Many of you, who have happened upon this blog, will have seen Daniel Pink’s YouTube video on motivation . It is cleverly rendered and designed to appeal to those of us who predominantly think with the right side of our brain. After reading a little more of Pink, I learned that there’s no neurobiological evidence of the right/left brain concept but, as he would say, “it’s a catchy metaphor.” What’s even catchier is his contention that employees work for much more than money and that understanding this motivation is the way to work in a complex world.
Dan Pink’s fundamental thesis is that incentives, particularly monetary, only work for rudimentary tasks. The kind of tasks that are routinely outsourced. The incentive works to focus the energy of the individual on the completion of a task that requires little cognitive energy and almost no creativity. When it comes to tasks that require complexity of thought and innovation narrowing the field with an incentive actually weakens performance. This focus on a single goal often prohibits seeing a much richer, more creative, response. In a world where we are frequently looking for multiple right answers and where the goalposts are continuously changing a focus on the one right answer may seriously stunt our growth. Today’s business environments require much more than simple behavior modification principles to engage people. Yet, most human resource departments are set up to “compensate” performance not to enliven and inspire people.
What’s even more compelling in Pink’s view is the notion that motivation and purpose must be strongly linked to attract and engage talented high performing employees. The desire to contribute is a powerful motivator for most people. It therefore makes great sense for businesses to truly contemplate the ways in which they can contribute to a purpose higher than the bottom-line. What’s your organization’s purpose? Your raison d’être? If you have a hard time conceptualizing this perhaps your purpose and motivation are untethered. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods suggests that, “Virtually all of our societal organizations seem to have either forgotten or have never really known why they exist and what their higher purposes are. Instead, they have often elevated narrow individual and institutional self-interest into the only purposes that they recognize as valid.”
At Whole foods their “green and healthy” purpose is central to their business. They need to make profit in order to fulfill their mission. It’s making money to serve the greater mission of doing good and being good in the world. When people buy Whole Foods, they’re buying into something that is more significant than simply food.
The connecting of purpose and passion with profit is not new. Small and large organizations alike are beginning to realize that talented people have choices and unless an organization is offering something more than a competitive salary few truly original thinkers will be attracted. Connecting with your purpose as an organization can, quite honestly, be gut wrenching work. It requires a deep level of introspection, a dedication to ruthlessly understanding environmental and social impacts, and a commitment to creating value for all shareholders up and down the value chain. Great missions are not made in a weekend retreat. They are the product of deep thought and inquiry. This process of inquiry is, in itself, an amazing tool for engagement. Who are your employees? Why do they want to work for you? What’s gets them out of bed on Monday morning? What purpose do they seek to serve by working for you? You may be surprised and inspired by their answers…
The Acacia Group’s purpose and passion is transformative and unique leadership development for organizations and individuals seeking to live out their global citizenship. To do this we blend knowledge from Corporate Social Responsibility, Community Development and Leadership Development and Learning to emerge new opportunities for leadership excellence for our clients.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Culture Change 101 - Take a deep breath
Culture 101
I have recently been following a Globe and Mail series entitled, “Preparing for a cultural sea change? Take a deep breath”. (August 17, 2010).
It is the story of a young corporate president, Will Andrew, from Trimark Sportswear Group who believes that, “Our culture could, in fact, be a competitive advantage in our industry.” Mr. Andrew is partnering with the Globe and Mail as Trimark sets out on the path of cultural change...Andrew to blog his successes and failures, the Globe to cover it for all of Canada’s benefit. His beginning activities have been to institute a company newsletter and to redesign the office space to be more inclusive. As I read the first instalment and watched the video I could see the enthusiasm, the can do attitude, the belief in leadership, and frankly, I wondered if that will be enough.
My more than two decades in the business of changing culture tells me that there is more to it than simple structural fixes. Viewing culture as a means to an end, in this case to greater economic viability, often leads to a premature analysis of this deeply complex phenomenon, and most frequently, to the conclusion that culture is good or bad. When, in fact, it just is. Organizational culture is comprised of deeply ingrained patterns of behaviour, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values and has elements that can be deemed both good and bad. It all depends on your perspective and what you’re trying to change.
Mr Andrew believes that cultural change begins at the top...“I believe that culture starts at the top, and therefore I need to communicate as much as possible about what I am doing, thinking and implementing – and why. Culture change moves slowly, but I think we can make notable improvements by early in 2011.”
Implicit in this statement is the notion that organizational culture is something that can be created in a planning retreat and “rolled out” to an organization. There is a significant difference between organizational vision and culture although a deep connection exists between them. To be truly integrated an organization’s vision must be assimilated into the culture. This typically doesn’t happen by “driving organizational change” from the top or by quarterly reviewing key result areas. Most frequently it happens when executives speak and model aspirations that have meaning for the people of the organization. Understanding an organization’s culture is important, even critical to business success, but what is more important is what an organization stands for and believes in. An organizational vision that exists solely to improve the bottom line and shareholder profit is unlikely to rouse great passion in the hearts of most employees.
A more profitable initiative might be to ask, why do we exist as a business? What is the greater good that is achieved by our work? How do we serve the communities in which we live and work? The answer to such questions provides the greater context for employees. It is the overarching meta narrative that people care about. So what’s your business’ story? Who do you serve? What gets you up and out to work every morning? I’m willing to bet it’s not the pay cheque...that’s not enough. It’s much more likely to be the story that you tell yourself about why your work has meaning.
Culture change rarely occurs close to the top...an immutable law in organizations is that the further you move up the food chain the less likely it is that you’ll hear truth. If you are a leader in your organizations - try three simple questions. What do you want me to keep doing? What do you want me to start doing? What do you want me to stop doing? A leader who is truly interested in culture and people, a leader who has inspired enough trust to get truth, will hear everything they need to know about their culture in the answers. Culture changes when leaders show up, ask questions and make meaningful change based on the responses they hear. Changing culture is not to be tampered with lightly, it is wide and deep. It is as unique as the human personality and is as fundamentally unknowable. It is not a “tool” to “drive” business. It is, as Aristotle eloquently suggests, much greater than the sum of its parts.
The Acacia Group’s mission is to offer transformative and unique leadership development for organizations and individuals seeking to live out their global citizenship. To do this we blend knowledge from Corporate Social Responsibility, Community Development and Leadership Development and Learning to emerge new opportunities for excellence for our clients.
Posted by Christine Bonney, Managing Partner, The Acacia Group
I have recently been following a Globe and Mail series entitled, “Preparing for a cultural sea change? Take a deep breath”. (August 17, 2010).
It is the story of a young corporate president, Will Andrew, from Trimark Sportswear Group who believes that, “Our culture could, in fact, be a competitive advantage in our industry.” Mr. Andrew is partnering with the Globe and Mail as Trimark sets out on the path of cultural change...Andrew to blog his successes and failures, the Globe to cover it for all of Canada’s benefit. His beginning activities have been to institute a company newsletter and to redesign the office space to be more inclusive. As I read the first instalment and watched the video I could see the enthusiasm, the can do attitude, the belief in leadership, and frankly, I wondered if that will be enough.
My more than two decades in the business of changing culture tells me that there is more to it than simple structural fixes. Viewing culture as a means to an end, in this case to greater economic viability, often leads to a premature analysis of this deeply complex phenomenon, and most frequently, to the conclusion that culture is good or bad. When, in fact, it just is. Organizational culture is comprised of deeply ingrained patterns of behaviour, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values and has elements that can be deemed both good and bad. It all depends on your perspective and what you’re trying to change.
Mr Andrew believes that cultural change begins at the top...“I believe that culture starts at the top, and therefore I need to communicate as much as possible about what I am doing, thinking and implementing – and why. Culture change moves slowly, but I think we can make notable improvements by early in 2011.”
Implicit in this statement is the notion that organizational culture is something that can be created in a planning retreat and “rolled out” to an organization. There is a significant difference between organizational vision and culture although a deep connection exists between them. To be truly integrated an organization’s vision must be assimilated into the culture. This typically doesn’t happen by “driving organizational change” from the top or by quarterly reviewing key result areas. Most frequently it happens when executives speak and model aspirations that have meaning for the people of the organization. Understanding an organization’s culture is important, even critical to business success, but what is more important is what an organization stands for and believes in. An organizational vision that exists solely to improve the bottom line and shareholder profit is unlikely to rouse great passion in the hearts of most employees.
A more profitable initiative might be to ask, why do we exist as a business? What is the greater good that is achieved by our work? How do we serve the communities in which we live and work? The answer to such questions provides the greater context for employees. It is the overarching meta narrative that people care about. So what’s your business’ story? Who do you serve? What gets you up and out to work every morning? I’m willing to bet it’s not the pay cheque...that’s not enough. It’s much more likely to be the story that you tell yourself about why your work has meaning.
Culture change rarely occurs close to the top...an immutable law in organizations is that the further you move up the food chain the less likely it is that you’ll hear truth. If you are a leader in your organizations - try three simple questions. What do you want me to keep doing? What do you want me to start doing? What do you want me to stop doing? A leader who is truly interested in culture and people, a leader who has inspired enough trust to get truth, will hear everything they need to know about their culture in the answers. Culture changes when leaders show up, ask questions and make meaningful change based on the responses they hear. Changing culture is not to be tampered with lightly, it is wide and deep. It is as unique as the human personality and is as fundamentally unknowable. It is not a “tool” to “drive” business. It is, as Aristotle eloquently suggests, much greater than the sum of its parts.
The Acacia Group’s mission is to offer transformative and unique leadership development for organizations and individuals seeking to live out their global citizenship. To do this we blend knowledge from Corporate Social Responsibility, Community Development and Leadership Development and Learning to emerge new opportunities for excellence for our clients.
Posted by Christine Bonney, Managing Partner, The Acacia Group
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