Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

In their influential book Soul of a Corporation, Hamid Bouchikhi and John R. Kimberly encourage managers to think about the soul of a corporation as a core identity that pervades the experience of every employee and customer.

Don't feel like your company has soul? There is something you can do. Using recent scientific breakthroughs, it is now possible to efficiently develop or enhance the soul of an organization. A simple process of setting a goal and then motivating, sustaining, and scaling soulfulness has produced numerous success stories like these:

• The managers of a customer service call center stated that their people "walk more confidently, talk more positively, and just exude energy."
• The executives of an advertising company said their people "had a completely different attitude, collaborating with customers more effectively than ever before."

So how is it done?

1. Set the Bar
First, define the core passion, values, and commitment that make up the organization's soul. Look to an organization's "positive deviants" -- those who model the ideal attitudes and best practices the whole should achieve -- as the primary creators and preservers of its soul. Positive deviants are highly respected individuals who are consistent top performers and can typically be identified simply by asking management who stands out. They are motivated by a commitment to creating a "social good" for their customers and for their organization.

2. Motivate Soulfulness
Second, guide all personnel to firmly embrace the stated best practices. When a positive deviant's social good, or the inspiration behind their work, is presented to others in an empowering manner, it can be contagious for an organization, spreading the soulfulness quickly and efficiently.

More specifically, once a strong understanding of the positive deviants' social good has been established, it can be packaged into a short, emotionally powerful statement that excites and empowers other employees. To be successful, the the social good must be presented in a way that creates a sense of honor and dignity (fair process) and causes people to visualize themselves as having the same personal commitment as the positive deviants (positive visualization). When this occurs, people quickly embrace the positive deviants' soulfulness, improving the soul of the entire organization.

3. Sustain Soulfulness
Next, ensure that the commitment to best practices is sustainable, even in the face of contrary pressures. True soulfulness is profound and long-term. It is a way of doing business that is so engrained in the organization that people cannot imagine functioning any other way.

The most effective means of generating this depth of commitment comes from the neuroscience principle "neurons that fire together wire together." All profound learning is a change to the underlying neural structure that occurs when neurons fire together around the same concepts. If the concepts are about the positive deviant social good, new learning occurs that can be so complete that people do not even recognize that they were ever any other way.

What makes neurons fire together? The key to achieve this organizational depth is simple: practice, practice, practice. Everything the organization does needs to exercise and reinforce the mental commitment to the social good.

4. Scale Soulfulness
Finally, engage a critical mass of the organization quickly to ensure that soulfulness pervades all aspects of the organization and becomes a true reflection of the organization as a whole. At the same time, each person must display soulfulness in ways that are unique to their function and personality.

Mass customization enables an organization to create widespread commitment to an its soul while allowing every person to be treated independently. When mass customization is integrated with persuasive technology -- technology designed to "change what people believe and do" -- very large groups of people can quickly become soulful, making the organization itself soulful.

Contributing to Success
The notion that an organization has a soul may seem abstract, yet people who work in an organization with a healthy soul absolutely know it and love it, and create better, more successful institutions.

+ + + + + + + +

About the Author: William Seidman is president and CEO of Cerebyte Inc.