Overcoming the current culture to enable change

When it comes to sustainable organisational change, translating the need for a deeper approach into a 'Value' that can be understood by those firmly attached to their standard systems of judgement (accounts proven ROI) is not a task to be taken lightly.

You only have to seek out the discussions on LinkedIN that ask, "what are the three main reasons why Lean Six Sigma (and general 'organisational change) initiatives fail", and then find that this discussion has over 550 replies, from senior Directors, practitioners and consultants in 20 countries all repeating the same, with;

1. lack of management / directorship commitment,
2. lack of a clear vision and
3. inaccurate perceptions of what it takes to successfully change a business

(among variations on these themes)

Acknowledging this prompts us to realise there is something quite major amiss with the whole notion of change in business - globally! Yet somehow we will all go to work tomorrow and continue to 'Do' (behave) the same, which is probably not very different from what we did a year or maybe even 5 years ago!

So why do we fail to change what we actually do (our behaviours and method of approach) when every mid to large sized company has an active change program?

Every practitioner and consultant out there will offer you their reasons, all broadly similar to those listed above and wrap them up under a single banner when they 'Blame Culture' for these failings.

The irony is that in blaming culture, they, by default become part of a culture that will project blame onto something, anything, even something apparently intangible like 'Culture', over and above taking responsibility and asking 'what can I do differently tomorrow?'

Where Culture isn't set up as the fall guy, and is actually addressed overtly, we might look at the results we (PCC) cite in our brochure - 40% growth gain over the direct competition, 682% revenue increases (over 11yrs for 22 companies studied) compared to only 166% gain for those who ignored culture, in the same study stock prices went up by 901% for the former and only 74% for the latter and there are plenty of similar & supporting reports if you care to find them.

In summary - where we address that which can't be measured (Culture) and look at the results (that can be measured) in the long term, most would agree the difference is substantial and quite impressive.

So what stops us looking at 'sustainable' and 'long term' benefits?

Well mostly it's the OODA culture of accounting driven ROI. We react to standard accounting practice like it's a belief system - it's never (or at least rarely) questioned as a system in regards it's impact or efficacy, in relation to it's power as an inhibitor or driver of change.

It's almost as if this 'belief' sits upon a pedestal, in the world of business, the cultural acceptance of these 'systems' is akin to Eliot Ness and his crew - it is an untouchable.

So what do we find if we do question such fundamental beliefs?

Much as we (PCC) discuss in our exclusive model 'Systemic attribute reflection' our systems are only capable of reflecting the performance of our people. After all, if you re-read the points listed above, you will see we are talking about 'Commitment', 'Vision' [imagination] and 'Perception' - hardly fodder for the accounting machine of logic or the tools and techniques solutions most everyone in the 'Organisational Change' sector has relied upon for the last 35years (because you can show a tangible ROI if you apply a tool) - in fact the total opposite is true! What causes change initiatives to fail are basic 'Human' issues, relative to the way of thinking and the way of being at every level of the organisation.

and.... if that's the case ...... the world has been looking at where to focus and exert effort to elicit change backwards for the last few decades.

So why is it we don't see this; That beliefs and related behaviours are directly linked to Performance and profit? We have the answers, but they are probably best left for another blog on another day.

Regards
David