Influencing Culture at Hallmark Cards and the LDS Church

1. Influencing Culture at Hallmark Cards and the LDS Church December, 2008

2. DESIRED CULTURE SUPPORTING STRATEGIC INTENT FORMAL SYSTEMS INFORMAL SYSTEMS • STORIES • HISTORY • CUSTOMS • HEROINES • RABBI/BISHOPS • LANGUAGE • PARADIGMS • UNWRITTEN RULES • STRATEGIC/TACTICAL PLANNING • WORK FLOW • STRUCTURE • CONTROL • INFORMATION FLOW • DECISION • POLICY ACTUAL CULTURE

3. Hallmark Cards • We need a culture that is focused on: • The Customer • Performance • Accountability

5. Planning Performance and Hallmark’s Financial Cycle

6. Managing Cultural Dilemmas at Hallmark What’s a dilemma? • A situation where the co-existence of two or more ideas creates significant tension and is automatically “framed” in people’s minds as an apparent contradiction. • 1: an argument presenting two or more equally conclusive alternatives • 2 a: a usually undesirable or unpleasant choice • 3 a: a problem involving a difficult choice <the dilemma of “liberty versus order”

7. Why do dilemmas matter? • Everyday issues often take the form of dilemmas. • Change is not just about letting go of the bad — it also includes holding on to perceived good. • Efforts to change organization culture require changing how these dilemmas get resolved or mediated.

8. Resolving/mediating dilemmas • Determining how to manage a dilemma: • a clear choice from among desirable or undesirable alternatives; OR • a willingness to live with the tension and inconsistency; OR • a solution that reinvents the relationship among the ideas: • from contradictory to complementary. • from contradictory to independent. • from contradictory to dependent. • from contradictory to interdependent.

9. Dilemma example Performance-based people management practices Seniority/longevity-based people management practices AND/OR • Human resource practices based primarily on performance rather than seniority seriously disrupt sense of fairness. • Extremely low termination rate is something to feel good about. • Extremely low termination rate is something to feel bad about. • “Fairness” at Hallmark is incompatible with demanding high performance and results from people. • Performance is about results, not efforts or activities. • Focusing solely on results will threaten our great culture and create unproductive internal competition.

10. “Hallmarkers who are performance- and results-driven are rewarded” What this means: • Hallmark recognizes and rewards individuals based on results against clearly stated objectives. • Clear objectives allow direct, fair and honest feedback and performance evaluations. • Job security is based on meeting individual objectives, producing successful results for the business and strong performance in 10 competency areas. • Seniority is valued and is the result of consistently meeting increasingly challenging performance objectives.

11. Dilemma example Sharing Information: To enable employees to be business partners, they must have information about the business Family Owners’ Privacy: The family that owns the company values its privacy, and that must be protected Competitive Secrecy: Our key competitors are reputed to have moles in the building. They are rumored to meet once a week to review what they know about the company.

12. “Hallmarkers communicate openly, directly and honestly” What this means: • The nature of our business demands that we hold ourselves to high standards of honesty and compassion in our communication. • Hallmarkers share their opinions boldly and candidly, while thoughtfully listening to others’ ideas. • Hallmarkers recognize that a diversity of opinions, openly discussed and debated, is a prerequisite to good decision-making.

13. Dilemma example Line-of-sight accountability* Accountability beyond direct control AND/OR * scope of accountability aligned with scope of control. • People can’t be fairly held accountable for results when their performance is greatly dependent on the efforts of other people or departments over which they have little or no direct control. • In a performance-driven company, there should be a direct correlation between how people perform and the rewards and recognition they receive. • Working in teams diffuses accountability and covers weaknesses in performance. • In an interdependent environment working in teams heightens and strengthens performance.

14. “The amount of responsibility for organizational results increases in proportion to one’s level within the organization” What this means: • All managers, and especially senior managers, assume responsibility beyond what they can directly control through their own and their group’s actions. • All Hallmarkers are accountable for their individual job performance and its impact within their own organization.

15. Managing Cultural Dilemmas at the Church • Can I disagree on an issue and: • still maintain a spirit of obedience? • not invite contention into the work? • How can I balance the command to be “anxiously engaged…and do many things of [my] own free will” with the direction to follow our leaders? • How can we balance a “high performance” work culture with family and Church responsibilities? • How do I balance gospel principles such as mercy, forgiveness, the spirit and love with business practices such as rewarding performance, punishing failure, and compliance to policies? • How can my past work be valued in times of change? • How can I avoid worldly preoccupation with self and seeking the praise of men while focusing on my career and competing with others for positions?

16. Guiding Employee Performance Gospel Principles Common Worldly Practices 1 We set the highest of standards expecting The world often defines standards in eventually to meet them…. terms of safe, proven or likely performance. 2 We are more interested in being good The world emphasizes looking good. than in looking good…. 3 We actively look for performance gaps in The world is inclined to hide performance ourselves as a crucial step in the process gaps. of perfection…. 4 We identify performance gaps in The world is inclined to identify ourselves and others in the spirit of performance gaps as a personal failure mercy, forgiveness and love which which can develop a spirit of self doubt develops a feeling of hope for and discouragement. improvement…. 5 We humbly acknowledge the need for The world is inclined to become defensive personal improvement without feeling and angry when performance gaps or the personally devastated…. need for improvement is identified.

17. Supporting Scriptures