Case Study Roundup

The Value of Leadership Slowing Down

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Case Study Overview

Slowing Down Versus Going Fast to Improve Culture, Communication and Operational Efficiencies

Read Time: 3 minutes

Client: Civic Law Enforcement Agency

Product: Culture 5 – 4 Check-Ins, 5 Questions, 120 days

Anxiety Rating: Managed

Staff Connecting: 46% Connecting

Value to Leadership

  • Positive Environment: More dialogue and laughter in leadership meetings vs pre-culture work
  • People felt heard
  • Leaders & Managers appreciate the value of feedback and sharing information with all

The executive coach working with leadership continued to reiterate the benefits of:

  • Slowing down, pausing and stepping back to focus on operational efficiencies
  • Having hard conversations and addressing accountability
  • Giving leaders space to show up and celebrate positive behaviors and improvements

Leadership Profile

  • This is a small civic department that deals with ‘big city crime’ issues; the department is frequently short-staffed, not enough people share the workload
  • Civil law enforcement work is by nature transactional, which influences the organization’s culture; there is an emphasis on transactions versus behavioral change
  • Law enforcement culture tends to be very straightforward/ numerical; conducting nebulous culture work and addressing anxiety is ‘considered ‘fluffy,’ not perceived as a concrete, deliverable ROI metric
  • Leadership, managers and staff struggled to lean into difficult conversations to address the relational issues that contribute to anxiety, especially in group/ team settings

Outcomes

  • Participation declined over the 120 days period due to a lack of belief that the Check In was improving the department’s culture
  • Managers were consistently the least connected group across the organization (0-33%); they struggled to acknowledge their department results were “healthier” than perceived
  • The relationship between management and senior leaders was a consistent bottleneck to improving communication and connecting
  • Completing larger projects that required more across-department collaboration than the typical day-to-day work had a significantly positive impact on
    culture scores

Requested Leadership Behaviors Expressed:

30 days:   Help Balance the Load/ Avoid Burnout
60 days:   Help Balance the Load/ Avoid Burnout
90 days:   Improve Operations & Efficiency
120 days: Break Down Silos/ Remove Red Tape

Metric Goal

Culture Score = Contributing/ Performing
Well Being Index = Stable/ Energized
Anxiety Rating = Managed/ Minimal
Feelings Index (Connecting) = Higher % the better

 

Milestones

Increasing Participation

  • In subsequent C5 Check Ins, leadership/ management increased the frequency of reminder emails and incorporated QR codes at strategic
    locations around the organization to encourage participation  – increased to 82% participation.

Improving Communication

Coaching sessions delivered to Leadership / Managers on:

  • Practicing active listening in all settings
  • Asking open-ended questions
  • How to have tough conversations
  • Slowing down the pace of staff meetings to recognize where interactions and communication could improve in real time

Meeting Operational Challenges

  • Emphasized strengthening relationships and improving operational efficiencies
  • Bi-weekly leadership meetings provided a space for increased communication
  • Developed a formal agenda structure to facilitate communication/ problem-solving in leadership meetings
  • Enhanced focus on positive progress and celebrating wins
  • Identified assumptions and biases

About the author

Will Gladhart
William Gladhart
Chief Marketing Officer