FLTA CBA Handout

Corporate Behavior Analysts, Ltd

A GUIDE TO LEADING AND MANAGING A TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY

 Chapter 1: FINDING THE RIGHT PATH. Without leadership there is no change.
 Chapter 2: THE BUSINESS OF TITLE INSURANCE. A title insurance company is different .
 Chapter 3: ASSESSING YOUR ORGANIZATION. Companies do not know where they are headed.
 Chapter 4: SETTING CLEAR DIRECTION. A company is better starting off by developing goals.
 Chapter 5: MEASURES AND METRICS. Labor ratio is the most important measure of health.
 Chapter 6: DEVELOPING YOUR TEAM. The power of a team.
 Chapter 7: EMPLOYEE CULTURE. Creating good morale is a key to a company’s success.
 Chapter 8: STARTING TO MANAGE. Technical knowledge does not prepare you to manage.
 Chapter 9: INFLUENCING BEHAVIOR. Employees need positive consequences for their behavior.
 Chapter 10: SETTING EXPECTATIONS. You can never provide too much communication.
 Chapter 11: SUPPORTIVE COACHING. Use constructive feedback to focus on behavior and results.
 Chapter 12: MANAGING PROBLEMS. If you measure it, they do it.
 Chapter 13: WHY MEETINGS ARE IMPORTANT. Effective meetings are in a manger’s basic skill set.
 Chapter 14: MAKING CHANGE PRACTICAL. Innovation and change are a way of life.

Corporate Behavior Analysts, Ltd. 2011 3

 Every Leader is faced with Choices:
 Each turn can lead to success.
 Every turn can result in failure.
 After every turn there is another.


 Direct.
 Innovate.
 Motivate
 Change.


 Driveproductivity.
 Ensure quality.
 Create stability.


Being a leader, manager, and team member
is confusing.
 Leading is not managing.
 Most days employees need a manager.
 In small teams you have to decide are you a
sergeant or a general.
 When a team needs a leader, a manager will
not do.


Leading and managing a title insurance
company in the future will require:
1. Good people skills,
2. Technical knowledge and experience,
3. Forward looking business /sales skills.


What happened to your business? Did You:
 Lose money Make Money 
 Lose customers Gain Customers 
 Lose good employee Gain better employees 
 Lose to competitors Gain over competitors 
 Lose Underwriter Gain Underwriter 
 Fall behind on technology Get ahead of technology 
 Lose to consolidation Benefit from consolidation 
 Stay the same Change 


 What changes are you planning?
1.
2.
3.


 In the BBC and Fox TV shows, Chef Gordon Ramsay spends a
week with a failing restaurant in an attempt to revive the business.
 In the Food Network series Chef Robert Irvine has to save
America’s most desperate restaurants from impending failure in just
two days with only $10,000.


It is critical that the owner(s) admits that
the company
needs to change.

No permanent change
will occur otherwise.


1. Create Urgency
2. Form a Powerful Coalition
3. Create a Vision for Change
4. Communicate the Vision
5. Remove Obstacles
6. Create Short-term Wins
7. Build on the Change
8. Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture
“John Kotter is a professor at Harvard Business School
and world-renowned change expert, Kotter introduced
his eight-step change process in his 1995 book,
Leading Change."


1. Determine purpose – reason for change
2. Create a Team
3. Assess the organization and set objectives.
4. Determine outcome measures.
5. Brainstorm new changesprocedures.
6. If work-flow changes considered, map existing and future.
7. Rank-order ideas and prioritize top three.
8. Generate pro’s and con’s for each top idea.
9. Present recommendations to management.
10. Develop implementation plan with management, include
evaluation and communication methods.
11. Pilot testing.
12. Implement and evaluate.


 What you can do:
 Start giving convincing reasons for change
 Identify potential threats, showing what could
happen in the future.
 Examine opportunities that should be, or could
be, exploited.
 Learn what your customers are doing.


 SWOT Analysis


What will the first Title Insurance
iPhone App look like?

Now every underwriter
has an app.


 Leadership at the top.
 Identify other true leaders in your organization.
 Ask for a commitment from these key people.
 Create a change team.


1. Owner / Manager must sanction the team.
2. Owner / Manager must communicate purpose
and authority of team to others.
3. Owner / Manager must stay connected to team.
4. Team should follow prescribed meetings game-
plan.
5. The plansgoals for the team must be
communicated.


 Team must have a leader / facilitator.
 Team will need idea people.
 Team will need doers.
 Team will need full representation.
 Decision makers must be on team.
 Planners must be on team.
 Team will need voice of employees.
 Team must have rules.
 Team must follow prescribed process.


 Determine the values that are central to the
company and to the change.
 Develop a short statement that captures what you
"see" as the future of your organization.
 Ensure that Key people can describe the vision.
 Practice your "vision speech" often.
 Create a strategy to execute that vision.


Sales
Management Marketing

Admin Policy

Information
Acct Technology Escrow

HR Title

Web Site Order


BECAUSE YOU CAN PLAN ALL THE PARTS


YOU HAVE TO CONSIDER / START WITH
THE CURRENT PARTS


Owners
President

Title Escrow Admin
Sales
Manager Manager

IT
Escrow
Officers
Title Staff Policy
Accounting
Escrow
Staff

HOW A COMPANY WORKS


HOW A COMPANY WORKS IS DETERMINED
BY THE PEOPLE IN EACH JOB

 Reception
 Order Entry
 Search
 Examination
 Commitment production / communication
 Scheduling
 Escrow Processing
 Closing
 Policy
 Customer service
 And a dozen others…


Customer Fax Enters
Data

Checks
Sales Paper
for Priors
Order Order
Entry

Orders
Branch Completes Taxes
Reception Online Form

Creates
Files


Name
Check
Order
Prior

Checks
Enters data on Address for Priors
Customer Online Form Check
Create
E-File

Orders
Tax
Taxes
Number
Check

Other
data
Check


Evaluate the Readiness of each person in your organization
CONDITION YES NO
Does not actively oppose change efforts

Does not passively resist change

Job is secure and will follow

Will change if minimal disruption to work

Agrees with the need for change 
Believes change is possible

Accepts change readily

Dissatisfied with present state

No coaching or training is necessary

Able and confident

Already Changing


Evaluate the Readiness of each person in your organization
CONDITION YES NO
Does not actively oppose change efforts

Does not passively resist change

Job is secure and will follow

Will change if minimal disruption to work

Agrees with the need for change 
Believes change is possible

Accepts change readily

Dissatisfied with present state

No coaching or training is necessary 
Able and confident

Already Changing


 Translate individual buy-in and readiness into
Company readiness
Able and Already Actively opposed
confident
5%
Changing
3%
COMPANY READINESS to change
7%
No coaching or training Slow to change -
necessary passive resistance
7% 11%

Dissatisfied with
present state
9% Job is secure
and will follow
15%

Accepts change
readily
9%

Believes change is Will change if minimal
possible disruption to work
10% Agrees with the
12%
need for change
12%


 Create a communication plan.
 Talk often about your vision.
 Apply your vision to all aspects of operations –
from training to performance reviews. Tie
everything back to the vision.
 Openly and honestly address peoples' concerns
and anxieties.
 Lead by example.

 For most people, resisting change is natural
regardless of the level of change.
 The degree of resistance a person puts forth
often is an indication of the person’s
perception about how the change will affect
the person, i.e., the more it affects me, the
more I resist.
 In many cases, the person’s fear far exceeds
the reality of what will happen.


 Change almost always appears threatening to
a part of the work force if it involves:
 Loss of job security.
 Loss of familiar patterns of behavior.
 Loss of control, predictability, or power.
 New skills and procedures to learn.
 New people to work with.


 In most companies, it is the managers who
are most resistant to change.
 For some reason, companies that are doing
the worst, often cling to the past the most
and their people will resist even the smallest
change.


 Identify change leaders whose main roles are to
deliver the change.
 Look at your organizational structure, job
descriptions, and performance and compensation
systems to ensure they're in line with your vision.
 Recognize and reward people for making change
happen.
 Identify people who are resisting the change, and help
them see what's needed.
 Take action to quickly remove barriers (human or
otherwise.


 To help a failing tree:
 Add nutrients to the roots and
cut the dead wood

 To help a healthy tree grow:
 Cut interfering or unnecessary
limbs


 By definition, small changes should be ones
that can be accomplished with little
planning, with little instruction, by just telling
employees, and with little new learning.
 For example, teaching the receptionists to answer
the phones the same way. Getting everyone to
answer the phone the same way.
 Have managers conduct a monthly meeting using
a template.


 Create a monthly communication e-mail.
 Have everyone spell check their e-mails.
 Have all managers greet customers.
 Develop a look – dress the same.
 Paint and redecorate your office.
 Create a consistent impression in each lobby.
 Change something customers will notice.


 Centralize order entry and customer service functions.
 Centralize title production and combine search, exam
and commitment production functions.
 Centralize escrow processing and post closing functions.
 Develop off houroff site-closing procedures, including
weekends, incorporating new electronic technology.
 Map out your customer points of contact and develop a
“WOW” customer service approach.
 Eliminate redundancies in a work flow.
 Develop standards for each unit / department.


 Combine escrow processor and closer functions
into one position.
 Develop a mobile closing team.
 Train staff in customer service and hospitality.
 Provide customers with an order entry
application for their smart phones.


 Leadership is delegated.
 Management is not visible.
 Communication is insufficient.
 The plans for change are conceived behind closed doors.
 Staff perceive that change is not critical.
 Options and alternatives are not fully explored.
 Change implications are not taken into account.
 Resistance to change misdiagnosed.
 Tracking is absent.
 Training and coaching needed.


 LEADERSHIP IS A MUST
 HAVING A PLAN HELPS
 CREATING BUY-IN IS ESSENTIAL

 But…in the end,

CHANGE IS OFTEN ABOUT HOW YOU START

HOW YOU GET PEOPLE TO SEE A SITUATION
DIFFERENTLY AND THEN
ACT DIFFERENTLY


1. Identify one aspect of your company that
needs to (must) immediately change.
2. Identify one small thing
(area, procedure, behavior, person) you would
like to change.
3. Identify one big thing
(area, function, process, procedure) you would
like to change.
4. What do you need to get started?
5. What is your greatest barrier to change?

What will your company

be like in the future?


Corporate Behavior Analysts, Ltd.

Roger C. Lubeck, Ph.D. Chris R. Hanson, Ph.D.
President Executive Vice President

686 Carriage Hill Lane 623 North Dunton
Sugar Grove, Il 60554 Arlington Heights, IL 60004
(630)-466-3812 (847) 749-2348
FAX (630)-4663813 FAX (847) 749-2349
rclubeck@cbaltd.biz crhanson@cbaltd.biz
www.cbaltd.biz www.cbaltd.biz


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