June 15, 2023

Mark Miller: A Guide to Creating the Best Work Culture

50 minutes

Mark Miller currently serves as Chick-fil-A’s Vice President of High Performance Leadership. He is the author of Culture Rules: The Leader's Guide to Creating the Ultimate Competitive Advantage. He shares his interesting and inspiring employment journey with Chick-fil-A and his thought provoking process for researching and impacting leaders in their organization and organizations all over the world.

“As we saw issues and challenges in our organization and organizations around the planet, we believe that if you pull back the curtain, the root cause was actually a cultural issue." [9:40] On a mission to serve leaders and solve problems, the topic of culture came up more and more with Mark Miller and his colleagues.

“Culture is the cumulative effect of what people see, hear, experience, and believe." [13:08] Culture is a powerful element in an organization, but it's also unique and invisible, so Mark brings forward a new working definition for the term culture. In writing this definition, he had an important realization…who has the biggest impact on what people see, hear, experience, and believe? Leaders.

“Rule number 1 is Aspire: The leader must share their hopes and dreams for their culture.” [26:02] This might seem like a no-brainer, but there are too many leaders in the world who aren't doing this. It has to move out of your head and your heart so that others around you can collaborate on your vision. It’s got to be clear, simple, and repeatable.

“The second rule is to Amplify: always look for ways to amplify the aspiration.” [26:52] Mark and his team chose the word amplify very purposefully to break past the noise. The aspiration HAS to have staying power; it needs life, flavor, and amplification. The best way to amplify your aspiration is to model with your daily actions.

“The third rule is to adapt: to constantly work to enhance the culture.” [28:38] You cannot declare victory. The work on culture is never over; it is never perfect. You have to consistently and continuously adapt it to your changing organization; without this rule, you will certainly face defeat. The key to adapting well is listening well.

“I came for the job, but I stayed for what I might become.” [45:15] Throughout this episode, Mark speaks about his journey of employment with Chick-fil-A. He shares this statement inspired by a quote from Ready Player One, a movie and book of the same title, about the impact the culture can have on the inspiration of who someone can become in your organization. He experienced it in his own employment journey, and it can be a valuable aspiration for any leader in their own organization.

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Culture Rules

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By Marcel Schwantes

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June 15, 2023

Mark Miller: A Guide to Creating the Best Work Culture

50 minutes

“As we saw issues and challenges in our organization and organizations around the planet, we believe that if you pull back the curtain, the root cause was actually a cultural issue." [9:40] On a mission to serve leaders and solve problems, the topic of culture came up more and more with Mark Miller and his colleagues.