The Pattern PeopleTM

May 2008

 
Climate Change Can be a Good Thing

    Think of your organization as a planet, a unique world with its own natural laws. What's the climate like in that world? Is it icy-cold and slick? Is it one beautiful day after another, or is it often stormy? Is the atmosphere rich enough to sustain human life?

    Now, how did your planet get that way? And can it be changed?

    Scientists may dispute whether human activity can affect the Earth's climate, but at the corporate level there's no question about it: The underlying culture of an organization - the norms of its "society," if you will - has a direct impact on whether its outlook will be cloudy or sunny. Fortunately, targeting cultural changes that might improve the outlook is a lot easier than getting people to reduce their carbon footprint.

Getting Good Data

    Like an organizational Al Gore, CEO's Mary Jane Saras, LCSW, is on a mission to help companies act on the cultural issues that affect their business outcomes. As our Vice President, Leadership Development, Mary Jane has introduced CEO clients to the Cultural Compass, a powerful tool for gaining insight into their organization's orientations, and then deciding what to do about it.

    The Cultural Compass uses a standardized survey of leaders and team members to identify a company's tendencies in four cultural dimensions:

  • People - the "human side" of work
  • Task - a focus on "getting things done"
  • Values - the "soft/conceptual side" of the culture, things like mission, ethics, and beliefs
  • Synergy - the company's commitment to creating a "dynamic environment where people work collaboratively and creatively"

    Survey respondents offer their perceptions of their company's characteristics, indicating how strongly they agree or disagree with statements such as:

  • "Around here, getting the job done is more important than how anyone feels about the job itself."
  • "There is a great emphasis on and opportunities for training and education to help employees develop and grow."
  • "Top executives are visible, accessible and make time to listen to employees."
  • "New programs, projects, and teams seem to pop up all the time, and old rules and systems are often challenged and changed."
  • "Key information critical to doing one's work is easily available."

    The combined scores of the respondents indicate the strength of the organization's culture in each of the four dimensions. These are then plotted on a matrix to represent the company's relative strengths and weaknesses, creating a profile that points leaders in the right direction for cultural improvement, renewal, or change.

    For more information on the Cultural Compass, email Mary Jane Saras or call her at 570-636-3858.



Lifestyles of the Failed and Infamous - Why Culture Counts

    Numerous studies have proven that a correlation exists between a strong corporate culture and a healthy bottom line. And recently, experts have attributed specific, disastrous failures within some organizations to the failure of company leadership to address cultural issues.

    In her book "The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse: How to Spot Moral Meltdowns in Companies - Before It's Too Late," Professor Marianne Jennings of the W.P.Carey School of Business writes that "all unethical organizations are alike; their cultures are identical and their collapses become predictable." Among the cultural "warning signs" she identifies are pressure to maintain numbers; fear and silence in the ranks and leadership; a weak board; conflict; and a tendency to use philanthropy to assuage guilt over questionable decisions.

    Professor Jennings was joined at the school recently by Bradley Preber, head of Forensic Accounting and Investigative Services at global business consultancy Grant Thornton, for a talk about ethical business cultures. Preber theorized that two aspects of corporate culture must be in alignment to avoid unethical behaviors: form (policies, written value statements, etc.) and substance (what people in the company actually do). If the substance of a company's culture fails to align with its form, undesirable behaviors are tolerated and eventually proliferate. It is up to company leaders to investigate whether pervasive bad behavior within the organization is being allowed - or even driven - by the company's own culture.

    Meanwhile, at a recent panel discussion at Emory University's Goizueta School on gaining competitive advantage through human relations, Assistant Professor Margaret Cording of Rice University reported that according to Industrial Management magazine, 85% of failed acquisitions are attributable to mismanagement of cultural issues.

    See Hot Links below to read the full reports on these discussions.



Hot Links

    CEO has a page on del.icio.us where you can check out articles and web pages we've come across that are of particular interest to CEO people. Go to http://del.icio.us/PEPtalk any time (you might want to bookmark that link for yourself), and take a look at what's happening out there!

    New this month:
  • Two university reports on panel discussions of the impact of corporate culture.
  • An article from Harvard Business Review on a subject CEO has been talking about for years: Total Leadership.


    • go there
PEPtalk is a free monthly eNews from Creative Energy Options, Inc. (CEO), a global leadership development, consulting, and coaching company dedicated to business transformation through Pattern Aware Leadership(tm). PEPtalk gets its name from Pattern Encounter Process, a powerful part of our flagship program, Total Leadership Connections. PEPtalk is published every month and filled with leadership news and views, special events, and valuable tips to energize your leadership. ©2008 Creative Energy Options, Inc.

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