Changing the Organizational Cutlure - Final Part of the series

Creating a Bad Organizational Culture:

At the outset, due to the improper design, Organization A has a lot of inefficient and confusing processes and procedures. As a result, managers of the organization have to constantly “fire-fights” and “put the screws” to the operating personnel thus adopting the roles of “fire fighter” and “butt buster”.

Over the time, the behaviors associated with these roles take on a life of their own and now become the expected behaviors for that role (as a result of the inadequate processes and procedures). These behaviors morph into attitudes about how business operates. That is, all people are lazy and need their butts kicked to do things right.

As the original managers move up the organization, they seek to hire people of like mind or attitude so the behaviors can continue to support the historical roles to compensate for the poorly designed processes and procedures. As time passes, “fire fighting” and solving problems become sacred values of the organization. As these values become accepted by all, you now have an organizational culture that thrives on chaos and mayhem that continues to attract other people who are nourished by this environment.

We all know of such organizations. They appear as “ducks”…calm on the surface put paddling like crazy below. So in the end, you have created an organizational culture that values chaos, where the attitude is that the behavior of “fire fighting” is accepted in the role of manager who compensates for poorly designed processes and procedures. So, how are we going to change that culture?

Creating a Good Organizational Culture?

The first step is to implement a quality and improvement philosophy to focus on improving the key processes of the organization. Led by senior management, this approach will utilize the Voice of the Customer to determine what is important. Also the policies and procedures will be put in place to improve these processes and eliminate defects (defined in Six Sigma as any event which does not meet the customer’s requirements).

Since the processes are designed to be efficient and productive, the role of the manager will change to be one of mentor, strategist and coach. The behaviors associated with these roles are quite different then those required of the “fire fighter” and “butt buster”. Better designed processes and positive outcomes as a result of changed behaviors might cause people to reconsider their views of how a business operates (attitudes). Given time, the collective might consider that how they treat people and customers are worthy of being a corporate value.

Once the value has had a chance to become widely accepted, the organization can be described in terms of those values and thus we have defined a cultural element of the organization.

The thought process seems to hold up under scrutiny.

So, if you want to improve your organizational culture, consider starting at the root cause and don’t try to treat the symptom. Just a thought!

Changing the Organizational Culture - Part 3 of the series

How Can I Change People’s Roles? We Are Getting Close!

If an organization is struggling to survive or be competitive or just to get better, the roles people play mirror the tasks that must be accomplished. If inadequate processes and procedures prevail, then the role of “fire fighter” is held in high esteem. If inadequate processes and procedures cause us to be late with our customer, then a little “butt busting” is the role that is needed to get the job done and become successful. We need to change our processes and procedures, i.e., improve our system for doing business.

How Do I Change Organizational Processes and Procedures? Congrats, You Got It!!!!!!

Finally, something we can see, touch and measure directly. There are a number of process improvement methodologies that are being used in business today. One of those, Six Sigma, is proving to be quite powerful in achieving dramatic improvements in reducing the rejections, thus increasing the productivity, customer satisfaction and financial performance. Other approaches like LEAN, TPM, KAIZEN, TS and ISO are around and have also enjoyed degrees of success. As this is not a paper on improvement methodologies we will leave that discussion to another day.

To lend credibility to the above iterative thought process and model, it must hold up under multiple scenarios. Let’s examine two hypothetical situations in the upcoming blogs... Wait for the next blog.

Changing the Organizational culture - Some school of thoughts -- Part # 2

How Can I Change Organizational Values? You Can’t!

Organizational values are the shared attitudes people have about what is right and wrong to do in an organization. Our personal values are shaped by our parents, our teachers, our friends, our religious and spiritual guides and by the society in which we are raised. When our personal values are compatible with our employer’s values we feel comfortable working in that environment. Values, like culture, can’t be measured, touched or seen. We can observe how people act and infer values but organizational values took a long time to create and a new “values document” won’t overturn those very easily. In such case, why don’t we just change the attitudes?

How Can I Change People’s Attitudes? You Can’t!

Well, maybe with the proverbial “2x4 attitude adjuster”. Attitudes develop as a result of personal experiences with people and situations. A person will develop a set of personal biases, prejudices and opinions based on their view of how the world operates. I know this is getting old, but you can’t measure, touch or see attitudes either. Like the situations above, you can merely observe and interpret what people do and say and how they behave. There is no direct measurement. At the least I hope we can change the people’s behaviors. Shall we give it a try?

How Can I Change People’s Behaviors? Be Careful!

Don’t jump to a conclusion too quickly. Yes, there is an entire body of research involving behavior modification. Through the appropriate use of “rewards and punishments” you can alter behavior of people or animals. But are we sure of what kind of behaviors we want people to exhibit?

Keep in mind, that in a business setting, people’s behaviors might be a result of the “role” they are expected to play and do not reflect the true personal behavior patterns of that individual or group of people. A generous, mild mannered person might exhibit the behavior of a tight fisted tyrant if their role in the organization is that of “cost cutter”. Oops!! Isn’t it getting complicated? Why don’t we just explore the possibility of changing the people’s roles in the organization?

To be continued…..

Giving when it counts

Many years ago, at a hospital, a little girl was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.

The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save her."

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?"

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

You see understanding and attitude, after all, is everything.