The role of the
top team
Significant culture change can only occur when the behaviour
and mind-set of the top team changes. Culture change is not something that you
can drive from the bottom up. Organisations are hierarchical by nature. Those at
the top have more power than the rest, and their opinions, decisions and
behaviour impacts on more people than those in any other part of the
organisation.
Culture is about messages. People read messages and adapt their
behaviour to fit what they see as the required norm. What creates the required
norm? More than anything else, it is the behaviour of the boss. After all, in a
hierarchy the boss ultimately has the power to determine his or her people's
future career advancement, remuneration and continuation in the organisation.
The top team is important because they are the ultimate bosses.
But, in addition, their decisions ripple through the organisation and send
signals about what is important. Finally, the top team's decisions have a
powerful symbolic impact. The team casts a long shadow. Their actions are
amplified and more is read into them than is necessarily intended.
The work of the top team is to understand
with searing clarity and honesty their current behaviours, values and beliefs,
and how these play out in their decision making, use of time and interactions
with others.
Once the top team understand this, they must undertake a program
of work to change those behaviours, values and beliefs sustaining the elements
of culture that are negatively impacting on their organisation's performance.
Such a program will be personally challenging, and one or two members of the
team may not survive the process. However, such changes can and do take place
when the business case stacks up, the resolve is strong and the program well
designed.
On every occasion when I felt that we had failed our clients, it
was because we were unable to find the key to unlock a change in the behaviour,
beliefs and values of the CEO. Despite all the efforts further down the
hierarchy, the shadow cast was too dark. Small steps of change at the top have
huge ripples throughout the culture.
A program of work for the top team should include:
-
multiple feedback processes that enable them to gain (and
accept) a clear view of how others see them, and how their behaviour sends
cultural messages
-
dedicated time to development of their team
effectiveness
-
as a group, structured work to align their personal values
and understand how these play out in the decisions they make together
-
as individuals, personal development work (perhaps with a
coach) and other mechanisms for changing internal beliefs and patterns (and thus
how each member acts in the world)
-
a management process to lead, plan and monitor an integrated
culture plan.
A cultural
diagnostic
A cultural diagnostic is a process of research that will
provide you with a thorough understanding of the culture you have right now. It
will enable you to:
-
build your business case for investing in culture
-
understand what messages your people believe they are
receiving about how to behave ‘around here'
-
accurately pinpoint the sources of organisational
messages-whether they be behavioural, symbolic or systemic-in as much detail as
possible
-
provide a benchmark against which you can measure progress
in a year or so.
Even though you may be champing at the bit to get going on your
cultural change program, it is well worth investing in such an exercise. These
are the reasons why it is important (and you can also use this list as a basis
for the objectives of your diagnostic):
-
Building the business case. If
carefully constructed, your cultural diagnostic will provide you with many
examples of the relationship between performance and culture in your
organisation, and allow you to build a business case for investing in culture.
Such a business case is essential to ensure that cultural
building moves up the list of priorities from ‘nice to do' to ‘absolute
priority', which is necessary if these efforts are to be successful.
-
Understanding the messages. Remember,
there is a logic to how people behave in your organisation. They behave in the
way they believe will enable them to fit in and succeed. The organisation is the
tribe to which they belong, and it is important for them to make sure they are
accepted by their tribe.
Most of this is going on quite unconsciously, by the way, which is
why the construction of the cultural diagnostic is very important. In order to
hear the messages your people are receiving, which will almost certainly not be
the messages you think are being sent, you have to keep a very open mind.
A well-designed cultural diagnostic will show you how and why
messages are being received, using a rigorous research process that your
leadership team will respect, and identify specific ways in which new messages
can be sent.
-
Pinpointing the sources of messages.
There are thousands of sources of messages in any organisation. Every behaviour,
every decision and action sends some kind of message to those around. However,
there are always a number of sources that scream louder than the rest. Some of
these can be anticipated: top team behaviour and remuneration policies are
common ‘screamers'. Others are very organisation-specific.
Pinpointing the sources also helps key influencers to
understand their role in this journey. It holds up a mirror and allows managers
to see their actions and behaviours as others interpret them. So often, this
interpretation is different from the intent.
-
Providing a benchmark. You must be
able to measure the progress you are making. You will be making a considerable
investment in this journey, and its return has to be measurable. Culture is such
a feeling experience that it is essential to be able to provide objective proof
of the subjective feeling that things are getting better.
When you are in the process of change, it is quite difficult to
remember what things were like before. The culture journey tends to leave you
with a continuing sense that there is more to do-it is easy to forget how much
has actually been achieved.
Repeated measurement of change is a morale booster if
progress is being made. And if the objective measure does not register change,
it can be a useful jolt if a small group of individuals have been mistakenly
feeling that real progress has been made. Sometimes a culture process can create
leaders who become legends in their own minds.
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