Weak signals are hard to detect. That’s why they’re call weak signals.

Are you wondering about the picture?

Here’s a hint. If you, or someone you know, owns a car, the picture could be a signal.

I discovered the source of the dots in this picture. It was, <pause for effect> . . .

An oil leak! Can you believe, our 2010 Toyota Rav4 has an oil leak?

It’s not a big leak, but a leak that took me time to recognize. I saw the leak in enough time to avoid significant problems.

Those spots were my indicator that something was wrong with our car.

Finding weak signals

I contacted Ryan, the owner of A Lamp Unto The Streets Auto Repair, to check out the leak. He shared his findings, we talked about the potential cause, and we agreed that I should monitor the situation.

Are we doing the same with our teams? With the products and services, we provide.

What weak indicators are people transmitting that we’re missing? How about the market signals we might be missing?

I’ll grant, there are plenty of distractions and white noise cluttering our world today. We are constantly being bombarded with “urgent” messages that “demand” our attention. The trouble is, we don’t understand the cost of missing the subtle details.

The challenge is to consider what opportunities are being missed. All it takes is noticing a trend, asking for a solution.

Have you ever walked into a business and read the words on walls?

I read many posts on social media about culture, more specifically work culture. What does that look like?

For me, at Improving, it looks like the image below.

In the IT services industry, we support our clients. A challenge is we are working shoulder to shoulder with our clients.

At times, we might lose focus on what makes us different and unique as service providers. We’re being asked to do challenging work yet stay above some of the messiness our clients are addressing.

This is where culture becomes critical. As an Improver, I am deeply involved in Improving’s success. I enjoy working with my client, and I do my best to maintain a professional space so that I can serve them.

Our culture, at Improving, is more than the words on the wall. It is a sense of belonging to a group of outstanding professionals that make us unique.

Are we perfect? No. Do we fail? From time to time. Do we get better? Yes, hence the name Improving.

How can companies balance employee desires and business priorities?

I suggest an answer is in the quote below. Take a minute or two to dwell on the words.

Work culture is a collection of shared beliefs that the organization seeks to align to. When accounting for each person, it is hard to find alignment on those beliefs.

Thankfully, Improving has thought through what that looks like for both the business and the people who make it successful.

Are we perfect in balancing between ourselves and others while showing dedication? My assessment is, we are, more often than not.

The good news is we can model and show other organizations what that looks like in practice!

I left the best quote for last. Yeah, time to self-report.

This is an area where I struggle. I’ve often thought, “You were in the military, you should have this in your DNA by now.”

No, not so much.

But I’m practicing being excellent each day. Like writing, this post.

I cannot become an excellent writer without daily practice—the same with presenting concepts and ideas. If I don’t make a habit of speaking, then I cannot expect excellence.

At the team level, it’s the same. We ought to be building excellent products and creating excellent services. We create risk we avoid showing our work to each other, our stakeholders, our users, our clients, or our community.

Risk can then become issues that cause weeks or months of rework. All because we didn’t understand the intent of the people we serve.

Yeah, I brought teamwork into the conversation here. It’s because teamwork is bigger than a team. It takes a community.

To be excellent, it starts with you and me. To make it a persistent habit, it resides in the community.

Do you agree, or am I completely wrong?