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Tactics for Hard Times:
Stay Strategic, Stay Focused
While many companies have been derailed by short-term economic challenges, others are striding ahead because they’ve remained focused on long-term strategic goals. The Midland Company is a good example.
This family-owned, publicly traded, specialty property casualty insurance company operates in 50 states and has doubled in size over the past five years. Advantage partner Peg Ruppert explains, “Midland’s commitment to developing its people reflects a long-term approach that is highly strategic, market-driven, and proactive. This company understands that the values that helped it create market dominance are the same values that will sustain its success. Their vision is that growth provides opportunities to strengthen the culture, and they’re leveraging this with learning tools that help their people better understand company strategy, their customers, and their role in the company’s success.”
Lis Baldock is Midland’s Vice President of Human Resources and Learning. She heads an ongoing performance development initiative that:
- began with Performance Mastery programs, from Real Learning Company, to address specific skill deficiencies and help managers and performers create exceptional results by working in concert toward common goals
- incorporated the Business MadeSimple by Root™ Strategy Map, from Root Learning®, Inc., to communicate and create buy-in for newly refined company strategies, and clarify each associate’s role in making the strategies successful
- blended in a business literacy Welcome Mat, from Real Learning, to speed new hires’ time to performance, and create comprehensive company history and business literacy that would re-engage everyone in the organization
Ruppert makes sure all the learning elements work as part of a cohesive concept, and that everything is strategy-based and tied to Midland’s business goals.
Setting Expectations, Clarifying Roles
Ruppert initially recommended the Real Learning Performance Mastery program suite (Symphony, Conductor, Performer) in response to an internal Midland survey that identified management skills training as an opportunity for both supervisors and managers. She also knew that the learning experience would fill broader needs. "In First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman's analysis of more than 80,000 managers in 400 companies, lack of clear expectations is identified as the number-one reason why people leave companies," she says. "Especially for companies such as Midland that are in fast-growth modes, helping people understand their role in the new organizational culture, then giving them the tools to perform in concert to their maximum potential, is crucial. Those themes are what Performance Mastery is all about."
The suite comprises an innovative, interconnecting learning experience that develops a common language and process for aligned team performance (Symphony), builds world-class coaching skills for managers (Conductor), and helps individuals create the self-awareness to deliver their best performance (Performer). “We really liked the activity-based, self-discovery aspects of the suite—and people love all the programs,” says Baldock.
Baldock worked with Ruppert and Real Learning President Richard Hodge to make sure people continued to implement the new performance tools after the training. “We said, ‘Now that you’ve tried them on for size, how can we help you implement the new concepts?’ To do that, we’re bolstering the initial rollout with e-learning, communities of practice, and learning booster shots.”
 Communicating Strategy
Meanwhile, Midland senior management updated its long-term vision with a refined set of key business strategies. The next challenge was finding a way to communicate those strategies to, and create buy-in from, every associate in the organization. When Ruppert recommended the Root Learning Business MadeSimple by Root™ Strategy Map, Baldock recognized not only a vehicle for deploying the new strategies, but one that would build on the Performance Mastery initiative by, once again, helping the company set clear expectations.
“I’m the champion for organizational readiness, alignment, and focus, and the Strategy Map will us achieve all of those things” she says. “Among other things, it will enable us to create that line of sight to say that although some people have more direct alignment to revenue than others, everybody will have some impact on sales and increased profitability.” Partnering is an important area of focus. “Much of how we sell is through partnership relationships. So we need to help everyone understand how acting as indispensable partners will roll all the way up to selling more insurance. We see the Strategy Map as a way to do this.”
Sharing Values, Building Business Literacy
One of Midland’s business issues is improving time to performance, particularly helping new hires assimilate core company history and values quickly. Real Learning’s solution was an activity-based Welcome Mat learning experience. The program communicates why Midland’s core values are important, stories that share the heart and soul of the family-owned company’s history, knowledge about how the company makes money, and other key business data about Midland’s unique market niche in the highly competitive insurance industry.
“In addition to implementing the Welcome Mat for new hires, Midland chose to use it in a broader way, for all hires. This is a way of re-engaging everyone in the company to the values and stories of Midland’s past, present, and future,” Ruppert explains. “The Welcome Mat dovetails with the Strategy Map as well as with our Performance Mastery work, so that our entire initiative is linked,” says Baldock. “The Welcome Mat also helps people understand strategy. I can put a context around why knowledge management, reducing expenses, all of our new technology, and continuing to grow are all important.”
“Our goal is to sell more, become more profitable, and develop a more talented organization,” she says. “Each of these performance tools will help us meet our long-term strategic growth and performance objectives, plus specific quantitative financial and market share goals. As we look forward, developing a more aligned and engaged organization is the ultimate achievement. These tools will help us get there.”
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