Lumeris

"Our CEO, Mike Long, engaged with a lunch group and said, “Why would anybody want to work in an environment with a fear of holding each other accountable?” That was a powerful inflection point, and people began to believe. But culture change can be very personal. It took one conversation at a time to convince our employees that collaboration, shared accountability, and transparency would be rewarded. And to show they had nothing to fear from the new Lumeris."

"People watch what you do more than what you say. Lumeris had some senior leaders with an old-school, autocratic approach. They weren’t living our core values: ownership, accountability, passion for the job, loyalty to the team. Nothing else would matter until those leaders exited the organization. We made sure they left us with their dignity and respect intact, a telling moment in any transformation project."

"Shortly after arriving, Art held a full-day, off-site business review for the Lumeris leadership team. Now it’s on the company’s monthly calendar. When our top-line OKRs are projected on a screen, it’s clear to see which leaders are making their objectives. Art doesn’t like yellows, so every OKR is either green (on track) or red (at risk). There’s no bell-curve ambiguity, no place for problems to hide. The reviews run for three hours, with a dozen senior executives taking their turn. Little time is spent on people’s greens. Instead, they “sell” their reds. The team votes on the most important at-risk OKRs for the company as a whole, then brainstorms together as long as it takes to get the objectives back on track. In the spirit of cross-departmental solidarity, individuals volunteer to “buy” their colleagues’ reds."