Stop blaming culture for everything

NOTE! The views presented herein are those of the author only and do not necessarily represent my affiliations in any fashion whatsoever.

Culture is an incredibly important phenomenon in corporate life and human enterprise in general – it easts strategy for breakfast and it is the root of many corporate ills. There has been much written about the topic from major authors including Schein, Kotter, Hall, Hofsteede, Trompenaars and many more. Thus, it is no problem to present culture as the elephant in the room when we discuss corporate illnesses. Yet, I am afraid it has become close to a fad in many contexts. It has become almost an acceptable way of omitting the obvious – the problems following poor leadership. 

Most incredible are the corporations where the culture is to change while the same monkeys are to inhabit a new tree… Suddenly, a decade of mismanagement or so is to evaporate by the magic wand of reorganization, workshops and lofty words. Yet, Schein recognized 50 years ago that culture cannot change as a project in itself. There has to be real, visible changes experienced by the people so that they actually see a new day rising. Moreover, these changes must be lasting and result in better performance. Once the performance is improved due to new ways of working, people will believe in these ways and they will stick. A new culture will emerge… 

Emergence is really the key word here. Emergence is a phenomenon used in complexity theory to explain how many little things interact to produce something big over time – famously; the butterfly effect amongst others. 

Most major things in real life are emergents. The financial performance of a major corporation emerges over time if done correctly. Then, it becomes a way of working. Some corporations perform well over decades, others come and go, but in the end they all succumb. This is due to the problem that over time individuals start believing they are behind all this, failing to realize that it is due to all the hard work delivered by the many over years gone by and the circumstances of the corporation such as a good market, beneficial political environment, etc. This is when decline sets in… For example, GE was there in the late 70s/early 80s, then restructured and came back. Now, GE is sliding back again…  As Hegel said;

Both reality itself and our thought about it (which were ultimately the same thing) developed by certain processes occurring (the thesis) which contained within themselves the seeds of their own frustration and destruction (the antithesis). This antithesis, however, contained its own antithesis (the negation of the negation) which emerged in the form of a synthesis of the original thesis and antithesis. This synthesis then formed the thesis for the next stage in the overall process. 

Thus, all systems carry the seed of their own destruction… and the major issue here is the people. The higher up, the bigger the impact. Hence, a toxic culture is really the result of failing leadership – not necessarily the current, but those that have been (emergence takes time) in prior years. 

Instead of blaming culture and create a fuss about changing culture, it should be handled dead on. The recipe is found in the publications of leading experts such as Schein and Kotter. Regardless of the details of the approach, real changes must occur, naturally, and this is where most corporations fail… When major change initiatives are delegated to a lesser desk than the CEO; what does it really say? 

We either have the wrong CEO, or the change initiative is not important enough… In either case, there will be little change. Many things can be delegated, but leadership can never be delegated. Long live culture; the leadership is dead.