June 4, 2023 • 31 mins
On this episode, I talk culture with Jana Adams. She's the executive director of Touchstone Energy. She says culture is at the top of mind of today's cooperative CEOs. I've worked in the co-op world for over 25 years and happen to believe that co-ops are uniquely positioned to create great cultures and use that to attract some of the best and brightest of this next generation entering the workplace.
Few takeaways to listen for:
- Strategy doesn't matter if you don't have the culture in place to implement it. You need a culture in place that makes employees feel safe embracing new ideas and processes.
- Jana says flexible work schedules can positively impact culture when you focus on collaboration and connection. She also shares tools you can use to do just that.
- Associations should play a role in fostering cultures inside their industry.
- Don't be afraid if everyone doesn't get behind your culture change. It's called self-selections. Some people will leave because they aren't in alignment and that's ok.
Thanks for listening. Grab the book the podcast is based on at https://mybook.to/culturesecrets . Check out my website www.chelliephillips.com for more great content. Follow me on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Chellie Phillips (00:06):
If workplace culture is your jam, you're in
the right place. Check out thisepisode of culture secrets, the
podcast dedicated to creatingworkplaces for both employees
and the company's thrive.
Welcome to the culture secretspodcast. I'm your host Chellie
Phillips. And this week, I'veinvited Jana Adams, Executive
Director of touchstone energy tojoin me for a conversation about
(00:29):
culture. I've worked in theelectric cooperative world for
over 25 years. So in allhonesty, I'm biased. But I do
believe the cooperative form ofbusiness has culture building
built into its foundation, Ialso think it sets us up to be
able to recruit the best and thebrightest of the generations
entering the workplace. Now,what is touched on energy. It's
a national network of electriccooperatives from across 46
(00:50):
states, providing research,communications resources, and
employee training programs thathelp member cooperatives engage
with and serve our membersbetter. So without further
delay. Let's welcome Jana, tothe program. Well, first, thank
you so much for being part ofthis project with me.
Jana Adams (01:06):
Oh, thanks for thinking of me, this is
exciting. It's like everythingjust kind of fell in place. And
I was like, okay, so I woke upone night and said about the
sleep because I was like, thisis all about value, the value
culture and value being the V isvision. A is accountability, L
is leadership, E. Well, youuniqueness of the employee, and
(01:29):
E is engagement. And how youhave to have all of those things
to have a thriving cultureinside your organization. It was
one of those moments, I'm like,Okay, fine, I'll write it down.
So I can go back to sleep. Andthen it was two and a half hours
later, as my brain kept hurtinggoing, you could use this you
could use that you could do theking of hops thing, you could do
that. I mean, like it was justlike, Okay, fine, I'll do it.
(01:49):
Just let me sleep for.
Chellie Phillips (01:54):
Great. The reason I ask you is because I
got to thinking about part ofthe piece of the vision that I'm
talking about is that is thatconnecting it to a story. And I
know one of the things that wedo very well in the Electric Co
Op world, and I talk about thatin the book is and total on that
front, it's like I you know, Iwork in this world. So I'm
biased.
(02:16):
You know, that the Electric CoOps are very much attached to
their story, how that story isevolving and changing and how
they're using that to attractand retain the talent that they
need. And I was thinking abouttouchdowns specifically with the
second phase of the yammieproject, which really dealt
with, you know, onboarding, andsetting up that culture inside
(02:38):
your organization. And I gottasay, this is a perfect fit to
tie in both worlds, the old andthe new, and how we're shifting
and and keeping that storyalive, but making it relevant to
this next generation in theworkforce. I guess we'll just
start off and ask what was thedriving factor behind Touchstone
(02:58):
taking an interest in theattraction of new talent for for
electric cooperatives? Well, Ithink there's, there's a really
practical one, and that theworkforce is aging, and lots and
lots of co op employees acrossall levels are either within
(03:18):
five years of retirement or pasttheir eligible retirement age.
So from a practical matter, youhave to create an environment
that new generations want tocome to, because there's a need
just out of sheer numbers. Whatrole does Touchstone take? And
that seems, how you sit apartfrom each local Co Op. What role
(03:41):
can touched on taking that up?
Sure. So I think, you know, oneof the things we do really well
is collect examples of whatworks, we partnered with NRECA
to create the framework foryoung adult member engagement as
well, both externally looking atyour your member owner base, as
well as internally looking atyour employee base. And so we
have that framework. And we'vegot really good materials to
(04:03):
help drive those initiativesforward and touched on energy.
What we do best is connectingpeople, we're all about
relationships, whether it'sinternally within the co op
between coops and between coopsand they're member owners. And
and that's really how I thinkyou get the good ideas to share
and admire and acquire acquireacross different cooperatives.
(04:25):
But it's also how you learn. Sothat's kind of the role we play
in collecting these examples.
And we have an infrastructure toshare them within our network so
that people can learn from oneanother. how receptive has the
coop nation as a whole been tothe idea of growing cultures
(04:48):
inside each individual Co Op? Ihad I think I had an aha moment
last August at the CEO close upand there was a little breakout
session just for
Jana Adams (05:00):
New CEOs to chat and being a new CEO and wanting to
hear from them I joined in. Andby a huge margin, the number one
issue that they knew they neededto address was the culture of
their Co Op. So I think it'shappening almost organically,
this isn't something that'sneeded needing to be pushed new
employees, whether it's CEOs orothers are coming into co ops
(05:23):
and seeing a lot of good, sortof the good foundation, there's
not a great foundation, I thinkthe coop model is very relevant.
Today, it works. And it'sattractive across generations.
But just like any organization,things get stuck. And you don't
(05:43):
always incorporate new ways ofthinking or new ideas or new
processes. And so theyrecognized that they needed to
take that foundation ofgoodness, that is the
cooperative business model, andmake it relevant to today's
workforce to today's challenges,and culture comes first. You
know, everybody says it, but butstrategy is downstream of
(06:05):
culture, and you can have thebest idea and the best strategy
in the world. But if you don'thave a culture that's receptive
to that new way of doing thingsis going to fail. And so they
know in order to be successful,they've got to have a culture
that's willing to try new thingsthat's willing to make mistakes,
that's, you know, going to beleaning forward on how to best
(06:27):
serve member owners today, nothow we baby served them 50 plus
years ago, looking at some ofthose workforce challenges
locally, we're finding it harderand harder to fill certain
positions because of theexpectation. Now, since COVID,
about the flexible workschedules, some coops probably
have not made that shift orwhere they're willing to look at
(06:49):
it and entertain that as as afeature, touchdown. kinergy
itself already kind of has thatremote workforce in place, like
a lot of your employees are notlocal to where the organization
is housed. So how are you takingsome of these things and
incorporating that andcontinuing to grow the culture
inside your organization, too?
Sure. So I will say from apersonal standpoint, I was a
(07:13):
very early adopter on remotework, I have always worked from
home multiple days a week,probably for two or three, close
to three decades. And my beliefon that is, it can have an
incredibly positive influence onculture. And here's why, when
you are no longer working in thesame desk, five days a week,
(07:36):
eight hours, nine hours a day,work becomes your output, not
your environment. Too often,when you've got a traditional
structure where everybody comesto the same office, five days a
week, work is simply beingthere. And you can you can see
productivity drops, because itdoesn't matter what you're
(07:58):
doing, you're there and you'reworking. And so you can see a
very positive shift and what thewhat work means simply by
opening up some flexibility, Itotally agree that COVID has
made that a requirement, I don'tsee a scenario where it goes
back to the predominant modelbeing five days a week sitting
(08:19):
in a in an office, or in abuilding together. And I think
the challenges that you face arein building connections
collaborating across projects.
And so what we do internally tosprint energy, I think works
really, really well, we've got abunch of tools, collaborative
(08:41):
tools, we are big users ofSlack. So I can, I can get a
response from any member of myteam 1000 times faster than if I
had to stand up and walk to anoffice on the other side of the
hallway. There. It's animmediate collaborative tool. So
that works really well for us,we've got other productivity
(09:03):
tools that help keep us alignedon what everyone's working on.
So you don't have to all besitting in a room sharing.
Here's my update of the bigthings I've got going on. It's
all in our system, we use onecalled monday.com, which is
really flexible and helpful tobuild those collaborative teams
around different projects. Onearea where I think it's
(09:26):
important to have an in personprocess is in managers, it's
hard to fully manage remotely.
So that's kind of a little bitof a, an area that we've been
evolving in is you know, ifyou've got a team of people, I
need to have a better connectionwith with those management
points. So we all come into theoffice, if you're in the DC
(09:48):
area, everybody comes to theoffice on Tuesdays. We do all of
our in person stuff doesn't evenhave to be a full day but it
gets that it gets us connectedand you
We see each other we have theside conversations, which are
incredibly important indeveloping a shared culture.
It's not just about the work. Soit's really just a balance of
(10:10):
having that in person time.
Obviously, things like teams andzoom have made remote face to
face much easier and moresuccessful. One of the a
challenge that I thinkeverybody's going to have to get
better at our ourselves includedare hybrid meetings, where
there's a big chunk of people inperson, chunk of people,
virtual, those I don't think areas effective for the virtual
(10:34):
folks, because the regularbanter happens in person, and
it's hard to engage. So that's asort of area in the back of my
mind, I feel like we need to bebetter at but all in all,
technology has enabled itcircumstances with COVID have
required it. And, you know, Ithink co ops and every industry
is having to embrace the abilityto have different work workplace
(11:00):
models, the book is going to betouching on several different
industries, from entertainment,hospitality to manufacturing,
and of course, with usutilities, what is the role that
associations can play in andhelping facilitate the culture
growth inside maybe the maincorporate entity, I think they
(11:21):
play a huge role. And that's,that's what we love. And what I
love about Touchstone energy iswe are an association. We are,
you know, a network of 700cooperatives across the country.
And we give that the ability toconvene, so convene groups of
coops to address shared issuesand share and exchange
(11:43):
information, and then we givethe infrastructure to make that
happen. And I think that allassociations are going to have
to address that. And I think toa large extent, they are, you
know, government relations isnot a part of touchstone
energies portfolio. So itenables us to better focus on
those cultural issues. But evena traditional trade association,
I think, is going to have toreally embrace the need to
(12:06):
address how the world isshifting, and how their
individual industry should beadapting to that and provide
that opportunity to sharebetween different members. When
someone is looking at building aculture, I spoke with Kevin
Monroe, who is what I call it,gratitude guru, we're talking
(12:26):
about the role that gratitudeplays and how it needs to be
built into the cultures thatwe're creating. And I'm thinking
about the co op principles, andthen also our Touchstone
Guidestones that we have, whensomeone is looking at creating a
culture inside theirorganization, how much of that
(12:46):
should be valued based, in youropinion? And what are some of
the areas that they should lookat? I honestly think it's 100%
value based, I don't, I don'tknow how you can have a positive
culture without looking at thevalues that you share.
Fundamental is, is trust andhonesty, loyalty, all of those
sorts of base needs thateveryone has in order to be able
(13:11):
to come together and beproductive and successful as a
group. If you don't have those,you can't build a culture. So
that's always been really,really important to be on a
funny level. I am a big I gossipdrives me nuts. And I think it
has a stake in the heart ofculture and teamwork. And so I
just, that's an area I don'ttolerate. It's also human nature
(13:36):
to share things. But that's justsomething that that is kind of
my personal core value. I guess,if you don't want other people
to hear it, don't say it. It'sthat kind of small change and
focus on honesty and openness,that I think gives the
opportunity for a strong cultureto thrive without that you
(13:58):
simply can't. So we're hearingmore and more about the role
that doing meaningful workplays. And I think that's one of
the places where coops have kindof a leg up on some other
industries because not only forthe service that we provide, but
you look at what happens duringstorms. And you look at the
commitment to community that wehave that way we give back. What
(14:18):
role are you seeing nationallydriving potential employees to
look at that, that overall doingmeaningful work? I think it's
absolutely I mean, there's tonsof studies about particularly
millennials, Gen Z, z's, the,you know, more recent additions
to the workforce. That's one oftheir number one needs is to
(14:40):
feel like they're doingmeaningful work. I think you're
exactly right that co ops havethat and I think it is an unused
attractor. I don't think that weleverage that nearly enough and
we focus more on Oh, you know,we provide the essential service
to our community.
nutty, but we don't talk aboutall of the other things that co
(15:03):
ops do. And I think that, thatwe should I think that is a huge
part of what makes thiscommunity so special is that,
yeah, you have your your day joband your day job might be
keeping the lights on orwhatever your role is in that
particular function. And yet,there are so many other ways
that you touch and embrace yourcommunity that that we honestly
(15:28):
should lead with that the factthat the electricity is that's a
base and a given and musthappen. But it's all of the
other things that the localcooperative, does that really
share that story of why it's aspecial business model. And
that's one of the things thatcertainly comes out in our
research at Touchstone energy isthat we need to be more forward
(15:48):
looking with with those thoseactivities. So one of the things
that I've been hearing a lot,too is like when, as a CEO, and
referencing, like yourconversation that you had with
with other CEOs recognizing thatthere's an issue and developing
it, if you were to go back andsay, Okay, I know we have an
issue with culture, what is thefirst step as a CEO that you
(16:12):
should take to start developinga program implementing a program
or putting thoughts to paper, Ithink the first step is defining
that culture, we're potentiallyI fear, we're at a point where
it means something different toeveryone. And so you have to
have a shared definition. So ifyou're hearing and you're
(16:33):
seeing, hey, there's an issuewith culture, you need to get
your stakeholders within yourorganization together, and
really define what that means toeverybody. Is it an issue that,
you know, it could be aproductivity issue, it could,
you know, there could be somenegative undercurrents of people
not being honest, are peoplenot, you know, being good
(16:54):
stewards of their resources ortheir job. And so you have to
figure out what you have todefine that. And then once you
understand and define thatculture challenge, then you can
start to address it because itwould be aligned. Yeah, if you
have an issue where, wherepeople really aren't, aren't
being good teammates, andthey're not being good stewards
(17:15):
of the resources they're given,then you need to align that
with, Hey, we're here for eachother, we're stronger if we work
together and collaboratively.
And here's our plan to make thathappen. But it starts with
digging in on that shareddefinition of what the challenge
really is, how important youtalked about getting
stakeholders together, howimportant is it to pull people
(17:36):
from different aspects of theorganization together to help
create plan, I think that's,that's critical. It can't be led
from the top, it's got to be a,you know, up and down side to
side, the organization of peoplewho are at you to borrow Social
Media Language, who are theinfluencers in your
(17:57):
organization, who are the onesthat people listen to, when they
say something that, you know,the room quiets down when their
hand goes up, and you need toget those folks together. But
also the quiet people who, who,you know, are really the
absorbing some of thepotentially negative culture
that's happening. And thenyou've got to get everybody on
(18:18):
board with that sharedunderstanding of exactly what
are we trying to do here andhave that group be your
ambassadors within within yourfull employee base. And without
that, it's very, very hard to besuccessful. So what's a good
rule of thumb, everybody's busy,everybody's got their, their
list of things to do that kindof thing. What keeps a culture
(18:39):
initiative from becoming justsomething that we've checked the
box and say, we've talked aboutculture, it has to be fun, it's
got to be it's got to be a partof your job, like, underlying
everything you do. It's not ananother activity. Not Oh, now's
the, it's on my 11 o'clock timewindow, that I'm going to think
(19:02):
about culture. It's the alwaysit's how you work, not what you
work on. And if you if youconvey it in that way, that
integrity a core value, youdon't need to stop and have
integrity on your your list ofto do. It just means that
anytime you're engaging withanyone you're doing it with,
with a good heart with anhonest, you know, honest voice,
(19:26):
and you're proud of that how youwork. And so it doesn't become a
to do list. It's not just athing that you shove aside
because you finished with thatbecause it is ingrained. And all
you do. And that's when you knowyou've been successful that
people are actually thinking inthose terms that you create,
what whatever mechanism, Ialways love the core value
(19:47):
mechanism because that isusually pretty simple to think
about regularly as you'reengaging your day to day work,
and then it doesn't becomeanother another checkbox you
need to
Unknown (20:00):
checkoff.
Chellie Phillips (20:01):
I like that.
As I'm sitting here making noteson my notes, I highlight this
right here.
How can you as an individual, oryou, as a team leader inside
that organization begin toexhibit your own culture? And
what can you do to help itspread to others inside that
organization? You know, I thinkeverybody organizations have
(20:24):
core values, individuals havecore values. And if you have
the, you know, I mentioned,honesty, truth, transparency are
just super important to me. So,any individual have those those
values that are important totheir heart. And if you work in
a way that it's obvious toeveryone that you've got that
(20:47):
under penning of a values thatyou're aligned with, you can
absolutely, an individual caninfluence culture in a very
quick and positive way. Not asquick as an individual can
negatively impact culture, weall know the power of bad and
how quickly somebody can canhave negative influence. But the
(21:10):
opposite is true as well, youcan definitely positively impact
simply by adhering to what isimportant to you, especially
when those are aligned with youwhat you understand is important
to the organization. The otherpiece is the accountability, the
culture movement has to beowned, it can't be someone
else's job inside thatorganization. So how can that
(21:34):
message get conveyed in a waythat accountability doesn't
mean, it's the CEOs job, itmeans that it's the entire
organization's job. It is andit's when you when you convey
and you're really instill theidea that culture is how you
work, it becomes clear that it'severybody's job, because you
should always be aligned withwith the core values and how
(21:57):
your organization, what yourorganization believes is
important and good and worthcaring about, in terms of, you
know, making sure it's part ofeverybody's job, it's really,
it's kind of practice what youpreach, there's ways in a lot of
different ideas about how toincorporate that into practice.
I know at one organization I'vebeen a part of, we had our core
(22:20):
values, and then we had specificbehaviors that exemplifies those
values, or we're not alignedwith those values, just example.
And it starts to help peoplethink about the process, think
about how they can beincorporating these in their day
to day work. Another tool I usethat I love is the it's the RACI
(22:41):
model, it's out of Procter andGamble, but it's a way to for
any project. This is moreproject management, but it's
related to how to instill corevalues. It's you know, who's
responsible, who's accountable,who needs to be consulted on a
project, who supports theproject, and who's who
influences that. And if you lookat those different areas in, in
(23:01):
core value structure,implementing a strong culture,
everyone supports it. So youjust start to realize that
everybody is involved in this,if you regularly think and how
do you advance any initiative,and you think of your role in
it, everyone is involved. And soif you have those different
models about how you advance anyproject, and you put the culture
(23:24):
piece through that people startto see, hey, yeah, I'm involved
in that. And so is everyoneelse. So especially in our
industry, we have a lot ofengineers, a lot of accountants
that move into the role of CEOand everything needs to have a
number associated with it andreturn on their investment. So
(23:45):
as a CEO, maybe some of this isnot something that you can you
can put, oh, I'm gonna get a 15%increase. If I if I start
focusing on culture, what arethe things that a CEO can look
at inside the organization tosee if they are effectively
changing culture in a way thatpositively impacts not only the
(24:09):
employees there, but the bottomline of that organization? It's
absolutely tied to the bottomline. I'm not an accountant, but
I really like spreadsheets, thatretention, if you have a good
strong positive culture in yourorganization, people are going
to stay how easy and how, youknow, what, what's the time it
takes to fill positions whenthey do become open? Certainly
(24:32):
bottom line things like the youknow, how fast does a project go
from conception toimplementation in a strong
culture environment, that'sgoing to be faster than in
something where there's anegative influence. So there's
absolutely bottom linemeasurements, but retention I
think is one of the best onesbecause when you when you work
(24:53):
on, I will say, when youimplement and focus on culture,
it's going to be threatened.
Jana Adams (25:00):
To some people who've been places for a long
time, so it's the beginning, youmight have a little uptick in
retirements orfolks leaving for other other
opportunities. And that's okay.
Because that means that peopleare self selecting, hey, this
isn't a process I'm willing togo through. But once you've got
(25:20):
it in place, and you've got thepeople, the right people in the
right seats, then they're goingto want to stay because they
believe in what you're doing.
And that belief is absolutelycontributes to your bottom line.
So we talked about, maybethere's some people that are
hesitant to, this is the waywe've always done it, I don't
want to change that, what aresome of the other roadblocks
that a CEO or managementshouldn't, should be prepared
(25:44):
for when they are looking atinstituting a new culture inside
an organization, you're gonnahave the skeptics, there's gonna
be the outright, like, I don'twant any part of this, because I
do my job fine. And I don't needto change anything. So that's
the obvious ones. But thenthere's just going to be the
people who are skeptical whothink this is just some new
trend. And this is some newmanagement fad that's coming in
(26:07):
and, and they're gonna, youknow, they're the kind of quiet
killers of a culture. And so youhave to be very, very wary of
the skeptic. And then, you know,honestly, you'll probably have
the early adopters who are allgung ho, but then tire
themselves out. So it's, it'sabout, I think, a measured pace.
So that you're not like, A,you're not saying, Hey, here's a
(26:31):
piece of paper, this is ourculture, let's go run out and do
it. It's built from within. Andso people naturally start to
join in the process, becausethey see the benefits. They see
the happier employees, they seethe better service to their
community that comes out ofhaving that strong and defined
culture. But you do have to bewary about the just super
(26:53):
outright hostile people, butthen all the also the really
skeptical people who you canturn into advocates, but you
have to address it prettyquickly. So a lot of our a lot
of our organizations have boardsthe answer to get budgets
approved. And generally whenyou're thinking culture, you
think some employee engagementactivities, you think some, you
know, swag, maybe to get peoplemotivated, you think some
(27:16):
recognition along the ways anddifferent things like that, to
kind of keep it moving andkeeping it out there. What is
the driving factor that if youwere presenting this to a board
for you know, a budget to dothis, that you could convince
them use? What's the one thingthat you would use to convince
your board that this is totallysomething they should invest in,
and that the change is going tobe worth it? I think it's I
(27:38):
don't think it's too muchdifferent than getting funding,
quote, unquote, for any kind ofproject, you outline the
problems, because anytimesomebody you're saying we need
to work on our culture, it's theunderpinnings are because there
are problems with how you'reworking now. So you have to
outline those for the for theboard and say, Hey, we've got
(27:59):
this issue, we've got retentionproblems we've got, you know,
people aren't working well inteams, because they don't like
each other, or whatever thedifferent issues are. And when
you outline those, and you say,here's our solution, we're going
to have you know, we're going togo through a team building
exercise, we're going to have asmall group that gets together
to identify core values, we'regoing to then have some various
(28:21):
trainings, when it's alignedwith addressing a specific
problem, my, my experience, justlike with anything else, they're
going to do a cost benefit intheir head. Most of the time,
though, you can convey it in away that makes it very, very
clear that this is going to be anet positive to the organization
based on the problem that it'sgoing to address. Thank you for
(28:44):
being part of this and helpingme put this together.
Oh, well, thanks for thanking meand definitely let me know if
there's anything anyclarification or follow up. So
I'm happy to happy to do it.
This has been a goodconversation. I do love this
kind of stuff. I I think how wework is
Chellie Phillips (29:04):
dictates the value that we provide to
whatever our our organization orindustry is, and, and so the
culture drives that and I thinkit's an important topic. Thanks
for listening to the culturesecret podcast. What takeaways
Do you have? For me when Janasaid strategy doesn't matter if
you don't have the culture inplace to implement it really
(29:25):
made me think I couldn't agreemore that you need a people
centered culture that meanspeople feel safe to embrace the
new and give it a try. That theyaren't fearful to experiment
because they think if somethinggoes wrong, it means they could
lose their job. being receptiveto new ideas positions us to
continue meeting the changingneeds of our members for years
to come. If you're interested inlearning more about the secrets
(29:46):
you can use to build a strongpeople centered culture in your
workplace. Grab a copy of mybook culture secrets. It's on
Amazon or ask your favoritebookseller to order you a copy.
If you have comments orquestions, please feel free to
reach out to me on linkIn Facebook or Twitter. If you
like what you heard today,please subscribe, drop me a
rating and share a link with afriend. I'm currently looking
for corporate training andworkshop presentations. I'd love
(30:08):
the chance to come work with youor your company. If you're
interested, please visit mywebsite at WWW dot Chellie
phillips.com That's C H E L L IE P H I L L i p s.com. And
remember, building a valueculture is your competitive
advantage and the backbone ofany successful organization.
If workplace culture is your jam, you're in
the right place. Check out thisepisode of culture secrets, the
podcast dedicated to creatingworkplaces for both employees
and the company's thrive.
Welcome to the culture secretspodcast. I'm your host Chellie
Phillips. And this week, I'veinvited Jana Adams, Executive
Director of touchstone energy tojoin me for a conversation about
(00:29):
culture. I've worked in theelectric cooperative world for
over 25 years. So in allhonesty, I'm biased. But I do
believe the cooperative form ofbusiness has culture building
built into its foundation, Ialso think it sets us up to be
able to recruit the best and thebrightest of the generations
entering the workplace. Now,what is touched on energy. It's
a national network of electriccooperatives from across 46
(00:50):
states, providing research,communications resources, and
employee training programs thathelp member cooperatives engage
with and serve our membersbetter. So without further
delay. Let's welcome Jana, tothe program. Well, first, thank
you so much for being part ofthis project with me.
Jana Adams (01:06):
Oh, thanks for thinking of me, this is
exciting. It's like everythingjust kind of fell in place. And
I was like, okay, so I woke upone night and said about the
sleep because I was like, thisis all about value, the value
culture and value being the V isvision. A is accountability, L
is leadership, E. Well, youuniqueness of the employee, and
(01:29):
E is engagement. And how youhave to have all of those things
to have a thriving cultureinside your organization. It was
one of those moments, I'm like,Okay, fine, I'll write it down.
So I can go back to sleep. Andthen it was two and a half hours
later, as my brain kept hurtinggoing, you could use this you
could use that you could do theking of hops thing, you could do
that. I mean, like it was justlike, Okay, fine, I'll do it.
(01:49):
Just let me sleep for.
Chellie Phillips (01:54):
Great. The reason I ask you is because I
got to thinking about part ofthe piece of the vision that I'm
talking about is that is thatconnecting it to a story. And I
know one of the things that wedo very well in the Electric Co
Op world, and I talk about thatin the book is and total on that
front, it's like I you know, Iwork in this world. So I'm
biased.
(02:16):
You know, that the Electric CoOps are very much attached to
their story, how that story isevolving and changing and how
they're using that to attractand retain the talent that they
need. And I was thinking abouttouchdowns specifically with the
second phase of the yammieproject, which really dealt
with, you know, onboarding, andsetting up that culture inside
(02:38):
your organization. And I gottasay, this is a perfect fit to
tie in both worlds, the old andthe new, and how we're shifting
and and keeping that storyalive, but making it relevant to
this next generation in theworkforce. I guess we'll just
start off and ask what was thedriving factor behind Touchstone
(02:58):
taking an interest in theattraction of new talent for for
electric cooperatives? Well, Ithink there's, there's a really
practical one, and that theworkforce is aging, and lots and
lots of co op employees acrossall levels are either within
(03:18):
five years of retirement or pasttheir eligible retirement age.
So from a practical matter, youhave to create an environment
that new generations want tocome to, because there's a need
just out of sheer numbers. Whatrole does Touchstone take? And
that seems, how you sit apartfrom each local Co Op. What role
(03:41):
can touched on taking that up?
Sure. So I think, you know, oneof the things we do really well
is collect examples of whatworks, we partnered with NRECA
to create the framework foryoung adult member engagement as
well, both externally looking atyour your member owner base, as
well as internally looking atyour employee base. And so we
have that framework. And we'vegot really good materials to
(04:03):
help drive those initiativesforward and touched on energy.
What we do best is connectingpeople, we're all about
relationships, whether it'sinternally within the co op
between coops and between coopsand they're member owners. And
and that's really how I thinkyou get the good ideas to share
and admire and acquire acquireacross different cooperatives.
(04:25):
But it's also how you learn. Sothat's kind of the role we play
in collecting these examples.
And we have an infrastructure toshare them within our network so
that people can learn from oneanother. how receptive has the
coop nation as a whole been tothe idea of growing cultures
(04:48):
inside each individual Co Op? Ihad I think I had an aha moment
last August at the CEO close upand there was a little breakout
session just for
Jana Adams (05:00):
New CEOs to chat and being a new CEO and wanting to
hear from them I joined in. Andby a huge margin, the number one
issue that they knew they neededto address was the culture of
their Co Op. So I think it'shappening almost organically,
this isn't something that'sneeded needing to be pushed new
employees, whether it's CEOs orothers are coming into co ops
(05:23):
and seeing a lot of good, sortof the good foundation, there's
not a great foundation, I thinkthe coop model is very relevant.
Today, it works. And it'sattractive across generations.
But just like any organization,things get stuck. And you don't
(05:43):
always incorporate new ways ofthinking or new ideas or new
processes. And so theyrecognized that they needed to
take that foundation ofgoodness, that is the
cooperative business model, andmake it relevant to today's
workforce to today's challenges,and culture comes first. You
know, everybody says it, but butstrategy is downstream of
(06:05):
culture, and you can have thebest idea and the best strategy
in the world. But if you don'thave a culture that's receptive
to that new way of doing thingsis going to fail. And so they
know in order to be successful,they've got to have a culture
that's willing to try new thingsthat's willing to make mistakes,
that's, you know, going to beleaning forward on how to best
(06:27):
serve member owners today, nothow we baby served them 50 plus
years ago, looking at some ofthose workforce challenges
locally, we're finding it harderand harder to fill certain
positions because of theexpectation. Now, since COVID,
about the flexible workschedules, some coops probably
have not made that shift orwhere they're willing to look at
(06:49):
it and entertain that as as afeature, touchdown. kinergy
itself already kind of has thatremote workforce in place, like
a lot of your employees are notlocal to where the organization
is housed. So how are you takingsome of these things and
incorporating that andcontinuing to grow the culture
inside your organization, too?
Sure. So I will say from apersonal standpoint, I was a
(07:13):
very early adopter on remotework, I have always worked from
home multiple days a week,probably for two or three, close
to three decades. And my beliefon that is, it can have an
incredibly positive influence onculture. And here's why, when
you are no longer working in thesame desk, five days a week,
(07:36):
eight hours, nine hours a day,work becomes your output, not
your environment. Too often,when you've got a traditional
structure where everybody comesto the same office, five days a
week, work is simply beingthere. And you can you can see
productivity drops, because itdoesn't matter what you're
(07:58):
doing, you're there and you'reworking. And so you can see a
very positive shift and what thewhat work means simply by
opening up some flexibility, Itotally agree that COVID has
made that a requirement, I don'tsee a scenario where it goes
back to the predominant modelbeing five days a week sitting
(08:19):
in a in an office, or in abuilding together. And I think
the challenges that you face arein building connections
collaborating across projects.
And so what we do internally tosprint energy, I think works
really, really well, we've got abunch of tools, collaborative
(08:41):
tools, we are big users ofSlack. So I can, I can get a
response from any member of myteam 1000 times faster than if I
had to stand up and walk to anoffice on the other side of the
hallway. There. It's animmediate collaborative tool. So
that works really well for us,we've got other productivity
(09:03):
tools that help keep us alignedon what everyone's working on.
So you don't have to all besitting in a room sharing.
Here's my update of the bigthings I've got going on. It's
all in our system, we use onecalled monday.com, which is
really flexible and helpful tobuild those collaborative teams
around different projects. Onearea where I think it's
(09:26):
important to have an in personprocess is in managers, it's
hard to fully manage remotely.
So that's kind of a little bitof a, an area that we've been
evolving in is you know, ifyou've got a team of people, I
need to have a better connectionwith with those management
points. So we all come into theoffice, if you're in the DC
(09:48):
area, everybody comes to theoffice on Tuesdays. We do all of
our in person stuff doesn't evenhave to be a full day but it
gets that it gets us connectedand you
We see each other we have theside conversations, which are
incredibly important indeveloping a shared culture.
It's not just about the work. Soit's really just a balance of
(10:10):
having that in person time.
Obviously, things like teams andzoom have made remote face to
face much easier and moresuccessful. One of the a
challenge that I thinkeverybody's going to have to get
better at our ourselves includedare hybrid meetings, where
there's a big chunk of people inperson, chunk of people,
virtual, those I don't think areas effective for the virtual
(10:34):
folks, because the regularbanter happens in person, and
it's hard to engage. So that's asort of area in the back of my
mind, I feel like we need to bebetter at but all in all,
technology has enabled itcircumstances with COVID have
required it. And, you know, Ithink co ops and every industry
is having to embrace the abilityto have different work workplace
(11:00):
models, the book is going to betouching on several different
industries, from entertainment,hospitality to manufacturing,
and of course, with usutilities, what is the role that
associations can play in andhelping facilitate the culture
growth inside maybe the maincorporate entity, I think they
(11:21):
play a huge role. And that's,that's what we love. And what I
love about Touchstone energy iswe are an association. We are,
you know, a network of 700cooperatives across the country.
And we give that the ability toconvene, so convene groups of
coops to address shared issuesand share and exchange
(11:43):
information, and then we givethe infrastructure to make that
happen. And I think that allassociations are going to have
to address that. And I think toa large extent, they are, you
know, government relations isnot a part of touchstone
energies portfolio. So itenables us to better focus on
those cultural issues. But evena traditional trade association,
I think, is going to have toreally embrace the need to
(12:06):
address how the world isshifting, and how their
individual industry should beadapting to that and provide
that opportunity to sharebetween different members. When
someone is looking at building aculture, I spoke with Kevin
Monroe, who is what I call it,gratitude guru, we're talking
(12:26):
about the role that gratitudeplays and how it needs to be
built into the cultures thatwe're creating. And I'm thinking
about the co op principles, andthen also our Touchstone
Guidestones that we have, whensomeone is looking at creating a
culture inside theirorganization, how much of that
(12:46):
should be valued based, in youropinion? And what are some of
the areas that they should lookat? I honestly think it's 100%
value based, I don't, I don'tknow how you can have a positive
culture without looking at thevalues that you share.
Fundamental is, is trust andhonesty, loyalty, all of those
sorts of base needs thateveryone has in order to be able
(13:11):
to come together and beproductive and successful as a
group. If you don't have those,you can't build a culture. So
that's always been really,really important to be on a
funny level. I am a big I gossipdrives me nuts. And I think it
has a stake in the heart ofculture and teamwork. And so I
just, that's an area I don'ttolerate. It's also human nature
(13:36):
to share things. But that's justsomething that that is kind of
my personal core value. I guess,if you don't want other people
to hear it, don't say it. It'sthat kind of small change and
focus on honesty and openness,that I think gives the
opportunity for a strong cultureto thrive without that you
(13:58):
simply can't. So we're hearingmore and more about the role
that doing meaningful workplays. And I think that's one of
the places where coops have kindof a leg up on some other
industries because not only forthe service that we provide, but
you look at what happens duringstorms. And you look at the
commitment to community that wehave that way we give back. What
(14:18):
role are you seeing nationallydriving potential employees to
look at that, that overall doingmeaningful work? I think it's
absolutely I mean, there's tonsof studies about particularly
millennials, Gen Z, z's, the,you know, more recent additions
to the workforce. That's one oftheir number one needs is to
(14:40):
feel like they're doingmeaningful work. I think you're
exactly right that co ops havethat and I think it is an unused
attractor. I don't think that weleverage that nearly enough and
we focus more on Oh, you know,we provide the essential service
to our community.
nutty, but we don't talk aboutall of the other things that co
(15:03):
ops do. And I think that, thatwe should I think that is a huge
part of what makes thiscommunity so special is that,
yeah, you have your your day joband your day job might be
keeping the lights on orwhatever your role is in that
particular function. And yet,there are so many other ways
that you touch and embrace yourcommunity that that we honestly
(15:28):
should lead with that the factthat the electricity is that's a
base and a given and musthappen. But it's all of the
other things that the localcooperative, does that really
share that story of why it's aspecial business model. And
that's one of the things thatcertainly comes out in our
research at Touchstone energy isthat we need to be more forward
(15:48):
looking with with those thoseactivities. So one of the things
that I've been hearing a lot,too is like when, as a CEO, and
referencing, like yourconversation that you had with
with other CEOs recognizing thatthere's an issue and developing
it, if you were to go back andsay, Okay, I know we have an
issue with culture, what is thefirst step as a CEO that you
(16:12):
should take to start developinga program implementing a program
or putting thoughts to paper, Ithink the first step is defining
that culture, we're potentiallyI fear, we're at a point where
it means something different toeveryone. And so you have to
have a shared definition. So ifyou're hearing and you're
(16:33):
seeing, hey, there's an issuewith culture, you need to get
your stakeholders within yourorganization together, and
really define what that means toeverybody. Is it an issue that,
you know, it could be aproductivity issue, it could,
you know, there could be somenegative undercurrents of people
not being honest, are peoplenot, you know, being good
(16:54):
stewards of their resources ortheir job. And so you have to
figure out what you have todefine that. And then once you
understand and define thatculture challenge, then you can
start to address it because itwould be aligned. Yeah, if you
have an issue where, wherepeople really aren't, aren't
being good teammates, andthey're not being good stewards
(17:15):
of the resources they're given,then you need to align that
with, Hey, we're here for eachother, we're stronger if we work
together and collaboratively.
And here's our plan to make thathappen. But it starts with
digging in on that shareddefinition of what the challenge
really is, how important youtalked about getting
stakeholders together, howimportant is it to pull people
(17:36):
from different aspects of theorganization together to help
create plan, I think that's,that's critical. It can't be led
from the top, it's got to be a,you know, up and down side to
side, the organization of peoplewho are at you to borrow Social
Media Language, who are theinfluencers in your
(17:57):
organization, who are the onesthat people listen to, when they
say something that, you know,the room quiets down when their
hand goes up, and you need toget those folks together. But
also the quiet people who, who,you know, are really the
absorbing some of thepotentially negative culture
that's happening. And thenyou've got to get everybody on
(18:18):
board with that sharedunderstanding of exactly what
are we trying to do here andhave that group be your
ambassadors within within yourfull employee base. And without
that, it's very, very hard to besuccessful. So what's a good
rule of thumb, everybody's busy,everybody's got their, their
list of things to do that kindof thing. What keeps a culture
(18:39):
initiative from becoming justsomething that we've checked the
box and say, we've talked aboutculture, it has to be fun, it's
got to be it's got to be a partof your job, like, underlying
everything you do. It's not ananother activity. Not Oh, now's
the, it's on my 11 o'clock timewindow, that I'm going to think
(19:02):
about culture. It's the alwaysit's how you work, not what you
work on. And if you if youconvey it in that way, that
integrity a core value, youdon't need to stop and have
integrity on your your list ofto do. It just means that
anytime you're engaging withanyone you're doing it with,
with a good heart with anhonest, you know, honest voice,
(19:26):
and you're proud of that how youwork. And so it doesn't become a
to do list. It's not just athing that you shove aside
because you finished with thatbecause it is ingrained. And all
you do. And that's when you knowyou've been successful that
people are actually thinking inthose terms that you create,
what whatever mechanism, Ialways love the core value
(19:47):
mechanism because that isusually pretty simple to think
about regularly as you'reengaging your day to day work,
and then it doesn't becomeanother another checkbox you
need to
Unknown (20:00):
checkoff.
Chellie Phillips (20:01):
I like that.
As I'm sitting here making noteson my notes, I highlight this
right here.
How can you as an individual, oryou, as a team leader inside
that organization begin toexhibit your own culture? And
what can you do to help itspread to others inside that
organization? You know, I thinkeverybody organizations have
(20:24):
core values, individuals havecore values. And if you have
the, you know, I mentioned,honesty, truth, transparency are
just super important to me. So,any individual have those those
values that are important totheir heart. And if you work in
a way that it's obvious toeveryone that you've got that
(20:47):
under penning of a values thatyou're aligned with, you can
absolutely, an individual caninfluence culture in a very
quick and positive way. Not asquick as an individual can
negatively impact culture, weall know the power of bad and
how quickly somebody can canhave negative influence. But the
(21:10):
opposite is true as well, youcan definitely positively impact
simply by adhering to what isimportant to you, especially
when those are aligned with youwhat you understand is important
to the organization. The otherpiece is the accountability, the
culture movement has to beowned, it can't be someone
else's job inside thatorganization. So how can that
(21:34):
message get conveyed in a waythat accountability doesn't
mean, it's the CEOs job, itmeans that it's the entire
organization's job. It is andit's when you when you convey
and you're really instill theidea that culture is how you
work, it becomes clear that it'severybody's job, because you
should always be aligned withwith the core values and how
(21:57):
your organization, what yourorganization believes is
important and good and worthcaring about, in terms of, you
know, making sure it's part ofeverybody's job, it's really,
it's kind of practice what youpreach, there's ways in a lot of
different ideas about how toincorporate that into practice.
I know at one organization I'vebeen a part of, we had our core
(22:20):
values, and then we had specificbehaviors that exemplifies those
values, or we're not alignedwith those values, just example.
And it starts to help peoplethink about the process, think
about how they can beincorporating these in their day
to day work. Another tool I usethat I love is the it's the RACI
(22:41):
model, it's out of Procter andGamble, but it's a way to for
any project. This is moreproject management, but it's
related to how to instill corevalues. It's you know, who's
responsible, who's accountable,who needs to be consulted on a
project, who supports theproject, and who's who
influences that. And if you lookat those different areas in, in
(23:01):
core value structure,implementing a strong culture,
everyone supports it. So youjust start to realize that
everybody is involved in this,if you regularly think and how
do you advance any initiative,and you think of your role in
it, everyone is involved. And soif you have those different
models about how you advance anyproject, and you put the culture
(23:24):
piece through that people startto see, hey, yeah, I'm involved
in that. And so is everyoneelse. So especially in our
industry, we have a lot ofengineers, a lot of accountants
that move into the role of CEOand everything needs to have a
number associated with it andreturn on their investment. So
(23:45):
as a CEO, maybe some of this isnot something that you can you
can put, oh, I'm gonna get a 15%increase. If I if I start
focusing on culture, what arethe things that a CEO can look
at inside the organization tosee if they are effectively
changing culture in a way thatpositively impacts not only the
(24:09):
employees there, but the bottomline of that organization? It's
absolutely tied to the bottomline. I'm not an accountant, but
I really like spreadsheets, thatretention, if you have a good
strong positive culture in yourorganization, people are going
to stay how easy and how, youknow, what, what's the time it
takes to fill positions whenthey do become open? Certainly
(24:32):
bottom line things like the youknow, how fast does a project go
from conception toimplementation in a strong
culture environment, that'sgoing to be faster than in
something where there's anegative influence. So there's
absolutely bottom linemeasurements, but retention I
think is one of the best onesbecause when you when you work
(24:53):
on, I will say, when youimplement and focus on culture,
it's going to be threatened.
Jana Adams (25:00):
To some people who've been places for a long
time, so it's the beginning, youmight have a little uptick in
retirements orfolks leaving for other other
opportunities. And that's okay.
Because that means that peopleare self selecting, hey, this
isn't a process I'm willing togo through. But once you've got
(25:20):
it in place, and you've got thepeople, the right people in the
right seats, then they're goingto want to stay because they
believe in what you're doing.
And that belief is absolutelycontributes to your bottom line.
So we talked about, maybethere's some people that are
hesitant to, this is the waywe've always done it, I don't
want to change that, what aresome of the other roadblocks
that a CEO or managementshouldn't, should be prepared
(25:44):
for when they are looking atinstituting a new culture inside
an organization, you're gonnahave the skeptics, there's gonna
be the outright, like, I don'twant any part of this, because I
do my job fine. And I don't needto change anything. So that's
the obvious ones. But thenthere's just going to be the
people who are skeptical whothink this is just some new
trend. And this is some newmanagement fad that's coming in
(26:07):
and, and they're gonna, youknow, they're the kind of quiet
killers of a culture. And so youhave to be very, very wary of
the skeptic. And then, you know,honestly, you'll probably have
the early adopters who are allgung ho, but then tire
themselves out. So it's, it'sabout, I think, a measured pace.
So that you're not like, A,you're not saying, Hey, here's a
(26:31):
piece of paper, this is ourculture, let's go run out and do
it. It's built from within. Andso people naturally start to
join in the process, becausethey see the benefits. They see
the happier employees, they seethe better service to their
community that comes out ofhaving that strong and defined
culture. But you do have to bewary about the just super
(26:53):
outright hostile people, butthen all the also the really
skeptical people who you canturn into advocates, but you
have to address it prettyquickly. So a lot of our a lot
of our organizations have boardsthe answer to get budgets
approved. And generally whenyou're thinking culture, you
think some employee engagementactivities, you think some, you
know, swag, maybe to get peoplemotivated, you think some
(27:16):
recognition along the ways anddifferent things like that, to
kind of keep it moving andkeeping it out there. What is
the driving factor that if youwere presenting this to a board
for you know, a budget to dothis, that you could convince
them use? What's the one thingthat you would use to convince
your board that this is totallysomething they should invest in,
and that the change is going tobe worth it? I think it's I
(27:38):
don't think it's too muchdifferent than getting funding,
quote, unquote, for any kind ofproject, you outline the
problems, because anytimesomebody you're saying we need
to work on our culture, it's theunderpinnings are because there
are problems with how you'reworking now. So you have to
outline those for the for theboard and say, Hey, we've got
(27:59):
this issue, we've got retentionproblems we've got, you know,
people aren't working well inteams, because they don't like
each other, or whatever thedifferent issues are. And when
you outline those, and you say,here's our solution, we're going
to have you know, we're going togo through a team building
exercise, we're going to have asmall group that gets together
to identify core values, we'regoing to then have some various
(28:21):
trainings, when it's alignedwith addressing a specific
problem, my, my experience, justlike with anything else, they're
going to do a cost benefit intheir head. Most of the time,
though, you can convey it in away that makes it very, very
clear that this is going to be anet positive to the organization
based on the problem that it'sgoing to address. Thank you for
(28:44):
being part of this and helpingme put this together.
Oh, well, thanks for thanking meand definitely let me know if
there's anything anyclarification or follow up. So
I'm happy to happy to do it.
This has been a goodconversation. I do love this
kind of stuff. I I think how wework is
Chellie Phillips (29:04):
dictates the value that we provide to
whatever our our organization orindustry is, and, and so the
culture drives that and I thinkit's an important topic. Thanks
for listening to the culturesecret podcast. What takeaways
Do you have? For me when Janasaid strategy doesn't matter if
you don't have the culture inplace to implement it really
(29:25):
made me think I couldn't agreemore that you need a people
centered culture that meanspeople feel safe to embrace the
new and give it a try. That theyaren't fearful to experiment
because they think if somethinggoes wrong, it means they could
lose their job. being receptiveto new ideas positions us to
continue meeting the changingneeds of our members for years
to come. If you're interested inlearning more about the secrets
(29:46):
you can use to build a strongpeople centered culture in your
workplace. Grab a copy of mybook culture secrets. It's on
Amazon or ask your favoritebookseller to order you a copy.
If you have comments orquestions, please feel free to
reach out to me on linkIn Facebook or Twitter. If you
like what you heard today,please subscribe, drop me a
rating and share a link with afriend. I'm currently looking
for corporate training andworkshop presentations. I'd love
(30:08):
the chance to come work with youor your company. If you're
interested, please visit mywebsite at WWW dot Chellie
phillips.com That's C H E L L IE P H I L L i p s.com. And
remember, building a valueculture is your competitive
advantage and the backbone ofany successful organization.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.