Rebel in a Polyester Sash: Rehabbing Corporate Culture with Jessica Lawrence, former CEO of Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council and now consultant and writer.

Whereas many start-up companies have become known for their casual atmosphere, liberal pet policies, in-office games and whatnot, that leaves the rest of the corporate world somewhere between Presenteeism City and Conservativeville.

Is all hope lost? Not according to Lawrence.

Building on her experience starting at Girl Scouts fresh out of college and working her way up to CEO, Lawrence learned to address how organizational change impacts business.

Some takeaways from her presentation:

  • If your organizational culture is old fashioned, hierarchical and anti-innovation, you may not fail, but excelling will require more effort and investment than necessary.
  • If people have to find cute kitten videos to watch on YouTube during the day at your company, maybe they aren’t being fulfilled and challenged. They should just go home and watch kitten videos.
  • When a company grows, often trust decreases.
  • Company policy is often set to the lowest common denominator (e.g., microwaving silverware, which forces a microwave rule; wearing Daisy Duke shorts to a client meeting, which forces a no-shorts rule), when in actuality, the company should just fire the idiots.
  • When the company creates rules for arrival, departure, taking an hour off work, lunch breaks, restroom breaks and such, basically it’s communicating that they do not trust employees. It creates a culture where the employees resent the employer, possibly hate their jobs and thus… look for kitten videos.
  • Lawrence says the book Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It, which advocates Results-Only Work Environment, shifted her paradigm for the workplace.
  • In a ROWE, you control when, where, and how long you work. As long as you meet your objectives, the way you spend your time is entirely up to you. Companies like Best Buy have implemented this system.
  • When implementing programs like ROWE, Lawrence learned that going six to eight weeks as a pilot to build some quality results gave her a great case to take to leadership and human resources to make even bigger changes (like personnel policies).
  • Even with work-shifting and no dress code, Girl Scouts didn’t encounter anything close to the worst case scenario – people arriving in the office for the first time in a week after having not showered for four days and wearing bunny slippers. Employees embraced the trust and excelled.
  • Employer/employee trust is not established by putting up a motivational poster in the break room.
  • Lawrence held a “sacred cow barbecue” where employees could vent about little rules that weren’t actually rules (e.g., expense reports must be in blue pen; certain forms must be on brown paper; girls may not wear sandals because they may stub their toes).
  • Because Girl Scouts seemed to have an unusual amount of forms that were required for daily business, they pretended they were a brand new company and decided what forms were actually needed. They cut it down to nine. And without this event, they never would have been able to strip away the corporate muscle memory.
  • People feel like they need to mask who they are inside when they get to the office. They walk in with “serious office face” on. One of the things that kills culture the fastest is when people don’t laugh.
  • Think: what would a five year-old do? Have active presentations. Serve food that is delicious and fun. Find a way to find joy — even in a serious business meeting.
  • Work-mandated fun doesn’t actually work very well, but sometimes you have to start from the top to make it okay to have fun.
  • (At this point, I’m picturing Michael Scott mandating fun, and Lawrence immediately mentioned Michael Scott mandating fun).
  • It’s important to build a culture that makes sense for your organization. Not all orgs will want to dress up in costumes and be silly. Determine what defines your culture and build upon it.
  • Then hire people who fulfill that culture. Don’t hire resumes. Hire people.
  • Look to companies like Zappos to incorporate values and culture changes into your interview process.
  • Because today’s workers don’t expect to retire at age 65, they don’t feel the need to tolerate ancient organizational culture for decades just to get a pension.

Lawrence’s takeaway: if you work at an organization where the culture sucks, fix it. You owe it to yourself, coworkers and employees. But if you try and can’t fix it, get out. Go to an organization that appreciates your innovation and will allow you to excel.

Lawrence put her cookies where her mouth is and did that herself, leaving Girl Scouts in January.

Watch Jessica’s preview interview on the panel here: