Time To Make A Change
When companies hire executives, managers, and/or [as in my case], organizational consultants today, one of their big demands is that we "drive change." Let me confess, companies use this phrase now in a way that has made it one of my personal pet peeves. In my experience, anyone who literally "drives" change is destined to fail in the long run. There is no doubt that people want to be led but they don't want to be bulldozed. Instead, in order for change to have a chance for long term success, in my view, a leader has to provide 3 basic things +1. The initial 3 things they have to do include: inspiring people to move in a new direction [as opposed to pushing them]; providing a road map for the new destination; & they need to provide at least some minimal rationale for why the company is altering course. This however is just the beginning because change of any kind is scary and people are usually resistant. Part of that resistance is a function of the company culture, which brings me to the “+1” in this odd sounding business equation.
Keeping Up Wit’ Da Culcha'
Every industry as well as every company has its own culture. What is meant by company [or industry] culture? Essentially this term refers to the corporate [or industry] personality, which also provides key insights into "how things get done." Corporate/industry culture also includes things like dress code, philosophy on work/life balance, benefits training, etc. In short it's a rather sweeping shorthand for how employees think, act, feel, and behave. It also encompasses any beliefs, behaviors, and/or ways of operating that may be unique to a particular company or industry. Basically, culture is deeply ingrained and therefore can be difficult to change.
Culture Meets Consumer
For example, in the medical profession, research is definitive that as residents working over 24 hours in a shift, doctors make a significant number of mistakes as a result of lack of sleep. Intellectually, their more senior teachers and peers know this, understand this and yet the practice continues. How does a known, potentially lethal practice persist? It’s rationalized as an invaluable teaching tool but the real reason is the senior doctors believe that if they had to do it, why shouldn't’t the next generation of residents have to pay the same price? This process is so deeply embedded in the medical training culture that it becomes a “forest vs. trees” issue [the forest being the patients in this case]. Clearly they don’t seem to be thinking about the patients with this line when maintaining this practice. To be fair, when this ritual began, the circumstances were different and there was no research to point to stating that the practice was clearly dangerous. This is but one example because the medical profession alone is hardly the only industry as a whole resistant to change. It does make attempting cultural transformation in one company a far easier task than changing an industry. However industry changes are possible to achieve. Consider the fact that it is no longer permissible to smoke in bars and restaurants…a change that was bitterly resisted for a long time.
Inside Outside Consultants
Returning to the problem of hiring people to bring about change, the existence of deeply entrenched culture is one reason why businesses and their human resource departments should hire outside consultants to work with their change management teams. Basically sometimes despite their good intentions, any insider, including those invested in change, may not have sufficiently clear vision to see what really needs to be done. Even new employees can get ensnared by the existing culture, because they are understandably anxious to demonstrate that they belong to their new company, On the other hand, outside consultants come with a “fresh pair of eyes” and have no investment in the current culture or their place in it.
