News from the Center
Construction Execs in New Orleans Receive Their First Spritz of Spitzer
| Stephen Stumpf, CEO of Durr Heavy Construction, welcomes the attendees. |
Fifty leaders from major construction firms in Louisiana got their first taste of the Spitzer Center's business philosophy and programs through a half-day seminar hosted and organized by Durr Heavy Construction. The seminar, held January 28 in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, introduced participants to The Four Levels of Happiness™, the core concept of the Center's Journey to Excellence program. As typically happens when leaders see the Four Levels for the first time, they found the model “eye-opening” and “very insightful.”
“It’s something most of us know about ourselves but rarely address,” said Bill Johnson, a senior estimator at Durr. “It helped me understand my ultimate motivations both at home and in the workplace,” said John Bezou, a project manager with Spartan Building Corporation.
The event, known as a Spitzer Center Discovery Session, was presented by the Center’s executive director, Jim Berlucchi. The format “is a great way to get acquainted with Robert Spitzer’s work. In four hours, you can’t plumb the depths of what it means to have a Level 3 culture in your organization,” said Berlucchi, “but it doesn’t take long to grasp the perceptions that form the heart of Spitzer’s approach. We’re not dealing with complex theories about psychology or organizational dynamics. We’re dealing with basic facts about human nature. Those facts are easy overlook but easy to recognize when you point them out.”
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A Spitzer Center Discovery Session is a free service for any business, non-profit, or religious non-profit seeking to clearly define its cultural goals through the lens provided by Four Levels of Happiness. We'll help you to identify where you are now in relation to your goals and show you what tools the Center has to help you grow and flourish in a meaningful and ethical way.
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The seminar also covered the link between the Four Levels of Happiness and behaviors that shape an organization’s culture and drive its performance. “In Level 2 cultures, the organization gets split between winners and losers, which leads to both passive-defensive and aggressive-defensive behaviors,” Berlucchi said. “People with aggressive styles tend to compete rather than cooperate and to oppose anything they can’t control. Defensive people tend to lay low, avoid conflict, and stick to the rules and conventional approaches. In a Level 3 culture, you see more constructive types of behavior and people who are creative, trustworthy, cooperative, and committed.”
Feedback from participants was positive except for one frustration: They wanted more. "Four hours isn’t enough time to cover all the challenges of building a Level 3 culture," said Berlucchi, "but it's enough time to point out the value of having a constructive culture."
“Understanding the philosophy is one thing,” said Johnson. “How to do it is another.”
For information on scheduling a mini-seminar in your area or the full Journey to Excellence program, you can the Spitzer center at 734-677-7700 or send an email request to info@spitzercenter.org.