Drive a culture of high challenge and high support

In any high-performance organization, the acts of learning and achieving development must be prevalent and ongoing for employees at all levels. Great organizations understand that they have a responsibility to create two imperatives: An environment of stretch opportunity and a culture that develops others. I have seen that by providing employees with these two imperatives, which is inclusive of new challenges, a strong support system, and a structured method through which they can share ideas, companies are able to thrive. Oftentimes when companies attempt to develop their employees’ skills and abilities, they do so either by offering training options or measuring progress through evaluation processes. I believe that these methods are passive, and over time, prove themselves to be ineffective. They are a prescription for average. Instead, we should focus on the structure itself within the workplace and how it should enable our employees to achieve development. The well structured environment should be the everyday enabler for ongoing learning and development. That environment needs to focus on learning as a continuous experience. This is best achieved when it’s done by employees on the job. There is no substitute for real world experience. Instead of putting employees through checklists and online trainings, the better alternative would be to put them into “stretch roles” and coach them through that challenge. It is in the struggle, the experience and the coaching that will create the most meaningful progress. This is development through action and what I think of as a high challenge, high support model. Great organizations must have courage to give employees stretch roles and must have the responsibility to coach them to success. This relationship of faith and support is the most effective way to foster learning and development. In addition to cultivating strong business relationships amongst employees at various levels, the high challenge, high support model drives “stretch thinking.” When individuals experience the rewards that come with development, it encourages the thought process that anything is achievable, and nothing is impossible. Likewise, it maintains the premise that constant learning is fundamental in order to succeed in a high-performance organization. My belief is that in order to succeed, individuals must always continue to approach new challenges. Maintaining and practicing this idea is essential for all of us throughout day-to-day operations. This must be part of your daily way of doing things. This creates a true culture of learning. When the high challenge, high support model is in place, empowerment becomes an absolute must in order to maintain this method of thinking throughout the workplace. It is important that employees should be encouraged not only to express new ideas, but also to offer them avenues and means to bring life to those ideas. High-performance organizations need to empower their employees to share their ideas, and then develop means to attain them. Enlightened companies understand this and offer structured avenues for every idea to be heard and if deemed worthy, supported in a tangible and formal way. Individuals should feel both encouraged and empowered enough so that they can formally present an idea, request the required funds, establish a means of finding resources, and so forth. Think of it as the show “shark tank” in your business. Every idea should have equal opportunity to be heard no matter where it comes from in the organization and each idea should have it’s day in front of the decision makers. This accessibility makes all the difference and what separates good companies from great companies.

In conclusion, practice makes perfect. Give employees the opportunity to get in the game and stretch themselves, then coach them everyday to success. This creates a compounding effect. It creates a culture of learning and appreciation for stretch thinking as well as a culture where you have the responsibility to give others opportunity and to help them. Further, the best organizations have avenues for every employee to be heard. This empowerment factor creates that secret sauce to long lasting success.