NARPM Chapter Meeting

Date/Time
Date(s) - Oct 13, 2016
8:30 am - 10:30 am

Location
Riverside Hotel

Categories No Categories

This months speaker is Mac Wrigley!

 

He will be speaking on Culture: Getting It Right

There is a destructive force that spreads like a fire through an organization. Often its effects are not recognized until the damage is done and many of the best employees have left. Sadly, many organizations choose to ignore the fire in hopes it burns itself out. This destructive force most often starts when leadership neglects the culture within the organization. A poor culture becomes that organization’s brand—its identity in the community. Once that branding takes hold, the roots of the organization fail and the resulting mediocrity is all but assured. If you have such a fire engulfing your organization, what should you do? Do you run toward the fire or away from it? Do you hope someone else takes care of it? It has been my experience that no one will ever care about your business as much as you do.

People

In his book, “Good to Great”, Jim Collins uses the metaphor of a bus as the organization. He says you have to get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. Collins argues “first who, then what.” In other words, building the right team with the right people in the right positions is the first step. There are no shortcuts. The moment you feel compelled to micromanage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake. Great organizations hire motivated people and then manage them in such a way so as to not demotivate them. They don’t use their compensation system to motivate unmotivated people, they use their compensation system to attract and retain motivated people. These are people hardwired to do the right thing simply because they know of no other way of doing things.

Purpose

With the right people on the bus and in the right seats, you can focus on where to drive the bus. Once you’ve assembled the right team, the focus falls on uncovering your organization’s “why”. Why do you do what you do? What is your organization’s underlying purpose? Perhaps it has been lost over time and you no longer recognize the organization you once loved. Or maybe it was never clearly established. Either way, focusing on your purpose is the key to establishing the proper culture. Once discovered, you have the second component of Jim Collins’ axiom “first who, then what”.

Core Values

Great organizations have a core guiding philosophy. These are core values that align with their purpose. All decisions are seen through this lens and suddenly direction becomes clear. If an activity does not fit with these core values, it is tossed aside because it would detract from the organization’s purpose and core values. Any distraction, however well intentioned, will misallocate the organization’s scarce resources (time, money, people, focus, etc.) away from the purpose. Core values add clarity of decision-making and clarity of strategic direction. As you reaffirm your core values, constantly review them against your purpose and your people. Those who do not share your core values are not a fit for the organization’s purpose and must be removed from the bus.

Management Team

Assembling your management team is vital. As you do this, look around the room and honestly assess the situation. Do we have the right people in the room? Am I the smartest person in the room? Is that a problem? Seek the advice and counsel of intelligent, experienced individuals who share your core values. This alignment of core values is more important than their industry experience.

Employee Engagement and Retention

Always look for leading indicators. High employee turnover is a leading indicator of high customer turnover. Your organization’s culture is set by you, but must be lived by each employee in the organization. Those who do not fit must be removed. Keeping those whose values and purpose aligns with those of the organizations must become an area of constant emphasis. How do you keep the right people from quitting? There are several key factors, among which are the quality of people they work with, and knowing that their work is meaningful. Again, this goes back to people and purpose. If I genuinely like who I work with and I know that what I do matters and why I do it, I am much more likely to engage fully in my work.

How do you know if you’ve succeeded? Pay attention to how your employees refer to your organization. Are you a “they” company or a “we” company. Do your employees say “they need to change this” or “we need to change this”? “They” companies may gain compliance from employees, but “we” companies gain commitment.

 My challenge to each of you today is sit down with your management team and have a candid conversation. Do you know why you do what you do? Do you know your core values? Do your employees? If there is a destructive force in your business (a fire) you have a choice to make, will you run toward it or away from it?

Mac was born and raised in Boise, ID where he attended Borah High School. He is a graduate of BYU Idaho, earning his Associates Degree in Natural Arts and Sciences. Mac then attended Boise State University earning his undergraduate degree in Business Economics and a Masters of Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing.  He lives in Meridian with his wife, Rebecca, and three children. Mac has spent the past 18 years in the banking industry with specialties in commercial and construction lending. He is a Vice President, Branch Manager and Commercial Loan Officer at D. L. Evans Bank in Boise, ID where he manages the Vista office.  He is a recipient of the Idaho Business Review’s Excellence in Finance Award for 2016. For the past eight years Mac has also been a business instructor with the University of Phoenix where he teaches economics, and is the Lead Faculty Area Chair over the College of Business for the Idaho Campus. Mac is a sought after speaker in the business community for industry and trade groups in both the public and private sectors for the unique perspective he brings. He is also a consultant in management and marketing working with small business owners and other professionals.

Invite a guest or two or three! In order to grow our chapter and reach our goals we need more of your great affiliates and other like-minded property managers to join! Invite them so they can see the benefits of joining NARPM nationally and locally!!

We look forward to seeing you all!

Thank you to our local sponsor this month! Sprague Pest Solutions! We appreciate you!

If you would like your logo here, a few minutes to speak and a lot of appreciation please contact @ Blaine Tewell @ btewell@pdrboise.com