Disconnects create culture - but is that the culture you want?

A colleague of mine shared three key principles to leadership: 1) all problems are people problems; 2) we're all accomplishing our objectives; and 3) you can't change people, but you can enlighten them.

Following that discussion, I came across some old training materials I developed that held a similar message: 1) all people are motivated; 2) people are motivated by their own reasons, not yours; and 3) you can't motivate someone else, but you can create an environment where they become self-motivated (DiSC training/Wiley publications).

As leaders we spend a lot of time trying to change behavior instead of trying to change the environment that fosters and encourages the behavior. Systems are designed to produce the outcomes they produce...don't like the outcome? Change the system.

If you haven't seen the brief film about how wolves change rivers, take a look: https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/how-wolves-change-rivers/. Like this park, organizations are ecosystems where even small changes can have huge impacts.

Want better or different outcomes? Take a hard look at how you are living your organizational values. Disconnects between what we say and what we do create culture. What are your organizational values? What are the behaviors that support and sustain them? How are those behaviors rewarded? How are people held accountable to them?

If you say you value empowerment, but the micro-manager gets the promotion, there's probably a flaw in your system. You'll need to either adjust your organizational values to include micro-management or revise the system that rewards this undesired behavior.

I believe that people believe they are doing the right thing. People do things that return rewards (recognition, status, dollars). When people don't do the right thing, perhaps it is because they feel they are being forced to do so by circumstances beyond their control...by disconnects between what they hear the organizational values are and what they actually experience. Create the right environment where people are self-motivated to do the right things by shrinking the gap between what you say and what you do. If you don't change the system, you'll never reap the rewards of revitalized rivers.