My reflection blog this week is the review the videos about McIngvale Mattress Company and Brigadier General (BG Ret) Stanley McChrystals experiences as a leader. On a personal level I could relate to the BG story being prior military, and remembering where I was on September 11, 2001 when the entire world went through a transformation of being attacked and our security and safety as a country was in jeopardy.  The McIngvale Mattress Company endured a couple different transformational shifts that required changed, but none as greater than the warehouse fire and the house market crash. I will also share a personal story on changing the culture with little risk from a military perspective.

Military General

The General’s environment is very culture driven based around military culture, standards, traditions and expectations. The events of 9/11 automatically reemphasized the culture drive and behavior of our military. I liked how the general, who has 30 years of leadership experience shared of the experience of looking around and the young men and women automatically followed their checklists and did what they were trained to do. He had the confidence and security in their abilities as military members. The inspiring comment is when the general asked the young troop where he was when 9/11 occurred; the response is he was in elementary school.  Although, the person was young and can probably remember 9/11 as a TV spotlight, time has passed, but the culture of the military was just as realistic as it was fourteen years ago. Based on the Relative Strength of Corporate Cultures matrix, I would declare that the military leadership is based on a very strong culture, as it is in an influencer on how managerial tasks are performed (p406).  With the strategy-culture matrix I feel the scenario fell in all four quadrants. As the war of 9/11 evolved I feel the leadership team had to manage around the culture, basically with the need to “reshuffle power or raise key people to positions important in implementing new strategy”(p407). With the military already dynamically design to respond to war situation in their years of training, and changes, the reshuffle had to occur often and continuous to change to meet the need to face terrorism head on.  Additionally I do feel the military has had to reinforce the culture due to the length of the continuous war. The need to reinforce the current culture with new strategies is important to keep the team motivated and focused on the vision. (Brown, 2011)

Mattress Company

The mattress company endured a couple of shifts included a downside of sales in the beginning, the fire, and the housing market shift had the owner looking for opportunities to rebuild. As the relative strength of corporate culture matrix I think the culture was strong, but their business was effective by the community culture of supply and demand.

The owner read the book called Influencer, which was about how an influencer leads change, replaces behaviors with powerful new skills, and the influencer basically makes things happen. McIngvale immediately started making behavior changes such as sales representatives would be required to reach out to those customers who were deemed “be back, don’t come back” and follow up with their visit to the store.  The sales team was apprehensive at first, but the Return on that investment improved the company sales, to include customers that have been repeatable customers. The owner also had electronic I-pad in the hands of the employees to do real time emails, and correspondence. McIngvale quickly realized there was a need for computer and typing training, so he enabled the employees by providing this training. The one point I liked at the end of the video was the need to keep the employees healthy by creating a health and wellness program. The strategy is if we keep the employees healthy, then the cost of health care would lesson, which it did.

When it comes to the Strategy-Culture Matrix, McIngvale did a complete change the strategy. I would assume that not only due to his own structure and disastrous fire, he realized his company competitive market was at risk, no matter what type of furniture store he had due to the supply and demand of the housing market. This company was facing a “large-scale change with a high probability of culture resistance”, but the leaders approach to lead and fix issues as they arise is what has made him successful. (Brown, 2011)

Conclusion

When I reviewed both of these companies, I found myself relating to both from a military and civilian background. From a military background, I am very culture driven to include how one salutes a flag, wears their uniform, customs and courtesies and usually when there is change there is the most resistant due to standards and cultures that have been built on years of leaders before me. This environment also has the most resistance to change and more issues when changing culture, or things that have always been.

An example is back in 2008 when Chief Gerald Murray changed the design of the name badge for the Air Force Dress Uniform to a titanium look there was so much discontent to the design. However, Chief was in charge and no one questioned it. A couple weeks back I was a veterans forum, and Chief Murray (ret) now works for the company I do, and is just a simple person like the rest of us. The chief asked me to tell him my story, and I am surprised that some big leader would want to know my story. So I asked him the question that no one would, as to why he changed the name badge. He did giggle and let me know that we need to upgrade and look more professional as an organization. He did go on to tell me how many emails he received about how he could change a culture dynamic and the impact on the troops. We laughed at it’s a name badge it was a simple strategic move that affected a culture paradigm. By the way that same badge is still being used today.

As far as my experience as Lockheed, we are also very culture driven by the product we build and its direct customer is very culture driven. The difference is the company is good at managing around the culture. The company culture is centered on its core values, which is reinforced often, however they have no problem with changing the strategy to meet goals and objectives.

Works Cited

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to Organization Development 8th Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall.