning in consulting and remote work culture
28:50 Using AI to improve team performance and retain top performers
34:35 Motivating high performers and millennial employees through problem-solving processes
Links:
The website: https://www.factor.ai/
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