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Barry Phegan


Thursday, November 8,  2012, 1:00 pm Pacific, 2:00 pm Mountain, 3:00 pm Central, 4:00 pm EST, 5:00 pm Atlantic, 9:00 pm Zurich


Company Culture — what it is and how you can manage it — practical suggestions for managers, leaders and consultants.
 

  • What is Company Culture?
  • Culture, performance, and profits
  • For career coaches and counselors — how can you help your clients understand their organization’s culture and what they can do to lead and manage it? How to help them show cultural values in their words and daily actions? Here is a short list of opportunities they can pick from.
  • For professional service firm consultants — are you are frustrated that your reports sometimes just sit on a shelf? Barry will offer some suggestions for how to build in implementation, so your studies and reports are more effective.


BIO


Barry Phegan is Managing partner of Meridian Group, company culture consultants since 1976, www.meridian-group.org. Clients include corporations such as, Hewlett Packard, Safeway, Anheuser-Busch, Levi’s, Chevron, UPS, General Mills, and many government agencies and professional service firms. Author of Developing Your Company Culture: The Joy of Leadership —A Handbook for Leaders and Managers, Context Press, 1996. Ph.D., University of California Berkeley. Contact barry@meridian-group.org

 

Exercise:  Increasing Employee Involvement

 

Let's say one of the cultural values you want more of is "employee involvement", i.e. that employees take more personal responsibility for their work (and you can let go and delegate more). To demonstrate, or encourage "involvement", think of who will be affected by an upcoming issues or decision you have control over, maybe something you are working on today.


Get those people who will be affected together. Outline the subject or decision. Ask them for their comments or suggestions, or how they might like to be involved in implementing the decision. Do this as a group (to demonstrate another cultural value, "teamwork"). At the end of the meeting, discussion, or decision, ask them as a group how the discussion was, and how you might do it better next time, and maybe what other areas or problems they'd like to be involved in.


Remember that involving people in decisions does not necessarily mean handing over authority, or that you must do what they suggest. Remember also that you don't have to do it perfectly the first time. If you are brave, you might even begin by saying that this type of meeting and discussion is new for you and you need their help. You can be sure everyone in the group will appreciate your effort. Everyone likes to be involved in decisions that affect them.

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This easy to read book helps leaders and managers understand and take charge of their company culture. It guides any leader in building a work culture where:

  • Productivity and profits jump
  • Everyone is engaged with the success of the enterprise.
  • Problems are solved quickly by the people closest to them.
  • People experience being valued as human beings.

Learn more about Barry’s book here or purchase the book at Amazon.com.

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Before we begin, here are a few instructions for listeners:

 

 

 

  • If you have a question, press 5* on your phone.
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Introduction

This is Dr. Sally Gelardin with Careerwell Tele-Interviews.  Our guest today, Barry Phegan, is Managing partner of Meridian Group, company culture consultants since 1976, www.meridian-group.org. Clients include corporations such as, Hewlett Packard, Safeway, Anheuser-Busch, Levi’s, Chevron, UPS, General Mills, and many government agencies and professional service firms. Author of Developing Your Company Culture: The Joy of Leadership —A Handbook for Leaders and Managers, Context Press, 1996. Ph.D., University of California Berkeley. Contact barry@meridian-group.org

 

Interview Questions

 

  1. What is company culture?
  2. How can you help your clients understand their company's culture?
  3. How can you help them leand and manage their company's culture?
  4. How can you help them show cultural values in their words and daily actions?
  5. How can you make sure your reports don't just sit on the shelf?
  6. Give an example of a company culture's value; i.e., "involvement".  How can you encourage involvement (i.e., employees taking more personal responsibility for their work)?
  7. In your book on Developing Your Company's Culture, you mention "the iceberg of consciousness." What is that?
  8. You also say that leaders lead systems.  What does that mean?  What kinds of problems do systems have and how can these problems be solved?
  9. What are the five steps of evolution of company culture?
  10. How do you develop your company's culture?
  11. What is the best king of company culture?
  12. How can company culture apply to non-profits, small companies, and boards?
  13. What are your interests now and where do you see yourself going in the future with all your organizational development expertise?  Non-Profits? Boards?

Thank you Barry Phegan and than you listeners.  This is Dr. Sally Gelardin with Careerwell Tele-Interviews.  Be sure to register for upcoming Tele-Interviews:

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