I once met with a group of managers and we had what turned out to be a spirited conversation about why it makes sense for them to show members of their teams they care about and value them. One manager blurted, “I don’t have time to spoon-feed adults.” Another explained she was always told to get the work done, not to care about people. She went on to say it sounds like she has to spend too much time caring about how people feel. The conversation was really a reflection of what the culture accepts and rejects. Caring about people, even though it can build collaboration and enhance team results, was being blatantly and vigorously rejected because the managers present were conditioned to think this way. Some authors describe culture as the personality of an organization and climate as the mood. In psychology, a personality is the combination of individual characteristics embodied in the patterns of feeling, thinking and behaving. When you encounter the personality of an organization you will notice collective patterns of emotions, thoughts and behaviours. These personality patterns are embedded within the culture over time, and when you attempt to transform these norms, you can face whole hearted resistance. Sometimes a dysfunctional organizational culture can cause people to do whatever it takes to protect and preserve a value system that features power abuse, a fixation on status, and ambition. These values become the organizing principle for what is right and acceptable and what isn’t, shaping the personality into a competitive one.
Cultural Blind Spots
Cultural patterns can become blind spots. The blind spot of an eye is an optical disk within the retina that does not house photoreceptors. Even with one eye closed, the occluded/blind spot in a person’s field of vision is difficult to detect. Similarly, the blind spot within a culture can conceal facets of culture that may remain undetected without deep reflection.
As a leader, it is useful if you can identify your cultural blind spots because it is important to perceive the personality of your culture so you can identify dysfunction that directly or indirectly affects team engagement, and by extension, your bottom line. Here are four questions you can use to understand your culture and its effect on your business: What are the characteristics of your culture? What is the value system behind it? What can you do to harness the strengths of your culture and minimize or eradicate the weaknesses? How is the personality of your organization impacting growth?
Understanding Your Organization's Personality (Culture)
Your culture is not only linked to your past and present, it drives your future ability to attain team goals. Therefore, if your cultural transformation is not synchronized with changes in your external environment, it can become an obstacle to progress and sustainability, inhibiting strategies for growth or expansion.
Some cultures exhibit groupthink which is sometimes a narrow, controlled perspective of an organization. In fact, there are circumstances where the groupthink norms are so deeply ingrained within the psyche of the team that coworkers who perceive things differently are viewed as wrong, or worse, as troublemakers.
Difficult Organizational Cultures
There are numerous indicators of unhealthy workplace cultures. Here are a few: Disrespect and bullying; ineffective communication: favouritism; ineffective communication; lack of structure; high stress levels and excessive micromanaging.
Keeping abreast of unproductive, internal cultural shifts means decision-makers should learn to perceive the forest and trees simultaneously, despite how difficult it may be to get out of the trees. By doing so, leaders can establish links between various causes and effects, aiming to enhance the quality of their decision making processes through well informed choices.
Embracing unproductive customs and traditions within your culture can present various levels of challenge. Responses and reactions can range from acceptance and collaboration to feeling frustrated, angry, offended or hurt. In some organizations leaders are aware of their cultures and work toward keeping them healthy. Conversely, in other settings, leaders have a distorted view of or are indifferent toward their cultures. In such cases, employees tend to be in survival mode and hesitant to admit the true circumstances. This can lead to a culture mediocrity and stress if dysfunctional cultural aspects are left unaddressed.
Some cultures are structured to resist change. Statements like, “we are too busy” or “we are short-staffed” may seem to be veritable reasons for short-term resistance, but in the long-term, departments can lose their best performers to organizations that will invest in their growth and development.
Transforming Your Organizational Culture
Challenging and transforming the personality of your organization (your culture) should be a constructive and collaborative exercise, not a combative one. However, your approach, no matter how gentle, may cause the true face of your culture to conceal itself. In other words, to the undiscerning eye, team members may attempt to hide the truth, and pretend to change, giving the impression that everything is fine.
Transforming your organizational culture (personality) involves implementing new or intended core values, and transforming how the culture operates in terms of what is rewarded, how power is used and how people interact. Beliefs start to shift, and so do the assumptions that drive every-day decisions.
Implementing new or intended core values and transforming the operational aspects of the culture are essential steps in challenging your organizational culture. This includes reevaluating what leaders reward, how power is utilized, and how individuals interact within the organization. As a result, beliefs begin to change, and the underlying assumptions that influence daily decision-making also undergo transformation.
Your culture has the potential to support or inhibit your current and future growth strategies. When you actively cultivate the culture you need to guide the business confidently into the future, you take the time to mitigate the risks of it becoming an impediment to your long-term strategies and performance.
With knowledge gained from almost 40 years of Fortune 500 and international consulting experience, Yvette shares her rich experience and proprietary model for changing businesses from the inside out. She is a thought leader in the areas of trust, leadership and organizational ecosystems, a multiple award-winning author and cultural consultant.
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