Culture Change

Looking at hierarchy from the top down, Leaders are there to set direction and inspire human effort by articulating the reason ‘why.’ Managers focus on determining ‘what’ their unit does and managing required performance norms. So, Supervisors work in day-to-day operations, influencing 'how' management decisions in their units are implemented through the work of subordinates.

Over time, many business areas have found Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs useful in understanding human motivation. Maslow’s framework is no less valuable when considering what kind of culture you’d like to create in your organisation. Physiological needs are at the foundation of Maslow's hierarchy. The next level focuses on security. But you really begin to define a positive culture when you address the need for belonging.

Business leaders are not politicians, chasing the popularity of the soundbite. They tend to be held to account by boards of directors. Increasingly, in the modern interconnected world, their actions are the subject of a more public debate fuelled by customers and even employees. Whether you like it or not, this is drawing the worlds of politics and business closer together in terms of what is expected of leaders.

There are few jobs in the modern workplace that are not defined by Key Performance Indicators. Few business processes not defined by a Key Business Requirement. Or similar ways of setting performance expectations and the metrics. In the culture of modern management, these are seen as positive, and so they are. Without them, there would be no norms, no predictability in the business, and nothing for managers to manage.

How long does organisational culture change take? I am often asked that question, and I choose to answer empirically. After a decade of coaching this in companies, I have plenty of evidence. Jamaicans often say, ‘Dese tings take time.’ By which they mean that if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well. And culture transformation does take time. Lasting change requires the establishment of new behaviours.

Does it sometimes feel that your business is fuelled more by optimism than reality? Do your colleagues tell you that customers are happy or (as in the case of a business I once encountered) that ‘no one’s complained yet’? Without putting a damper on things, there’s a very effective exercise you can run to perform a reality check on a big customer or a strategic project. We called it ‘Why did we lose the client?