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Commitment Webinar Series
Commitment Webinar Series
Taking Others With You and Keeping Them
There: Building Resilient Organizations
Presented by Robert Pecchio, Esq, CGI U Commitment Mentor –
Dialogue and Conflict Resolution
Agenda
In this webinar, participants will learn best practices on:
1. creating and maintaining a positive organizational culture that is productive and
resilient in the face of conflict and other challenges;
2. tips on navigating the legal pitfalls and protections surrounding the building of an
organization;
3. and preparations for organizational success as teams encounter growth, expansion,
and intergroup conflict.
Hypothetical #1: Consider the Monkey
Organizational Culture
● Monkeys and Ladders
● Organizational culture is often a “hand-
me-down” process
● What can you do beforehand to start
your organization with a positive
culture, or what can you do now, to
improve the culture you already have?
Positive Culture
● Glassdoor: Best Places to Work
○ Bain & Company
○ In-N-Out Burger
○ St. Jude’s Research Hospital
○ Salesforce
○ Delta Air Lines
○ Chick-fil-A
○ Walt Disney Company
“ ‘Show me the mooooooney’ ”
-Jerry Maguire”
-Robert Pecchio
Characteristics of Positive Culture
● What are some defining characteristics of “positive” organizational culture?
○ Typical responses include:
■ Role Identification
■ Recognition
■ Reasonableness
■ Respectful Communication
■ Reliability
■ Righteousness
Teambuilding-Tuckman Theory
● Forming
● Storming
● Norming
● Performing
Forming
● Characteristics
○ Team Members■ High Dependence on the Leader
■ Roles Undefined, Goals Unimagined
■ Roles and Responsibilities Undefined
■ Positive and Polite
○ Group■ Little Agreement on Team Aims
■ Processes often ignored in lieu of excitement
■ Social pursuits outweigh organizational goals
● Recognize: “I would love to get involved in a
cause like this.”
Focus on Forming● Leaders Must Role Model
○ Knowledge
■ Know Your Stuff
■ Keep It Simple (K.I.S.S.)
○ Behavior
■ Enthusiasm: Sell!
■ Fun Fact: You are probably almost exactly
like the bosses/leaders you have worked
for or encountered in your own life--for
better or for worse.
● Leaders Must Deconstruct○ Your biases, your presuppositions, and your
organization’s hierarchy, your organization’s
purpose.
FORMING Hypothetical #2 : Role Modeling
How do we move forward to “Storming”?
Leaders must encourage Constructive Conflict.
Team members must relinquish the comfort of
pleasant topics and risk disagreement.
DON’T SKIP THE STORM.
Storming
● Characteristics
○ Team Members:■ Pushing Boundaries, Positions, and
Identities
■ Suspicion, Fear, and Anxiety v.
Excitement, Enthusiasm, Purpose
■ Fidelity to External Groups, Fidelity to
Individual
○ Groups ■ Testing the Sustainability of a System
■ Building Trust
■ Managing conflict
Weathering the Storming
● “One of the most dangerous challenges
an organization can encounter is its
own success.” -Sinek
● Simon Sinek calls it “the split” ○ What you do, and Why you do it “split”
○ Leaders: Common Cause and Purpose
was/is united
● Examples: ○ Women’s March
○ ACLU
○ Organized criminal enterprises
SPLITTING AND RECRUITMENT
● VALUE VETTING○ What is your vetting process?
■ How aligned with the mission will recruits need to be?
(principles, values, background, etc. )
■ How much fidelity will be required for each role?
● CONFLICT STYLE○ INDIVIDUALS
■ What conflict style works for each person’s role?
● Collaborative
● Compromising
● Splitting--all-good or all-bad
○ GROUP
■ What system for dealing with disagreement will you
create?
■ Have you audited for conflict systems?
SPLITTING AND YOUR PROPERTY
In the case of a split, who owns your
property?
● Are you incorporated?
● Are you a non-profit/501(c)(3)?
○ A non-profit is not “owned” by a person or
persons. It is a public organization that
belongs to the “public at-large.”
■ The members of the board of
directors operate the business.
■ A non-profit cannot be sold
■ When a non-profit dissolves, its
assets must be distributed (typically)
to another organization.
“ ‘I’m not coming back for 30%, I’m coming back for
everything.’ -Eduardo Saverin -Andrew Garfield”
-Robert Pecchio
STORMING Hypothetical #3: Split to Infinity
SPLITTING AND THE ORGANIZATION’S PROPERTY
Does your organization have a website to
communicate its mission?
Does your organization distribute materials or use a
distinct methodology?
Does it use print advertisements or graphic design
for promotion, fundraisers, and service?
If you answered yes, you need to be protecting
your property.
SPLITTING LIABILITIES● Articles of Incorporation or
Organization○ Check your state requirements
● Corporation (Inc.)○ Entity is separate and distinct from owners
○ contracts/loan/employees/limited liability
● Limited Liability Company (LLC)○ Separates the business (builds a wall)
between your personal assets and those of
the company (asset protection)
○ Pass through taxation
○ Don’t have to be U.S. Citizens
○ Investors look favorably upon LLCs
Labor and Human Capital● Be careful about how you are going to
divide the labor.○ Independent Contractor (1099)
■ Contracted to perform a specific job
or project
■ Sets own schedule, controls their
engagement with the entity
○ Employee
■ Subject to labor laws, FLSA,
discrimination/retaliation, as well as
collective bargaining protection
● Danger zone○ When you treat contractors like employees
○ Hire an accountant!!!!
STORMING=OPPORTUNITY
● Storming moves the ship forward.
● How do we steady the ship?
● Start with Trust.○ People want to “count”
■ Challenge yourself to lead “people first” -Novak
■ People become invested if they matter.
● Make people matter.
○ People want to “know”
■ Trust people by being transparent
■ “The more they know” Sam Walton
○ People want to come along
■ “Go pro” with your teammates
■ K.I.S.S.
● Stop avoiding the unpleasant
“If the highest aim of a captain
were to preserve his ship, he
would keep it in port forever”
-Thomas Aquinas
Trust leads to NORMING.
Norming
● Characteristics
○ Team Members:■ Bridging the gap between expectations
and reality
■ The “real” ideas and feelings take root
■ Acceptance and Trust
○ Groups ■ Fidelity to Team Ground Rules
■ Shared effort to maintain order and
compliance
○ Recognize: Inside Jokes, Nicknames,
Increased Productivity
What Conditions Encourage Conflict?● Scarcity
○ Roles, Recognition, and Power (Fairness)○ Can you expand these elements of your organization?
○ Corrective Measures:
■ Expand and Avoid Comparisons (Individualize)
■ Clear up Ambiguity
■ Avoid Status Inconsistency (“Rank Disequilibrium”)
● Make the road up the hierarchy very clear, consistent,
concrete, and coherent with your values
○ Collective Memory and Record Keeping■ “Like linked computers”
■ The more we can externalize memory in the physical world the
less we need rely on overly confident, under precise memory -
Levitin
● Lack of Normative Consensus○ Goals
○ Procedures for Decision Making
○ Guidelines on the hierarchy
○ Membership
● Remedy and Restructure○ Achieve Broad Support of the Norms
○ Create a visible and transparent enforcement mechanism
○ Create investment
○ Identify Real Conflict versus Identity Setting (Realistic
Conflict)
Collaborative Conflict-What Conditions Encourage Conflict?
Collaborative Conflict - Contentious Tactics
● Contentious Tactics in Work Relations○ Ingratiation
■ Parties make themselves more attractive to
others for the purposes of exploitation
○ Promises■ Promises for compliance
■ Reward > compliance
○ Persuasive Argumentation
■ Logical appeals
■ Wasted energy
○ Shaming
■ Emotional abuse
○ Tit-for-Tat
■ Threats, and inconsistency
NORMING Hypothetical #4: The Tumblr Police
Finally, we are PERFORMING.
PERFORMING
● Characteristics
○ Team Members:■ Can fully demonstrate their talents and contributions
■ Team leaders can step back and pursue new
opportunities
● (Grassroots to Founder to CEO)
■ People are comfortable with leadership shifts
○ Groups ■ Norms have been accepted
■ High level of motivation
■ High level of synergy with lifestyle
○ Recognize: Inside Jokes, Nicknames, Increased
Productivity
PERFORMING, like success, is hard to define.
● Bring on your best self○ Make yourself uncomfortable
○ Question your presuppositions
○ Don’t assume you know the answers,
including how you come across to your
teammates
● Focus on the “One Thing”-Keller○ You will find your greatest successes when
you narrow your focus
○ Opportunity abounds, NEED is detailed
○ A focused ship is a resilient ship
● Put PEOPLE FIRST!!!!
