culture

We all know people like this ... "they refuse to speak-up or pitch-in when ideas are developed, are unable or unwilling to go to key meetings, and generally don't have the will, time, or inclination to help their colleagues, but then repeatedly shoot-down the decisions that are made, refuse to help implement them, and bad mouth their more hardworking colleagues"

One of the best examples is someone who refuses to vote and then bemoans the outcome of the election and the state of the nation! 

In our mine safety research one of the key issues is determining the actual root causes of unsafe behavior.  These are usually deeply rooted in entrenched belief systems and metaphors. 

This story, that I found on Bob Sutton's blog, illustrates how determining what is actually driving behaviour (in this case workplace theft), can lead to astoundingly simple (and cheap) solutions.  In fact, as you'll see in the story, the more expensive solutions (installing cameras) made the situation worse ...

I came across this little anecdote in and article in the latest edition of Strategy + Business.  It illustrates how savvy leaders know how to use metaphors and symbols to get their point across effectively and strengthen company culture.  David Ogilvy is the founder of Ogilvy & Mather, one of the most successful advertising agencies in the world. 

"... it wasn’t just what David Ogilvy said that made his principles special; it was also how he said it. ... Ogilvy communicated his principles in speeches and memos, then went beyond words, using quirky flourishes — like the Russian matryoshka dolls that directors found at their seats at one board meeting. Opening the nesting dolls, each smaller than the one before, every director found the same message typed on a piece of paper inside the tiniest doll: “If you hire people who are smaller than you are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. If you hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants.”

TGIF is an informal gathering of like-minded people who meets every Friday to discuss interesting topics.  The invitation they sent out this week really got me thinking.  Here it is (emphasis added)...

We attended an interesting public workshop on Mine Health and Safety today.  One of the speakers said the following:  Zero harm should be a value, not a slogan.

This made me wonder,  how many supposed "values" are nothing more than slogans? ...

One of our focus areas is retention, specifically a complex approach to retaining key staff.  Many organisations refer to this as "talent management".  This is a very hot topic currently, especially in light of great skills shortages here in SA and elsewhere.  Although I see the necessity for a retention strategy, but there is a part of me that believes that the whole idea of managing 'talent' creates more problems than it solves. 

We are in the process of planning a couple of exciting projects, one in the world of sport and another in schools.  Both of these involve the capturing of stories to assess culture or to "find the magic" in these environments. 

In reading a book by Eugene Peterson, I came across this paragraph:

"Apart from the before the now has little meaning. The now is only a thin slice of who I am; isolated from the rich deposits of before, it cannot be understood. ... The before is the root system of the visible now"

While this is most certainly true for individuals, we also know this to be true for organisations. It once again re-iterates the importance of context when dealing with any kind of change in large organisations. Often times, surveys such as change readiness assessments only give us a current view of the 'visible now' of the organisation, without taking into acount the 'before'. This can be an extremely dangerous thing to do, as change messages may inadvertantly trigger negative knee-jerk reactions based on similar messages associated with negative experiences in the past.

I heard today of a large South African corporate that underwent a transformation. At a certain point in its history a new top-dog was appointed, and he decided, as the top-dogs are wont to do, to bark and bite most of the existing senior leaders out. This "old guard", also being well known in the organization as great tellers of stories (and in some cases, tall ones, but not the matter), duly left, tails between their legs.

Not long after, it was remarked, with a new guard in place (and this one, a less rambunctious lot when it came to spinning the old yarn), that the whole place seemed to have "lost its culture".

Over the last few years, we've seen many people jump onto the 'intelligence' bandwagon, with varying levels of success (and substance). Of these Emotional Intelligence (or EQ), which has become part of business jargon globally, is probably the most well-known. Others such as spiritual intelligence and social intelligence haven't really caught on (personally I feel the jury is still out on the business value offered by these concepts).