Training Industry Magazine - Summer 2016 - (Page 50)

CASEBOOK Culture Driven By Wendell W. Robinson, Jr. The brightly colored office space is a flurry of activity and voices as a phone rings and a Quicken Loans' Client Care Specialist pushes the button on her headset, says, "Thanks for calling Quicken Loans." She provides her name and contact information to the caller and asks, "How can I help you today?" A STRONG CULTURE CREATES A COMMON LANGUAGE AND PURPOSE, FOSTERING AN ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH WE CAN BRING OUT THE BEST IN OUR PEOPLE. The caller says he needs some help with his new mortgage that is currently in process with the company. "No problem," the team member says. "I'm happy to help." Notice anything? It begins with some semantics - the caller is not a customer, they're a client and the team member answering the call is a Client Care Specialist. These subtle differences are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to why Quicken Loans' culture makes it one of the best companies to work for in the country and the winner of the J.D. Power Award for Mortgage Loan Origination the last six years running. WHAT'S AN ISM? The story of Quicken Loans' 30-year ascent to the top of the mortgage industry is deeply rooted in its culture. Widely known for festive offices and cutting-edge technology, Quicken Loans is continually among the best places to work in the country. The foundation for their 50 culture is built on a set of 19 principles called ISMs (pronounced iz-mmmmms). The ISMs come disguised as colloquial verses, but they pack a punch in the daily dialogue of team members. For example, the ISM "Simplicity is genius," conveys an easy to understand concept, but when introduced into a training room environment during a discussion of federal mortgage law the ISM serves as a catalyst for translating the law into basic language that anyone can understand. While the ISMs continue to evolve and adapt, they still serve as the sturdy footing of the company's belief system. Dating back to the early years of the company, the ISMs were an informal, yet closely followed set of values shared by the team members at Quicken Loans. As the company grew, Founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert recognized the need to formalize the list. By the mid-2000s the ISMs became the official foundation of Quicken Loans' culture. To further enhance the ISMs' visibility, specifically drawn characters were created to augment the ISMs' usage. As part of the onboarding process for new team members, the company regularly holds an ISMs in Action Day at its Detroit headquarters, where Gilbert and CEO Bill Emerson dedicate an entire day to explaining the company's culture and philosophies. Additionally, the company annually publishes its "ISMs in Action" book. Every new edition is distributed to all new team members and

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - Summer 2016

Perspectives
Table of Contents
Three Strategies to Ensure Your Training Has Tensile Strength
Experience, Exposure and Education
Beyond the Classroom Paradigm
Applying the Buddy System
Purpose-Driven Professional & Organization Success
Making It Personal: The Four Pillars of High-Impact Mentoring
Blowing Your Millennial Mindset
Hidden Forces: Unconscious Bias in Learning
Memory: The Critical Bottleneck to Learning
Gender Barriers & Solutions to Leadership
Cognititive Collaboration: Utilizing Diverse Thinking & Behavioral Preferences
Get Into the Act: Accelerating Collaborative Teamwork
Dispelling the Five Myths of Microlearning
Quicken Loans: Culture Driven
Developing Global Leaders: On-the-Job Leadership Development
From Where I Sit
Why Do We Wait to Train Our Managers?
Is Knowledge Overrated?
Is Your Business Acument Showing?
Avnet Expands Services with ExitCertified Acquisition
Company News
What's Online
Training Talk

Training Industry Magazine - Summer 2016