At FLOYD Consulting, we are passionate about growing people and growing organizations. We believe the two are inseparably linked. If you don’t grow your people, you cannot create long-term sustainable growth and success for your organization. At the same time, you cannot focus solely on growing your people while ignoring what has to be done today to keep the organization running.
Partnering with organizations like yours to bring out the best in everyone and everything in order to maximize people, processes, and profits (or impact in the case of a nonprofit) is our mission and passion. When you walk into our offices, there is a brushed-metal sign that reads: we grow people. Helping people grow is an amazing thing. If you have children, a younger brother or sister, or nieces and nephews, you know this firsthand. Helping people grow and develop their potential is tremendously satisfying.
When you were a child, your parents didn’t want you hanging out with certain kids. They told you those children were a bad influence on you. There were probably also some things your parents didn’t want you doing. You probably complained and asked why, and your question was most likely met with a vague answer that didn’t really satisfy you.
Parents have dreams for their children, one in particular. And they have special instincts that alert them when that dream is in danger. What’s the dream? Your parents want you to become the-best-version-of-yourself. They may not have been able to articulate it in those words, but that’s why they didn’t want you hanging out with those kids, and why they didn’t want you doing certain things or putting yourself in particular situations. They knew that those people, places, things, and situations all posed a threat to their dream for you to become the-best-version-of-yourself. This is the universal parental dream. It isn’t just your parents’ dream for you; it is every parent’s dream. If you have children yourself, you may not have used these particular words, but in your heart, you want your children to explore their potential and become a-better-version-of-themselves each day.
Our philosophy at FLOYD Consulting is: Your organization can only become the-best-version-of-itself to the extent that the people who are driving your organization are becoming better-versions-of-themselves.
Since I first coined the phrase the-best-version-of-yourself twenty-five years ago, I have been amazed by its universality. It applies to everything, everywhere, all the time. There is no aspect of life, an organization, or society that this concept doesn’t touch and animate.
Healthy food helps you become the-best-version-of-yourself.
A good friend helps you become the-best-version-of-yourself.
Reading great books helps you become the-best-version-of-yourself.
Travel helps you become the-best-version-of-yourself.
A good leader helps you become the-best-version-of-yourself.
Exercise helps you become the-best-version-of-yourself.
Hard work helps you become the-best-version-of-yourself.
Being patient with your child, spouse, client, or colleague helps you become the-best-version-of-yourself.
Everything we do every day helps us become either a-better- version-of-ourselves or a-lesser-version-of-ourselves. Some people may say it is impossible to be the-best-version-of-yourself all the time. I agree. But you can probably look back on your day yesterday and identify a moment when you were at your best. In that moment, you were the-best-version-of-yourself.
Every person in your organization is capable of being the-best-version-of-themselves for at least one moment today. That moment is like a single brick in that great cathedral in Paris. And if we can do it for one moment today, we can do it for two moments tomorrow, and ten moments next Thursday. This is how great champions are made, and how great cultures are built.
Dynamic Cultures help people to recognize the moments in a day when they were the-best-version-of-themselves, and teach them to multiply those moments in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead.
Dynamic Cultures increase cooperation, collaboration, trust, and motivation, and they are built one moment at a time. Culture builders do something every day to become a-better-version-of-themselves, and they do something every day to help the organization’s culture become a-better-version-of-itself.
Everyone can do that. Nobody can say, “That’s too hard,” “That’s too intellectual,” “That’s overwhelming,” or “That’s not my job.” We are all in this together; culture building is everyone’s responsibility. Every single person can be a culture builder for at least one moment each day—and that’s how you transform a culture.
Will some people resist the idea? Yes. Will there be people who sabotage the effort to build a Dynamic Culture out of fear, comfort, or laziness? Absolutely. Would you let those people train the rising stars in your organization? I didn’t think so. If someone were poisoning your child’s drinking water, how long would you tolerate that? If you found out today that you had cancer, how long would you delay before you sought the appropriate treatment? You cannot allow disruptive personalities to kidnap your organization’s culture. Cut out the cancer. Culture builders in positions of leadership act decisively with courage to protect the mission and give the organization its best chance of becoming the-best-version-of-itself.
Every organization, community, and nation organizes around a principle. The universality of this concept of striving to become the-best-version-of-ourselves transforms people, marriages, families, and communities—and it holds the power to transform your organization’s culture. It will do this in a thousand ways, but let’s briefly discuss three.
Decisiveness. This single principle alone makes organizations dynamic. Will what we are considering help this organization accomplish its mission and become the-best-version-of-itself? This question provides arresting clarity. Unhealthy cultures are indecisive; Dynamic Cultures are decisive.
Conflict and Unity. The-best-version-of-yourself principle creates unity by providing a common, un-changing purpose and a context for healthy conflict. Now we can argue for something rather than arguing against each other. This is no small thing. How organizations deal with conflict is one of the telltale signs of the health of their culture. If your mission is your constitution, this principle is your declaration of in-dependence.
Clarity. The-best-version-of-yourself principle provides enduring clarity that Mission Is King. Most employees have an astounding lack of clarity about their organization’s mission and what their specific role is in fulfilling that mission.
“Your organization can only become the-best-version-of-itself to the extent that the people who are driving your organization are becoming better-versions-of-themselves.”
We base all our consulting, training, and coaching on this principle, the FLOYD Philosophy. And we offer it to you now as a principle to organize your Dynamic Culture around. Whatever your mission is, whatever your organization is trying to accomplish—grow your people! It is the essence of building, growing, and sustaining a dynamic organizational culture.
