Culture is part of an organization's memory. One could also say that an organization's culture is like its shadow: The culture always suits it. You can observe the culture, find it beautiful or less beautiful. You can look at it, but you can't change it – even though the culture itself is constantly changing. Americans would probably put it this way: Culture is read-only.
by Niels Pflaeging
Why do these truths about culture matter to managers, executives, board members and working people in general? Because, at work and in organizations, we are constantly talking about the wrong things. We talk about the "risk culture" of our companies. Of a "cost culture" or about not having enough of it. Sometimes we even talk of a "culture of waste" or of corruption. Of a lack of "quality culture." Of (a lack of) innovation culture. Is "our culture ready" for this tool or for that change? Can we do this with our culture? We are now doing cultural development! These are all shadow battles.
Because one cannot work on culture. But we can and we must work on the organization itself.
Organizational culture knows no shame
Culture does not hold us down, nor does it determine anything. It only shows what is “normal” today and what is not. What is customary and what is part of the “style” of the organization. Culture is therefore conservative by nature: you can't ask it if it would like to be different. It always lags a little behind, and it is shameless: it not only reflects what is official and desired. But also the backstage and the ugly. The things where we slipped up a few years or a few months ago or avoided an unpleasant decision. In this sense, culture is merciless.
In a bank I worked with as a consultant, it was always said that there was a "lack of commitment and entrepreneurial awareness" among employees in the branches. This was a “classic culture problem”, managers at the client company told me, because they were an old bank and had gone through a painful merger or two.
Let's ignore the fact that statements like this naturally always refer to “the others” - in this case, people at the branches. Over time, we discovered that branch employees were by no means lacking commitment, awareness, passion or a knack for entrepreneurship. The scars of the past did exist, yes, but they played a lesser role than the prejudice of the head office would have everyone believe. What we found out: Entrepreneurial action in the branches could impossibly unfold, due to systematic restrictions. Just as the citizens of North Korea cannot not hold a picnic on the death strip at the South Korean border.
Culture never stands in the way of change. It is a tool for change work, actually
So what were the real barriers to performance in that bank - if not the hearts and minds of branch employees? The answer is simple: It was the usual. None of the following will surprise you. Here is just a small selection of the artifacts we encountered: Rules, regulations, quotas, pricing and discount policies, incentive systems, bonuses and growth targets, budgets, key figures, meetings, hierarchical pressure, boss decisions, prohibitions and instructions, obnoxious forecasting and reporting sessions, campaigns, the organization's own bureaucracy, marketing budgets, cost regulations, travel expense regulations, forms, central areas, other areas and departments, plus bosses, more bosses and the bosses of bosses.
Culture is able to make insanity invisible and to make the insane appear logical
It's a shame that we've become accustomed to considering all this and more as “normal”. You see, that's how powerful culture is. It makes the crazy seem normal and a lot of normal seem crazy. It assimilates its members - mercilessly. Culture is able to make insanity invisible and to make the insane appear logical. This is precisely the reason why employee surveys and culture surveys are wasteful and dysfunctional: They work like asking blind people visual aesthetics of things they just can't see. Meaningful answers are unlikely - effectiveness and consistency are quite impossible.
On the other hand, “new” employees or managers are a valuable resource for those who want to create profound change and desire a “better” culture. New colleagues still notice the madness: for them, the organization is new and nothing is (yet) normal – until they themselves are absorbed by the culture after three or six months in the company.
Culture understood as a change tool is something like a camera obscura. New members of an organization and strangers can see through the fog of culture to the essence of the organization. Sometimes things are upside down, look funny or seem blurred when you observe culture. At least until the brain gets used to the sight. However, cultural observation alone is useless - you also have to take action. Because:
Your company has exactly the culture it deserves
If you do not like the culture your organization is currently producing, then you need to work on the organization. The culture doesn't care what you think or want. Do something about the organization itself - preferably, together with others. Work the system, together. There are wonderful approaches out there to make that happen.
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For more on the topic
... read Niels book Organize for Complexity - now available in its 6th edition.
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