The following interview between Judith E. Glaser, CEO Benchmark Communications and Marla Emery and Rhonda York, Co-Managing Partners, TeamWide Solutions took place after the Create WE in Your Workplace seminar, held on February 23, 2010, in Charlotte, NC. At that event, Judith explained her groundbreaking research on how the DNA Assessment tool can help to predict the success of an organization.

	Marla: Hello Judith! We're still getting some wonderful feedback from the nearly 100 attendees at the Create WE in Your Workplace event. You really piqued everyone's interest about the DNA Assessment by explaining how it can pinpoint an organization's unhealthy "genes" and can typically predict the future success of the organization.
	Judith: Yes! It's a very powerful assessment that is based on more than 30 years of my research, which I collected as I worked with hundreds of leaders and organizations. Through my research, I learned that organizations typically succeed when they show strength in the Seven Vital Dimensions that the DNA Assessment measures. To describe these dimensions I use the acronym CHANGES, which stands for: Community, Humanity, Aspirations, Navigation, Generativity, Expression, and Spirit.
	Rhonda: Judith, two questions we've been hearing most often are: "How does an organization's DNA compare to a living organism's DNA? And, how did you come up with that analogy?"

Judith: Well, my husband is a scientist who does extensive research seeking to find a cure for cancer. We were discussing what happens to an organism when unhealthy cells are present. Specifically, neurological communication breaks down between the healthy cells and the autoimmune system. With cancer, unhealthy cells grow and spread rampantly, which creates a toxic environment and impedes the survival of the healthy cells.

Based on my work with my clients, I began to see a similar pattern in the business world; too often, when unhealthy behaviors are present in the workplace, a clear symptom of dysfunction shows up in the way people relate and communicate — or the way they don't relate and communicate! When these unhealthy behaviors become the norm, the healthy behaviors subside or cease to exist all together, which can lead to the failure of the organization.

Rhonda: That sounds discouraging, but tell us how the metaphor plays out ... is the outcome always negative?

Judith: The good news is that just as DNA molecules can be reprogrammed by turning on healthy genes, so too can organizational DNA be reshaped. And, just as scientists have found ways to identify and turn off unhealthy genes, in organizations, we can identify and turn off unhealthy behaviors.

Marla: You often use the terms I-centric and WE-centric, can you describe what one might observe people doing in a WE-centric workplace?

Judith: Sure. The terms I-centric and WE-centric describe behavior as it relates to each of the Seven Vital Dimensions. WE-centric behavior is healthier because people focus on and strive to achieve the goals of the organization at large while treating each other with respect.

Here's a chart that describes both behavior types for each gene:

Marla: Judith, please explain the how the DNA Assessment works; and also share how you interpret the results?

Judith: We've designed it to be a simple online survey that can be completed by as few as five members or as many as several hundred members of the same organization. The questions are based on the Seven Vital Dimensions and the participants enter a response that best describes their organization using a rating scale of 1 (never) through 7 (always). Each question is carefully crafted to uncover what supports or what gets in the way of creating a healhty WE-centric workplace culture.

Mostly Healthy	Very Unhealthy

The results are immediately available in a web-based interactive program with access to almost 200 graphical views of the data. You can slice and dice the informatioin in unlimited ways depending on what you what to know or reveal. One of the primary views is a wheel that is divided into seven wedges representing the Seven Vital Dimensions.

 

By looking an the colors on the wheel, you can get a quick snapshot of the relative health of the organization: Red (unhealthy), Yellow (needs a booster shot), and Green (healthy). For example the wheel on the left belongs to an organization that is relatively healthy — showing a good amount of yellow and green with only a few red areas. But the wheel on the right, is very red, which means there are serious problems in most of the Seven Vital Dimensions.

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Rhonda: OK. So once you look at the wheel to determine the health of the organization, what do you do next? How do you fix it?

Judith: Ah, that is the million dollar question, isn't it? In simple terms, we talk about it! In not so simple terms, we have vital and essential conversations about what's causing the unhealthy genes to permeate the workplace. Often, people don't understand that they are operating in a toxic environment until we drill down to uncover the unhealthy behaviors that are being accepted as the norm.

Marla: Can you give us an example?

Judith: Sure. One of the seven vital dimensions is Expression and when it's green, that means that it's generally okay for employees to question and/or disagree the boss! We find, that when the senior managers empower and encourage others to voice their opinions, regardless if they differ from the status quo, the Expression gene is green. But when it's red, no one can question authority! You do what you're told and if you try to ask why or suggest a better way ... well let's just say, you may not be appreciated.

Marla: Well, don't the people in the ivory tower get to tell everyone what to do because that's what they get paid to do?

Judith: You've probably heard me use the expression, "Power Over" to describe dictatorial leaders and "Power With" to describe leaders that fly with their flock. The difference between these two leadership styles does show up in the DNA of an organization. As you might guess, there's a lot of red showing when leaders power over others.

Marla: So what if an organization recognizes that they've missed out on a lot of good ideas because they didn't want to question the bigwigs, but now they want to turn off that bad gene and turn on the free-expression gene? What do they do to reshape their DNA?

Judith: In that case, I would work with the leaders to find ways to connect with their employees and to help the employees connect with the goals of the organization. Unless you get buy in, people just do what they think is expected without really understanding why to do it. That fosters I-centric thinking, which can cripple an organization or send it into failure. The goal is to move toward WE-centric thinking and behaving in which people want to share ideas and information because they understand how they contribute to the overall success of the organization.

Marla: Judith, with all of your experience helping organizations transform and reshape their DNA, what nugget can you share that most reflects your ideas about creating a WE-centric workplace?

Judith: To get to our next level of greatness, depends on the quality of our culture, which depends on the quality of our relationships, which depends on the quality of our conversations ... Everything happens through conversation!