Changing Organizational Culture
Every time I change my password I go through a familiar routine. When I log in next, I punch in my password only to be greeting with the annoying message that my password is not correct. For half a second I am puzzled. I am convinced that it is the email provider who is wrong and not my password. I wonder who to write a strong letter of protest to and by then another thought taps me on the should and reminds me that I now have a new password. Then I panic for the second time. What was the new password? What could I have changed it to? After fumbling for a bit I remember my new password. It takes a few repetitions before the new password is part of my memory. And I no longer have to make an effort to remember my password. It has become my new habit. I can type it without having to fumble – until I change it again.
How is culture formed?
Habits are like that. They take time to take root and are equally hard to dislodge. Organizational culture is what we call the habits of an organization. These are ways in which people behave spontaneously especially when they are unsupervised. When everyone starts behaving in a similar manner consistently, we say that the organization has a strong culture. The new members of the organization quickly fall in line. They watch everyone around them and learn how to behave in most commonly occurring situations.The Army and many other traditional organizations have “standard operating procedures” for every scenario. That means the people are simply expected to follow the common code. I have seen many leaders lament that “if only we could have that army like discipline …” In their mind, discipline means “the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.”
Standard operating procedures
Is that a desirable end state? That depends on the nature of the business environment in which the firm has to operate. It is true that when people follow orders without questioning, the most routine and repetitive tasks get done in the shortest possible time. That is pretty much what traditional training systems have done. They teach people to perform repeatable tasks in the shortest possible time without hesitation. The more scenarios that can be visualized ahead of time, the more easily people can be trained to respond in the optimum manner. These then become the standard operating procedures of the organization.But there are other aspects of culture. These are the invisible rules that also become like codified standard operating procedures. How should employees with more experience behave when a trainee questions the decision? How do organizations deal with differences in opinions and approaches? Is that tolerated, encouraged or merely brushed aside for the moment, only to be ignored later? We admire companies that are innovative. Their culture supports contrarian viewpoints and mavericks. That needs leaders who can manage the creative tension that these cultures spawn.
Are the leaders modeling the right behaviors?
Leaders define the contours of the organization’s culture. But every individual employee has to own it. Leaders have to build evangelists and story tellers who simplify the different elements of culture and make it easy to relate to. Culture change does not happen through posters. It happens when people emotionally care about the organization’s future and believe that the new behaviors will make the organization succeed. They need to see their own success as vividly as the organization’s. Finally, the new behaviors are reinforced when leaders act as role models. If remembering a new password is hard, trust me changing organization’s culture is much harder.Driving organizational culture change needs patience. While people readily endorse the idea of punishment as a way of building “discipline”, if that is not happening, it maybe for want of leaders who can be role-models. People must want to be like the leader they see. No wonder discipline and disciple both share the same Latin roots. It means instruction or knowledge. When leaders create disciples, organizational culture is shaped.---------------
First published in the LPS Quarterly June 2016