Managing Cultural Change in Brisbane-based Professional Services businesses

Managing Organisational Culture

The three words of this article’s title seem simple enough to understand and many organisations invest heavily in trying to achieve just this.  But I think in order for us to intelligently discuss this topic, we need to ask a couple of questions and bring further clarity to the topic.  The first question is, “What is organisational culture?”  The second question is, “Can organisational culture be managed?”  So allow me in a few words to answer these questions by examining different definitions and then to investigate any potential steps that could be taken to produce positive change.

Most people who deal with this topic will articulate organisational culture through summarising the individual elements that make up culture such as, collective – behaviours, values, myths, symbols, norms, rituals, beliefs and assumptions that “this is the way we do things around here.”  It would be difficult to find leaders who would disagree with these fundamental components as being the essence of what makes up organisational culture.  However, it is the expanded definition of culture that I am going to discuss shortly that starts to expose different opinions.  Furthermore, the preferred perspective chosen profoundly affects the strategic approach taken to deal with it.

Generally speaking there are two main paradigms of organisational culture that people choose between.  Some see it as a singular dominating influence that each individual operates within.  Others see it being made up of various sub-cultures within the one organisation with continual superficial adjustments being made by those in each sub-group to accomplish organisational outcomes.  Naturally, if the first paradigm is your perspective then you will take a more basic approach to managing culture through a top-down effort of aligning all staff with the articulated mission, vision, values and strategic plan.  If the second paradigm of culture is your perspective then a more intricate approach is needed considering a more individualistic implementation plan that addresses various sub-cultures with the necessary duration and intensity required for each group.

So, “What is the correct expanded definition of organizational culture?”  In the light of what has been discussed, “Think about your experiences within the organisation/s you have worked?”  I would like to suggest from research and my experience that both paradigms reflect different facets of reality.  It has become increasingly evident that the more multi-cultural our society becomes, the more diverse the values of personnel who are employed.  Additionally, the greater accumulation of various fundamentally different personal values within the workplace naturally creates sub-cultures in order to assist people to both retain what they believe and respond to the organisational challenges that arise.  Thus, the increase in globalisation is being reflected in the workplace making the management of organisational change more difficult over time.  Simultaneously, I have also noted and experienced a sense that each organisation has its own archetype culture, which can either, detract from, or contribute to the organisation’s effectiveness.  There is little doubt that organisational culture is a complex dynamic, and that it profoundly impacts upon organisational outcomes, which is why leaders are often desperate to attempt managing it.

This brings us to the second question that was posited in the first paragraph – “Can organisational culture be managed?”  Experience has shown that organisational culture is difficult to assess and resistant to change.  You might remember the words of Drucker here, “That which cannot be measured cannot be managed.”  This is why I have taken some time to this point in defining what it is, because if we cannot define what it is we cannot ever hope to manage positive cultural change.  I have personally been involved in managing successful cultural change in large organisations through organisational-wide interventions over a two year timeframe with ongoing support.  It involved an approach that strategically addressed both paradigms discussed above.  So to answer the question, “Can organisational culture be managed?”  Yes, but it needs a multidimensional approach.

Allow me now to share with you the elements necessary to practically manage organisational culture change by addressing different key elements:

1. Top-down support:  Start with the archetype culture.  The culture shift attempt must have full passionate support from the top down, including leadership modelling of the required behaviours congruent with the regular articulated values, vision, mission, strategy, reward systems, structure, policies, procedures and allocation of resources.  Any conflict between these elements and it will be picked up quickly and, whether consciously or subconsciously, resisted.
2. Organisation-wide participation:  Systematically address the sub-culture paradigm.  From the top-down, implement a coach training process by training the top leaders in how to utilise coaching techniques with their direct reports, mentoring them in the process over time.  The important aspect of this training is to make the shift into believing their direct reports are worthy of investment, are resourceful and capable of significantly contributing to the organisation.  The process also needs to cascade down through the organisation to front-line employees.  So all are coached and all in positions of leadership are trained in how to coach. The message is clear, they are valued participants.  The coaching techniques must incorporate more listening than talking.  Finally, over time, all who are in the company will receive this training, cascading the coaching culture throughout the organisation.  Moreover, the coach training must also eventually be left in the hands of the company, developing specific internal coaches, so they can keep delivering the training to new employees and monitor the needs of the organisation.  I have seen this work bringing a greater sense of belonging, interpersonal connectedness, empowerment, appreciation, trust, transformation and organisation-wide participation.
3. Recruitment and induction:  There isn’t a better time to manage culture than at the point of entry with hiring people who are congruent with the organisational values.  This does mean that quality behaviour-based interviewing needs to be implemented, so the candidate’s values are accurately assessed and they are not misaligned with the company.  The more congruent the candidate is, the more they will enjoy their work and lower employee turnover will occur.  Once employed there is a need to undertake an induction process acculturating them through information and personal coaching by their manager who by now has been transformed through the organisation-wide coach training.

In conclusion, you will note that organisational culture change comes from a multifaceted approach, incorporating a significant amount of elements.  At the same time the approach I have shared above encompasses both of the extended cultural definitions that were presented in the article.  Yes, organisational culture can be managed but it is not to be done in a haphazard manner.  There needs to be an organisation-wide approach starting with buy-in from the top level leaders who are first willing to make the changes necessary in themselves, modelling the required behaviours.  There needs to be both organisation-wide supportive systems and harmonious empowered coaching relationships that create supportive environments for each employee.  If the coaching is implemented well, it will enable employees to safely discuss any cultural conflicts they are experiencing and develop action plans for organisational alignment, greater productivity and increased satisfaction.  Finally, there needs to be a positive reward system in place to promote effective coaching, and effectiveness needs to be measured by both the feedback of those receiving the coaching and improved organisational results.

David Allan – Certified Executive Coach (MBus) www.executivesuccesscoaching.com

P.S. why not complete an online assessment on your change management effectiveness and receive a PDF revealing your results and giving you customized strategies for improvement?

Emotional Intelligence and Self-awareness

As a leader I always look for more ways to improve in my leadership capacity.  Specifically, I have found when I increase my emotional intelligence (EI) it always has a by-product of improving my leadership of others.  When it comes to developing EI in leaders the foundational building block for increasing this essential competency is self-awareness.  If you are not aware of your own emotional responses how will you be aware of others?  If you are not aware of your own emotional triggers how can you step back from a situation and objectively respond to the stimuli being thrown your way and not react to it?  There is a lot of talk today about emotional intelligence and its positive influence upon leadership effectiveness, but how much of this is hype?  Surprisingly, more empirical research is emerging with significant results showing how EI in leaders positively effects employees’ job satisfaction levels, decreases their intention to leave, improves innovation and increases bottom-line results.  Emotional Intelligence however cannot be built over night.  But it can be built if leaders would follow a personal development plan.  The key is to start with increasing self-awareness.

In the end I find one of the best and fastest methods for leadership development in EI is through listening to honest feedback given to me in real-time, and then to immediately start implementing a new approach – to experiment – to see what happens.  To speed this process up even more, I have also found it invaluable to have a coach to walk with me so I have even more objectivity and ongoing accountability.  These methods have enabled me to increase in my awareness of my emotional reactions and lead others more effectively, increasing emotional intelligence (EI).  I am by no means perfect, but as one of my mentors taught me, “Although I am not what I ought to be, I certainly am not what I used to be.”  For the reality is that any significant leadership development in this area doesn’t happen over night.  But if you keep focused on developing the correct areas you will see growth over time.

So you may be asking, “How do I know what the correct areas to focus on are?”  I mean, if there are gaps in your emotional intelligence where you are ‘unaware’ how do you become aware?  That is why honest feedback in real-time is essential.  You need to humbly be open to such feedback and then experiment by changing your approach in a very short time span after receiving the news.  If you wait before you experiment, the invaluable insights you just received may rapidly merge back into your blind spots once more.  Now this is where I find a coach is invaluable, because there are two main reasons why people don’t accept feedback.  The first is that you don’t trust the people giving it, either because of ulterior motives, or through incompetency.  The second main reason is because the feedback process is seen as unreliable, whether a formal untrusted 360 degree assessment is used or data collection and interpretation is seen as flawed.  But having a coach, an outside objective expert whose main objective is your growth, brings greater confidence and direction in how to constructively respond to the feedback.  A coach can help you to develop a plan and ascertain whether or not you are overreacting, being too suspicious, arrogant, or using a host of other unhelpful filters to assess your situation.

I have personally found that there is something deeply satisfying about this type of leadership development, because it also influences the way you interact with your family and other important people in your life.  Furthermore, it is a boost to your leadership confidence when you notice that you are catching yourself from reacting to emotionally charged environments and instead you are now responding constructively.  You find yourself directing your team not only through an articulated strategy but also through behavior that models the very values you are trying to espouse within your team and organization.  You are no longer overwhelmed with anxiety when you begin to think about dealing with a team conflict, but you look forward to assisting team members to constructively work through to resolution knowing you have the capacity to be objective and assist them to be the same.  Conflict is seen as an opportunity to anchor the values of how team members are meant to deal with each other in adverse circumstances.

Let me conclude by addressing the concept of using a personal development plan, mentioned earlier.  The four key areas of emotional intelligence as depicted by Goleman are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.   The first step for you to take is to ascertain which one of these four you need to focus on.  If you would like assistance in finding helpful tools to increase these leadership capacities, then go to www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com/resources where you can scroll down and view various online assessments which not only immediately reveal areas for your developmental focus, but also, once completed, give strategic approaches in what to do about improving them.  Now if you are new to all this, the foundational element is self-awareness, and there are a number of assessments that are very helpful to increasing this capacity.  I can remember some 18 years ago now taking my first Myers-Briggs Personality Type indicator.  I discovered as a leader that a number of the approaches that I took were not born out of my values but simply were a part of my personality makeup.  That was a shock to me, but one of the best outcomes from taking such an assessment was a greater appreciation to accept differences in others.  I learned to stop interpreting other people’s actions through my own narrow framework.  I learned to work with those differences in others appreciating what they had to offer to the team.  Over time, I found myself less resistant to different perspectives and more embracing of variety.  Over the past 18 years, I have found myself taking other assessments like DiSC and many others.  All of which have been a part of increasing my self-awareness, along with committing to implementation and being coached.  In my next post I am going to discuss how to address the other three EI elements of self-management, social awareness and relationship management.

David Allan MBus

http://www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com

 

Does Emotional Intelligence Really Work?

I’ve been working full time with leaders to assist them in their leadership development for 10 years now, and I have found that the leaders that make the biggest positive impact with others are those who can engage empathetically utilizing the emotional dynamics that take place in any human encounter.  This of course is the very essence of  the four key elements of ’emotional intelligence’ – that is – self-awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management.  This has lead me on a search to see whether there was any hard data to verify my experiences.

What I have discovered in my search is that greater numbers of empirical research studies are being produced that reveal outcomes that can no longer be ignored by serious leaders.  Some of the key measures associated with emotional intelligence that are being examined are job satisfaction levels, job effectiveness the contagiousness of moods and physiological responses to others (heart rate, health).  Studies show that the emotional intelligence of the boss directly affects employee job satisfaction levels, and this in turn impacts upon employee turnover.  Furthermore when a boss brings a negative mood to the workplace through displays of irritability, and anxiety it takes away from a climate of enthusiasm, which diminishes work effectiveness.

In contrast, when a boss is able to exude an optimistic and enthusiastic mood it impacts positively upon innovation, productivity, team work and increased resilience to difficult circumstances. With a greater number of research studies demonstrating the positive impact that increased emotional intelligence has upon business results, it is becoming more difficult to ignore this element of leadership development.  The good news is that leaders can improve and grow in this area.  I have worked one-to-one with leaders to achieve this very thing.  So where do you start to work at improving this area?  There are a number of options available to you.  You might want to look at taking an assessment to assist you in this.  I offer them on my site at www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com.  You may want to read up more on the four elements of emotional intelligence and select one that you know needs more work and set some goals for yourself, or perhaps ask those you are leading for their perspective, either directly or through a 360 assessment.  The most logical place to start improving emotional intelligence is to increase your own emotional awareness.  So I am going to be speaking about this in my next post.

Start Growing in your Emotional Intelligence today

David Allan MBus

www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com