BY
A common complaint I hear when I’m training is, “Well, that’s all
very well but it won’t work here, it’s not part of the culture in our
organisation.” Sometimes it’s not actually spoken, it’s more of an
underlying attitude amongst the participants.
This can come up with all sorts of topics, from coaching to
running meetings to using PowerPoint in presentations. In fact, since all
training is really about changing behaviour, it’s always a relevant issue.
But is it a valid point? Or is it an excuse for not making
changes?
It depends what you mean by “culture”. That word can mean a
number of things. It can include values, expectations, beliefs, behaviours. It
can cover all manner of things from dress codes to language to management
styles.
When people say, “that’s not the culture round here” what they
usually mean is just, “that’s not the way we normally do things here.”
All organisations tend to develop norms of behaviour, a style of
operating which its members will tend to reproduce. For example, I mentioned
dress codes. If you go to any organisation, I suspect you’ll see people wearing
a similar form of clothing for work. It may vary, of course, depending on
people’s roles, so you wouldn’t expect to see someone in maintenance wearing a
suit and tie, but often there’s a general norm. Broadly speaking, it will be
more or less “formal”.
Often, this dress code is never actually stated. New people
aren’t necessarily taken aside and given a list of acceptable clothing (yes, I
know there are exceptions – in some cases, people might specify about things
like piercings, for instance). Generally, people just pick it up by seeing what
everyone else is wearing and, by and large, they fall in with the rest.
In other instances, the norms are actually set out. For example, I
remember when I was a consultant being told I had to use specific types of
PowerPoint slides if I was speaking to clients because I had to follow the
“brand” of the firm I worked for. There was a handbook setting out the
requirements for slides and other media because the firm wanted everyone who
represented it to present the same image.
But no-one ever gave me a handbook telling me what management
style I had to use. No-one told me there was only one way of running meetings.
Of course, I did get some messages about how these things might be done through
various means, e.g. training courses I attended, performance reviews, feedback
from people around me.
But there were no “rules” sent down from senior levels of the
organisation.
What I’m saying is that the “culture” of an organisation may or
may not be set out explicitly. Some aspects of it will just be norms of
behaviour which have developed over time. No-one may ever have actually said,
“This is the way we do things”.
Some of these norms stick because they work, others continue
simply out of habit because that’s how it’s always been done. And some of these
may be bad habits, which continue to be used even though they’re not the most
effective way of doing things. And that may simply be because the people doing
them haven’t thought of a better way, not because someone has told them that’s
how it has to be done.
So how is the “culture” changed?
Sometimes change comes from the top down. Someone in a
leadership position introduces a new practice and encourages others to take it
on and develop it. Sometimes people are brought into organisations specifically
to find new ways of doing things, to shake things up.
Sometimes it comes from the bottom up. Sometimes it just happens
that someone comes up with a better way, a new idea, and others begin to copy
that so new practices come into use and spread.
Change can come from either direction. And I know that some
organisations are better than others at encouraging people to come up with new
methods, at rewarding contributions and at adopting change. I know that some
managers and leaders don’t exactly welcome bright ideas from their teams,
especially if it implies a criticism of their old way of doing things.
But changing the culture isn’t just about waiting for someone
“on high” to make a decision and then everything will be different, it’s also
about taking responsibility and trying to introduce new practices in your own
work, your own team, your own part of the organisation.
So, if people say to me,” That’s not the culture here “, I don’t
think they should use that statement as a way of saying, “I know there are
better ways of doing things but I’m not prepared to do them until someone in a
senior position says it’s OK “.
My response to that statement is, ” So… what are you going to do
to change that? ”
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