I mapped the ASX 100’s Corporate Values and this is what I learnt… (Part 1)

I sat down today to write a reflective piece about my ‘journey’ through the corporate values of the ASX100. But then I realised I had to explain why I was undertaking such a task to begin with. So, dear reader, the title of this article is a bit misleading for now, but I promise you, I will get to the good stuff in a follow up (or 2…)

And so to begin.

I’m currently in the midst of a Masters of Creative Intelligence and Strategic Innovation at UTS (Yes, it’s a mouthful! Yes, it’s super interesting! No, I don’t know what I’m going to ‘do’ with it.) And as part of a series of Labs within the Masters program I have been examining the challenge of organisational transformation.

In this Lab series we are given carte-blance to choose a knotty problem from our work/professional context. I chose to express my challenge as a provocation, as follows; “Despite significant investment in transformation, (both in direct monetary terms as well as in the focus of leaders, staff and other stakeholders) in most critical ways the organisation of today looks and feels no different than it did 15 years ago”

Or in other words, the RoI of organisational transformation efforts is absolutely shambolic…

This is not a ‘throw away’ challenge to me. It is vexing.

Some of you who work in and around transformation might disagree with me. Certainly a number of the people I interviewed did (at least at first.) Generally when offered the premise, the response was a version of “Well that depends on what you mean by ‘transformation’”

To which I would reply “Well, yes, obviously! But I am being deliberately ambiguous and vague in order to stimulate discussion so indulge me”

At first, they would try to think about all of the things about organisations that have changed. And to be fair there is a lot about the contemporary organisation that has shifted; we offer different products and services, we tend to treat customers better, we use a lot of different technology, we work more flexibly (at least since Covid) some of the worst interpersonal behaviours that used to be common in the workplace are no longer seen as acceptable…

And yet, I (and most people I speak to) ultimately and fundamentally believe large organisations still somehow do look and feel the same as they used to, even if it is difficult to express, pinpoint or distil. The realisation (or resignation), when it comes is pretty bleak… but it almost always comes. ?

Equally, I can’t scientifically measure the ‘investment’ side of this equation. I couldn’t find any reliable data on how much gets spent by large organisations on ‘transformation’, and let’s be honest, any numbers would be meaningless anyway – subject to all sorts of assumptions, criteria, caveats and other *asterisks. But we all know, just by being in these organisations that no matter how you measure it – the amount of money being spent on trying to change organisations has got to be “pretty bloody large”.

In trying to understand and explain this paradox (i.e. how ‘rational’ and ‘commercially minded’ organisations could continue to invest in something with such a dismal track record) I came up with the concept of ‘Performative Transformation.’ As I explained in my paper

‘A helpful metaphor when thinking about how the rhetoric around organisational transformation has evolved and morphed, ostensibly to keep pace with societal norms and expectations is that of a ‘performance.’ The idea that people are reciting lines or employing language in a performative sense emerged across interviews. I have therefore come to see transformation as a kind of ‘theatre’, one in which all the actors know that they are engaged in a ‘make believe’ process, with no real impact. I have called this “performative transformation’

Performative Transformation then, is the idea that organisations (and more specifically people within them) are simply transforming their ability to appear to have transformed. It’s all quite meta, but let me try to make it real. You may have noticed the language of leaders evolving, particularly when it comes to value driven topics such as purpose and wellbeing. But despite this language, the focus in communications, leadership programs (and real dollars being spent in pursuit of somehow bringing these values to life) – very little is actually changing. Many of us still somehow feel less connected to our company’s purpose than we did before we spent any time discussing it. Similarly, wellbeing on a mass scale seems to be ever deteriorating despite visible leadership and organisational focus.

What has emerged is a veritable gulf in the human experience of working in one of these large corporates – between what we hear (and indeed what we say ourselves), and what we ultimately believe and experience.

I myself experience and simultaneously contribute to this gap. I solemnly and earnestly participate in workshops aimed at encouraging transparency, articulating purpose and identifying team behaviours. I make personal commitments as a team member and leader that I truly believe in (at least in the moment.) And yet deep down I know that no matter my best intentions (and those of my team and business leaders) we are all just fudging around the edges of an organisation that will continue to operate in largely the same way.

Performative Transformation provides a smokescreen for a lack of genuine progress. We have all heard (and instinctively believe) the statistic that over 60% of change efforts fail. On one level, with this track record, it seems crazy and irrational that organisations would continue to pour money into the apparent sinkhole that is ‘transformation’. But it’s actually little wonder.

Because ultimately, our organisations are all still operating within the same structures and are still subject to the same paradoxes as they were when I first hatched as a baby management consultant during the last Financial Crisis. Whilst the espoused values and drivers of organisations appear to be moving on, the system that they operate within remains stubbornly in place

I needed to take a closer look at those espoused values, so I decided to take on the equal parts tedious, hilarious and depressing task, of finding and mapping the Corporate Values / Behaviours / Principles of the ASX100.

Stayed tuned…