We Have Always Done It That Way

It is easy to jump on the “culture” bandwagon. You hear it everywhere: management books, keynote speeches””even your own intuition is telling you that organizational culture matters. If you want to succeed, you need to have (choose from the following platitudes and insert here): a strong culture, a healthy culture, a progressive culture, an innovative culture, a proud culture, “¦the list goes on.

Culture does matter, but too many associations end their exploration of culture once they have settled on one of the platitudes above. They choose a feel-good label for their culture and then command from on-high that such a culture is the priority of the organization. This is a path to disappointment, because organizational culture does not work that way.

Organizational culture is simply a collection of tacit assumptions and patterns of behavior that provide a subtext of “how things are done” at your organization. It has been developing and changing constantly since the organization was founded. It develops and changes whether or not leaders pay it any attention. So if you have a problem in the organization and you want to solve it, you had better understand your culture””beyond the platitudes.

Look beyond the language in your mission and vision statements. Look beyond the posters on the walls with inspirational quotes about teamwork. Look at the physical layout of your office. Look at who eats lunch together. Ask people what it takes to get things done, and when they answer, read between the lines to get at the core assumptions underlying your culture. This will provide outstanding guidance as you try to solve problems in the office.

You will likely find that sometimes the culture itself is part of the problem you are trying to solve. You’ll know this when all of your very excellent problem-solving activities strangely fail. In that case, it is the culture that is defeating you, and you’ll need to work on changing your culture. Changing culture is typically more evolutionary than revolutionary (although it does depend on where your organization is in the “life cycle”). If the solution you are trying to implement is starkly different than your current culture, give it plenty of time to take hold. Develop a program of small steps, giving each innovation time to take hold (and establish new patterns) before introducing additional changes.

In the end, jumping on the culture bandwagon is a good idea for associations, but only if they take culture more seriously and recognize that creating a positive culture will come from a collection of actions throughout the organization””actions that must be cultivated and cannot be demanded or commanded.

Tags: Staff Issues, The Way We Manage by Jamie
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When associations realize that they need to do things differently in order to get different (hopefully better) results, they too often turn to the field of “change management” to ensure that their staff and/or members do not ruin progress by resisting the positive change. We need to stop calling these activities “change management” and refer to them instead by a more accurate name: “change enforcement.”

Much of the advice in change management books is focused on compelling other people to do what you want them to do. It presumes that you know better than they do, and it seeks a benevolent way to “get them on board”””because firing everyone and simply orienting your new recruits to your plan seems a bit rash.

The advice in these books is not wrong””knowledge of how fear and the comfort of routine play into behavior patterns is well documented and relevant in organizations. My problem with these books is that they tend to imply that the first time you engage people in the change is when you are enforcing it. While this may happen frequently in large organizations seeking consistency across a global enterprise, this is rarely necessary in associations with significantly smaller staffs. When you only have ten people on staff, there really isn’t an excuse for not engaging them earlier on in the change process.

Tradition, however, dictates that exclusion. Tradition says issues of “change” are relegated to the strategic conversations, which, of course, take place only among the Board and most senior management, so we’ve built organizational routines that reinforce those assumptions.

The good news is, this is easy to change. Simply build new routines. Specifically, build the topic of “change” into your routine at a lower level. Don’t leave the “what are we going to do differently” conversation to the once-every-two-years strategic planning conversation (or to the “everyone get on board” change management processes). Create space on a specific meeting agenda (at least once per quarter, but more often is better) about what is changing or needs to change in the organization.

Let staff develop the agenda and facilitate the meeting. This does not mean they are in charge””decisions about what to change can still rest at the top of the hierarchy (if that’s what you want). But think about it: if you are really interested in change, then it makes sense to get someone other than the person who is most invested in the way things are (the leader) to lead that discussion.

Be open to where the conversation leads you, and use these interactions as a chance to discuss major decisions about change you are going to make. And if you are not going to change (despite the staff’s call for change), then you can use these meetings to make your rationale crystal clear. With these conversations more the routine in organizations, we will have less need for the psychology-based coercion techniques from the “change enforcement” field.

Tags: Innovation, The Way We Manage by Jamie
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