Chris Michel said of my post:
>This is a very interesting paradox. I agree that the issue is symptomatic
>and system related. We can not or should not attempt to change people. But
>we must at least create an environment where people can be receptive to
>change or, how are we going to change the culture? How will the
>organization reach a state where "the culture has really changed?"
Here is a saying I got from Peter Scholtes: People don't resist change, they
resist being changed. To which I might add, in other words, being forced to
conform to someone else's version of what they should do.
Chris poses the question how are we going to change the culture unless we
have an environment where people are receptive to change? My answer would
be that top management has a lot of influence on the nature of that
environment or culture. Employees adapt to the environment created by top
management. In creating a culture based on the idea that the organization
is a system, this will mean managers will want to facilitate more
cooperation among people, focus on process improvement, and improving
quality for customers, and so on. What top management must do is help
establish values that generate such behaviors. And then, once the culture
is established, they have to let go of personal ownership of it. In a
really healthy culture, I believe that everyone feels ownership and
responsibility for its perpetuation. And top management can no longer
decide to make wholesale changes in the culture nor would they want to.
The final question Chris asks implies a sense of culture as being
static--changing from one static state to another static state. The fact is
that cultures evolve and change just like everything else. I think what we
want to establish is a culture where everyone is fully aware of that. Then
the direction the change takes will be more toward getting better and better
rather than being pummeled by changes in the larger environment in which the
organization operates. In the latter situation, the organization and the
culture will be changing, but it will not necessarily be for the good.
John Woods
jwoods@execpc.com
--John Woods <jwoods@execpc.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>