Change Whisperer on ProjectManagement.com

This is the third guest post in the summer series “Culture eats Strategy”. This one is from an experienced change management leader, Garrett Gitchell President of Vision to Work, Inc.  One of the things I have come to respect, and look forward to, in Garrett’s perspectives, is his willingness to poke the elephant in the room.

Culture, according to Webster, is:

“The set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes an institution or organization.”

 Strategy gives us a choice between: a battle definition, an evolutionary meaning or one which uses “stratagems” in its wording- denoting schemes, tricks and artifices of deception.

Breakfast just got interesting.

Culture develops with time.

 Inputs tweak culture (in the corporate sense, think M & A). With the tweaks new culture appears. Culture, despite ‘group think’ to the contrary, is malleable. In fact it is influencable. For example, in the change arena, adding social media or video conferencing can change the way people interact (which influences attitudes and values). 

In an opposite sense, taking something away can also form new culture. Best example? Consider the outcomes when a founder CEO retires.  Now think of the culture that would result from the removal (not replacement) of a performance management system. People would actually be free to work together toward goals. 

Culture does not challenge change. People do. They do it because structure and process give them the opportunity to. Done enough times that challenging becomes cultural. (Models and approaches to change that acknowledge challenge and resistance to specific change as commonplace do not help). Resistance is, in fact, one way TO change culture. Can you really be sure resistance is because of a specific change? Perhaps change is just the catalyst for calling out poor structure or process?

 Add strategy to the mix.

 Now we can do battle, evolve or craft a sneaky move to end states (the outcome of the strategy/vision- defined and described through the perspectives of different stakeholders).

 End states, our chance to add some civility to this meal.

 End states show what is missing and what can be carried forward (skills, competencies, people and yes culture) and what needs to be added and/or developed (same list). By extension a good strategy must determine what the culture would be for that end state. If it is not the same as the present (hint: of course it is not- disturbing the status quo IS change) then some inputs may be needed to mold new culture.

 Good strategy, especially for big change, can effectively eliminate culture (as it was).

 Of course the CURRENT culture will challenge any change in some way. That current culture, because of the challenge, will begin to change and adapt.

 Go back up to our culture definition, it is “practices” that will get in the way of strategy. A few practices that I find hard to define as culture anymore since they are so common:

• Buck passing
• Organic decision making
• Selfish approaches to task accomplishments
• Committees
• Multiple levels of approval

 People, like culture, can be surprisingly flexible, strategy is at the beginning so can be defined.

Beware the elephants in the room- structure and process.  They frequently take their breakfast of strategy and culture. Culture is the result of the two (so tweaking either will change culture) and strategy needs all three- structure, process and culture- to succeed (plus people of course).

 Our guests, structure and process, should perhaps receive a little more attention at this breakfast.

 Garrett is an outstanding speaker and consultant.  He runs his own firm in the San Francisco Bay Area, Vision to Work, and also writes a blog challenging us all to think differently about issues around change – More about Garrett on his website and blog here and you can find Garrett on LinkedIn here.

If you have a Strategy that is a business imperative and would like to discuss the approaches we have implemented successfully for other Fortune 100 companies it would be a pleasure to connect – you can reach me at [email protected]

“Culture eats strategy (change) for breakfast.” True? Are our current organizational cultures up for the strategies of 2011?“. 

Yes, and survey says …

This question was posed on LinkedIn in the Groups “Organizational Change Practitioners” and “Strategic Leadership Forum” back in January and over 600 insightful posts were contributed.  This is the second guest post in a series excerpted with permission from that discussion. 

Walter McFarland is an experienced, consulting executive who believes “The human and organizational performance issues of the 21st Century are more complex–and more important–than ever before.  Building a high performing 21st Century workforce will require fresh perspectives and bold action.”.  His post:

I just wrapped up a research project for Oxford and HEC Paris that looked at one facet of internal Change Leadership. It was a qualitative look but had an interesting sample: 3 Fortune 300 or better organizations and two global not-for-profits. Central question turned on what most influences leaders’ thinking about Change?

You guessed it. Recent experiences with Change in the context of the current organizational culture was first of the lot. In fact, the leaders I interviewed were unable to discuss Change outside the context of their organization. They saw deep understanding of the current culture–and how to function within it–as a key qualification for Change Leaders.

They also frequently spoke about the notion of building a “culture of Change” in order to better align the culture with the new reality of nearly continuous Change. Interestingly, they both loved and feared this notion. On the one hand, such a culture might be faster and more agile in executing Change–hence giving competitive advantage. On the other hand, such a culture might be distracting to core business operations. In their minds focusing too much on Change could threaten viability. They often mused about what an optimum 21st culture might look like.

A common answer–at least to them–involved creating cultures that integrated Change into the culture not as a discrete activity–but as an increasingly routine business activity.

Walter is on LinkedIn here.

If you are interested in creating a “culture of change” – a “nimble” organization (“one that has a sustained ability to quickly and effectively respond to the demands of change while continually delivering high performance”) – check out a few posts from the master of change, Daryl Conner, here.  

And, if you would like to discuss strategy execution approaches we have implemented successfully for other Fortune 100 companies, it would be a pleasure to connect – you can reach me at [email protected].

If you recognize that your organization needs either a wholesale culture change (as Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop expressed this week (2)) or tweaking in certain units, this book will provide you with an excellent framework and the language to discuss it.  The authors, Cameron and Quinn, are renown in this space and the book is an expansion of decades of academic research and field application.

The foundation, Competing Values Framework, sets out a 2×2 matrix with 4 different organizational culture types (Clan, Hierarchy, Adhocracy and Market Cultures) and the authors maintain that most organizations exhibit differing degrees of each.

The beauty of the framework is that it takes the intuitive (and sometimes not so intuitive) and makes it plain, gives it structure that can be measured and discussed.  As I peeked ahead to read the model, I could immediately recognize characteristics s of organizations that I have worked with.  Even rough plotting current and desired state values seemed intuitive and suddenly easy to talk about. Further reading illuminating much more meat on the model worthy of further study – the Management Skills Assessment Instrument and Organizational Change Assessment Instrument (OCAI) are simultaneously straightforward and comprehensive.

The book claims that the approach provides six advantages: practical, timely, involving, quantitative and qualitative, manageable and valid.  I have to concur – this book delivers. 

Evidence is emerging every quarter that our most established and revered organizations are only reactive to change – are not demonstrating the capability to evolve at the pace that the market is demanding.  In my opinion, these organizations are constrained by three factors: the vision of leadership, the effectiveness of their strategies and … the ability to change the cultures of these organizations.  The success of our economies and our communities going forward will depend, to large degree, on whether we accelerate our commitment to these areas. 

In correspondence with Professor Quinn I asked for authoritative online description of OCAI to share with you and he referred me to the Competing Values Company where you can access much more information.

Of note, the third edition, published by John Wiley, is due for release in Canada on March 9th 2011 and will contain a downloadable online version of the Management Skills Assessment Instrument and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument.

Also of note, I think we can expect to hear the reference to “the burning platform” a lot more in 2011.  It would be appropriate to acknowledge Daryl Conner who coined the phrase following the Piper Alpha explosion to articulate the notion of choice between certain death (failure) and potential life (hope).  He was interviewed recently by Luc Galoppin and described this in his own words “Burning Platform: The Misunderstanding ” (Part 1 here and Part 2 here).

Footnotes:

(1) “Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture”, Kim S. Cameron and Roger E. Quinn, John Wiley & Sons, 2006, USA.

(2)“Nokia CEO Says Company Is Standing on a “Burning Platform”, Mashable, Feb 9, 2011.

Can you absorb a 25% hit to your program ROI? 15%?  OR, what if you could drive 100% of the projected ROI? 

All organizational changes (projects, programs, initiatives) are integrated into or, more often, rejected by the culture. Clearly this is an issue that is on the minds of leaders and change agents.  Over 600 insightful posts have been shared  on the topic “Culture eats Strategy (change) for breakfast” on LinkedIn in the Group “Organizational Change Practitioners” and more in the “Strategic Leadership Forum” since January (and the discussions are still running). 

The voices of the contributors are so powerful in their original form that I have asked a couple of participants if we could re-print their point of view here.  This is the second post in a series that will probably run to about 8 guest posts.  The first guest post is from Olivier Riviere – Olivier is an international Business Consultant and Interim Manager with over 25 years in-house experience based out of Germany:

In my humble opinion, whether Culture eats strategy or not depends on how well or bad the company is managed at the highest level, and not on CM planners or consultants.

Culture is like the fundamental laws of physics. It is there and won’t go away. But it is more complex and diverse than the laws of Physics. Even in a single organization, culture is like a daemon that changes shape constantly. But it is there and influences the course of things.

For the good and for the bad, Culture determines the strategic thinking capabilities of an entire organization. As long as the established culture enables the organization to find a relevant strategic response to a threat or an opportunity, everything is “fine”. Designing the strategy, moving to implementation, adapting the organization and driving change is relatively straightforward and represents the “usual” challenge of CM (surely not a piece of cake but still a “business of management as usual”) . The problem gets MUCH bigger when culture comes in the way and – even at the stage of design only – prevents the organization from defining an adequate strategy (typical example: SAP unable to tackle attacks from ORACLE). In that case, the key role of the leadership team is; first to drive the strategic thinking process in a way that works around collective mental limitations, and second, to drive the cultural (and organizational) change that will enable the implementation. This is no minor undertaking and it takes a long while (SAP’s last CEO failed rapidly). You are talking of changing behaviours, beliefs, symbols, rituals and the impact of all these on your management system and social interaction within the company. Big deal! If you don’t do it, the system will simply go back close to it is initial state and your strategy will fail miserably.

A lack of a deep understanding of culture and identity, and the subsequent incapacity to manage them are at the origin of many, many failed strategies, including most mergers and acquisitions. It is strange and sad that so few authors and consultants talk and write about this (if I am wrong, please tell me).

Now “managing culture & identity” does not mean that you can treat them like a production line (Six Sigma? No thank you!). Managing Identity is more like driving a super tanker and, sometime, riding on a storm. But it is a top manager’s job. Great leaders have the instinct and/or the analytical skills to manage culture and identity. But they are rare (and not necessarily famous and recognized for their incredible skills). The others need to be lucky….

Olivier is on LinkedIn here  and you can check out his blog here.

It is a ‘dirty secret’:

(a) strategies assume a “ready” culture but existing cultures are almost NEVER “ready” for transformational change
(b) lip service is paid to culture change
(c) attempts to force ROI fall short or the initiative fails altogether
(d) the culture becomes more resistant to change

Is this Groundhog Day? How can we break this vicious cycle?

This old worry nagged last December 2010, as I mulled over the challenges of the recession and the risks that would accompany the recovery. To see what other experienced practitioners were thinking I posted Discussions in two LinkedIn Groups – these are still running so if you are on LinkedIn drop by and comment:

• One of LinkedIn’s deepest pools of Change Management talent, “Organizational Change Practitioners” with over 15K practitioners from around the world
• The Strategic Leadership Forum’s Group – growing quickly and representing strategists, planners and forward thinkers

The question posed was deliberately open – as posted in Organizational Change Practitioners:

“Culture eats strategy (change) for breakfast”. True? Are our current organizational cultures up for the strategies of 2011?
What do we do when organization culture ‘challenges’ our change initiative but culture was never raised in the business case or in the initial Program scoping? Do we attempt to force the implementation in spite of the culture issues or talk about the elephant in the room?”

Many of us have learned to recognize that this is one of the most nefarious and complex challenges we can face in a transformational change.

Solutions

The responses were overwhelming – we are all conscious of this problem, many have developed ways of having this conversation with Leaders and Sponsors of change but few have cracked the nut.

Over the next couple of weeks, interspersed with various other inspirations, I will run a series of guest posts from some very bright minds (with their permission) on this topic. I hope that you will follow along and that these posts will help to foster conversations in your organizations that will root your strategies more successfully. You can subscribe to this blog via your email account at the top left of the page or just check back from time to time.

A summary of the 37 years’ of research and successful engagement of our Firm is captured in the white paper: “Corporate Culture and Its Impact on Strategic Change”. You can download a version from our website here (you’ll have to register then it is with the rest of the white papers).

If you have a Strategy that is a business imperative and would like to discuss the approaches we have implemented successfully for other Fortune 100 companies it would be a pleasure to connect – you can reach me at [email protected] .