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If you read my post about the dying treehouse tree, you will remember the metaphor comparing my dying tree to unhealthy cultures. I have been killing my tree with my good intentions. Piling playground mulch around the tree and playground for safety and beautification resulted in a suffocated root system. For years I assumed the poor health was due to the treehouse, so I continued to pile on the mulch. In the previous post, I compared my tree to many organizations that have good intentions and assume their stagnation is due to difficult business conditions while the organization is slowing dying from a suffocating culture.
I’ll come back to the latest tree happenings and extend the metaphor in a bit, but first allow me to share one of the tools in the System and Soul framework. We use a tool called the Personal Roadmap to replace traditional performance discussions. Not sure about you, but I’ve found traditional performance discussions tend to focus on how to squeeze more productivity from employees without addressing the employee’s passions and unique skillset. The Personal Roadmap facilitates a discussion about a team member’s personal and professional passions and explores where they overlap with the organization’s roadmap. Instead of leaving the discussion feeling beat down (or pumped up) by numerical ratings applied to vague topics, folks leave the Personal Roadmap discussion feeling valued. They will have a better understanding of how they can use their unique skills and passions to make meaningful contributions to the organization and the leader will have a better appreciation for the employee as a unique person and how to motivate and inspire them.
Now back to the tree … I wasn’t finding time to address the excess mulch around the base of the tree. Meanwhile, my son is on summer vacation and has lots of time, but seemingly, little motivation. One of his current passions is using his recently acquired confidence in driving our riding mower. After a brief discussion, he was inspired to tackle this project when he learned he could use the mower with a trailer attached to move the mulch to another area. To my surprise, he started the project the next morning and even recruited a helper – someone who will remain unnamed but let’s just say I would have had a very tough time convincing her to shovel rotting mulch. With his helper exercising some quality control, the job was finished the same day! Now we wait to see if new life will emerge on the seemingly dying tree.
Reach out if you’d like to hear more about the System and Soul framework and tools. I’m doing free 90-minute exercises with leadership teams on topics ranging from strategic plans to culture building and would love to discuss how I can help your team.
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