22/2/2017 CaseStudyDefenseLogisticsAgencyDenisonConsulting

C U LT U R E C H A N G E : A J O U R N E Y TO
R E L E VA N C E AT T H E D L A
How does a department move from irrelevant to relevant? How does it shift from being a department
that employees want to be transferred out of to being the department that employees are asking to be
transferred into?

This is the story of the Operations Support Group (OSG) at the Defense Logistics Agencys Defense
Supply Center, Columbus (DSCC), and some of the keys to their cultural transformation, a transformation
that did not require thousands of dollars, but rather a new way of interacting and treating each other.
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DLAS NEED: THE ABILITY TO CREATE
CHANGE AND CUSTOMER FOCUS
When Sam Merritt began his tenure as the
director of the Operations Support Group, he used
his favorite way of learning about the department
he began walking around the o ce and simply
asking, How are you? What are you working on?
Initially, this created much anxiety among his
direct reports. The manager of one division came
out of his o ce one day, began suspiciously
watching him, and eventually exclaimed, Whats
the problem? Whats wrong?!! Later, Merritt
recalled, I thought it was the funniest thing! I said,
Is it okay if I come out and talk to them without
you staring over my shoulder? He also reassured
the manager by saying, Believe me, this isnt
about you. After several months of engaging in
this practice, people started to notice if Merritt
hadnt been around and would stop him to say,
Hey, I havent seen you in a while! How are you
doing?
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First, we needed to make sure our associates
knew we were serious about implementing their
ideas and suggestions, Merritt said. We needed
to make sure they knew we were listening. Then
we needed to make sure that everybody was
clear on who our customers are and how to
respond to their feedback. Our challenge was to
commit to implementing the feedback and
monitoring our progress because it is easy to put
this aside with the everyday battle rhythm of our
normal work.
As part of the action planning process, OSG
convened a seven-member Culture Council. They
developed a council charter that stated Culture
Council members would be volunteers only
there would be no forced participationand that
they would not include managers. They set the
standard that people would only serve on the
Council if they were really interested in changing
the culture of OSG. The idea we sold was, This is
your opportunity to create the environment you
want to work in, says Merritt.
The idea we sold was, This is
your opportunity to create the
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Along with Merritts down-to-earth leadership environment you want to work in,
style, other changes at OSG were developing out
Sam Merritt, Director, OSG
of their work with Denison. When they received
their Denison Organizational Culture Survey
(DOCS) results (see Figure 1), they decided they
needed to be proactive and engage in an action
planning process to turn their culture around.

They focused on two indices of the Denison

Culture Model: Creating Change and Customer
Focus.

SOLUTION IN ACTION The Ombudsmans charge was to hear and

address the concerns of the 250 member
Initially the Culture Council met weekly to form department, acting as a mediator to resolve
the action plan. Once they reached the
disputes and provide advice on sensitive issues
implementation phase, they met twice monthly,
that employees didnt feel they could take to their
once with Merritt and once with the subdivision managers or to others in the organization.
chiefs. As Culture Council member Lou Jaquish
said, We were motivated to create the
environment we wanted to work in.

th
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So how did OSG go from index scores in the 30
th
percentile to scores the 80 percentile in three
years? Sam Merritt, the Culture Council, and OSG
changed their culture through speci c, often
small actions that improved the quality and
quantity of communication, directed their focus
on their customers, and simultaneously increased
the meaningfulness of their work.
IMPROVING COMMUNICATION
In order to improve the honesty and frequency of
communication in the department, the Culture
Council and Merritt devised numerous initiatives.
First, the Culture Council came up with the idea of
having an Ombudsman to be an honest broker of
employees issues and concerns.
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th
Since AT&T was e ectively a monopoly for a long
part of its existence, it had not had to deal with
marketplace challenges and competition. Now,
despite the corporate independence, Avaya
employees were averse to taking risks. They felt
they needed to ask permission or check in before
making decisions. Employees were reluctant to
take ownership of tasks or projects. A lack of
urgency in the company led to poor execution.
Plus, with the numerous restructurings and other
changes that occurred during the rst eight years
following the separation, a victim mentality
permeated. Employees tended to keep their
heads down, hoping they would survive.
Second, to improve the communication within the
department, Merritt began releasing the minutes
of the regular meetings of the division heads of
OSG. Merritt encouraged the heads of each
division to have regular meetings with their sta
and to circulate the minutes of those meetings.
This created an open environment where people
felt they knew what was happening in the
organization and consequently no longer lled in
the blanks with potential misconceptions.
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The OSG made extraordinary progress in a short span of time, increasing their Denison scores by up to
58 percentile points. Increases can be seen in each of the four quadrants, balancing out key areas.

IMPROVING CUSTOMER FOCUS

You have to be brutally honest. . .
. If you are not going to tell the
truth about what you think, dont
expect things to improve.
Sam Merritt, Director, OSG

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After taking on their communication challenges

and making progress in the Creating Change
index, the next challenge for the division heads
was to improve their Customer Focus index.
Several divisions of OSG created customer
satisfaction surveys to see if they were meeting
the needs of their customers. Some of the
divisions surveys went to external customers,
others went to internal customers. They wanted to
communicate to employees in the larger
organization that OSG hears their voice and is
working to act on to their needs. The process of
creating and deploying the surveys themselves
was a valuable experience. It allowed employees
to meet with many of the customers they had lost
direct contact with through the anonymity of their
work processes.

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Finally, the Culture Council worked hard to create
an environment of openness and honesty,
encouraging employees to say whats on their
minds. As one member of the Culture Council
said, If you are willing to say it, we are willing to
address it. The Culture Council worked to address
employees concerns and respond to the ideas
put forth as well as create a safe environment for
people to discuss the issues that concern them.
As a result, Weve created a culture here where
its pretty safe for people to say what they want to
say, says Merritt. The other side of this, however,
is that managers also got the raw truth and had
to develop their skills to respond constructively.
Employees in OSG became more forthcoming to
say what they think. While there have been major
improvements in OSGs culture pro le, this doesnt
mean people are simply happier; their initiatives to
improve communication increased the number of
challenges they face (good and bad) on their
journey to become a high performance
organization. Merritt explains, You have to be
brutally honestif you are not going to tell the
truth about what you think, dont expect things to
improve. With this new openness to
communication, OSG is now facing its challenges
head on and delivering results.
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In one case, the Document Standardization
Division conducted surveys over a six month
period, soliciting feedback from over 400 external
customers. The feedback revealed that, while
Division personnel routinely provided high levels
of customer support, customers felt changes to
the Divisions website were needed. One
customer explained that nding the right contact
via the website was a challenge. The feedback
resulted in the entire website being updated to
provide contact information for each area on the
main search pages as well as on the standard
pages. Another customer said it would be helpful
if the general listing documents were updated
more often. As a result, the listing documents are
now updated on a regular basis and checked to
ensure their status is current.
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A second initiative helped OSG improve its
internal customer focus. Orientation sessions
about OSGs operations were developed for
onboarding incoming employees from outside
their department. This enabled new employees to
understand the ways that OSG can support them
in the future. This training was developed from a
suggestion by an OSG associate who wanted to
know more about the other Divisions in OSG. This
overview training has become mandatory for new
associates and is conducted within the rst or
second month of employment or transfer into the
organization. Responses to the questionnaire
given after each training session indicate that OSG
has successfully established an overview of their
mission. As a result of OSGs success in
onboarding, all incoming employees and DSCC
interns now receive the same overview training.
OUTCOMES: MAKING TASKS
MEANINGFUL
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Merritt asked why letters are sent only after a
loss? Why not for joyous occasions as well?
Merritt expanded his letter writing to include any
signi cant event that he is aware of, especially
when an employee has a new son or daughter. It
is a small gesture, but hundreds of these gestures
throughout the department have added up and
have helped to change their culture, improve the
quality of communication, increase their
understanding of who they serve, and increase
the purposefulness of their work.
Culture change e orts at OSG are ongoing. The
Culture Council continues to work on the Creating
Change index and is developing a Peer Award
program. Merritt comments, You cant a ord not
to have a positive culture. The results they have
achievedincreased employee retention,
improved customer service, and better war ghter
supportprove this daily.
What is the Operations Support
Group?
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Merritt also helped improve the purposefulness of OSG is comprised of around 250
OSG sta s day-to-day work by linking their tasks individuals who provide a variety of
to the mission of the organization. As he says, At engineering and technical tasks for
the end of the day, the war ghter is the reason
the Land and Maritime Supply Chains,
including the 3,000 employees at the
you are here. . . . You may be printing copies or
Defense Supply Center in Columbus,
you may be scanning, but that is a piece of the big OH, (DSCC) which is a part of the
picture. To help members of OSG recognize the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). OSG
larger meaning of their work, Merritt approved a functions include preparing and
service member coming in to talk about serving in coordinating standardization
Iraq and how they appreciate what the Defense documents, a wide range of
Logistics Agency has done. This brought home engineering and technical support,
managing the Product Veri cation
the point that having the right item and data
Program (PVP), and verifying
systems is critical. Having the wrong data may
conformance of material to contract
delay procurement and slow down the delivery of speci cations.
essential items to service members in Iraq,
Afghanistan and elsewhere.

In most cases these initiatives did not cost a great

deal. They were more about building trust,
respect, and a genuine concern for others. For
example, Merritt realized that management only
sent letters to employees with a death of a
father/mother or son/daughter.

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