Soup: A Recipe to Create a Culture of Greatness

According to a recent MSNBC article, corporate crises at BP, Goldman Sachs and Toyota are not only impacting their bottom line, they are affecting employees at these companies as well. Many workers are facing insecurity, a loss of control and disillusionment in a corporation that they were once proud of. Unfortunately, this is a recipe for even more disaster because as employee morale suffers, performance slows, talent leaves, and businesses flounder. Leaders and employees need guidance on how to get back on track and regain trust before their businesses fail. 

In Jon Gordon’s newest business fable, SOUP: A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture (Wiley; May 2010; 9780470487846; $22.95; Hardcover) a soup metaphor is used to explain the "recipe" to nourish employees and boost morale, engagement and productivity. The story of SOUP follows Nancy, the fictional character that has been recently anointed CEO of Soup, Inc.. She has been brought in to reinvigorate the brand and bring success back to a company that has lost its flavor and profit due to hard times.

While eating lunch at a local soup shop, Nancy meets the owner and discovers the key ingredients to unite, engage, and inspire her team to create a culture of greatness.

The story of SOUP makes the correlation between the ingredients of soup and the business culture we live in. SOUP is a reflection of the soup maker; a business culture is the reflection of the leader. Contributing love, optimism, trust, vision, communication, authenticity, appreciation, passion to the relationships you create will determine the substance and quality of your soup.

To begin nourishing one’s culture and relationships, Jon Gordon focuses on key principles and values:

Culture drives behavior, and behavior drives habits                                                                                                                               Organizations tend to focus on strategy and ignore culture, however culture trumps strategy every time.

Soft is Powerful                                                                                                                                                                                                  Culture and relationship creation is not a soft project, leaders must focus on culture NOW rather than later.  While it takes more time and energy upfront, it is not as costly as always having to put out fires in an environment filled with dysfunction.

Trust                                                                                                                                                                                                                          With layoffs during the downturn, trust has taken a big hit today. Trust must be restored for leaders and businesses to be successful.

Communication                                                                                                                                                                                                        The biggest problem in businesses today is poor communication. Where there is a void, negativity fills it.  Leaders need to find the voids within their organization and fill it with positive and frequent communication.

Engaged Relationships                                                                                                                                                                                              A term coined by the author, to stress the fact that to grow a business you must focus on the engagement of your people. To enhance engagement, you must focus on building strong, meaningful relationships.

The two modern enemies of great leadership are busyness and stress. As leaders there is so much stress associated with hitting their targets. They tend to focus too much on the numbers while ignoring the people that deliver those numbers. SOUP emphasizes the importance of slowing down to focus on teamwork and relationships. By doing this, leaders and employees will accomplish more in less time.

Companies are bound to experience crises at some point in their lifetime; how leaders and employees react to the busyness and stress of it all will determine their future. SOUP delivers the powerful message that the quality of careers, businesses, and teams are determined by the quality of relationships created as well as maintained.