Culture & Tradition

Culture & Tradition

Change Article 3

In the mid eighties and one grain institution was habitually several years behind in its annual reporting. Despite multiple recruitment to beef up manpower to improve performance, the institution stuck to tradition. Culture is a set of beliefs and values adhered to and held sacred by a group of people. More recently, we have witnessed the civil service "dream team" make efforts to change government performance. After two years of trying, it would be safe to say that deeply ingrained culture (unwritten) supported by policy (written) frustrated their efforts to improve the performance of the civil service. It is (often) believed that the easiest way to change a culture is to change the people. That unfortunately, is not true. Deliberate effort must be made to establish a new underlying culture to facilitate successful organization change.

 

Culture is at once demanding, liberating, and imprisoning and condemning. Culture guides us and inspires us. It teachers us where there is no teacher. At no other time will one face culture with all its demagogic charm, impropriety and vice as when a threat to its existence is called. When culture is faced with extinction, it will fight with the fury of a wounded leopard. Change is such a signal.

 

Every single organization has a culture. As managers, we either work with it or challenge it. When we introduce change, we can safely assume that we will be working against culture and tradition. As change managers, we must never underestimate the power of culture. To extract a tradition is like extracting a molar (tooth). However, apart from appreciating that it is a rogue task- it can be done. Before we extract the molar we need to x-ray its roots and examine their positioning. Major roots of culture are language, behavior and perspective. These generate the overall attitude and image encountered in an organization.

 

Step one; change the language. Or shall we say, "change the words people use". Certain words dominate a culture. In order to accelerate change in a culture these words may need to be eliminated from use altogether. An up-market hotel I once worked with tackled the problem in a most innovative fashion. In order to re-brand itself the hotel changed its name. But staff even senior staff continued to refer to the hotel by its old name. This frustrated the change process because nobody really accepted that anything had changed. The quality of service remained the same. Someone came up with the idea to impose a 500/= fine on anyone mentioning the old name. After a few weeks of heavy "staff losses" the old name disappeared altogether and a new image began to emerge. It was all done in a jovial spirit, but the message was loud and clear. To allow change an opportunity to take root, we need to alter speech patterns, phrases, and word images that convey much more than their dictionary definitions.

 

Second; change behavior. Several organizations have dealt successfully with lateness by introducing measures as simple as a "sign-in" register, or as drastic as punitive pay cuts. The aim here is clearly to adjust behavior. Our job as managers in change is to define the character that will project an image in line with the desired change. We may not have policy responsibility, but by examining operating rules and developing group consensus on acceptable work behavior, we can remove obstructions and create an enabling environment for changed staff behavior.

 

Since culture is essentially a matter of consensus, we can use this angle to win support for constructive behavior change amongst staff. Discuss the options, alternatives and implications of positive and negative behavior with staff. Derive a consensus on behavior that will lead to corporate benefit. It is the rare person who will publicly make a stand against what is in the best interest of all. It is a pity that often in order to adjust behavior punitive conditions are attached to rules and regulations to motivate adherence, but even that is better than just hoping people will change.

 

Third; perspective. This is another tenacious root of culture that locks the organization in a time zone. The book of Ecclesiastes says "it is not from wisdom that one talks of the good old days". Yet many group norms, values and visions are based on the past. The manager who initiates a new change will face opposition, while a manager pedaling an old lost cause is more likely to get a hearing. The truth is this predisposition with the past will not get us where we want to go. As managers, we need to wrestle and work hard to free people from this imprisoning element of culture to give them a future and hope. What we must do is actually cut off links with the past. This may sound harsh but please consider the context. It is futile to revise last years non-performing estimates and present them as this years budget in the hope that this year will be better.

 

Despite emotional and nostalgic attachments to old (working) methods and process, however effective they were in their day, not accepting that they are no longer efficient is suicidal. Insist that new research be done and new plans be drawn up. Ensure forward-looking budgets are drawn up. Only consider and accept proposals meeting current and future conditions for your change strategy. Can managers change culture? No! As managers we can initiate a set of conditions that instill new traditions for a new more desirous culture to emerge.

 

Allan Bukusi, 2003