The Challenge
As a result of increased home sales and historically low interest rates, one of the nation's premier in-house mortgage companies was facing significantly increased workloads. The staff was responsible for generating the mortgage packages was being asked to produce more - in less time - while maintaining high standards of quality. The Challenge: to determine why productivity and quality remained flat and why employee morale was in decline.
The Prism Response: Analysis
After reviewing recent employee survey data and interviewing key members of both management and individual teams, it became clear that a lack of technical competence was not the issue. What became apparent was a lack of "Behavioral Compatibility" among team members and between team members and management.
In order to uncover the specific reasons for this incompatibility, Prism implemented the DiscUs team diagnostic process to all members of the group, at all levels. In summary:
- Everyone first completed an individual profile
- Using the DiscUs Team Software, Prism created an "ideal" team profile
- Next, all individual profiles were downloaded to the Team Software to produce the "Actual" team profile
- Comparing the "Actual" to the "Ideal" provided the following partial explanation for the incompatibility
"Team members resisted rapid changes such as those caused by the influx of new business and the addition of a large number of new team members."
The Prism Response: Solution
Through a facilitated session by Prism, all participants had an opportunity to understand how the new hires represented significant change. Once this issues was "depersonalized" and it was realized that the morale issue had nothing to do with the new hires themselves, the resulting atmosphere of "open dialogue" quickly evaporated the elements of conflict.
To deal with the specific "Gaps" in style between individual team members and the resulting issues of alignment and conflict, the DiscUs Team Software was used to produce individual "Relationship Reports." These reports enabled team members to initiate action plans for improvement.
The DiscUs Team Software was also used to analyze the leadership styles of the managers and supervisors as compared to the styles of their team members. Where needed to provide an opportunity for constructive dialogue, Relationship Reports detailed issues of compatibility and possible conflict between managers and staff members.
Together, the above components of the DiscUs process provided a platform for the creation of successful "Behaviorally Compatible" teams.
The Results
The driving force behind the successes described in this Case Study lies in the motivation and desire of the employee group to achieve its productivity and quality goals. DiscUs provided the insights to team members on "Why" they were acting as they did and, in turn, the source of their workplace frustration. Once identified, team members became more understanding and responsive, which significantly contributed to restoring employee morale. Some of the observed outcomes are:
- Increased individual ownership and accountability by team members for their work outcomes
- A keen focus on continuous improvement, versus the previous "merely surviving" mentality
- Greater acceptance of new team members (due in part to a newly developed "Integration Process"), and
- Achievement of overall productivity and quality goals!
