Case Study – Danboise Mechanical (2)

Danboise Mechanical’s Impressive ‘Recovery’ Habit

In an earlier case, we introduced you to Danboise Mechanical-–headquartered on Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.  From before, the Danboise leaders went ‘all in’ in their application of professional values within their organization.  The impact was significant—helping break down dysfunctional departmental silos to building up greater levels of trust across the enterprise.

Over the years we’ve learned what a powerful prevention one’s professional identity can be in helping people avoid behavior (think: unprofessional) that they might later regret.  In short, it proves a powerful deterrent in succumbing to a myriad of temptations.

Trouble is, even with a powerful deterrent sometimes we fall short.  Whether it’s losing our patience with a know-it-all customer, lashing out at a co-worker who incessantly gets under our skin, or failing to return a critical client’s call in a timely manner, we’re human—we mess up.

Recovery from these mess ups is invariably a key indicator as to how well people have adopted professional values within the organization—either individually or collectively.

Consider this ‘recovery’ experience related to us by Carl Pistolesi, Danboise’s EVP:  ‘About a year after our engagement, Zachery (an assumed name), one of Carl’s division managers, had one of those rough days. Zachery was in the warehouse when he overheard a service dispatcher and one of the managers discussing an equipment purchase. Perhaps Zachery hadn’t slept well, maybe he just needed a cup of coffee, but something about that conversation set him off. He exploded, “That really isn’t any of your business, you don’t make those kind of decisions…it’s not part of your job description!” and proceeded to berate the dispatcher. Zachery momentarily had lost sight of his identity as a professional, and subsequently lost control.’

Later that day, Carl had a call from Zachery. Zachery explained what had happened and acknowledged how embarrassed he was.  He felt that he had been out of line and had clearly been unprofessional.  Carl asked him to go home to clear his head. The very next workday, Zachery was at work early and personally apologized to everyone present for his melt down.  Upon hearing Zachery’s apology, the suddenly-relieved dispatcher broke down in tears. Zachery recognized the recklessness of his actions, owned them, and committed to make things right.

Zachery’s successful recovery is instructive.  Recall from our earlier Danboise case how Carl and his management team had worked hard in reinforcing the staff’s identity of themselves as professionals.   The largely blue-collar staff readily embraced the message in a significant way.  How Carl and his management team went about keeping professional values top-of-mind is a subject for another day.  The point is: the staff viewed themselves as professionals and, while experiencing an occasional misstep, they really ‘upped their game’ in terms of how they conducted themselves.  Zachery’s example (admittedly a backhanded recovery example) is certainly illustrative of that.  Yes, a timely, heart-felt ‘recovery’ is reflective of what you’d expect from a professional who has experienced an unfortunate misstep.

Prior to our work at Danboise, explosions like Zachery’s were commonplace.  Each party would hold a grudge for months-on-end making subsequent interactions (even routine ones) between the parties difficult.   Non-routine interactions (think: sensitive) between the parties regularly would become downright contentious.  Given that there were upwards of a half-dozen situations (all by-products from earlier ‘interpersonal jujitsu’ incidents) that were impacting the organization at any given time, it really had a negative impact on the business.

It goes without saying that an organization that has created a habit of recovering from these types of ‘interpersonal jujitsu’ incidents has made great strides in ‘baking in’ professional values into their organization.  That’s an admirable accomplishment.

In your organization, how often do you see people recovering (quickly, effectively) from a professional misstep as Zachery did?   Or in your organization do the messy interpersonal skirmishes tend to fester– ultimately prolonging the pain?

How many Zacherys do you have in your organization? A few or many?   Carl Pistolesi tells me that at Danboise virtually everyone has a ‘recovery’ story.  In other words, Danboise has a lot of Zacherys.   Danboise has created a powerful ‘recovery’ habit.  That’s impressive. That’s only possible when ‘identity’ is universally strong amongst the staff.   And that means Carl and his staff are doing something very right.