employee retention. Dave explains that their culture encourages employees to stay. “Our turnover is nonexistent,” he says. “We share input and ideas. There’s a collaborative, fun, high-energy environment.”
leads to an assumption that they’re rolling in dough. “In their mind’s eye, they think money just appears,” explains Chuck. In this exercise, coins are used to illustrate exactly where the flow of money goes. Chuck agrees that this exercise is helpful for showing the company’s financials and how tight profit margins can be at the end of the year. The modern worker craves transparency in the place they work. In the case of nonprofits, they will have meetings with their membership and board of directors on a yearly basis with a complete breakdown of the financials. For Cougar Mountain Software, the $100 worth of bills and coins creates an easy relationship between what happens in that exercise and what happens in that company. “You can bring in the financial team, and everyone can see how the money is spent,” says Chuck. “It’s powerful and eye-opening.” Communication exercises are just the tip of the iceberg. One area of emphasis Cougar Mountain Software uses Sandler Training for is hiring. Sandler has a very detailed process they go through to properly screen prospective employees. It has been proven to be very effective for companies, and Dave backs that up. HIRING
MEETINGS
One of the ways Sandler attempts to change culture one small business at a time is by facilitating meetings. This service has proven to be extremely useful in creating cohesive communication among various departments. “Introverts and extroverts share ideas. The questions being orchestrated get them to think in a manner they haven’t thought before,” Dave explains. At Cougar Mountain Software, there are two very different personality types: Salespeople are generally very extroverted and people- oriented, while programmers are very introverted and process life internally. “Programmers talk to a salesperson, and they learn from one another,” says Dave of Sandler Training’s whole-team meetings. “It’s helped us, as a company, foster a culture and increase its value.” Chuck sees the same effect from Sandler’s impact on involvement during meetings and the appreciation afterward. It goes beyond just involvement; Sandler’s meetings aim to develop a level playing field based on compromise. They host these to foster mutual connections. “The totality of understanding was greater than what I anticipated,” says Chuck. “It was really something.” A specific exercise Sandler likes to take businesses through involves bringing $100 worth of bills and coins to a meeting. The objective is to create an understanding within the company of where the money flows and what the margins actually are. Many employees have very little understanding of the financial status of their company, and that
plugging into Sandler’s strategies, Chuck was hit with the realization that the model they were using wasn’t working. “Through my training, it became apparent that we needed quite a bit of change in management — and development, in particular — as far as methodology,” he says. “We were really inefficient at creating great software and product releases that didn’t have defects.” But the culture Chuck was looking for went far beyond just the customer. “I look at it as a holistic approach to developing the culture. It’s been really interesting, from my perspective — the interest and desire to become better individuals and team members through the coaching.” Dave has a similar take on the way Sandler has instilled a culture within their company. “Our culture can be described as open,” he says. “Our open-door policy allows us to learn from one another.” A deliberate investment in culture isn’t just to create a better work environment; it has real business applications. Small companies will often struggle with
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