I recently was going over injury statistics for the last several years with a customer. I noted an excessive number of accidents caused by employees blowing steel chips into their eyes, using compressed air. I made an interim recommendation that they implement the use of face shields while blowing air. The customer immediately responded, “We tried that, and holy heck broke with all our employees. We stopped that idea real fast! We are not going to do that again!”
I thought to myself, “So, we are going to continue to blow steel chips into employee’s eyes, because we cannot change?” I know from personal experience, having steel chips removed from one’s eyes in not amusing! In my opinion this kind of thinking can be dangerous. This was not the first time Organizational Culture has been a barrier keeping people safe! Safety Culture is certainly a huge part of Organizational Culture.
I am not sure anyone can give justice to the definition of Organizational Culture. Further, the definition of this term depends on your point of view and life experience. Wikipedia defines Organizational Culture as something that, “encompasses values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of a business.” Even though I struggle with my exact definition of Organizational Culture, I have felt it’s affects more times than I care to remember. When I experience it, I sure know I hit it again.
If you try to make changes that may affect the way people think, act, or believe, in an organization you may find out very quickly about Organizational Culture. Even the very best communicators will hit this solid formidable wall called Organizational Culture. It often makes little difference how logical or needed this change might be, the culture will resist it, sometimes, merely because it is a change from the status quo. Trying to change Organizational Culture often feels like swimming against the current in a large swift river.
Most would agree change is necessary for the survival, and certainly the growth, of any organization. But, how do we make change and overcome the culture embedded within an organization? Over the years I have found the following strategies to work.
- Plan the Change and Change the Plan, you cannot just jump into a change. Think about and anticipate how the culture will resist your change. Just jumping into change can shock the organization, and shock just strengthens that big solid wall. Also design your plan to be flexible. If it is needed be ready to alter or amend your plan, sometimes quickly.
- Set the Table, entails that before you just jump into change, you try lay the groundwork down. You prepare people for the change and make attempts to have people see the logic in it. Prepare the organization for the change, instead of just doing it. This sort of paves the way, or greases the rollers!
- Do not just Swallow the Entire Elephant, sometimes you need to realize that it might be smarter to break your needed change into smaller pieces. Instead of making one big change, you make several smaller incremental changes. Often, several small changes can accomplish as much as one big one.
- Plant Seeds (Engage the People Involved with the Change), it might be your idea at first, but make it possible to have the people involved with the change think it is their idea. Employees are much more likely to embrace change the more they think the idea is theirs. This option may involve a little deviousness, but sometimes you must do what you must. Often a basketball coach does not argue with a referee over the most recent call the ref made. This coach knows that battle is already lost. The coach is giving the ref an idea, or planting a seed, before the next decision, before the whistle.
I have found all these strategies to work very well. They work best in combination. They also take time and patience to implement. Also, they all require a basic understanding of human nature. Particularly, the Plant Seed’s success, depends on the amount of time you have spent communicating. Finally, the amount of teambuilding you have done in an organization is symmetric to the chances of success.
Today’s hugely competitive business environment requires every organization to be ready for change at any time. All too often, being able to alter Organizational Culture is a prerequisite to survival. Today most successful organizations relish change and are very comfortable making it.
