Jeff DeGraff - Competing Values Framework - Yellow (Part 1)

Summary

In this engaging lecture, Jeff DeGraff introduces the Competing Values Framework, focusing on the Yellow group known for nurturing and networking. DeGraff humorously explores the dynamics of workplace personalities, particularly the Yellows, who thrive on building communities and fostering team spirit. With anecdotes and a playful approach, he highlights how leaders often shape cultures in their image rather than what's best for the company. Through interactive activities and light-hearted jabs at different personality types, DeGraff emphasizes the significance of understanding and leveraging diverse cultural competencies to predict and enhance organizational outcomes.

Highlights

• The Yellows are known for their nurturing and friendly demeanor. 🤗
• Workplace dynamics can resemble a fun, interactive game. 🎮
• Leaders mirror their own traits in shaping organizational culture. 🪞
• Yellows focus on community, consensus, and networking. 🔗
• Cultural change is challenging for deeply rooted values. 🚦

Key Takeaways

• The Competing Values Framework helps assess culture and competency in organizations. 📊
• Yellows are nurturing and excel at building team spirit. 🎉
• Leaders often create cultures that reflect their own personalities. 😅
• Cultural competencies can predict organizational success. 🔮
• Engaging teams through humor and play fosters learning about workplace dynamics. 😂

Overview

Jeff DeGraff dives into the intricate world of workplace dynamics with a keen focus on the Yellows in his Competing Values Framework. Known for their nurturing spirit, Yellows excel in creating harmonious team environments. Driving this point home with humor, DeGraff illustrates how these personalities might engage in meetings full of consensus and camaraderie, making them the glue in organizational settings.

With a playful comparison to various color groups, DeGraff highlights the inherent biases leaders have in shaping company culture. Often, they construct environments that reflect their personal values rather than what's best for the organization, a concept both revealing and amusing. This part of the framework elucidates how these traits can both aid and hinder organizational progress.

Finally, the session frames the Yellows as crucial players in sustaining team morale and fostering strong internal networks. They are portrayed as the sustainable backbone of an organization, despite being resistant to rapid change. Through anecdotes and playful banter, DeGraff underscores the indispensable value of understanding different cultural competencies to predict and improve business outcomes.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to the Competing Values Framework The chapter introduces the Competing Values Framework, emphasizing the contrast between different groups or perspectives represented by colors: yellows, blues, greens, and reds. It humorously suggests that each group views the other as problematic or as a source of frustration, akin to an 'enemy.' The chapter sets the stage for exploring how these different values and perspectives can clash, often leading to misunderstandings or tension in various settings.
• 00:30 - 01:00: The Opposite of Myers-Briggs Test The chapter discusses a unique approach called 'The Opposite of Myers-Briggs Test'. Unlike traditional personality tests that focus on individual traits, this concept emphasizes understanding the culture, competency, and practices within larger groups. It draws on the competing values framework, a methodology developed in Michigan over 25 years ago, initially by Bob Quinn and Kim Cameron. The goal is to evaluate and improve the organizational culture to enhance value and effectiveness.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Predicting Market Variances and Stock Prices The chapter is centered around the development of methods to predict market variances and stock prices. The research was initiated by the speaker, Cameron, along with a colleague named Angen. Their work focused on understanding and assessing the worth of companies by analyzing their growth monetization strategies and practices within specific industries. By identifying the types of teams and practices, they were able to predict potential outcomes for companies. They also developed specific indicators to aid in this prediction process.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Culture and Competency in Organizations The chapter explores the relationship between culture and competency within organizations and their impact on outcomes. A substantial database was analyzed to understand how these elements predict the strategies and practices employed by groups. Traditionally, it was assumed that individual leadership shapes the organizational culture and competencies to enhance value. However, the findings challenged this assumption, suggesting alternative dynamics in how leadership interacts with culture and competency.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Leadership and Organizational Culture The chapter discusses the influence of leadership on organizational culture, highlighting how leaders often shape company practices based on personal preferences rather than the company's best interests. This self-centric approach can lead to selecting people, processes, and practices that mirror the leader's own preferences and behaviors, rather than being aligned with the organization's goals. The chapter suggests an interactive approach to challenge these tendencies by engaging in activities that promote awareness and understanding among team members.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Yellows and Organizational Games In this chapter, the focus is on brainstorming how a group would improve their organization within a year. The exercise involves making fun of each group's ideas, fostering a light-hearted environment for creative thinking. Participants will take turns poking fun at each other's approaches, which is intended to encourage innovative thoughts and camaraderie. The chapter concludes by discussing how to operationalize these ideas, tying them back to earlier discussions, particularly concerning the integration of different strategies. The chapter begins by highlighting 'the yellows,' noted for their friendliness, setting a tone for the collaborative process.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Yellows' Characteristics and Approaches This chapter focuses on the characteristics and approaches of the 'Yellows.' Key traits include nurturing communities, encouraging trust, and increasing morale. Yellows are skilled at building consensus, facilitating teamwork, and hiring good people. Their approach is characterized by a carefree and positive attitude, as evidenced by their tendency to laugh carelessly.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Yellow Group Dynamics The chapter 'Yellow Group Dynamics' emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with good people, suggesting that the journey is positive regardless of the destination when in good company. Key themes include empowerment, mentoring, coaching, and the significance of sharing information, which is humorously likened to the saying 'sharing is caring.' Furthermore, facilitating teamwork, networking, and maintaining a positive, cooperative spirit ('having a song in your heart') are highlighted as essential components of effective group dynamics.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Yellows in Meetings and Decision Making The chapter explores the dynamics of meetings that are dominated by a group classified as 'yellows.' It humorously delves into how such meetings are characterized by a focus on discussing feelings and a significant amount of physical interaction, contrasting it with how uncomfortable such interactions would make 'blues,' who prefer more formal and structured communication.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Yellow's Networking and Team Building The chapter titled 'Yellow's Networking and Team Building' discusses the intricacies of relationship building and communication within a professional setting. The focus is on improving emotional intelligence and understanding interpersonal dynamics among colleagues. The participants in the discussion are evaluating team readiness for a new project, discussing team dynamics, and ensuring that they have the right personnel for success. There is mention of a meeting, likely a long one, to delve deeper into these topics, ensuring strategic alignment and emotional attunement in the workplace.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Challenges in Changing the Yellow Group The chapter discusses the process of determining a leader within the Yellow Group. It explores the concept of leadership consensus and democracy within the group. There is an emphasis on the decision-making method favoring Arnold as the leader. The members appear to spend considerable time, up to five months, deliberating on the positive aspects of Arnold's leadership and what expectations they have for his development as a leader. Additionally, the social and cultural context is alluded to with references to social activities like a barbecue and vog dancing.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Roles and Industries for Yellows This chapter discusses opportunities for Arnold and outlines various tools, methods, and processes used to improve firms. It emphasizes the preference for focus groups over surveys for their interactive nature. Team building is also highlighted as a crucial activity.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Comparison with Blue Group The chapter 'Comparison with Blue Group' discusses the dynamics within a group that values team building and recognition. The speaker cynically describes their appreciation for things like getting better deals on cars, helping each other get into good schools, or securing tickets to big games. The underlying critique seems to be on the superficial or transactional nature of these relationships. The chapter suggests that the timing of lunch might be pivotal or symbolic for this group's interactions, possibly highlighting social bonding or networking.
• 09:00 - 10:00: Yellow Firms and Organizational Models The chapter discusses the characteristics of 'Yellow Firms' and their unique organizational models. It highlights how these firms focus heavily on networking, using platforms like Facebook to build extensive connections. Members of these firms are described as super-networkers who engage actively on social media, unlike others who might not use these platforms as much. Their vast network enables them to know the right people for any task or requirement, showcasing the importance of connections in their operational model.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Advantages of the Yellow Approach The chapter highlights the 'Yellow Approach', emphasizing the value of individuals who excel at networking and facilitating tasks by knowing the right people, even if they can't perform the tasks themselves. These individuals have a passion for development and frequently participate in training sessions that are unique and unconventional. These sessions often take place in remote or isolated locations, suggesting that true development and learning sometimes require stepping outside traditional environments.
• 11:00 - 12:00: Sustainability and Challenges of Yellow Approach This chapter explores the sustainability and challenges faced by the 'Yellow Approach'. It emphasizes the importance of fostering a culture where everyone is focused on developing capabilities and learning. The narrative revolves around team dynamics and the necessity for individuals to have learning partners, mentors, and coaches. A significant challenge highlighted is changing the mindset of the most resistant group, who are described as having fully embraced ('drank the Kool-Aid') the existing framework, making transformation efforts more difficult.

Jeff DeGraff - Competing Values Framework - Yellow (Part 1) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 take a good look at our friends here the yellows yellows look at the blues greens look at the Reds Reds look at the greens this is the enemy these are the people who make your life hell you have no idea why they haven't been fired a long time ago
• 00:30 - 01:00 they're certainly destroying all the value in your company so we're going to play a little game here it goes like this this is the opposite of a Myers bricks test in fact I'm not terribly interested in who you are I'm terribly interested in what kind of culture competency and practices you you employ in much larger groups of people because this comes from something that's been done here in Michigan for about 25 years it's called the competing values framework it really originally started with Bob Quinn and Kim Cameron I I think
• 01:00 - 01:30 you'll see Cameron sowhere in your tenure here it was built on by myself and angen ther to predict Market variances stock prices and our research basically said went like this we began to figure out how companies how we could look at what companies were worth how they monetized growth and we could pick that out by what kind of practices they ran in particular types of Industries so we could begin to see if they were this kind of a team they were likely to produce this kind of an outcome and we develop some indicators for that we then
• 01:30 - 02:00 began to see that culture and competency largely predicted what kind of outcomes those groups could could create we have very large database that did this so far so good right culture and compy produce outcomes just like in your organization and they and they predict kind of practices and strategies you're going to employ then we looked at individual leadership and of course the Assumption was what the Assumption was leaders are going to create the culture of composition and practices in their organization to maximize the organization's value but what we discovered
• 02:00 - 02:30 leaders had a tendency to develop the culture compy practices that reflected them not what was best for the company not maximizing value but me me me me me me me who are the best people people like me what are the best processes the people processes I like to run what's the right way to do it the way I think is the right way to do it because I'm obviously The Benchmark F so what we're going to do is we're going to play a little game what we're going to do is we're going to have each group read what's on their cards and then they're going to be quiet then we're going to ask the other group some questions about
• 02:30 - 03:00 what this group would do if they had one year to make their organization better and new to innovate their organization what would they naturally go off and do and we're going to make fun of you for about 10 minutes the good news is you're going to every dog has its day and you're going to get to make fun of other groups as well so we'll be making fun of each other and then at the end we're going to operationalize how all this goes together going back to our point that AG was making early on how do we get all this stuff to go together now we're going to start with our friends the yellows because they're the nicest group here they're really
• 03:00 - 03:30 nice just look how nice they are look they laughing carelessly right look read what's on your cards yellows please nurturing Community encouraging trust oh nurturing Community increasing morale ah building consensus ating and hiring good people oh there you go building consensus oh facilitating teamwork and oh the team the team the team in and hiring good
• 03:30 - 04:00 people oh yeah cuz get on the bus with good people and it doesn't matter where you go right fostering empowerment whatever the hell that means mentoring and coaching people mentoring I I love you man I love you too sharing information with others because sharing is caring right sharing is TE facilitating teamwork facilitating teamwork getting along networking liking people having a song in your heart come on everybody go by
• 04:00 - 04:30 by of Silence yellows now to the other three groups have you ever been in a meeting full of yellows be a fly on the wall what goes on in the yellow meeting what are they talking about what are they doing oh they're talking about their feelings feelings about stuff and they're touching each other aren't they touching there's touching a lot of talking and touching when they're never touch a blue blue is will call 911 or get a
• 04:30 - 05:00 hotel room one or the other don't get the whole emotional thing right that's they need a little work so they're talking about you know they're talking about the family they're talking about who's doing what with whom in the office you guys have no clue they know all about that well they're talking about how's the team doing how do we feel about the new project are we ready do we have the right people are we you know what is our head in the game is it a short meeting or long meeting long oh
• 05:00 - 05:30 it's really and there's you know there's a barbecue at lunch and vog dancing later yeah a lot how do they decide it becomes a leader think about this how do they decide it becomes the leader consensus that's is consensus democracy on favor I'm yeah he should be the leader and then you're going to talk about it for the next like five months about why it's a good thing that Arnold's the leader what we expect Arnold development
• 05:30 - 06:00 opportunity for Arnold right it's really good for him and how excited we are about that this is a Grassroots conspiracy kind of thing you know what tools methods and processes do they use to improve the firm how do they make it better surveys oh they love focus groups are even better than surveys right because you get to talk to somebody and touch them right touched you I'm tingling all over right what else what else they do team build they have team building they you know we're going to start the EMV
• 06:00 - 06:30 with some crap like this all right the team building what else they do recognition oh recognition oh you're so swell and I just love your work man they they you ever you ever know people who could get you a better deal on a car you ever know people could get you into a good school you probably he because of that right you know get you in a good school right you ever know people get you a ticket to the big game right you you know those people take a good look at that's this group you know why what's the most important time of the day for this group lunch
• 06:30 - 07:00 yeah look at them they can all dance they can go a PB draw they lot of golf they have lunch all the time because their whole thing is networking like crazy these are Uber networks you have power Facebook pages they actually write crap on their page I mean I have Facebook I don't write anything on it these guys write all for enough for all of us and they Network like crazy you know why these people know anyone they know everyone who can do anything so if you need anything done they know
• 07:00 - 07:30 somebody who can do that they can't actually do anything themselves but they know who can get that done they're very very good at that now second thing they love they absolutely love development you ever notice that these people have training places that are like they're always off the beaten path so you know you can't go to New York and have a beer or go to the big they're all you're always some place on an island somewhere or someplace behind a compound or in the basement of a business school or some crap like like that right so the notion is that they're
• 07:30 - 08:00 all talking about how do we get everybody more capable and that culture going in the right direction and the team the team the team and they're really working on getting it have you got your learning buddy have you got your learning buddy everybody's got to have a learning buddy and a and a mentor and coach and oh all that stuff now the final thing this group is the hardest group to change you know what take a good look at it they drank the Kool-Aid
• 08:00 - 08:30 seriously I think they have tattoos right these are people they drank the Kool-Aid they have tattoos they're True Believers so you know we want them to change they believe if they change they're going to be doing something immoral and raw right so they're not going to change they're what we call principal or value centered leaders so their values are everything to them so they're very value Centric they love to develop competency and culture and teams and teamwork and they're very Network
• 08:30 - 09:00 oriented they love to connect things right so this is the these people love the Millennials oh they all work together so well they're so Global yeah okay we got what offenses you get fired by yellow for why does a yellow fire you not pardon not being well enough light not being well enough light not a team player not a team player now I'm counting on my cynical hardn Blues to answer this question why does the yellow fire you that's right they never fire you
• 09:00 - 09:30 right they never fire you because you didn't fail we fail you up as baby that help you get the windows to retrain transfer disconnected to your something who knows now where do we find the yellows in the ver HR HR but not just HR where else HR and training and all that find them off in in sales and marketing yeah where you have to deal with people where else some said some else here organizational a related field
• 09:30 - 10:00 where else we find it customer service yeah think about it supplier relations often time this is one that will freak everybody out a lot of mergers and Acquisitions are done over lunch they're handshake meals yeah these now the blues are pissed really I can't to business n you still got to break bread you shook here right you got to make that all work yeah now final the final thing is you often find them in senior leadership positions where things get done through other people
• 10:00 - 10:30 now the blue is are really steep look I knew it just look at you ever you ever see the you ever see the partner of a consulting firm the head guy in an investment bank they all can golf look at them look at them they're all look now what kind of firms we got let me start you out Singapore Air right no difference between any other airline in the world but has the highest by far customer satisfaction why CU person on the airplane actually likes you not that way a but she likes you she likes you nice person
• 10:30 - 11:00 Facebook inoc sen McKenzie right the 2000 smartest strategist in the world and a firm that has no strategy right and if you think these guys are wusses here's a great yellow firm the Harley-Davidson Company Milwaukee Wisconsin they do have tattoos they will beat you up in the parking lot they patented that obnoxious potato potato potato sound right you have to wait a year to get the bike it cost as much as a car if you don't think they're a cult where did they have their little
• 11:00 - 11:30 get together sturis Sturgis South Dakota cult cult cult nobody goes to Sturgis unless they belong to a cult right you're a cult you're the world of solution businesses you're the world of Millennials you're the world of horizontal connectivity you're actually a world that has emerged big time since 2008 when the president of the United States completely changed how presidents got elected they registered 9 million new voters and roared into office whether you like him or not like him it
• 11:30 - 12:00 changed the model and for the first time in my lifetime well again since the hippies we're starting to see something emerge like an open model we're starting to see something emerge like a consensus model so traditionally this was sort of the weakest model in Business Schools not anymore it's not true anymore now what value they create why have them for crying out loud you know why have themal loyalty stability relationship morale whatever whatever we're going to call glue the
• 12:00 - 12:30 community the culture the compy The Firm whatever makes the family the family the identity you guys create you know you're Papa and Mama you do that for us what else do we get and this is going to really steam the blues again you know how the blues are always talking smack about competing on knowledge they're always annoying you ever going to competing on knowledge how do you get smart hire the right people develop the right people Mentor the right people yeah these are the knowledge guys look at them yeah wait you're you're all laughing right now wait till the first paper comes the Geniuses over here are
• 12:30 - 13:00 going to learn that they they're distributed genius over here they're going to figure that out real quick how to spread the net and how to work that all out yeah so they're going to be knowledge people and they're going to be culture and copsy people are they fast or they slow they're horribly slow they're like the US soccer team run for it run oh we're going to win whether get the lead out if you want to live cuz how long does it take to build a good relationship ask Mike you know he's a blue two
• 13:00 - 13:30 Tequilas on a Wednesday night all over relationship but most of us it takes a long time to build the DC relation not like the blues here all the Tiger Woods over here right now are there approaches breakthrough or incremental incremental they're incremental and they're slow what's the redeeming Factor what do we get what's the great redeeming factor for yellows they stick they stick very good they're the most sustainable group in the room prodcts change markets change
• 13:30 - 14:00 strategies change you got the right culture the right compy you stick around and play double jeopardy this group taken too far becomes a static Country Club let's give our friends the yellows a round of applause be good sports first