All Hands On Deck: 8 Essential Lessons for Building a Culture of Ownership

Appendix 3. Study Questions

These questions will help you apply the lessons of All Hands on Deck to the challenge of promoting a culture of ownership where you work. It is important to note that you do not have to be the CEO to have an impact on the culture of the place where you work. Anyone can make a difference. As Walt told Corey, "If you can dream it, you can do it."

Question #1:

How does your organization currently reflect the four essential elements of a culture of ownership that Corey described to his bankers? What would an outsider, or a new employee, say about the level of commitment, engagement, passion, and pride where you work? How would they see it in your attitudes and behavior and in those of your co-workers?

Question #2:

Using the structure described in Appendix 1 on the invisible architecture of an organization, how would you draw a cultural blueprint for your organization (1) as it is now and (2) as it would look in the ideal state? How far apart is the current reality from the ideal vision, and what would have to happen to bring the two closer together?

Question #3:

In the introduction, I commented on how many organizations tolerate complaining, finger-pointing, passive-aggressiveness, and other forms of toxic emotional negativity in the way we once tolerated cigarette smoking. How does your organization do when it comes to fostering an emotionally positive and spiritually uplifting workplace environment? What more could be done to eradicate toxic emotional negativity ...