Culture never sleeps

Hello, Change Champions!

This week I've been fangirling hard as?Stan Slap, and I had a bit of banter on LinkedIn.

Even if he did call me Beth.??

I wouldn't call myself your typical fan girl.

When the Lord of the Rings trilogy was being filmed in my hometown of Wellington, New Zealand, I often saw Elijah Wood (Frodo) and the other cast members around town.

Orlando Bloom (Legolas) even test-drove my car to see if he wanted to take it back to the UK with him.

On all occasions, I played it very coolly.?

I am overly mindful of how I would want people to interact with me if the situations were reversed. (The answer is like a normal person.)

So, Stan Slap wrote a?fantastic book I read some years ago called, 'Under the Hood'.

In it, he gave the best definition of organisational culture I've ever come across.

Here it is:

"Culture is a living organism that constantly gathers information to confirm its perception of reality, ensure its survival and emotional well-being."

Last week I came across?a fabulous new newsletter called 'Culture Insights', which included several definitions of culture, including Stan Slaps'.

All the definitions were good - but to me, Stan Slap's was again the best.

This definition has the edge because it talks about culture through the lens of a living organism rather than a system.

This aligns more closely with the fundamental nature of culture.

?It also implies that culture is self-regulating and ever-watchful.?

It has its own agency.?

Which is true in my experience.

Even when you're doing a bog standard ERP upgrade, such as SAP, the cultural set is still the primary determinant of how high adoption will be.

Even when working on technical/functional change pieces, you must understand the culture and strategise how to use it to your advantage to achieve high adoption.

The graveyard of unsuccessful change implementation is littered with initiatives that say, ' This is technical; we don't have to worry about culture.'??

Everything is about culture.

When I go for a job interview, my strategy is to sit in reception for at least 20 minutes before the appointment.

I like to watch receptionists interacting with visitors and employees come and go.

I'm sniffing culture in the air.

It tells you plenty.

Even the way the reception area is furnished and the priority of making it a welcoming and functional space speaks volumes.

Some years ago, I worked for an organisation that changed its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) while I was there.

The new CEO was appointed, and culture waited breathlessly to gauge and react appropriately to their new signals.

The culture was ready to self-regulate.

Unfortunately, about a week into their tenure, this CEO sent an email to all staff criticising the state of the Level 3 kitchen in the Head Office.

I was astounded that the optics weren't anticipated. (Which also tells you plenty.)

Perhaps completely unknowingly, the new CEO's message was, 'I am sweating the small stuff', 'I am here to judge and criticise', and 'I'm down in the weeds'.

How do you imagine culture responded to this, in willingness and buy-in to the new CEO's vision?!??

As 'Change Management that Sticks' says, ' Culture?is always watching, and culture never sleeps'—so be vigilant and give culture constructive signals to get high change adoption.

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Today I started a new consulting role with a utility company at the other end of New Zealand.

Back to my nomadic days of living out of a suitcase.?

The NZ market is very tough for CMs at the moment, so I'm immensely grateful to find something now that my daughter is through chemotherapy.

This might make this newsletter more sporadic, but we'll see how we go.

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Finally, thank you to those who have purchased the new digital on-demand course, 'Effective Change Impact Assessment.'

I worked hard to make this as actionable and practical as possible.

If you need to develop or brush up your change impact assessment skills, this will give you a real boost!

Find all the deets here.

Keep changin' for the better.

Here's to your change success!

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