It’s all about team performance
Shane Green has worked with global brands such as the NBA, BMW, Westfield and United Airlines. The “culture hacker” and business performance coach has now shifted from Las Vegas to Hawke’s Bay with his family, opening up a business in the region. He spoke with business reporter Gary Hamilton-Irvine about his take on New Zealand’s work culture and his plan to tackle troubling issues he sees facing employees and businesses.
IMy focus is how to elevate individual
and team performance. The way to do that is culture.
Shane Green
n 2017, a passenger was dragged by security from an overbooked United Airlines flight in Chicago. The appalling footage received widespread backlash and global attention — it was a PR disaster for the airline.
It was not long after that incident that Shane Green was brought in by the company to help address the airline’s work culture.
“It was after that incident that I started working for United to help change the culture.
“The incident did not actually involve a United employee, it was a subsidiary of United Airlines and it was actually airport police that took him off the airline,” he said.
”[But] it was a catalyst for saying ‘something is not right and we didn’t have to accept it’.”
Green has forged a career improving employee and customer experiences for large organisations, and is known as the “culture hacker” in the US.
He even has a book by the same name, Culture Hacker, which he says
has sold about 60,000 copies.
Until last year he was based in Las Vegas but has moved to Hawke’s Bay with his family, who fell in love with the area during a visit to New Zealand.
Originally from Taranaki, he has now settled in Haumoana and has even moved his consulting firm here and rebranded it SGENZ (formerly known as SGEi).
He said he was 100 per cent focused on New Zealand businesses now including improving their employee experiences and performance.
“I think I can help New Zealand. I think I can make a difference because I am seeing some stuff here that is troubling.
“I’m seeing statistics that are troubling and I don’t think we need to accept it,” he said.
“That is the same approach that I take into every big company I go into.”
He said some of those issues included what he called a “turn and burn” mindset, which he had noticed in the country. He said that involved churning through workers, particularly visa workers, without focusing on a good work environment.
“I think that is at the heart of what we need to address — we have to create workplace environments where people want to stay,” he said.
“I believe we have got used to turning and burning . . . we have not invested in the type of environment and culture that people want to stick around in.”
Green is currently undertaking a large survey looking at how New Zealand’s full-time workers see their work environment. He said he had learned a lot this year.
“We are a very traditional workplace [in New Zealand].
“We are probably a little more male-orientated than we should be. We probably make jokes that maybe isolate some people,” he said.
“It is not that we do it on purpose, it is that we are not aware how it is affecting others.
“Obviously mental health now is a huge issue. Since coming back I have been shocked at some of the numbers that I have been reading about suicides, drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic violence.
“Part of the responsibility for businesses is to understand the type of environment to create that is mentally, emotionally and physically healthy for people.”
He said he was a self-confessed “serial learner” and enjoyed taking a front-row seat inside any industry or company — be it the NBA or BMW — before coming up with strategies to help a company’s performance and work culture.
“I am not an HR person . . . I am actually about performance coaching,” he said.
“My focus is how to elevate individual and team performance. The way to do that is culture.
“The culture of the team . . . is the biggest determinant of how people will perform.”