Ducks In A Row: Building An ALUC Culture
September 1, 2009 by Miki Saxon
Yesterday I described how managers can use ALUC (Ask / Listen / Use / Credit) to engage their teams, whether or not the approach is supported by the overall company culture.
But think how much better it would be to have ALUC embedded in your culture as a part of its infrastructure.
ALUC isn’t something that can be mandated, even by the CEO.
All the proclamations, recommendations and demands aren’t going to force managers to do it if they don’t see the value or their MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) isn’t synergistic with ALUC.
What you can do is instill its value in those managers who report to you; they, in turn, pass the belief to their direct reports and so on down the ladder.
But how do you embed ALUC up your culture?
As Nike says, ‘just do it’—don’t talk about it—and it will spread by osmosis.
ALUC is a major productivity and retention booster, the results will speak for themselves, the how-to will be questioned, copied and implemented.
ALUC should also be a ‘make or break’ for all new hires in management roles, confirmed not only during the interview, but also through reference checking of previous direct reports, not bosses.
Not rocket science; most of the best cultural practices are simple, ignored, but simple.
Your comments—priceless
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Image credit: ZedBee|Zoë Power on flickr
Thanks for revisiting this topic. When I read the first post explaining ALUC I thought it was a great idea. I think that listening is the key. Some people do a good job asking but don’t slow down enough to actually listen to the answers.
Hi Becky, although I agree that people need to be better listeners, ALUC requires EQUAL effort on all four points.
Too often the emphasis falls on the first two, ask and listen, and not enough effort is focused on use and credit.
In fact, I would say that it is USE that garners the least effort, which means that the energy used on asking and listening are wasted.
Thanks for increasing the conversation. If you have additional thoughts or questions please don’t hesitate to share them.