Excerpts from a research interview regarding Curt Dombecky’s new book.
Monday 06 Mar 2006
Dombecky Interview Excerpts
Excerpts from a research interview regarding Curt Dombecky’s new book.

Interviewer: Curt, how do you? I know you’ve heard many, many definitions of a business culture. How do you define a business culture?
Curt: A business culture is the aggregate of the collective attitudes and resultant behaviors of all the employees of the business. There is a huge difference in profitability and non-monetary viability in identified constructive cultures versus those that have been identified as restrictive cultures. The insidious aspect of a restrictive culture is oftentimes sales figures will continue to grow. Thus putting the business, under what I like to call, the “ether” of a restrictive business culture. Where constructive cultures really shine is the bottom line. In a watershed study of 207 companies over 11 years, companies with identified constructive cultures out-produced restrictive cultures by over 700%.
Interviewer: Curt, I must ask, this is a book about leadership, yet we started off talking about culture. Why is that?
Curt: One’s ability to lead can be impacted tremendously, either positively or negatively, by the culture in which the leadership takes place. In fact, I think it is probably more important that the leader is focused on creating a constructive culture than traditional leadership skills or abilities. I like to think of a leader, when they and their team are at their best, as not really leading at all. If the leader has concentrated and achieved that which is most important to leadership, the leader will actually be following.
Of course, all of this is taken in traditional context. In the high-performance era that we are now entering, leading from “behind” will be the standard. I can tell by the look on your face what you’re about to ask. So I’ll save you the trouble. That which is most critical for the leader to be concentrating on is creating that constructive culture, which I mentioned.
Interviewer: What would you say would be the biggest contribution to a constructive business culture?
Curt: Without question, the biggest contributor to a constructive business culture is the self-efficacy of its employees. Once this status is realized, there is virtually no end to the possibilities for growth, bottom-line profits and the corporate viability that goes along with them. Self-efficacy has a huge side benefit outside of a corporate setting. Once it becomes part of your personality, it creates a positive culture in your personal life as well. If you ever wondered how people who are at the top of their industry still managed to have wonderful family lives, self-efficacy is it.
Interviewer: Aside from personal role models, who are the people who have served as your role models for success in building a constructive business culture?
Curt: Lou Tice, of the Pacific Institute has defined the term “role model” for me. Not only does he practice what he professes, but he is able to teach that which is not easily observable in such a fashion that you can see it through his words. He has impacted my life in a positive fashion for the last 20 years. I literally would not be doing what I’m doing today had I never been introduced to him. He has taught me how to be self-effacing to the degree that I can now help others be the same. Of all the wonderful gifts Lou has given me through his teachings, self-efficacy is by far the greatest.
I owe a lot to Donald Brown, of Situational Services Inc., for his fine work and mentoring me and all of the intricacies of the Hershey leadership model. Don has taught me business philosophies that have helped the professional side of my life to grow and prosper.
I must thank Bob Bolya for the many insights he has given me in using the DISC personality profiling model and his outlook on business as well. Bob has been the source of many tips that have improved my ability to help people change the environment in which they function.
The list would not be complete without including Jim Leslie. Jim is one of the most analytical, yet kind people, that I have ever met. He has mentored me on the ways of creating what I like to call the American dream. That is, taking a thought or an idea and turning it into a revenue producing entity. Jim is a true visionary, and I have been fortunate to be part of that vision.
Interviewer: What do you think are the biggest obstacles people face in trying to build a constructive business culture?
Curt: The two biggest obstacles in trying to create a constructive culture are:
1) The ability to determine the degree to which your present culture is constructive versus restrictive.
2) The ability to create the precise changes necessary to achieve self-efficacious employees throughout the organization. This is not a simple matter of throwing “the self efficacy blanket” over the entire organization. While this method might work over a period of time, it would be very inefficient and have a high chance of failing. In fact, this same paradigm is why culture changes so often fail. No, the answer is precision, science, knowledge, and a profound belief that there is a better way to the goal than that which has been tried so far. The less precise you are in determining where you are, as a culture, the greater chance of you not being able to realize the change.
I’m not talking about the kind of change that requires layers of accountability. I’m talking about permanent self-efficacious change that creates results from synergies as one could not even have imagined before. My experience with Lou Tice and the Pacific Institute has shown me that we can do this with the best in the world.
Interviewer: How do you know what you need to build a constructive business culture?
Curt: Knowing what you need falls back on my previous comments regarding precision in measuring where you are now. Once that is determined, the appropriate science and knowledge base needs to be applied and communicated. This can be very time-consuming and frustrating (not to mention unproductive) to the uninitiated regardless of the degree of business acumen. Once, however, all the principles are assimilated, they are almost always duplicative with similar outstanding results. The technique, then, is to employ a watchful, mindful set of “outside eyes” to guide you to areas within your organization that will bear the greatest fruit. Once you have learned the science and the principles behind these principles, you will be able to become the “outside eyes” for your organization. In the greatest benefit, everyone in your organization will become expert in these principles as well.
Interviewer: Could you tell our readers a little bit about what drives you to be successful in changing cultures?
Curt: I take no greater pleasure in life than when I am helping others achieve their dreams. The mere notion that I am able to teach the same principles that helped me achieve all of my dreams excites and energizes me on a daily basis. I have no idea why I was exposed to these principles when I was. Nor do I know why they had so much impact on me. They are so pure and powerful that I know they must be shared with as many as possible. I truly believe that anything we as humans do to create and improve society benefits all. The most incredible part of the principles I profess is they are so empowering in the workplace that they inevitably find themselves being employed at home. This seems to be a natural evolution
Interviewer: Is it important to balance your success in your life? If so, how do you advocate balancing your success with your life?
Curt: Once you’ve achieved self-efficacy, it really is not a balancing act at all. Yes, this concept of self-efficacy permeates all that you do. It is, however, more efficient and effective if you come by the principles in your workplace. And that is for a simple reason: control. The average person has much less control of the culture in their workplace than the culture of the rest of their life. Of course, that is because most business cultures are restrictive in nature. So that the principles can be learned and applied somewhere, where the culture is less than ideal, applying them in a more ideal place is much easier. In fact, it has been my observation that once the principles have been assimilated in the work place to not have them in the rest of one’s life creates dissonance. So this concept of balancing is not really one of balancing at all. It is, rather, “fixing” that which doesn’t seem to make sense anymore. Once your subconscious mind gets a hold of this incongruence, it creates the drive and energy to become congruent. This phenomenon is instantaneous and without effort.
Interviewer: What is the message that you want people to hear so that they can learn from your success?
Curt: When managing your organization, it’s important to create self-efficacious, constructive cultures. It is equally important to be able to recognize when you’re in, and to what degree you’re in, a restrictive culture. Attempting to move your organization from a restrictive situation to a constructive one by one’s self can be expensive and inefficient and doomed to failure. If you take a look at an average organization, one of the biggest expenses is the payroll. Most organizations are willing to invest in those to whom they pay the payroll or employees. Where most organizations’ attempts to invest in their employees to create a constructive culture fail, however, is they attempt to create the change from the outside and have it filter in to the employee. This creates temporary change, at best. It also creates, potentially, another layer of accountability, which can be very wasteful, from an expense, as well as a human resource, perspective.
Interviewer: You talked about people who influenced your life. How can people help other people succeed?
Curt: The two biggest factors in helping people succeed are:
1) Leading by example.
2) Using any knowledge you’ve gained in life to create something greater than income.
Lou Tice taught me this 20 years ago and it’s really nothing new. In fact, I think it’s quoted in the Bible, which is a rather ancient book. It goes something like this: if you would wish to know what’s in a person’s heart, watch what they do, not what they say. Does that need any clarification?
The last principle is just part of my belief system. I do not believe that any of the knowledge that I’ve come by in my lifetime is something that I can call “mine.” How I choose to package and present it, of course, is unique to me. The knowledge itself is something that has always existed. The knowledge itself is something that has helped me live a life beyond my childhood dreams. The knowledge itself, I believe, should be passed on to as many people as possible. This can be done to create revenue or not. I have no views on which is of the greater good. I will say this, however: using knowledge to create revenue severely slows down the dissemination process. I believe that the more the knowledge is disseminated, the greater the quality of the fabric of our society. This comes full circle to the culture in which we exist.