Cultural change can be very difficult, so if you already have a healthy culture where people in your franchise system trust each other, work together collaboratively and support each other by working synergistically, you are lightyears ahead. If you aren’t yet one hundred percent in this enviable position, you need to take action to get you there, and if you are, then take consistent action to stay there.
The degree of discipline, mutual supportiveness, trust, learning orientation, collaboration, and relationship commitment are recognised measures of a strong healthy culture. Let’s explore each of these six essential elements.
Discipline
Your culture should be driven by a Unifying Vision of developing successful franchisee partners because this is what a franchisor needs to become the best in the world at. This Unifying Vision will by its very nature drive a supportive culture and deliver sustained results. Jim Collins, in Good to Great,[1] argues that great companies build a culture of discipline that’s full of “self-disciplined people” who engage in “disciplined thought” and take “disciplined action.” They are fanatically consistent with their Unifying Vision and have strong consistent systems. Great franchise groups have built systems that extend way beyond the operations manual. They have systems that drive franchisee partner performance. Systems to manage internal communication flow. Systems to automate marketing. Systems to manage sales. The list goes on. Creating systems is a core franchising competency.
Systems set expectations and provide clear constraints but also give freedom and responsibility within the framework of the system. If you have a franchise system that is full of the right people, (bright shining stars), they will already be self-disciplined. They will believe in the system and will do whatever is necessary to make the system work. It’s dull stars that baulk the system, passively resisting, doing their own thing. It’s dull stars that chew up time and damage your culture of discipline. Bright stars don’t need close management, and therefore, you can focus on managing the system and not the people.
Mutual Supportiveness
Mutual supportiveness goes beyond the franchisee/franchisor relationship. It needs to extend into support for one another within the franchisor team, within each franchise business, and within all the relationships in your franchise ecosystem.
The franchise businesses in your galaxy need to be embedded in a culture that’s mutually supportive as all rely on each other for survival. This means the franchisor provides support in the form of knowledge sharing, business performance coaching, learning and development, operations and supply arrangements when required and franchisee partners use the support provided to shine brightly, accepting that continuous improvement is needed for their franchise business to run smoothly and being prepared to adapt to change and upgrade their skills, system and equipment when necessary to remain competitive.
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is a critical factor in franchising and lack of trust between franchisee partners and the franchisor is the biggest cause of knowledge creation failure. Trustworthiness is the most consistent predictor of culture in a franchise system so confront the brutal facts. What is the level of trustworthiness embedded in the culture of your franchise network?
To embed trust in your culture you need to be trustworthy. Steven Covey in The 8th Habit describes trust as “the fruit of trustworthiness” and says that “lack of trust is the very definition of a bad relationship.[2] If you are trusted, people will forgive you when you make mistakes. Communication is much easier in a culture of high trust because no one is looking for hidden meaning and hidden agendas.
Learning Orientation
The fourth critical aspect of culture is embedding learning orientation. In another of my blogs, I discuss the importance of knowledge creation within franchise networks and this involves capturing, organising, refining, protecting, and transferring knowledge to engage the cogs of your economic engine. However, trust and mutual supportiveness are needed to foster the kind of learning orientation necessary for effective knowledge creation. Without trust, the people in your franchise network will not be willing to share their knowledge. They will not be willing to open up to you and ask for help and support when they need it. Without trust, your franchisee partners will not support your initiatives by participating and engaging. Without trust, your franchise system will not have a learning orientation.
Knowledge is the most important strategic resource that your franchise system possesses, and effective knowledge management leads to sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, you need to develop an environment with a high learning orientation to synergistically capitalise on the knowledge from within your own system and beyond into other franchise systems in the greater cosmos.
Collaboration
Collaboration is about people working cooperatively together to complete tasks, and projects or achieve a goal. Formal collaboration usually takes the form of cross-functional teams that are formed to work on new initiatives or special projects. Most collaboration requires leadership, so forming cross-functional teams also provides an excellent opportunity for people from lower levels to step up to the role of leader and gain valuable leadership and decision-making experience.
Informal collaboration is the continuous process of cooperation as the people in your franchise network help and support each other in the form of trusted advisers, accountability coaches and unconditional friends. Both formal and informal collaboration should be embedded into the cultural norms of your franchise network.
Collaboration is an aspect of structure and culture as well as a strategy for effective communication. Guess what? Lack of trust leads to knowledge sharing hostility resulting in a lower likelihood of collaboration and knowledge creation. Collaboration is based on relationships, and the foundation of every relationship is trust. If trust is lacking in a project team and people don’t believe their teammates will do what they say they will, team leaders will constantly double-check their work or attempt to accomplish tasks on their own.
Trust is everything in a franchise system!
Relationship Commitment
Relationship commitment is defined as an enduring desire to maintain a valued relationship and committed parties are willing to work hard to maintain relationships that they value. Trust must also be present so that all parties have confidence in one another and are willing to rely on one another.
Franchising is all about commitment—being dedicated to a mutually beneficial relationship, making a long-term investment in a business, being loyal to a brand, and doing what you say you’ll do.
To achieve trust and relationship commitment in your franchise network you need transparent communication that’s aligned with your culture and mutually beneficial shared goals. Your Unifying Vision of becoming the best in the world at developing successful franchisee partners is a perfect, mutually beneficial shared goal for your franchise system and trust and effective communication will drive relationship commitment.
To learn more about creating a healthy culture in a franchise system read The Ultimate Franchising Success Formula by Jan Timms.
Jan Timms is a speaker, author, mentor, coach and facilitator of learning who specialises in supporting franchise systems throughout the world to achieve greater success.
After spending fifteen years in the franchise sector, holding various senior management roles, Jan founded Get Smart Services in 2011. She completed a seven-year empirical research study in 2020 that created the Ultimate Franchising Success Formula framework and became the catalyst for her bestselling book and eLearning and coaching programs. Read more about Jan’s expertise and achievements on her LinkedIn profile or visit this link.
[1] COLLINS, J. (2001). Good to Great, London, England, Random House Business Books [2] COVEY, S. R. (2004). The 8th habit: from effectiveness to greatness, New York: Free Press
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