How Can Culture Get Your Team Through The 'Great Transition’, With Ed Wolff

Ed Wolff says trust, urgency, empowerment and other elements of strong organizational culture can be the keys for telcos and utilities having to reinvent themselves due to changing demands.

Special: Recorded Live at the KYRBA/TNBA Fall Conference

What is The StoryConnect Podcast?

StoryConnect features interviews with marketers, communicators, CEOs and other leaders at cooperative and independent broadband companies, electric cooperatives and municipal power providers. The goal of the podcast is to help listeners discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers. It is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources.

Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.

StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their
stories and connect with their customers.

Andy Johns:
How can culture help your organization survive the great
transition?

That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of
StoryConnect: The Podcast.

My name is Andy Johns, your host with Pioneer.

And I'm joined on this episode by Ed Wolff, who is the Vice
President of Professional Service, Sales, and Marketing at NISC.

Ed, thanks for joining me.

Ed Wolff:
It's good to be here. Thanks for having me.

Andy Johns:
We are here. You probably noticed from the ambiance.

Remember, we don't say background noise – we say ambiance – here
at the Kentucky Rural Broadband Association and Tennessee

Broadband Association's joint conference here in Franklin,
Tennessee.

Ed was one of the speakers this morning on the main stage
talking about how organizations can survive this transition that

so many of them are going through with a strong culture.

So I guess first, Ed, let's kind of define that transition.

What is it that you guys are seeing – you guys have so many
members in the industry.

What do you categorize, how do you define, that great
transition?

Ed Wolff:
Yeah, it's been fun to watch.

I've been involved in the industry for over 30 years.

And you just see in the broadband industry, these companies
going from traditional telecom companies to high tech

companies that are.

You know, at one time, telecom itself was kind of a luxury.

Today, it's an absolute necessity, business necessity in their
environments.

And it's really changed the way they have to do business, the
way they serve their members, and the way they have to operate

their business.

Andy Johns:
And then in the middle of that, we've also got – you know, I know
you talked a lot about that transfer of knowledge going on right

now. In the middle of that transition, you've also got the
demographic transition going on with so many boomers hitting that

retirement age.

It's even more important, you know, for that transfer of
knowledge and that culture – not to jump ahead too far, but

you've kind of got a transition inside another transition.

Ed Wolff:
Yeah, absolutely.

Just last night we were talking to one of our members, and they
have some key employees that are retiring that have had

phenomenal experience.

And they're really worried that 2 or 3 people retire, they'll
have to replace them with 5 or 6 because they're so diverse in

their knowledge. And it's going to take a while for a newer
employee to get as efficient at their jobs as the existing

employees are. So that transfer of knowledge becomes a real
strategic initiative for organizations to make sure that they

continue a high level of service and do it efficiently in the
midst of these experienced folks retiring.

Andy Johns:
Now you're a technology company at a software company.

I know you enjoy getting into the data and diving in pretty deep
.

Culture sounds kind of like a squishy, feely kind of word there,
but you're obviously a big proponent that culture is a main

piece of what's going to get folks through some of the changing
times ahead.

Ed Wolff:
Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, in this broadband environment, there's competition like
there's never been before.

So there's competition from satellite companies.

Think of Musk, right? And there's competition from traditional
cable companies.

There's competition from wireless companies.

And where this market really, the rural providers have a leg up,
in my opinion, is that they care for community.

They're local. They're a known commodity.

They're really good what they do, and they have that personal
connection these other companies don't.

So culture is huge because maintaining that culture is going to
be critical to be competitive in these environments in the

future.

Andy Johns:
Now, you talked about a number of different things.

You talked about a sense of urgency.

You talked about trust.

You talked about empowering staff, professionalism.

You said it kind of all boils down to two big things.

And that's servant leadership and innovation.

So unpack a little bit about that for us.

Ed Wolff:
Yeah, I mean anybody, when you're looking at employee retention,
we're looking at employees coming to your organization.

They want to work for an organization where they feel they can
make a difference.

And if they come into an organization where someone's throwing
out orders and telling them what to do, but not demonstrating or

serving the employees and their customers, it's probably not a
place they want to be.

So through servant leadership, you can set a good example.

You can earn buy-in, you can gain efficiencies by having people
empowered and feeling like they can make a difference.

And that all matters to the bottom line.

So I'm a numbers guy, but culture matters, and it actually
translates to a stronger bottom line.

Andy Johns:
You talked about – and I noticed a lot of heads nodding in the
room – when you talked about sense of urgency and

professionalism. And, you know, I've done a lot of presentations
on the different generations at work and how they work.

And I don't want to turn this into any kind of session where
we're ragging on any particular generations that I may or may not

be a part of.

But, you know, it's different.

Do you feel like that sense of urgency and that professionalism,
is that something

that can be taught?

How do you even kind of communicate that to folks that, you
know, it seems like some of those are just those intangibles that

some folks have and other folks don't.

Is that a thing you feel like a culture can can teach people?

Ed Wolff:
You know, I believe it is.

And if you look at our environment today – I hate to blame
things on Covid.

But post-Covid, I just see the service industry not being as
diligent about a sense of urgency, about professionalism, about

care and concern as they once were.

So as an organization, we really have to focus on that.

We have to be intentional.

We have to teach that when people buy-in, and they start
demonstrating that they feel better about themselves.

And there's study after study, that says people are more
motivated by helping others than they are by pay and benefits.

And so, that is kind of countercultural to what you hear in the
news and media and all of that today.

But we find that to be very true.

That's backed by numbers, and that's really key to a successful,
I think, workgroup, successful organization.

A place where people want to be, where they want to stay, and
they want to provide value.

Andy Johns:
You talked about innovation, and I think when we think about
innovation, we think about a lightning bolt from the sky.

You know, like whether it's AI, which we just talked about that
or, you know, some of the huge sweeping innovations that may

happen. But I like the way that you posed it, that innovation
isn't necessarily, you know, that lightning bolt.

It's just incremental progress.

Ed Wolff:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

And I got to tell you, you know, when I prepare these
presentations, there's times I look at my own weakness.

And when I hear innovation, I think nanotechnology, and I think
new battery technology, and I think chip sets.

And at the end of the day, we have a responsibility to look at
our jobs differently, to be innovative in day-to-day things.

And one of the things I talk about is oftentimes I think people
focus on perfection and get overwhelmed.

I have a saying, I'd rather focus on advancing things or on
incremental improvements than

perfection. Oftentimes perfection is the anti-improvement.

And so I think as individuals in an organization, when we hear
about being innovative, we have to really take that to heart and

really focus on what can we incrementally improve in our
day-to-day jobs that improves the overall success of the

organization.

Andy Johns:
You gave an example, and not using any names, but about the
person working in the vault and, you know, kind of the looking at

the information, the way that it's done there that I think, you
know, while that example seems obvious, if you're in the middle

of it and maybe not. Do you mind running that by us again?

Ed Wolff:
Yeah. It was a really fun example of applying innovation to our
day-to-day lives.

And it's a bit of an old example, but there was a time in my
career, I was visiting with a CEO, and she had a proposal in

front of her from her staff to build an additional paper vault.

So back in the days when everything was filed away and had to be
fireproof and had to be locked up, and it was a very expensive

proposition. And she was ready to go to the board with a rate
increase.

On top of that, she was going to have to build this vault.

And one day, as she was really thinking about it and really
wringing her hands over that decision, she was on her way to

lunch, and she sees a CSR sitting on the floor sorting through
papers.

So she walks in and says, "Hey, what are you doing there?" And
the CR says, "Well, I'm getting these papers ready to file." And

she said, "Well, how long have you been doing this?" "Oh, ten
years, the whole time I've been here." And she goes, "Why are you

storing these particular documents?" And the CSR said, "Well,
we've always done it that way." And they took a look at it, and

they said, "Have you ever been asked to retrieve the documents?"
And the answer was no.

So they sat down, and they did an inventory.

And at the end of the day, they cleared out 75% of the vault.

They shredded the paperwork for a new vault.

And while everything is digitized today, it's just a good
example of how thinking differently can bring efficiencies and

change the way you do things, and help you serve your end users
better and improve your bottom line.

Andy Johns:
The example that I keep thinking about, you know, in the last
couple of years we've heard about it, is we're talking to folks

in the cooperative space that they had their annual meeting
changed up dramatically during Covid.

And they went either drive-through or virtual or whatever.

And, you know, I'll be talking to them, and they'll say, and you
know, it's a different path for everybody.

I'm not making fun of anybody.

But, you know, yes, our members liked it better.

Yes, our staff liked it better.

Yes, it saved us money and improved engagement.

And then you ask, so are you going to stick with that now that,
you know, most of the Covid scare has passed?

And the answer is usually, "Oh, no.

We're going back to the way it was." It's like, "Well, you don't
have to.

If this worked better, why not do it?" So that's exactly what
you're saying with that incremental progress and just looking at

anywhere in the organization, whether it's cultural, whether
it's technology, anything that you can make just a little bit

better.

Ed Wolff:
Yeah, absolutely.

A focus on progress over perfection, incremental improvements,
and it really can make a big difference.

A lot of small improvements over time can make tremendous
impact.

And again, being a numbers guy, it will show up in your bottom
line.

It will show up in your customer satisfaction scores.

It'll show up in employee retention.

All those things give reasons for employees to want to stay, for
customers to want to stay, and for you to have an overall more

successful organization.

Andy Johns:
Last thing for you before we go.

If there's somebody who's listening right now, and they're
thinking, well, yeah, that sounds great.

But, you know, he doesn't work here.

He doesn't know what it's like here.

We got to do it the way that we've always done things, whether
it's culture or that innovation.

What advice would you have for folks?

What are some things you picked up along the way that you might
share?

Or, you know, somebody who's in that spot and feels a little
stuck with what they can or can't do.

What advice would you have for those folks?

Ed Wolff:
Yeah, it's a great question.

Just focus on lifetime learning.

So the real advantage that I have is that I have the ability to
work with our members/clients in all 50 states,

and I get the experience of a lot of different offices.

So just as you go to conferences, talk to people.

Ask for their opinion.

Ask for their experiences.

Read books. Today we talked about a book that's called "The Speed
of Trust." It's another factor to a real strong culture.

Read, ask questions, interview people, and just work hard at
thinking differently.

Be intentional at thinking differently.

That would be my advice.

Andy Johns:
I like it, and I added that one.

And both books you mentioned today, added into my Goodreads.

So I'll be diving into those as soon as I get some of the other
ones marked off the list.

So thanks so much.

Ed Wolff:
All right. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Andy Johns:
He is Ed Wolff, the vice president of professional service sales
and marketing at NISC.

I'm your host Andy Johns.

And until we talk again, keep telling your story.

Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a
communications cooperative that is built to share your story.

StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.