When meat is marinated, it is soaked in a marinade for an extended period of time.  The marinade sauce penetrates into the meat and not only keeps the meat moist and edible when it is placed over a fire, but it also changes the flavor of the meat.  That flavor is maintained during the cooking process.

When I forget to marinate the meat and just place the sauce on the outside right before hitting the flames, the heat of the fire often burns the sauce.  There is a charred flavor on the outside, while on the inside the meat is dry and flavorless.  The fire damages the meat instead of adding to its flavor.

A Low Maintenance Team (LMT) has a culture developed by the leader actively marinating the people in the principles the leader wants the LMT to embrace and emulate.  This is how a LMT Culture is created and maintained.

A LMT Culture Survives Adversity

Marinade Ingredients

When I led a Low Maintenance Team there were specific principles I tried to soak my people in.  The ingredients in my LMT Marinade included our Vision, Values and Mission.  I often call these our LMT’s Why, How and What.

 Our Vision is our Why

Why are we here?  What is the LMT’s far reaching ideal?  If we kept our eye on our own unique North Star, it will keep us moving towards our ideal.

A vision can never truly be reached.  There is not a day where I can say I have arrived.  It is the guiding objective for all I do.  It is my end.

One LMT’s Vision:

To be considered the team to beat in _______ Inc.

Our Values Define How We Operate

How each team member habitually acts determines the character of an LMT.  The principles that guide how we will habitually operate are our values.

One LMT’s Values:

Integrity, Innovation, Trust, Communication, The Golden Rule

Our Mission Defines What We Do To Accomplish Our Vision

The mission of a LMT essentially spells out the means used to accomplish the Vision.  My teams developed 3-4 core concepts that would lead our team to reach our Vision.

While the vision and values never changed, our mission could be adapted to the ever changing business environment.  This follows the advice I got from my dad, The Master of The Sword at West Point when he said, “Be flexible in your methods, but never in your values.”

One LMT’s Mission (Aligned with the Vision above)

To Be Considered The Team To Beat In _____ Inc.

We will:

  • Be a team of leaders.
  • Maintain and communicate high expectations.
  • Control the Controllables.
  • Communicate frequently and effectively.
  • Demonstrate what we do is important through our passion.

Marinate Consistently and Frequently

A key to developing a LMT culture is the consistent and frequent reinforcement of the team’s Vision, Values and Mission.  I made it a habit of having conversations with both individuals and the team as a whole. These discussions revolved around our defining characteristics.

To truly sink in, a marinade is poured over the top of the meat and literally soaks the meat.  The longer the meat is soaked in the marinade, the more deeply it penetrates.

This is the same principle for a Low Maintenance Team’s values.  If I want my team to embrace and emulate values such as Integrity, Innovation, Trust, Communication and the Golden Rule, I must purposefully soak them in these values.

Marinating Techniques

There is not one way to marinate your food and there is not one way to marinate your LMT in your Vision, Values and Mission.  What I share below are just a few of the techniques I used through the years to be sure these character-building principles sunk in beyond the surface.

  • Our LMT values were defined and discussed in relation to our day-to-day activities.  Too often a word like integrity is called a value but no one discusses what it looks like in practice in our unique work situations.  I would routinely open a meeting by allocating 15 minutes to a different value discussion.
  • Since we wanted to be a Team Of Leaders, we read leadership books together.  Monthly a different team member would facilitate a discussion on a chapter and how it related to our work environment.
  • As people were solving problems, I would always relate their solutions back to our guiding principles and ask them to use them as a filter for any decisions they might make.
  • Since innovation was a core value, I never condemned people for making honest mistakes that were driven by their desire to try something new.

The Bottom Line:

If I want my team to be Low Maintenance Team, I must establish what our guiding principles are, define what they mean in practice and reinforce them frequently and consistently.

Just because my team has a Vision, Values, and a Mission on our website, does not mean any of that impacts our culture.  If it is all on the surface, these well meaning principles will be useless when the fires of adversity come. 

As a leader of a LMT, I am responsible for the process of marinating my team in culture building values in a manner that will sink in and stand up to the heat.

Question:

What innovative ways have you seen culture developed on teams?