Badge in the Box - A Case Study

BADGE IN THE BOX: A CASE STUDY

By: Bob McGannon

Culture Change – It doesn’t happen because of speeches; It happens

through purposeful action in meetings, hallways, and beyond.

Case Overview

Organizational culture change is most commonly launched by senior

leadership via speeches and videos supported by communication media

like emails and posters. While these messages are important, true culture

change occurs in conference spaces, and informal interactions in the

hallways and beyond. The way management at any and every level

changes their approach and demonstrates new cultural norms and

expectations dictates the degree of cultural change that will occur in the

organization.

Consider the following case study that presents a simple change in

meeting protocol that sparked significant changes in the way problems

were solved in one organization, neutralizing hierarchical boundaries that

had stifled new ideas from surfacing for long enough.

The Badge in the Box Approach

Sam encountered a highly hierarchical business environment upon joining

a well-established, growing manufacturing company as its Chief Operating

Officer. Reinforcement of the hierarchy was everywhere: on posters, in the

layout of management offices, and via clearly designated parking spots.

Boldly printed signage dissuaded non-managers from straying into

coveted close-in parking spaces.  Employee identification badges had

different background colors for managers and non-managers. All

managers had administrative assistants who carefully managed their

“boss’s” calendars.

Sam was unhappy with this hierarchical environment for good reason. He

had learned from his initial staff interviews that his team members were

discouraged from speaking up. The hierarchy was stifling new ideas, or

any form of questioning that would appear to challenge a manager’s

decision. Sam struggled with this, as he was certain the hierarchy-focused

culture was diminishing trust. Harvesting the capabilities and viewpoints

of his team members was the only way to surface more ideas and allow

him to fully leverage his team’s expertise.

As his new company had launched a program to generate new ideas to

improve product quality, throughput and customer satisfaction, Sam was

anxious to change the deeply- rooted hesitation to challenge long-held

business practices. To accomplish this, Sam was certain that speeches

and presentations about the value of ideas was not going to be the

catalyst for change he was seeking. He needed something demonstrable

to change the habits the old culture had embedded in employee

behaviors.

To create this demonstrable approach, Sam invented “Badge in the Box”

meetings. At these meetings, all ideas and constructive criticism of

existing practices was encouraged. To reinforce this openness, which was

unfamiliar to his team that had lived in a world where the hierarchy wasn’t

questioned, Sam sent invitations to the meetings himself and arrived at

the conference room first. At these meetings he would bring a box, with a

diagram of an organizational chart printed on its side with and a big red X

on top of it. He would hold the box, so everyone entering the room could

put their badges (the reinforcers of the organizational hierarchy) into the

box. Sam would then outline the rules and objectives for his “badge in the

box” meetings:

1.

While badges are in the box, there is no hierarchy. Everyone in

attendance was not “a role.” Rather, they were individuals - people

with unique ideas and skills. Before them was an opportunity to

improve their business. The best way to move their business

forward was not to collect and debate just management’s ideas, but

to collect, treasure and consider ideas from everyone in the

company. That was the purpose of the badge in the box meetings.

2.

Everyone gets a chance to speak; nothing is out of bounds, and no

minutes will be kept for the meeting while badges are in the box.

3.

Flip charts will be used to capture and confirm any ideas that are

discussed. No flip chart will leave the room unless all attendees

believe it represents what was discussed and the idea is favorable

for the business.

4.

All ideas will be considered by the management team, and feedback

will be provided on all ideas.

5.

Team members may be called upon to help expand or elaborate on

an idea, and when that occurs, the employee will receive relief from

their everyday duties so they can properly focus on expanding an

idea or bringing that idea to fruition.

It required a couple of these meetings before Sam felt his team gaining

the confidence to share their perspectives without “sugar coating,” or

feeling the need to present them with the cloak of playing the devil’s

advocate.

The Outcome

Sam saw a significant increase in the ideas that were discussed in his

office and in the offices of the managers that reported to him. Many of

these ideas led to immediate improvements. He attributes the change to

the badge in the box approach, which recognized the corporate culture

and its weakness. Suppressing ideas and preventing open discussion took

considerable energy out of staff members. The change Sam fostered with

the badge in the box approach instilled a perception of management’s

confidence in the abilities of team members. Team members were excited

by the improvements that were made, which inspired additional ideas and

refinements. Much credit was given to Sam for the improvements, which

he quickly deflected to his team because of the ideas they were

enthusiastically sharing. 

How might this case example inspire action within your organization? Who

is primed and capable to lead with such an example to curate an inclusive

culture practice?