Fishburn Hedges

08.04.2011 | (2 comments)

This was the question on my mind as I went to a talk given by Sir Stuart Hampson, former Chairman of John Lewis Partnership, for the London Business Forum earlier this week. Although I’ve read a lot about the organisation’s commitment to employee engagement, and met employees (or ‘Partners’) who have radiated passion for the company, I’d always had a nagging doubt. I had always felt that the employee ownership was probably more of a factor than commitment to employee engagement across the company.

No more. An hour with Sir Stuart has convinced me that employee ownership is only a launch-pad. In itself, it does not unleash energy, commitment and productivity from people across the Partnership. Instead, what has kept driving the organisation forward, and helped it deliver strong performance even in difficult economic times, has been a genuine and sustained determination to “think differently” about business and make a collective ethos the foundation for commercial success.

Sir Stuart was Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership for 14 years. He didn’t create the partnership ethos (history fans might like to know this was John Spedan Lewis, one of John Lewis’ sons) but he clearly embraced it and helped maintained its role and impact over the course of his tenure. He talked about the role of the various consultative committees within the organisation, who hold management at all levels to account for the decisions they have taken. He also told several anecdotes of employees who, feeling empowered and inspired by the culture they were part of, went the extra mile to meet customer needs (e.g. delivering products on their way home). He also relayed many testimonies from customers delighted by such efforts, and drew a direct correlation to the sustained popularity and commercial success of the Partnership.

Importantly, Sir Stuart also emphasised that a collective ethos does not mean being “soft” with people. As an example, he described how the business consulted with employees to crystallise six core principles (‘values’, if you like) that underpin the way it does business. In many organisations, values look good on a Powerpoint slide, but mean little in practice. In John Lewis Partnership, however, they have been established as a real performance measure. In essence, if you don’t ‘live the values’ on a day-to-day basis, you will leave the organisation. It doesn’t matter how good a performer you are: you need to behave in ways that support the corporate ethos in practice.

All this resonated with me – and not because the Partnership’s approach, nor many of its practices, are particularly revolutionary. Many of the steps he described are examples of common sense good practice in an engaging and engaged workplace. But what Sir Stuart, his predecessor and successor have done is bring together such practices to make effective engagement a core driver of commercial success. Few organisations have managed this to such a degree; indeed, there are many who – even now – fail to grasp the business benefits that commitment to employee engagement can deliver for them. It’s certainly worth any of these sceptics spending some time with Sir Stuart. I think they would quickly start changing their tune.

Posted by Paul Sweetman

on 19.04.2011

Paul Sweetman :-
Hi Danielle,

Thanks for your comment - I'm glad we're on the same page here. I have also worked in retail and know where you are coming from. In this, and many other industries, the people we deal with as soon as we interact with the company shape our long-standing perceptions of that organisation. It is therefore in every company's interests to inspire, challenge and support their people to be brand ambassadors.

Paul

on 19.04.2011

Danielle McGuigan :-
It seems that there is something that John Lewis has got right, with its continued profits in a tougher retail climate. I agree that there is something impressive about the way that John Lewis ethos of partnership and management works its way into the employees. Instead of treating retail staff as simply that, they are seen as part of the company, as you say this is common sense. But having worked in retail I know the easy pitfalls of bad management which demotivates employees, damages the service and ultimately the brand. Values are good to have but if you do not enforce them and communicate them to your employees they are meaningless.