Do away with that dull strategy! Get started with Rockefeller Habits

Let us choose visibility, connection and ownership.

5
 min read |  
14/5/2021
 |  
Business transformation

You know, strategy. Not always the most inspiring part. Especially when strategic objectives are communicated from higher up, without explanation or further explanation. We call that strategy from the 'ivory tower'. What if you, as an employee, do not even know what the strategy is? How can you then actually contribute to it? Reading an online document on the drive containing a number of models is not exactly inspiring either. But how should it be done? And moreover. How do you get your people enthusiastic and motivated?

We do it completely differently. How? By using our strategy to create connection and ownership. To explain this further, I'll take you through our own story. The start of 2021. Are you reading along?

A dip.

1 January 2021. Corona was still among us. We noticed that the past year had a great impact on our employees. Working from home, long days behind the computer, children, little social contact and not being able to do sports. Do I need to say more?

But yes. 2021 was also the start of a new fresh year. But how do you find the energy when everyone is so jaded? Research among our employees showed that fitness was the biggest bottleneck. People felt far from fit.

As an organisation, alarm bells started ringing. After all, people are the basis of your organisation and service. They are the business card of your company. Therefore, we tackled this major bottleneck with the Rockefeller Habits method.

Getting started with Rockefeller Habits

The Rockefeller Habits. The growth theory for scale-up organisations. Improve and professionalise your business step by step in order to grow successfully. That is the purpose of the Rockefeller theory. At TeamValue, we have been working with the Rockefeller Habits for some time now and we incorporate it in, among other things, a business game. By now, we have played quite a few games and we will show you how we do this and what the success factor is.

The basis of our corporate game

The basis of our Rockefeller company game is the annual theme. We then divide this into four sub-themes. Each quarter, we analyse where our main bottleneck to growth lies. Linked to this bottleneck, we set three priorities. These are the priorities we will work on together. By turning the big picture into several small, but above all workable items, which fit within the power and influence of the employees, we create more visibility, connection and ownership. In this way, employees can contribute to the bigger picture in a relatively small way.

By actively involving people and making them responsible for certain priorities, you create visibility for your strategy in the organisation. With us, the strategy is really seen as the common thread of the quarter. We measure results and celebrate success. People feel involved, but also responsible for reaching the final goal together.

Once the target has been reached, we celebrate. We reward our employees by giving them a gift. For example, a Nintendo Switch for the office or a new wireless headset for Teamscalls. All rewards that contribute to team spirit, or the Ohana as we call it.

What you need

You may have heard this before, but to really make it work you need two things:

  1. A coach who is responsible for the process, the implementation and the result.
  2. FUN. Because without fun, no one will run faster and it will be 'just another obligation from above'.

Finally, every quarter we divide the members into teams so that cooperation is strengthened and they connect with other circles or departments.

What does that look like for 2021?

For us, 2021 is all about FIT2021. We therefore started this year with a KICKSTART (and we did so completely digitally). Our main goal: getting our people fit again. That became one of the priorities in Q1. Because without happy people, no happy customers and less profit. Also known as the Service Profit Chain.

We believe in working together, so we made buddy teams. We are not afraid of a little competition (to be honest, in our organisation, I have never seen such a bunch of 'over-competitive' people together). By having a buddy, you became jointly responsible for each other's fitness. You went into battle together against the other teams.

Throughout the quarter, there were different fit themes with a new challenge every week. But in addition to these fun elements, the buddy teams also communicated their business goals. For each goal achieved, points could be scored, such as taking a cold shower every morning, taking part in Ommetje, exercising, eating sugar-free, writing down happy moments or taking time for relaxation. But also obtaining certificates, learning modules, expanding customer portfolios, etc. This is just a selection.

But when are we really successful?

At the beginning of the game we asked everyone to honestly rate their fitness with a number. The grades were continuously visible to all team members. Because we trust each other so much, we were able to be transparent and honest with each other. And that's what we like about being a team.

After the zero measurement at the beginning of the year, we also set up a measurement for the end of Q1. We had set ourselves the goal of being at least in the green and of scoring an average of 7.5 together. In between, we had checkpoints to see if everyone was on the right track.

In the end, we achieved this goal with an 8 average. A fantastic achievement of which we are all very proud. The game provided a connection, allowed us to have a real conversation with each other and helped us to focus on each other's fitness. And we managed to do it from home. Precisely because we offered our people the tools and grips to connect with each other in the digital age as well.

Continue with Q2

We are now well into the sub-theme of Q2. In this quarter, we are focusing on the growth of our organisation. But in such a way that it suits our people in a healthy way. That's why we are now playing the 'Ikea Growth Game' where you have to get rid of your own Bällast if you want to grow. What exactly does that look like? More on that later.

Getting started with fitness in your team?

Do you want to get started with fitness in your team? Would you like to spar or do you want to know more about it? Great, I am happy to get in touch with you via email protected].

The great thing is, that this game is already on the shelves, fully developed. So you could start making your organisation fit right away. Ready. Set. Go!

Stay tuned!

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More information about this blog? Get in touch with the author(s).
Franka Juta
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