Terri Kelly is president and CEO of W.L. Gore & Associates, a 50-year old, multi-billion dollar enterprise that is often profiled as an example of the future of management. A pioneer in lattice-based management structure, Gore’s “associates” become leaders based on their ability to gain the respect of their peers and to attract followers. Kelly became president and CEO in 2005, after she was elected by her peers to serve in that role. Employing more than 8,000 associates in 45 plants around the world, Gore produces many unique products, including Gore-Tex® fabric, and is perpetually named on lists of “the best places to work.” Kelly will explain how this unique culture works on a practical level.
So much of the DNA of Gore came from their founders. What were they trying to do?
- More than the business model they focused on creating the right foundation and values.
- To be innovative you have to create an environment of collaboration.
- Personal relationships that form around problem-solving create different team dynamics.
- As your company grows, how can people feel like they are still part of a team and not a number?
If you were a brand-new employee, what woudl you notice as being different
- It’s a peer-based organization.
- Everyone understands their job is to make everyone else successful.
- There’s a fundamental investment of time put into developing relationships.
- People are more vested in owning their own outcome and feeling part of a whole.
- People care about the success of the organization.
What’s on-demand hierarchy?
- There’s a formal hierarchy that shifts.
- Hierarchy shifts dependent on who is most knowledgeable.
- Who is taking the lead and driving the decison isn’t made in a fixed structure.
- They want on-demand hierarchy that’s fluid with what’s needed.
Ladder vs Lattice
- Lattice beleives we’re all connected around with a set of nodes.
- Instead of two contact points, you want to encourage everyone connecting with everyone in their network.
“We don’t tell people what to do or what projects to work on…”
- Leadership plays a different role here.
- The leader isn’t the person who is responsible or tells the organization what to do.
- Leaders have to lead from a point of influence.
- You want individuals to feel ownership and why it’s important.
- That shifts energy and commitment from the leader to the team.
- Ownership and commitment is more powerful when it’s felt by the whole organization, they are equally committed to the outcome.
- It won’t ever be neat and tidy.
- Make sure everyone is operating with common foundational values and beliefs.
- Belief in the individual.
- The power of small teams. As they get larger they want people to feel connected.
- All on the same boat. Even though small teams can do a lot, the entire enterprise benefits when everyone is collectively advancing.
- Take a long-term view. Business are so focused on short-term results. They focus on healthy work environments, innovation vs profit.
How do people get money to fund their ideas?
- Everyone is responsible to sell their ideas.
- It’s an issue of influence.
- Not all ideas are great ideas.
- There’s a natural selection process that happens.
- Passion matters but if they can get other people interested is most important.
- One constraint every organization faces is people and resources.
- They try to create success factors that let teams evaluate projects they will work on.
- Associates want to work on things that they can do that make the greatest impact.
- A team is asked to rank their teammates and identify who is making the greatest impact.
- Everyone wants to make the greatest contribution.
- They plot compensation according to those who are making the greatest impact.
- The leader, most vocal, etc aren’t paid the most, it’s who is making the greatest impact.
- Success is developed and measured by the entire organization not a select few.
- In every organization people will confuse what they need to do to be successful with their passion.
- This allows people to work on their passion and be successful.
There are more coaches than leaders.
- They have “sponsors.”
- Each person has a personal sponsor, someone who has made a commitment to their development.
- The sponsor understands their job is to challenge and help individuals grow and develop.
- By focusing on the individuals, they are maximizing the success of the organization.
- This fosters a culture of trust.
They don’t allow plants to grow larger than 200-250 people.
- Leaders need to learn how to divide so they can multiply.
- It’s not about getting mass to gain influence.
- It creates a different level of ownership and engagement.
- Larger plants make it harder to develop relationships.
- Over time the workplace lacks personality and team spirit.
- Diminished collaboration happens when plants get larger.
Is it scalable?
- What binds us together is our shared set of values.
- Fundamental beliefs are transferrable across multiple locations.
- Practices and culture may need to be adapted to the local environment.
- Respect differences.
What are practical things you do to protect culture?
- In the hiring process they do behavioral interviewing.
- They want to make sure that the beliefs and values resound with the individuals they are hiring.
- Leadership sets the tone for the values.
What is the waterline principle?
- Gore hated policies and manuals.
- If everything is put in a manual telling people what to do, it doesn’t tap into people’s wisdom.
- The Waterline Concept says if drill below the waterline because you could sink the ship but gives you freedom to drill anywhere you want above the waterline.
- It was a way to protect the company.
Leadership is defined by followership
- People are only leaders if people are following them.
- Leaders don’t get there because of seniority, popularity or title, they get there by respect and influence.
Leaders over-explain their decisions.
- Your role as a leader is shifted.
- Reaching out to people and helping them understand the rationale is key.
- It’s not a waste of time.
- It reinforces that you walk the talk and mean what you say.
What is the CEO’s job?
- Stay out the way
- “I can’t attempt to be the most knowledgeable person here.”
- The cultural foundation needs to continually adapt and change according to the current environment.
- Help to provide the broader framework.
- Spend a lot of time with the other leaders.
Can anyone lead?
- Over 50% of the people believed they had capacity to be a leader.
- If you had an organization where everyone feels like a leader, how powerful would that be?
- Collective leadership is much more powerful than singular leadership.
In the church we know everyone is a minister… we’re all championing our cause. What would it be like if every church was a place where people were constantly growing, developing each other, spontaneously developing teams, where leadership happens more by influence than position/title? THAT sounds like a prevailing church.
