THE STORY
Early in my career I worked for a retailer who was considering
expansion into Utah. The company was concerned, because most people in Utah at
the time were Mormons (members of the Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints
religion, or LDS). We did not know how the culture of the Mormon religion would
impact our success. I was given the task of investigating this concern.
I found out that, yes, the majority of those in Utah claimed
to be Mormons. And yes, many of them took their religion very seriously. But
there was also a very large percentage of these Mormons who were referred to as
“Jack Mormons.”
A Jack Mormon is a baptized member of the LDS Church who
rarely or never practices the religion, but is still friendly toward the
church. Alternatively, it can be used to refer to someone that is of Mormon
descent but unbaptized or non-religious. For these people, the culture of the
outside world has more influence on how they lived their lives than the
teachings of the Mormon Church.
Given the preponderance of Jack Mormons in Utah (especially in
Salt Lake City), the culture in Utah was not as different from the rest of the
western US as one might originally think. The differences were more subtle. And
they tended to be something that would benefit our company. So we expanded into
Utah and had success.
THE
ANALOGY
This phenomenon is not just limited to the LDS Church. Most religions have these two types of adherents: the zealots and the Jacks. The zealots become fully dedicated to the religion and are transformed. All that they think, do and say is influenced by the teachings of the religion. Then there are the “Jacks,” the ones who claim the religion in name, but are only minimally influenced by it.
This phenomenon is not just limited to the LDS Church. Most religions have these two types of adherents: the zealots and the Jacks. The zealots become fully dedicated to the religion and are transformed. All that they think, do and say is influenced by the teachings of the religion. Then there are the “Jacks,” the ones who claim the religion in name, but are only minimally influenced by it.
The zealots are the ones that are so passionate for their
beliefs that they go out and try to change the world. These are the ones who
impact the culture around them. Just look at the zealots today in Islam. People
may not agree about whether their impact is good or bad, but the Islam zealots
are definitely having an impact on the world.
By contrast, the Jacks are more influenced by the outside
culture than that of their religion. They just sort of drift along and just do
the minimum necessary to keep from getting kicked out of the church.
Employees have a similar types of relationships with their
company and its strategy. Some are strategy zealots, who are passionate about
the strategy. Everything they think, do and say is highly influenced by the
strategy.
Other employees are only “Jack Strategists.” They may claim
to believe in the company strategy, but they act as if it doesn’t exist. The
outside world influences their actions more than the internal strategy.
The principle here is that the role of the strategist does not stop when the strategy is completed. The strategist needs to go to the next step and create a company full of zealots for the strategy.
The Benefits of
Having Strategy Zealots
There are three major benefits to having a company full of
employees who are zealots for the strategy. First, strategy zealots are better
employees than Jack strategists. The strategy zealot has passion for
the company and what it is trying to do through its strategy. For the zealot, their
occupation becomes more than just a job. It becomes a mission. The strategy
zealot will work harder and longer to accomplish the strategy than others,
because of this passion for the mission.
By contrast, the Jack strategist is mostly at the company
just to get a paycheck. They work because they need to, not because they want
to. Their passion centers more around their life outside of work than inside of
work. They will essentially ignore the strategy and just do what is in their
own personal best interest. There is not enough money in the company to afford
to pay the Jack strategists to be as incented to work as hard as the strategy
zealots.
This is one of the advantages of companies like Google. Technology
zealots are drawn to them because they have the reputation of being a place
where these types of zealots can thrive. As a result, Google gets to choose
from a pool of the best of the best employees.
The second benefit of creating a company full of strategy
zealots is that it makes the strategy self-perpetuating. When a company is
full of strategy zealots, the strategy group does not have to keep reminding
people of the strategy and coming up with ways to get the strategy embedding
into the everyday actions of employees. The zealots are already doing that for
them. The zealots have already passionately bought into the strategy, so they
will naturally keep the strategic momentum going without additional prodding on
your part.
The third benefit of a company full of strategic zealots is
that it tends to make your company’s brand more desirable to customers.
Studies have shown that if all other things are equal, customers prefer to buy
products from brands demonstrating a mission to do more than just make a
profit. This phenomenon is just getting stronger with each succeeding
generation. Zealots will show the world that your company stands for a higher
purpose, and will improve customer preference and loyalty to your brand.
Implication for
Strategists
Since having strategic zealots is so important to strategic
success, creating a company full of these zealots needs to be a part of the
role of the strategist. This can take three forms.
1) The Mission Statement
Do you see the mission statement as a bunch of
fancy-sounding words that look good on paper or do you see it as the call to a
mission that people can be zealous towards? You won’t get people zealous
towards your strategy if it has nothing in it to inspire that kind of passion.
If your company’s mission is little more than just to make a lot of profits,
then you will attract Jack strategists. However, if you can combine profits
with attaining a higher purpose, then the zealots will be knocking at your door
begging you to hire them.
This year, protestant Christians celebrated the 500th
anniversary of when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the
church. This began the protestant reformation of Christianity, which changed
the world.
If you want a world-changing strategy, you need to think of
your mission statement as being more like those 95 theses written by Martin
Luther. Think of your strategic writings as something that sets the tone of a
new “religious” movement.
2) The Hiring Process
What does your company screen for when looking for new
employees? If you’re like most companies, you are screening for people with the
skills necessary for the position. But is that really the best way to screen
for employees?
People with the requisite skills might be natural zealots,
but they may just be “Jack” employees. At some point, it may be irrelevant if
the employee has the skills if they do not have the passion to use them to the
benefit of the strategy. Therefore, it may be more important to screen for
zealousness than to screen for skills.
After all, it has been shown that companies can teach people
skills. However, it is almost impossible to teach people passion. As a result,
it is easier to hire people with natural passion and teach them the skills than
it is to hire those with the skills and teach them to have passion.
So how much input does the strategist have in your company’s hiring process? Are you screening for people who would naturally have more zealousness towards your strategy. If you aren’t, then you are missing a huge opportunity.
3) Strategy “Evangelism”
As mentioned earlier, creating the strategy should be just
the beginning of the role of the strategist. The next step is to convert Jack
strategy employees into strategy zealots. This is more than just making sure
everyone knows what the strategy is. It is making people so believe in the
strategy that they are willing to become zealots for it.
Are your strategy meetings more like a church revival
meeting or more like a dull review of stacks of words and numbers? Stacks of
words and numbers do not inspire zealots. Inspirational stories do. Have you
turned your strategy into an inspirational story that motivates zealots?
Just as there are both dedicated Mormon zealots and Jack Mormons, there are those who are dedicated strategy zealots and “Jack” strategists. Successful companies tend to have a higher proportion of strategy zealots. These zealots make a company more successful because they tend to work harder, they are more committed to following through on attaining the strategy, and they make a company more desirable to its customers.
To get a higher proportion of strategy zealots, strategists
need to:
a) Create a Business Mission people
can get passionate about;
b) Get their company to screen for
zealots during the hiring process; and
c) “Evangelize” their company in
order to convert more Jacks into zealots.
There’s an old saying that “Culture eats strategy for lunch.” The implication is that cultural norms have more impact on how your employees act than what your strategy says. Well, that may be true if your company is full of Jack strategists. But if your strategy becomes a true mission, it will form its own culture. The zealots will then make sure that this new culture replaces the old cultural norms. When that happens, strategy will eat culture for lunch.
