What is Organizational Culture?

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"Culture eats strategic plans for lunch every time!"å Bill Rupp, MD & CEO, Luther Midelfort, Mayo Health System

What is this thing called organizational cultural and why is it important to you? Good question; one that we all know is critical to success of an organization but is difficult to describe and influence.

Webster describes culture as, “(a) development, improvement or refinement of the intellect, emotions, interests, manners, and taste, (b) the result of this: refined ways of thinking, talking, and acting.” Organization is defined as “a body of persons organized for some specific purpose”. Not a lot of help so far but let us explore further.

We want a group of dedicated employees working together for the common good of the system or organization. Sounds good but can it be created or modified?

Like it or not, all organizations have an organizational culture. It may be as desired but it may not. Some organizations are a collection of fiefdoms with departments competing with each other for recognition, funds, and assignments. Individuals may be competing with each other for promotions, salary increases, bonuses, recognition, offices, and assignments. Even top executives may be competing with the record of the previous top executive.

This competition and jockeying for position can lead to hoarding of information, which prevents others from doing their job as needed. It can lead to back-biting, sub-optimizing of the processes and systems, and demoralization.

What we want and need is a team working together to achieve the best possible result. We want the workforce to have pride in their work, enjoy their workdays, always strive to learn and improve, pleasant with each other, customers and suppliers, and focused on achieving the Aim of the organization.

Experience has shown the teaching of tools and methods will not endure unless there is a sustaining improvement culture of the organization that is developed and nurtured. To do this, we:

1. Align employees to the Aim and Strategy of the organization. It needs to be communicated to all employees, teams identified to lead efforts on the strategic initiatives, measured, and progress communicated monthly.
2. Guide behavior within the organization. Develop a standard of desired behavioral guidelines and communicate to all employees, and again monitor progress on a regular basis. Semi-annual surveys of employees can be conducted to provide an opportunity to report on observations on behavior consistent with the guidelines.
3. Build continuous improvement competency in all employees. Providing training on process improvement, employ data based analysis and decision making, and lead by example. Emphasize process and not people; in other words, fix the problems and not the blame.
4. Provide opportunities for intrinsic motivation. Effective motivation has to come from within the individual; extrinsic motivation attempts are rarely helpful and may even backfire. Especially beware of financial rewards. Enable the employees by providing education and training to allow them to learn and grow. Empower the employees by delegating authority to improve work processes. Allow the workers more of a sense of satisfaction in their work by knowing they are improving the way they do things. And, don’t forget to communicate and celebrate success.
5. Manage must model the way! The above will accomplish nothing if employees observe management with contrary behavior.

Dr. Rupp was right, culture can be a powerful negative force but it can also be a tremendous force for the success of the organization. As with anything else in the organization, it must be developed, improved, and nurtured.

Getting the Workforce to Work Together

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Nothing is as destructive to an organization as employees working at self-interests. We are taught that everyone is doing their best but that best might not be for the good of the system. They want to do the best for the organization but dissention and competition within the workforce can cause them to focus efforts on themselves. A collaborative workforce is much more productive than a collection of individuals that may be working at cross-purposes. This is where leadership differentiates itself from management.

Leaders first establish a vision of the desired future of the organization. This vision needs to be memorable, inspirational, and compelling. Then the people need to be involved in the definition of the strategic steps needed to achieve the vision. If they are involved, they will have ownership; it will bind the workforce together in the pursuit of that vision.

In order to build teamwork and esprit-de-corps, leaders need to:

·      Model the behavior that they desire because the workers are always watching and they will emulate behavior.

·      Understand the needs and interests of the workforce and help them satisfy those needs.

·      Think long-term and act for the betterment of the entire system.

·      Communicate progress on the achievement of the strategic actions on a regular basis to keep interest, enthusiasm, and positive thinking on the effort.

·      Lead, not dictate. Neither should they abdicate responsibility.

Everyone needs to work on establishing cooperative relationships but it starts with the leader. Competition within the workforce can be very destructive; it promotes win-lose situations. What are desired are win-win activities and results. All need to remind themselves of fixing the problem and not the blame. They need to develop a mutual trust and respect for each other. They need to exchange ideas and help each other. One-on-one meetings often can solve misunderstandings. Leaders can initiate the improvement in relationships within the workforce by replacing individual rewards with rewards for everyone. They can empower and enable others to act and invent options for mutual gain.

Lastly, leaders need to nurture self-esteem of the workers by promoting the understanding that everyone is important. Positive reinforcement should be used often and sincerely.

The workforce should have an input in planning and creating new ideas. People should be given important work and then discretion in getting it done. Micromanaging or constantly looking over workers shoulders inhibits creativity and slows down the work. Visibility should be given on progress and results. Leaders and workers alike need to remember Stephen Covey’s advice that if we want to be trusted, we need to be trustworthy. We must also trust others, and remember they are always watching our behavior.

By involving the workforce in the planning and getting their buy-in to achieve the organization’s goals, developing cooperative behavior throughout the organization, and elevating the self-esteem of the workforce, the old adage the whole is greater than the sum of the parts can be proved in your organization.

Life Balance

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We are accustomed to taking inventory of our stock at work and looking at our bank balance, but do we an audit of our life, as we should? We tend to get stuck in routines and focus on the urgent activities at the moment and not what is important long term. An audit of the balance in our lives can be divided into three categories-satisfaction, provisioning, and growth.

Do we have pride in both what we are doing in our work life as well as our home life? Do we achieve a sense of accomplishment in both? Are we achieving recognition for our accomplishments for our selves and our family members? Are we happy and finding enjoyment? Your life should be so exciting that you cannot wait to get to work in the morning and cannot wait to get home in the evening.

Do we experience fear or anxiety at work or at home? Dr. W. Edwards Deming used to differentiate between fear and anxiety; he said fear is caused by external factors for which we have no control, like war, weather phenomena, and fire. He said people cause anxiety; and we may be able to do something about that.

Most of us need to work to provide income for living needs and for our retirement; but there are other elements of provisioning. We need to provide love and respect for our family members, co-workers, neighbors, and fellow citizens. We need to contribute to our community and to various organizations of which we belong. A good idea is to identify long-term goals for our life. The average life expectancy in the United States today is about 79 years, which gives us about 50 years to achieve what we desire to become at the peak of our work life and personal achievement. We need to ask ourselves in this assessment if we are on the road to our ultimate aim, and if not, get back on the right track to make it happen in the needed timeframe.

The third category of life balance is growth. Are we learning at the rate needed to reach our aim in life, both formal and informal? Are we getting the needed experience? Are there other parts of our aim to consider like spiritual growth, personal development, family achievements, and a list of sights and experiences to consider?

When interviewing job applicants, it is a good idea to ask them what their long-term goal is in life. If the current position does not help them get to their goal, don’t hire them. They will only end up being unhappy and less than desired employees. Plus, you will have done them a service to think about what they really want in their next position.

It is necessary to discuss your aim with your spouse or significant other to ensure that you have the same goal. You may find that by this discussion that you have to rethink your aim to make sure that you really do have balance between your career and family. Changes may be required in your aim, or in your action. The real value in the assessment of your work and family lives is the thought process of determining what you really want and need, and then getting on the path to achieve it.