The Power of Organizational Cultures

Russ Linden 609 E. Market St., Suite 206 Charlottesville, Virginia 22902

Russ Linden Email: [email protected]

website: www.russlinden.com

Phone: (434) 979-6421

About Russ Linden

Russ Linden is a management consultant who specializes in organizational change methods. Since 1980, he has helped government, non-profit and private-sector organizations develop leadership, foster innovation, and improve organizational performance. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Virginia, and the Federal Executive Institute. He writes a column called “Management Insights” for Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and for

Governing Magazine

. Russ’ current teaching and consulting interests include; collaborating across organizational boundaries, learning organization principles, customer-focused organizations, and relationship management. He has published numerous articles, and his first book,

From Vision to Reality: Strategies of Successful Innovators in Government

, came out in 1990. His next book,

Seamless Government: A Practical Guide to Re-engineering in the Public Sector

(Jossey-Bass, 1994), was excerpted in the May, 1995 issue of

Governing Magazine,

and has been translated into Chinese. His most recent book,

Working Across Boundaries: Making Collaboration Work in Government and Nonprofit Organizations,

was published in 2002. His clients have included the National Geographic Society, Departments of the Navy and Army, Health Data Services, Inc., U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Dept. of State, Metro Information Services, Inc., Government of the Cayman Islands, U.S. Information Agency, FBI Academy, U.S. Dept. Of Education, two state attorneys general and over four dozen state, local government, and non-profit agencies. Several local governments are redesigning their organizations using the principles in his book,

Seamless Government

.

Before beginning his full-time practice, Russ was a Senior Faculty Member at the Federal Executive Institute. He served as the Director of Executive Programs at the University of Virginia's Center for Public Service, taught at the UVa McIntire School of Commerce, and managed in the human services field for seven years.

Russ Linden's bachelor's and master's degrees are from the University of Michigan. His Ph.D. is from the University of Virginia. He lives in Charlottesville, VA with his wife. Russ Linden & Associates 2

Organizational Cultures

 Many definitions of “org. culture.” My favorite: “The way we do things around here.” Russ Linden & Associates 3

Organizational Cultures

My first day in Japan – learning how the Japanese expect you to look at their business cards -- an introduction to the power of culture!

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Organizational Cultures

Exercise: Think about your first trip to a foreign country (or, your first few days in a new organization): What were your initial impressions?

What led to those impressions? Russ Linden & Associates 5

Organizational Cultures – Two Examples

At GE, former CEO Jack Welch used to meet with his company presidents and ask them what was new or different. They soon learned that he wasn’t interested when they discussed an innovation that they developed internally. He only wanted to know what they had borrowed or adapted from another GE company or division. Why?

Because Welch was fiercely committed to breaking down internal silos and getting managers and leaders to share ideas and information. The longer he asked, “what have you learned from others?” the more his people started to work across internal boundaries. And today, GE’s culture is considered a model of information- and knowledge-sharing.

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Organizational Cultures – 2nd Example

A very different kind of organizational culture: A jazz group Russ Linden & Associates 7

Organizational Cultures – Objectives

1.

2.

3.

4.

Understand what “organizational culture” means, and why it is so important to overall performance.

Learn examples of effective and dysfunctional cultures.

Assess your organization’s culture: where is it now, where do you want it to be?

Learn concrete steps you and others can take, to close the gap between current and desired state.

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Org. Cultures -- Why Do They Matter?

1. Why does culture matter in your work with different organizations?

2. In terms of culture, what questions do you want us to to discuss today?

Example of Powerful Org. Culture – The FedEx Story

1. How would you characterize the FedEx culture?

2. From the video, what helps shape the FedEx culture?

Org. Cultures – What are some of their elements?

Culture is made up of several things, including: • • • • • • • Power – who makes decisions, who controls resources, etc.

Rites and rituals – how the organization marks important occasions Values and priorities – what’s most important, how people get ahead, how people get derailed Symbols – these are often clues as to who, and what, is valued Stories and myths – the ways some organizations convey to others what is valued there Control systems – the ways organizations monitor and manage what goes on Language – certain words/phrases are in good currency in each culture, and certain ones aren’t used

How do we learn about an org. culture?

Many methods:  Ask various employees to identify examples of org. success. Then have them discuss what led to the successes, and look for common themes (this is part of a method called “Appreciative Inquiry”).

 Ask employees, and clients, to compare the organization to another country. Ask them to explain their answer.  Interview employees (and others), and ask questions like, What gets rewarded here? How do people get ahead? What would you never do here? What are the unwritten rules? How would you describe the “pecking order?

 Complete a questionnaire on org. cultures; compare the “as-is” and “to-be” states. Russ Linden & Associates 12

Learning about cultures

 Question: What has helped you learn about organizational cultures?

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Assessing your agency’s culture: A tool

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Deal and Kennedy’s Culture Tool

• Work-hard, play-hard culture: Some restaurants, software companies, sales forces, hair stylists, advertising • Macho culture: anchors police, surgeons, athletes, trial attorneys, news • Bet-the-company culture: oil companies, aircraft manufacturers, building contractors, parts of NASA • Process cultures: banks, insurance companies, academics, much of government, regulated industries Russ Linden & Associates 15

Assessing your agency’s culture: A questionnaire

1. Identify the questionnaire items most important to your organization’s performance (those you rate “3” or higher).

2. Respond to both questions for each of those items.

3. Which items must be improved to achieve the performance your organization needs? Russ Linden & Associates 16

Now What? How do we help the culture move in the desired direction?

1. Identify what’s getting in the way: “In the first place, do no harm…” Ask the employees, What meetings, forms, processes, policies, add no value and consume time? GE’s “Work-Out” program is an excellent tool to do this.

Hold a Silly Rules contest – and change/eliminate the rules that make no sense Ask customers and partners what the organization does that makes it hard to do business with you

Now What? How do we help the culture move in the desired direction?

2.

Recognize your own power to alter the culture: Manage by wandering around (“MBWA”) Remember the “How’s little Charlie?” story -- Check in with employees, send them a note, take a personal interest Introduce a method that reinforces the kind of behavior your organization needs (for instance, After Action Reviews) Manage the first impressions people get when they walk into your office/first meet you (see next 2 slides).

What messages does your office send?

A manager in an intel agency has these two bulletin boards behind his desk.

He’s making his agenda and needs visible, without telling employees what to do.

A poster used in a manager’s office: So go ahead and Do!!!

Now What? How do we help the culture move in the desired direction?

2.

Recognize your own power to alter the culture (cont): Ask employees, who gets promoted? Who gets plum projects? What do their answers tell the workforce about what you value? What message do you want to send?

Use visuals that reinforce key messages you trying to send (see next slide for one example) Remember the teacher who gave weekly grades: Increase the speed of feedback The “Form 47” story – create a “line of site”

Now What? How do we help the culture move in the desired direction?

When Kip Hawley became Ass’t Secretary of TSA, he declined to have an official portrait taken to hang in TSA offices. Instead, he sent mirrors to hang next to portraits of important officials (e.g., Pres. Bush). “When our airport screeners look in the mirror, they will see who is important, who can make a difference, the person without whom we can’t succeed,” Hawley said. With that, the “I am TSA” campaign was born.

Now What? How do we help the culture move in the desired direction?

3. Identify the key measures/requirements that affect behavior: are these the behaviors you need to succeed in the future?

Measures that encourage short-term or longer-term thinking Measures that encourage silo thinking and acting, or collaboration Measures that focus on bureaucratic activities, or important outputs and outcomes

Two different views of measures:

“If you’re not keeping score, you’re only practicing.” – Football coach Vince Lombardi “Not everything that counts is countable; and not everything that’s countable, counts.” – Albert Einstein

Now What? How do we help the culture move in the desired direction?

4. Get your employees in touch with external stakeholders, to move the culture in the desired direction.

-- Capture the voice of the customers, get their responses to the employees who did the work -- Bring employees to important organizational events (e.g., NASA launches) -- Invite senior leaders in to talk about the agency’s direction, how your unit contributes, and to hear about your unit’s current performance -- Remember the power of competition: post the performance of another unit that does similar work, challenge employees to exceed that performance level

What’s the bottom line?

 To help all parts of the organization get on “the same sheet of music,” we need to understand much more than the org. goals, structure and budget; we need to understand and use its culture Russ Linden & Associates 26