Meridian Group - Company Culture Consultants

I meet monthly with a client's leadership team with the goal of developing the organization's culture. During one of these meetings, a Vice President mentioned a recent report presented by "Hendricks," a Director. In his opinion, "It was totally inadequate. It showed lack of commitment. He is an experienced professional. He knows better. I wish he would act like it."

With some probing, I used the opportunity presented by this comment, to once again review the cultural perspective of behavior. In brief, I covered the following:

This is a powerful concept for understanding culture: what people do tells you about the environment. To say it simply, to understand a culture, just look at what people do.

Think of a person as having an almost infinite set of potential actions to choose from. They enter a situation, in this case the workplace culture, and select a particular action from their vast palette. The action tells you something about the person, but the most valuable part to leaders is what behavior says about the culture. This becomes clear when many people are behaving similarly, e.g. do they speak up at meetings (or sit silent), actively improve systems (or wait for managers to make changes).

Focus on the Culture First
What people do provides very specific information about the culture. Even if a person is doing something we don't like or we think is inappropriate, we must assume that they sense something in the culture that makes them think that behavior is acceptable. How could they do otherwise?

Hendricks as a Reflection of the Culture
In this particular case, Hendricks prepared a report which he felt was adequate. As a VP later commented, "He came into the room smiling and obviously pleased with his work." In stark contrast, the VPs believed the report presentation fell short and saw Hendricks as "not-committed". There was something in the culture that told Hendricks that his report was adequate. What was that?

When I suggested that the culture was part of the problem, the VPs got quite defensive, and for me the going got tough. This often happens with leadership teams that are just starting down the road of deliberate culture leadership. It is difficult for managers to see how an employee's comments or actions could provide useful information about the company's culture. Instead, leaders tend to personalize employee actions or feedback as either weaknesses in the employee, or as criticism of themselves and their decisions.

In this case the VPs hung in and looked at the role that culture might have played in the disappointing Hendricks' report.

Deliberate Culture Leadership: Setting the Stage for Success
The breakthrough started when one VP said, "I wonder if Hendricks really did know the significance of the study to the company? What was he actually told before beginning his work?" The VP in charge defensively asserted that "He should know. . . ." but after much discussion, he gradually admitted that perhaps Hendricks was not given quite enough background information to do a proper job.

During the long discussion about Hendricks' behavior, the leadership team seemed to reach a new level of understanding about their responsibility for setting the stage (managing the culture) to bring out the best in people. As a result, the lead VP agreed to meet that afternoon with Hendricks and give him more background information about the study, its importance to the company's success, and the key points that must be analyzed and included. Though the meeting ran well over the scheduled time, the team agreed that it was time very well spent.

Start with Small Successes
When starting down the path of cultural leadership, it is good to begin the discussions with something relatively easy, such as how do we adequately brief a person to prepare a report. This chance event was a good entry point to begin the team's discussion of the relationship between behavior and culture, and of cultural leadership. With this small success, I sensed that this leadership team was probably ready to look at some more difficult issues—such as their own dynamics as a group.

All leadership teams have internal issues—usually around control, power, decisions, information, trust, openness, and direction—which lead the culture and the people below down unintended and wasteful paths. From interviews and observation, I knew that this company was no exception. Covert, unresolved interpersonal dynamics of the leadership team were limiting satisfaction and performance at all levels.

It was a long and difficult meeting. But I felt inspired about the outcome. Great oaks can, and often do, spring from such small seeds. With a little loving care you might even grow a rich forest.



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	A Better Workplace --- Meridian Group's Newsletter, Number 16, 2-15-03

	THE UNCOMMITTED EMPLOYEE: Look at the Culture and Leadership First! I meet monthly with a client's leadership team with the goal of developing the organization's culture. During one of these meetings, a Vice President mentioned a recent report presented by "Hendricks," a Director. In his opinion, "It was totally inadequate. It showed lack of commitment. He is an experienced professional. He knows better. I wish he would act like it." With some probing, I used the opportunity presented by this comment, to once again review the cultural perspective of behavior. In brief, I covered the following: To Understand a Culture, Look at What People Do All of us are experts at reading situations for what is desirable or acceptable behavior. In bed we sleep, in a group we talk, at a ball game we can shout. Whatever we do always seems right to us in that particular situation. We always behave appropriately-from our point of view. This is a powerful concept for understanding culture: what people do tells you about the environment. To say it simply, to understand a culture, just look at what people do. Think of a person as having an almost infinite set of potential actions to choose from. They enter a situation, in this case the workplace culture, and select a particular action from their vast palette. The action tells you something about the person, but the most valuable part to leaders is what behavior says about the culture. This becomes clear when many people are behaving similarly, e.g. do they speak up at meetings (or sit silent), actively improve systems (or wait for managers to make changes). Focus on the Culture First What people do provides very specific information about the culture. Even if a person is doing something we don't like or we think is inappropriate, we must assume that they sense something in the culture that makes them think that behavior is acceptable. How could they do otherwise? Hendricks as a Reflection of the Culture In this particular case, Hendricks prepared a report which he felt was adequate. As a VP later commented, "He came into the room smiling and obviously pleased with his work." In stark contrast, the VPs believed the report presentation fell short and saw Hendricks as "not-committed". There was something in the culture that told Hendricks that his report was adequate. What was that? When I suggested that the culture was part of the problem, the VPs got quite defensive, and for me the going got tough. This often happens with leadership teams that are just starting down the road of deliberate culture leadership. It is difficult for managers to see how an employee's comments or actions could provide useful information about the company's culture. Instead, leaders tend to personalize employee actions or feedback as either weaknesses in the employee, or as criticism of themselves and their decisions. In this case the VPs hung in and looked at the role that culture might have played in the disappointing Hendricks' report. Deliberate Culture Leadership: Setting the Stage for Success The breakthrough started when one VP said, "I wonder if Hendricks really did know the significance of the study to the company? What was he actually told before beginning his work?" The VP in charge defensively asserted that "He should know. . . ." but after much discussion, he gradually admitted that perhaps Hendricks was not given quite enough background information to do a proper job. During the long discussion about Hendricks' behavior, the leadership team seemed to reach a new level of understanding about their responsibility for setting the stage (managing the culture) to bring out the best in people. As a result, the lead VP agreed to meet that afternoon with Hendricks and give him more background information about the study, its importance to the company's success, and the key points that must be analyzed and included. Though the meeting ran well over the scheduled time, the team agreed that it was time very well spent. Start with Small Successes When starting down the path of cultural leadership, it is good to begin the discussions with something relatively easy, such as how do we adequately brief a person to prepare a report. This chance event was a good entry point to begin the team's discussion of the relationship between behavior and culture, and of cultural leadership. With this small success, I sensed that this leadership team was probably ready to look at some more difficult issues—such as their own dynamics as a group. All leadership teams have internal issues—usually around control, power, decisions, information, trust, openness, and direction—which lead the culture and the people below down unintended and wasteful paths. From interviews and observation, I knew that this company was no exception. Covert, unresolved interpersonal dynamics of the leadership team were limiting satisfaction and performance at all levels. It was a long and difficult meeting. But I felt inspired about the outcome. Great oaks can, and often do, spring from such small seeds. With a little loving care you might even grow a rich forest.