The Client Situation & Challenge
Keilhauer is a global leader in the design, manufacturing, and distribution of award-winning commercial furniture. When CEO Mike Keilhauer felt that his leadership team had “lost their mojo”, Keilhauer turned to 1-DEGREE/Shift for support and guidance.
Our Approach
Keilhauer and 1-DEGREE/Shift began their journey together by focusing on Keilhauer’s extended leadership team (executive team and next layer). We first conducted a leadership assessment and then aligned on a leadership culture code, identifying key leadership themes, and supporting behaviors. With a clear path on how to collaborate more effectively, 1-DEGREE/Shift worked with Keilhauer leaders to develop priority leadership capabilities such as Open Communication, Coaching, Accountability, and Delegation. This effort modeled broader culture change from the top down. We aligned on and executed vital leadership agreements. One key result was a remarkable improvement in leadership, reducing entropy (the level of friction in the team) from 38% to 12%. This reduction in entropy significantly elevated trust levels.
Next, we focused on the broader Keilhauer culture, conducting a culture values assessment. The 1-DEGREE/Shift team facilitated a Strategy Mapping exercise to integrate an evolved business strategy with refreshed organizational values, leveraging a culture values assessment. By combining Strategy Mapping (the what and why) with clarity of Cultural Values (the how), the Keilhauer team became much more aligned on their path forward, accelerating their growth.
Impact
Since 2018, the culture values assessment at Keilhauer has been an annual process to measure, manage, and sustain Keilhauer’s best-in-class “comfort score” internally. This aligns with their value proposition and purpose to “make work comfortable for all.” The combination of Assessment, Engagement, and Integration with Strategy has proven to be a powerful way to curate workplace culture. With 1-DEGREE/Shift’s partnership, Keilhauer has maintained a healthy, world-class culture and comfort rating for over seven years. Mike, new President Meghan Sherwin, and the Keilhauer team have rediscovered and built on their “mojo,” fulfilling their promise to “make work comfortable for all.”
Here is a video of CEO Mike Keilhauer at a 1-DEGREE/Shift executive breakfast after our Phase 1 project together sharing some learnings from their culture journey in the early days moving from a 38% entropy (level of friction in the organization) to an organization with a 12% entropy level. He also shares his perspective on the power of a culture values assessment & the Keilhauer culture story about how a “yes we can” mindset and focused leadership values can fuel business results.
“Thanks to 1-DEGREE/Shift, my job is a lot easier today.”
– MIKE KEILHAUER, CEO, KEILHAUER
