Deliberate Organizational Culture

Today I would like to write a little more about culture, which I have written about in a previous blog (May 29th). As I noted in that blog, culture might most simply be defined as “the way we do things around here” and that it is typically built organically over time as the cumulative result of decisions and actions taken to solve issues as they arise.

What I would like to explore today is the idea that an organization (business, non-profit, school, church, family) might be able to “jump start” the development of culture through conscious, deliberate thought and action.

Suppose that the members of an organization took the time to carefully and deeply discuss their most closely held individual values, the values that if lived would most likely cause the organization to succeed in its goals, and where there might be differences between any individual values and the organizational ideal. Suppose further that this group was able to reach an agreement not only on the organizational ideal value set but for each value how those values would be expressed in behavior.

Let’s say the ideal value was “Act with integrity.” The group would explore and eventually agree about how they would act with each other, with clients or customers, with vendors and suppliers, and with the general public. They would not, most likely, be able to define every type of interaction that could occur within themselves of between their group and others. They probably could, however, identify and define key interactions that could serve as a benchmark for other undefined behaviors.

Once agreement had been reached by the group on ideal values and the behavioral expression thereof, let’s further suppose that in a caring, supportive environment, organizational members worked with each other to identify when behaviors that reinforced the ideal values were observed and times where a behavior breached those values. In the first case, those behaviors were lauded; in the second case, lapses were identified and more appropriate ways of behaving or dealing with those issues were discussed and agreed upon.

If such a scenario were played out in the real world, what would happen? I believe what you would see is the development of an identifiable culture built on the values and behaviors the organizational members had determined were most important. Further, if they were correct in identifying those values and behaviors, not only would an identifiable organizational culture be established but it would be making progress towards the objectives the organization held most dear.

Okay, assuming that my thought experiment is true, what are the implications? For one thing, an organization that wants to become excellent would now have a path to follow to achieve that goal. Another example where this could be very applicable is in an organization that operates multinationally or whose membership is multi-cultural and where there is a desire to have one unified organizational culture that transcends national or regional culture.
Not that such a process would be easy; just getting agreement on the most important values and associated behaviors would be a tremendous undertaking. There would no doubt be those who would resist this effort or see it as “soft” or a waste of time. There would be those, particularly in the example of the multinational organization that would chauvinistically cling to the attributes of their native culture as the ideal, rather than being open to other behaviors that might actually be more likely to achieve the organizational goals. There would surely be those who would say that overtly creating a culture is not possible, that people are who they are and they are not going to change.

In reality, people make conscious changes all the time. Such change is dependent on three things. First there needs to be a clear purpose or outcome in mind, which is considered to have great enough value to be desired more than the status quo and to overcome the fear of change. Second, the process to achieve the change is understood. Finally, there must be a fundamental belief that change can occur (that they are not predetermined to a certain life by fate, God, or the universe). If these three conditions are met, change, even profound change, can occur and occur quite quickly.

The question is, do those variables required for change exist? I would guess that in most organizations excellence and why it is worth pursuing is neither known nor discussed. Perhaps that is the place to start. For your organization, what does excellence look like and why is it important? In the words of Mike Myer’s character, Linda Richman in the Coffee Talk sketch from Saturday Night Live, “Talk amongst yourselves.”

What is you hedgehog?

I’ve mentioned Good to Great by Jim Collins in previous blog posts. I think it is one of the best books I have found for members of organizations that are interested in becoming excellent. Today, drawing on that book, I would like to write about the three questions that excellent organizations have to answer and the organizational strategy that should be derived by the answer to those questions.

The three questions are:
1) What are we passionate about?
2) What are/can we be the best at?
3) What drives our economic engine

What are we passionate about? This question points to the foundational motivation for outstanding or excellent organizations – they are passionate about what they do or they are passionate about what the organization accomplishes. We don’t often talk about passion, at least in for profit business settings. Collins notes, “…throughout the good-to-great companies, passion became a key [condition]. You can’t manufacture passion or “motivate” people to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passion of those around you.”

What are/can we be the best at? Collins makes the point this may be different from an organization’s core competencies. He states that for an organization to truly be excellent they need to identify the thing(s) they can do that are the best in the world. Expanding on this point, Collins writes, “The good-to-great companies understood that doing what you are good at will only make you good; focusing on what you can potentially do better than any other organization is the only path to greatness.”

What drives our economic engine? To answer this question fully is to know more than “how do we make money?” Developing an understanding of the driver of an economic engine is to discover the key financial ratio that determines financial success and profitability; this is usually expressed as some form of money/variable. Collins provides a guide to help us determine our most meaningful economic ratio: “If you could pick one and only one ratio – profit per x (or in the social sector cash flow per x) – to systematically increase over time, what x would have the greatest and most sustainable impact on your economic engine?” He further states, “That denominator can be quite subtle, sometimes even unobvious. The key is to use the question of the denominator to gain understanding into your economic model.” Typically, this might be expressed in such things as profit per customer, revenue per hour, or profit per unit sold. The key is to spend the time to figure out what is the most important ratio for your organization.

These three questions are envisioned as intersecting circles. The area of overlap (where what we are or can be best in the world at, our economic driver, and our passion intersect) is where we should focus our strategic energy. I won’t go into why this term is used (I guess you’ll just have to read the book :-)), but Collins calls this intersection the “Hedgehog Concept”, which he defines as “a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about he intersection of the…three circles.” A clear understanding of, and focusing efforts on, their “hedgehog” was the fundamental differentiator between good and great companies; one could say of excellent organizations.

While this may sound simple, Collins makes the point that actually determining an organization’s hedgehog is an iterative process that times; on average, the companies in his research took four years to identify and focus their efforts and resources on these key drivers of success. However, if it can move an organization to greatness, it is worth the effort.

One of the things I like about this concept is that it is applicable to us as individuals as well as to organizations. Imagine the joy that would accompany spending your life on doing something that you were passionate about, something at which you were or could become the best in the world, and something that brought you ample economic rewards. How many of us can truly say we have all three of these variables fully met in our current work? How would life be different if we spent our time in the intersection of these three circles?

In a conversation recently, a friend of mine made the point that when an organization’s hedgehog and the hedgehogs of the organization’s members are the same, tremendous power, energy, creativity and ultimately success is unleashed. This statement points to the need for leaders to guide their organizations through the process of identifying the organizational hedgehog, and at the same time uncovering their own, and helping organizational members discover their hedgehogs. Ideally, those hedgehogs will be the same, or very similar. If there is not close alignment, particularly for key organizational members, one has to wonder whether that organization will ever truly be able to be excellent and whether its members will ever be happy and fulfilled working there.

How’s your organization’s hedgehog? Have you identified it? Do you know your passions, what you are the best in the world at, your economic drivers? Is your organization acting accordingly? How’s your personal hedgehog? Thinking deeply about these questions and taking action as appropriate can lead to organizational excellence and personal satisfaction.

Leadership in Excellent Organizations

Excellent organizations don’t just happen. A key aspect to their development is leadership, which is the topic for today’s blog.

Who is the best leader you have personally seen? I want you to get a mental picture of her or him. Think about how she or he acted, talked, thought. Do you have that picture in your mind? Okay; what are the characteristics that made him or her a great leader to you?

A recent article in HR World by John Hakala (http://www.hrworld.com/features/top-10-leadership-qualities-031908/) listed the top ten leadership qualities: vision, integrity, dedication, magnanimity, humility, openness, creativity, fairness, assertiveness, and a sense of humor. How does this list compare with the characteristics you identified for your ideal leader?

Someone once said that the best example of leadership is leadership by example. This brings an important aspect of leadership to mind: a great leader lives the espoused values of the organization he or she is trying to lead. Given that, the definition of a great leader is at least partially dependent on the organization being led. Exaggerating to make a point, the behaviors of an ideal gang leader is no doubt different than those of an ideal leader of a religious order. What both would have, I believe, is the embodiment and personification of the organization’s values and culture. They would lead by example because their most closely held and lived values and culture were perfectly aligned with the aspirations of the members of the organization they lead, or very nearly so.

Edgar Schein, one of the premier thought leaders about culture, made the point in his book Organizational Culture and Leadership that while leaders represent their organization’s culture, they also pay a major role in establishing the culture through their actions and how they interpret events. It is also their responsibility to redirect the organization if it drifts from the ideal:

But if cultures become dysfunctional, it is the unique function of leadership to perceive the functional and dysfunctional elements of the existing culture and to manage cultural evolution and change in such a way that the group can survive in a changing environment.

In fact Schein stated that one of the key differentiators between a manager and a leader is the issue of culture. Leaders help mold culture while managers or administrators operate within it.

Peter Vaill, in an article in Organizational Dynamics, cites three characteristics that all leaders of excellent organizations posses: they put in an extraordinary amount of time; they have very strong feelings about the organization’s purposes; and they focus on key issues and variables. It seems to me that these three variables transcend culture. I can’t imaging a great leader that didn’t spend an extraordinary amount of time thinking about and acting in behalf of the organization; that wasn’t passionate about why the organization exists and what it was trying to accomplish; finally, focusing on key issues and variables, rather than getting bogged down in the mundane or distracted by the extraneous. I agree with Vaill that these characteristics seem to be essential for an effective leader. They probably also transcend culture, although how the characteristics are actually manifest in behavior would undoubtedly differ.

One final thought on leadership. Leadership does not come only from the titular head of an organization. John Quincy Adams is quoted as having said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” You will notice this statement makes no reference to organizational status. My guess is as you think about the traits that make a great leader, you will find they are also (at least in large part) the same traits that make a great organizational member. All of us have the opportunity, and responsibility, to develop and use leadership characteristics in making our organizations excellent, no matter our title or formal role.

Fifteen Key Behaviors of Excellent Organizations

Today I would like to discuss the findings of research on high performing teams that I conducted with outstanding teams in India, France, and the United States. The purpose of my research was to distill the essence of high performing teams, irrespective of culture, and to see if there were characteristics or manifestations of that essence that were different in teams from the three countries. To hold as many variables the same as possible, I used three customer support teams from Mentor Graphics, each identified by executive management, their directors, and human resources as being excellent. I used open ended interviews with team members to collect the data and phenomenology as my method of analysis. In this blog entry, I will not discuss cultural differences, only the essence of high performing teams that my research uncovered.

Based on my research, I believe the essence of high performing teams can be described as: a passionate, deep abiding, interest in and concern for teammates, customers or end users of the team’s output, key constituencies external to the team, and the work or output of the team.

So what does this really mean? I believe that high performing teams – and by extension excellent organizations – focus on four things: the quality and quantity of their work/output – why they exist organizationally; the success and professional development of organization members; the needs and expectations of their customers; and key constituencies and variables in the environment, external to the team itself. Each focus represents a value that outstanding organizations and teams hold most dear.

It is hard to see a value. One’s values can be inferred by the behaviors that are displayed as well as by what is said. Accordingly, the four areas of focus were actually inferred by behaviors that were evident in each of the teams. As noted below, for each focus, there were consistent, identifiable behaviors displayed by the team. These fifteen behaviors are what organizational leaders should both be looking for and trying to foster. It is through discussing the importance of the four foci and implementing and reinforcing these key behaviors that an organization builds and reinforces a culture of high performance.

Use these fifteen behaviors to measure how your organization is doing. Does your organization display these key behaviors associated with excellence? Are there areas missing? If all the elements are present, is there room for improvement? I believe an audit based on these fifteen behaviors will help establish the degree of excellence an organization has attained and where there is room for growth.

Fundamental Foci and Associated Behaviors
Found in High Performing Teams

Focus: Concern for Teammates

Associated Behaviors:
~ Using recruiting and hiring techniques to maintain values and culture
~ Using techniques to resolve conflicts that preserve the sense of team and personal integrity
~ Saying and doing things that show concern for fellow team members while building and supporting them
~ Having formal and informal team building activities

Focus: Concern for Customers

Associated Behaviors:
~ Actively seeking to identify customer needs
~ Concern for how customers respond to service/product
~ Ongoing processes to establish two way communication with customers

Focus: Awareness of External Constituencies

Associated Behaviors:
~ Scanning the environment for threats and opportunities
~ Seeking expert assistance to resolve problems when the skills of the team were insufficient
~ Using techniques to maintain the boundary between the team and the external environment
~ Developing synergistic relationships with other internal teams to increase value to the company and to customers

Focus: Concern for the Output of the Team

Associated Behaviors:
~ Focusing on and concern for the productivity of the team and the quality of its work
~ Engaging in ongoing development and learning (individual and team) so both depth and breadth of skills are enhanced
~ Displaying flexibility and adaptability in meeting challenges that face the team
~ Management that establishes clear roles and goals, supports the team in achieving its goals, and focuses on building the team and its members