When I was building my first company, the words of Jim Collins, “right people, in the right seats, doing the right things” were imprinted in my brain. I was reminded daily, in everything I was reading and being told, that in order to grow my business I had to have these three human-pieces in place.  “Find the RIGHT people,  ensure they are in the RIGHT role, and are doing the RIGHT tasks” – MUCH easier said than done!

After learning the hard way with many “people” problems, my leadership team and I agreed that we needed to find a way to bring Collin’s mastery advice to life within our company. This was a really challenging task – not just for our business, but for every company in every industry – making it clear that until we had our “people” systems functioning optimally, our company would not grow as fast as we wanted.

We had to think differently at how we would solve this! Lots of long meetings and brain-busting later, we decided to break “people” into 3 systems.   This ensured we got the results of right people, right seat,  doing the right thing, bringing it all together in a high performing team.

THE SYSTEMS

Cultural System

The first system –the Cultural System – was founded upon the leader/CEO to ensure that the organizational Core Purpose, Core Values and 10-30 year goal was clear, known, understood and believed.  Everything we did behaviourally in our organization had to align with our Cultural System.  In order to ensure this was true, I committed to the following actions as CEO:

What I was committing to was clarity of the Cultural System as well as the whole plan for the company -from the BHAG, to 3HAG, 1HAG and 90 day plan.  My commitment also lived within implementing the 2^nd System – The Cohesive System

Cohesive System

This system was founded upon Pat Lencioni’s  Overcoming the 5 Dysfunctions framework, which outlines the root causes of politics and dysfunction on the teams where you work and the keys to overcoming them. Our team needed a high level of discipline in order to nail down this Cohesiveness, and after time, we did! How?…

By integrating Lencioni’s framework into every single meeting we held, [just like the Cultural System]!  We bought the Field Guide and started implementing it into our leadership team meetings and the rest of the company meetings.  Soon, it was a habit. We were improving our Cohesive System and growing a high performing team in every meeting we had like it was second nature.

Human System

The final system our team established was our Human System; a repeatable method in our organization to attract, hire, coach, keep and grow A players.  This system was founded upon Brad Smart’s Topgrading methodology; a hiring practice that delivers honesty, revealing interviews, and solid candidate verification.

We evolved Smart’s methodology into a system that not only ensured we hired A Players but guaranteed there was also a cultural fit.  We developed an ecosystem where A Players could grow into who they wanted to be!  The more A players we had on our team, the more A player that wanted to join our team.

These three systems are the foundations every company needs to grow and win.  As you know I have been talking a lot about the 3HAG as my new book “3HAG WAY”,  gets released on April 11th! Funny thing is, is that you can develop the best strategy ever but if you do not have a high performing team that can drive your Strategy Execution System, it will all be for nothing.   Take the time to assess your whole team, the individuals on your team, and your three systems – Cultural System, Cohesive System, and Human System.  Focus on growing your people and you and your team will create a highly achievable 3HAG! 

To help you, grab a copy of my new book, 3HAG WAY. It will help guide you on this journey to Scalability and Growth!

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-Shannon Byrne Susko