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: The Way We Manage, Staff Issues //