About
Erben Associates is a team of family wealth advisors with over 75 years of combined experience working to help business owners and executives with their transition and personal wealth planning in an effort to create a secure future for their families.
Erben Associates was founded in 1993 in Austin, Texas and has clients in 26 states.
Download the Erben Associates Case Study PDF.
Situation
Founder Jim Erben is focused on his organization’s culture and has nurtured a family-oriented approach with his team and clients from the inception of the company. In February of 2020, Delise Crimmins, CEO of Dzine Learning Systems, was hired to perform a Culture Assessment for the EA team. Just as the results came in, during March of 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic hit. Erben and his team met to discuss how best to approach their team and clients. In an effort to protect their leader, Erben’s team insisted they close the office and send Jim to work remotely from his ranch in Brady, Texas. The rest of the team each went to their respective homes to begin this new journey.
Always the planner, Erben had long-prepared his team with the technology necessary to work remotely. Using an Austin-based system called Lifesize, the Erben team was always able and encouraged to join Jim remotely via video when he met with clients across the country. Hence, when the team was dispersed, each was prepared with the technology necessary to service their clients.
The concern, however, was how to protect the organizational culture. The Erben Associates office in Austin is warm, family atmosphere where employees regularly visited, met and worked. They had always enjoyed a great rapport with one another and with their team. In face, Erben Associates prides itself on only working with likable clients who are an extension of their amazing culture. Erben was concerned that with the team separated for months at a time, that the Esprit d’ Corps that defines the EA team would be at risk.
Approach
Once the team was in place in their remote workplaces, Erben went back to the results of the Culture Assessment to get direction on how to protect the culture the team had worked so hard to build. The overall results of the assessment were good. The Erben Associates’ culture was strong, but the number one issue facing them, prior to the disbursement, was alignment. The employees were not clear on the direction of the organization. Now with a dispersed workforce, this task seemed ever more daunting. Delise used the following method of Assess, address, nurture and measure to help Erben focus on Executive Alignment.
The Culture Assessment measures and compares the four dimensions of culture: Trust, Communication, Accountability, and Alignment. The Culture Assessment uses the results to generate a custom action plan that prioritizes opportunities with the greatest potential for positively impacting culture.
The overall results of the assessment were good. The Erben Associates’ culture was strong, but the number one issue facing them, prior to the disbursement, was alignment. The employees were not clear on the direction of the organization.
The Action Plan was more telling. As expected, communication was confirmed as an area of opportunity; but communication was not the greatest area of opportunity. Organizational alignment and direction were the primary areas Erben needed to focus on.
Our company communicates in a way that helps us adjust quickly to changing situations.
As a team, we communicate effectively to do our best work.
Erben and his team dedicated the beginning of every staff meeting to culture and alignment. They focused on their organizational Values and Behaviors as the focal point of their culture discussions. Additionally, they would discuss what the business objectives were and how they planned to achieve them as a team.
The purpose of the organization is consistently communicated and emphasized.
The purpose and values of the organization are discussed and emphasized regularly.
After several weeks of working with Executive Alignment and the Values, we had Erben’s team take the Culture Pulse Poll. This is a 4 question assessment, housed in Salesforce’s Einstein Analytics platform. The Poll is designed to help organizations get a quick snapshot of how their employees are feeling and performing. Since the COVID-19 Pandemic dispersed his workforce, Jim wanted to stay in close touch with each of his team members to nurture the culture and ensure employees were feeling supported.
The purpose and values of the organization are important to me.
The results were clear that Erben Associate’s employees were more “connected” than employees in other organizations. The most interesting component was that the employees and managers no longer had any alignment issues. Although “alignment” was still strong on Jim Erben’s radar, the staff had clearly moved from feeling like alignment was an issue. Through focused communication around alignment with his team he was able to remove alignment as an issue. His communication around alignment remains strong in staff meetings.
Conclusion
Based upon the results of the Culture Assessment and a debrief with the executive team, Erben and his team were able to put a strong focus on Executive Alignment. The C Scan results continued to illuminate that by putting a strong focus on alignment, his team no longer perceived that as an issue and were able to perform in alignment with the direction of the organization.
Next Steps
Erben Associates is a member of The Culture Think Tank and they participate in the C-Scan poll every other week. Each poll provides them with new data to ensure they are moving in alignment with the needs of the staff.
If you would like to learn more, book an appointment for a 15 Minute Virtual Meeting at Connect2Metrics or Join the Culture Think Tank to take your Free Test Drive of the Pulse Polls & Analytic Dashboard solutions.