Making Sense of Strategy by Tony Manning

Author:Tony Manning [Manning, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Making Sense of Strategy
Publisher: Random House Struik
Published: 2011-03-27T14:00:00+00:00

ACTION LEARNING FOR CULTURE CHANGE

When the need for change of almost any kind is clear, most companies quickly latch on to the idea of changing their culture. They assume that when this happens – when people “get their attitudes right” – all will be well. But once again, this is a back-to-front approach. And there’s little chance it will deliver positive results.

The reason is simple. As psychologists have advised for over 100 years, you don’t change behaviour by changing people’s minds. You change their minds by changing their behaviour!

Of course, companies have cultures. And of course, you might need a different culture than the one you have right now. But you can make change in your organization relatively easy or impossibly hard.

If you start by trying to “fix the culture,” you’re in for a tough time. For one thing, you have to decide what kind of intervention will deliver the culture you want (and you’ll get a different answer from everyone you talk to, because they’ll all promote their own “solutions”). Secondly, it’ll take you so long to see an impact on sales and profits, you’re likely to run out of steam and support. And finally, you have to have faith in the assumption that you can reengineer people’s thinking “in the right direction,” and that when you do, they’ll act the way you want them to.

The better option is to do what Alcoholics Anonymous does to help drunks dry out: encourage them to drink less each day this week, so they can prove to themselves that it’s possible … then another bit less next week … and the next week … until one day, the habit is dead.

Your priority should be to change not what people think, but what they do. That way, they’ll discover that “the way we do things around here” is not cast in stone, and that other ways work better. And over time, your organization’s culture will change.

Changing what they do is relatively simple. Inform people why new results are needed … set new goals … involve them in identifying priorities and creating action plans … get fast feedback … and review performance in a robust way.

This approach gives you two big wins:

1. You get rapid performance improvement. You see a positive difference in sales, costs, service levels, quality, and so on. And each success is a stimulus for the next.

2. You get your intended culture change. Instead of wasting time and money trying to convince people that they should work together, make better products, or go the extra mile for customers, now people decide for themselves that it’s a good idea.

Most managers think about culture as a cause of behaviour. In fact, it’s also a consequence. Culture shapes behaviour as much as behaviour shapes culture. Understanding this is a key insight for strategists. It lets you shift from being a “victim” of culture to being its master; from having to wait for better results until your organization’s culture changes, to being able to drive

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