Smart Business Magazine, Jun 2012

12 Smart Business Houston June 2012 ple who are supporting you your vendors or your partners in business and your customers all the same You cant have a different culture for those people or those things because that dismantles the effort its not aligned and the company blows up because of that Most companies have a mission statement and a vision statement as well as a set of core values or behaviors as important elements of the culture These in a way can be used as metrics We kind of think of them as our measurements or our ways that we want to be Barhorst says So if you look at them in general they are teamwork dedication attitude communication goals or objectives and respect those are the measurement devices or the things you aspire to be Then you build them on a foundation of a process or program Use continuous learning as a tool Customers who call wanting your help are not an interruption and a company should be thankful for them To drive home that attitude to employees a process called repetitive continuous learning is very useful When you graduate from college and you get into a professional environment you really stop practicing you really stop learning Barhorst says You might go to a training seminar or you might go to something to learn a new system for your business or whatever but you dont really practice You dont do your math tables like you did when you were in the third or fourth grade Repetitive continuous learning is the practicing of the same thing over and over you keep teaching the class over again he says Over time their proficiency their learning their skills grow To analyze the most effective way to teach continuous learning use a model originated by Gordon Training International about the four stages of competence The first stage is what I would call ignorant bliss Barhorst says Its what they call unconscious incompetence The employee does not know how to do his task and does not recognize that its a problem To move on to the next stage the employee must acknowledge the lack of knowledge and want to learn the new skill Then you can move up so you discover something and you advance to conscious incompetence where you are unsettled about something Now I learn that I am consciously incompetent about this Barhorst says Next you start learning and you become consciously competent or driven to do something Then ultimately hopefully you get into the zone and you become unconsciously competent Barhorst says A good example is like driving a car If you have any kids or you know someone whos ridden in the car they probably have the knowledge of how to drive a car but they dont have the skill to drive the car You have to transition that When I talk about that repetitive continuous learning from a perspective of the fact that Im in ignorant bliss and I need to be unsettled I need to be learning every day learning something thats kind of the core piece that we use or apply to the business We continually teach our employees that this is the mindset that you should have Teach them to ask themselves Maybe I dont understand where this is coming from Maybe Im in ignorant bliss Maybe I need to ask some questions Maybe I need to get unsettled about this Why is this important Then its time to reinforce the core values in respect to the measurements of where you want to be We call it Always say please and thank you Barhorst says The thank you part is pretty easy Its about being thankful and Cover Story Iscential For you to be successful you have to leverage yourself to other people Warren Barhorst founder CEO Iscential