You can’t fix Culture
Many executives we work with at neu come to us with a “culture problem”. Those organisations suffer from issues such as; lack of agility; inability to innovate; slow to deploy products that their customers love; or leaders without the capability to lead through complexity.
All those are symptoms, but those executives have been around long enough to understand that the symptoms are not the issue – they are just that: symptoms.
And the real problem is bigger than that. It is culture.
Except, the problem is, you can’t fix culture.
Culture is like a shadow. You can’t grab a shadow. A shadow is a reflection of the reality. And like a shadow, you can’t mould or shape culture.
So next time you hear the sentence in a boardroom or meeting room:
“We need to fix the culture of this team or organisation”
feel free to respond:
“You can’t fix culture”.
Now, I understand that may be a career limiting move; but at least you will get people’s attention to continue with the second half of that sentence - the only way to fix culture is to address the elements within the organisation.
And what are those elements?
Well, it depends.
Every team and every organisation will have their own elements.
In some cases, it would be:
-The hierarchies and approvals processes
-The structure of an organisation
-The way budgeting is done yes, the way we do budgeting impacts the culture of an organisation
-The way decisions are made
-How work gets distributed
And so on…
At Neu21 we have a name for those elements. We call it “The System of Work”.
So, when we are called by an executive into an organisation to help “fix their culture”, we start by identifying those elements in the system of work that impact the organisation most. This is when the real cultural transformation work starts, as you begin shaping the elements in a way that reflects a more desirable shadow.
You can’t grasp a shadow and you can’t fix a culture, but you can adjust the elements to cast a better light.
What to learn more?
Join our Eduardo for the first event of our Culture can’t be fixed series, on the 11th of April, at 8 am AEST with ‘Prioritisation and the Busyness Trap’, where we’ll share ways to overcome the lure of being “busy” and instead shift to being impactful, through simple prioritisation habits and practises.
Learn more and register here: https://lnkd.in/gBQN89Wd
