Our Shea Group Speaker made the point “Culture is not directly manageable or manipulated. We must do ‘indirect things’ that will modify culture over longer periods of time.”
So, do you believe leaders can manage/adjust Organizational Culture directly? If so, what have you seen that shifted culture directly?
Looking forward to your responses!!
MY TWO CENTS:
I ALSO AGREE THE DIRECT/INDIRECT ISSUE IS TOO ESOTERIC.
I COULDN’T AGREE MORE THAT THE LEADERS ESTABLISH THE CULTURE: THEY HIRE & FIRE, THEY MEASURE & REWARD; THEY INVEST OR NOT; THEY ESTABLISH THE “DRIVERS” TO MONITOR AND INFLUENCE.
AND OF COURSE THEIR OWN BEHAVIOR IS WATCHED BY ALL.
AT THE SAME TIME, I THINK ASSESSING CULTURE (BY WHATEVER METRIC) WILL ALWAYS BRING INSIGHT INTO HOW ALL THE ABOVE ARE BEING IMPLEMENTED AND INTERPRETED; THE INCONSISTENCIES AND GAPS WILL BE HIGHLIGHTED
AND CAN BE DEALT WITH.
THE REAL VALUE OF GUYS LIKE NEIL AND THE RELATED PRESENTATIONS AND INSIGHTS IS TO CONSTANTLY REMIND US THAT THE BUSINESS PUZZLE HAS MANY PIECES, ALL OF WHICH MUST BE CONSTANTLY LOOKED AT.
SEPARATELY, I HAVE AN APPOINTMENT WITH THE WEB GUY MONDAY AM SO WE CAN BIRTH THIS PUPPY. I HOPE A IS BLOG AS EASILY INCORPORATED AS SOME HAVE SAID.
I WILL ALSO SEE IF THE JUNE 18TH DATE IS A GOOD ONE FOR PRESENTATION TO SHEA.
Will Neitzke, CEO, Next Delta LLC
OK, I’ll bite
I think the difference between direct and indirect is one of semantics and a bit of hair-splitting. Generally, I think the culture of an organization an imprint of its leaders and is built over an extended period of time. In some cases that time spans a few “generations” of new leaders (at a level below the top).
Here is the hair splitting….when I put in a new leader because I want a customer focused organization I am probably directing that change? If there are gradual changes in how work or communication is accomplished (technology for instance) and that pushes a change in where (location) people choose to work is that considered direct or indirect? Maybe I installed that technology in order to drive productivity but in the end, a “commuter culture” developed. What if those changes come about as a result of lessons learned from success and failure? If a customer is lost because the organization his not customer centric and that, therefore, is the catalyst for change….is that indirect or direct?
Maybe reactive cultural change and proactive change is more accurate. At the end of the day, I’d rather wrap my head around performance, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and responsiveness. Anything else is too amorphous for me.
Mike Harris
Building a corporate culture requires a long-term commitment. For example, religions are developed over centuries. The “founders” may have had an explicit purpose in establishing certain mores and morals yet it is those leaders that come later who fine-tune or even bluntly change the direction of an established, world-wide organization. Even the United States Constitution is constantly under attack by those seeking to modify essential principles to meet what is usually a transitory issue.
In the corporate world individual leaders do establish and nurture a cultural path but have no control over successive management teams that follow. In many ways, it takes great effort by a leader to change the direction of or inculcate a culture on an organization. While the conscious mind creates the basis of the culture, it is the subconscious mind of the organization that implements it. Humans are primarily reactive to change; often following the path of least resistance. To secure a strong culture therefore takes tremendous effort and continuous support over an extended period of time.
Clearly this effort is not impossible but how does one sustain it in times of extreme stress – particularly from outside forces? The recent economic downturn and breakdown of the regulatory process has changed many corporate cultures, in most cases not for the better.
I like to think of organizational change as a one of those big workout balls that you find at gyms.
Except it’s filled with water.
And it’s the size of a house.
No one person can move this ball. If you try on your own, you’ll make a small dent, but then the ball will push you back and return to it’s original shape.
Changing your organization is a bit like a single person trying to move this house-sized ball from one end of a field to the other. It’s impossible, no matter what Archimedes would tell you.
You need other people to help you and this is where leadership kicks in.
First of all you need to convince other people that you need to move the ball – it’s going to require a lot of pushing and effort. It’s against people’s nature to want to do this.
Once this is done, then you have to get them pushing hard in the same direction. The more people you get on board, the easier it will be.
Once you get some momentum, it becomes an easier task, but you still have to keep pushing and you might need more people involved if you encounter any obstacles. The task is not completed until the ball has reached the end of the field. If people drop off with their efforts, it becomes harder for everyone else.
Great leaders are constantly looking at where the ball should be moved next and instilling the people with the will to keep pushing.
I don’t see corporate culture as being any different to other change that businesses have to manage. It’s a little more abstract, it’s a bit less definable and it’s much tougher to measure. But it is still just a ball that has to be moved and leaders can have a direct influence on this.
Thanks much Will, Mike, Tom, and Matt for our first Blog responses on Changing Culture. There are many common threads in what you all say– leaders change cultures over time only with an intentional vision of a more desirable culture, lots of hard work, and a team of dedicated individuals who also believe in the vision for the new culture. Lou Gerstner’s 2002 book, “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?” details what he and his leadership team did intentionally to change the IBM culture that stood in the way of being successful in the new world. They pushed every lever possible to shift the way people thought and behaved– operating principles, compensation, marketing, decision-making, performance management, customer feedback, market intelligence, investments, training, and employee engagement. According to IBM insiders, these changes led to noticable behavior change within the first year. By the completion of years 2 and 3, most would say IBM’s culture had already shifted a great deal. With IBM’s financial, product and services successes that followed in the next 5 years, and leaders staying the course, IBM rose again to the dominant position it had 15 years before. We can all learn a lot from this case study for any business seeking to align its culture with its new direction and strategy. If IBM can accomplish major cultural change in 2-3 years, what can your small or mid-sized organization achieve in a year?
Charlie,
One cannot manage cultural change, but one can lead it. Our new world economy does not respond to management style, but they are inspired by servant leadership. That is my food for thought.
Mike Smith
Charlie,
I love the IBM example, the key is that IBM did the hardest thing leaders can do, inspire their people to change their behavior. Any size company can make this change; my question is, are leaders committed enough to see it though? In my experience that is where the breakdown is, in execution and accountability to making sure the behaviors change or the people change. At the end of the day, employees have to feel emotionally dedicated to their work for their behaviors to change.
Anita, you raise a great point here and it brings up an important question for our seasoned audience of leaders. What is the main reason that leaders do not steward the cultural changes through to fruition? Please vote/weigh in!!
a) Can’t get my leadership team to agree on what and how (fragmentation).
b) Too much work to ensure the changes are implemented.
c) Don’t see the economic value for our business in making the cultural changes.
d) It’s too risky to try to change the culture– could make things worse.
e) Other (please explain)
Interesting thoughts that tie together on many levels! I was thinking the analogy of Matt’s ball could be from the smallest home to any Palace anywhere in the world!
Implementation of leadership core values are significant to employees and offer a type of security necessary in this chaning world. Leadership cannot expect employees to do what the leaders have never done or would not consider learning or accomplishing themselves if they want to grow strong. The quality of the person in leadership is important–integrity, servanthood, and old fashioned good manners along with a sense of human dignity are urgently needed.
The corporate cultural climate has need of change due to the disposable mentality of society’s quality of human life as a whole. Yes, helping employees feel needed and important from top leadership, not just managers, will get that ball rolling. Employees need to be responsible and believe in the vision and be given opportunities to contribute to that vision in some fashion through educational company directives/venues and then give back to their employer in some manner, bridging the chasm of not feeling like a part of the picture.
Change could be risky if current policies and procedures are already effective, depending on stucture and the fact that comfort zones are too comfortable; however, sometimes it is worth the risk to change and refocus if it will refresh the organization! One idea at a time or several, depending on “c) economic value,” location, and other logistics.
We can all make a positive contagious difference by trying to be the best person we can, especially given the responsibility of leadership–we never know how much our life will effect someone else or we might be blessed to know it at some point in time: “The world may see you as one person but to one person you may be the world.”
Thank you, Charlie!
I believe we can learn a lot from other academic fields, in particular social anthropology. At the beginning of the 20th century anthropolists had the opportunity to investigate isolated societies. They used varying techniques to understand cultural differences and were able to identify common themes (i.e. the culture of organisation). They looked at symbols, rituals etc. to understand a society’s value system better.
In the corporate environment there is no difference. Rituals such as a reward system tells us a lot about what a company values. What these anthropologists also found was that cultural change is mainly a top down process – again no different in the business world. I am sure all of you have encountered companies with strong cultures. Even once a strong leader has left their company, his/her legacy remains for years.
Today the real challenge is to ensure consistency in a global environment. You destroy a culture through contradictory behaviour. As such, the biggest challenge today is that business is being driven more and more with a short term focus. Analysts are breathing down the necks of CEOs, analyzing quarterly results and as a result dramatically effecting the leaders’ incomes. As a result actions are taken which can destroy a positive culture. My experience is that privately held companies often have a stronger more consistent culture as a result.
Take the example of a value around “rewarding the best”; i.e. a meritocracy. This value is eroded the minute employees see a highly recognized individual asked to leave as part of a cost cutting exercise. Driving a long term consistent culture takes guts and sometimes has even a negative short term financial effect.
Amazing insights here! While amorphous, culture is changeable and manageable. It just requires commitment, courage, and a longer term horizon. While leaders can make swift changes that will impact short term financials, morale, efficiency, etc., cultural impacts play out over years, not weeks or months.
The “new normal” is about significance as much as it is about success. A “triple bottom line” approach is emerging where, within the trio of Profits-People-Planet, People and Planet become ends in and of themselves, rather than means to an end (profit/economic gain). For too long, people’s needs and wants, and our Planet, have taken a back seat to profits. Thus the new rules emerging out of this pervasive downturn look arguably more European– sustainability, work-life balance, corporate social responsibility, employee engagement, and meaningful work. You say companies with this approach won’t make as much money? Lots of research proves quite the opposite!
All,
Change comes to us like the wind, we accept it, reject it, are moved by it or become solid in it depending on our perceptions of what is happening. A Culture must have the capability to change, and there actually is a solid, true, research based method for managing change, and ultimately enabling a culture. Project management has been around for awhile, Change Management or “leading people through change” is still somewhat emerging. There is a movement however, ACMP, Associations for Change Management Professionals. Soon, its body of knowledge with people like Darryl Conner, John Kotter, Ken Blanchard, Jeff Hyatt will become a lightning rod for HOW to CHANGE. I agree with prior posts that when one attempts to change culture its tantamount to ocean boiling. Cultures change one person at a time. So, when the one person has greater spheres of influence, (leaders) then change can happen more rapidly, and when one person at a time embrace methods or projects that understand this, then people respond in kind. The world throws incredible challenges to us, its our response that enables success or significance or its proper combination. Great stuff Charlie!
Terry,
I think your optimism is great! I am, however, not as convinced about the role that the ACMP will play. I am hopeful, yet skeptical. It still is acting more like a front for Prosci rather than a truly independent association of professionals.
Kotter and Conner have not “endorsed” the ACMP by accepting jobs as paid speakers. Blanchard is disconnected from the ACMP from what I have learned from his partners. And the ACMP still only offers “discounts” on the conference registration for people who are Prosci certified… not others who are certified by other companies.
Our company is a sponsor of the ACMP conference, as we were last year becuase we believe in the CONCEPT of the ACMP. However, Prosci still will not allow people who are certified by our company – Change Guides – to be offered the same discount as Prosci certified people. We even offered to pay the discount amount for the attendee so that the conference would get all of the registration revenue. Still, the answer was no. It does raise eyebrows.
I am hopeful that the ACMP can come out from the shadow of Prosci. We will continue to support it financially and in other ways unless/until we become convinced it won’t work. At this point, we are cautiously optimistic!
I won’t be at this year’s conference, but my partner Stacy Aaron will be. Look her up if you are going!
– Kate
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