Leading Workplace Change™

I cannot help myself from writing more about the hustler  instinct in the American persona and how it manifests itself in the corporate cultures of some companies.   One of the clear themes in historian, Walter A. McDougall’s book, Freedom Just Around the Corner - A New American History, 1585-1828 is that “we are a country and a people with a ‘penchant for hustling’ - in both the positive and negative senses.”  He talks about “how hustlers are folks who are known for getting things done, but also cut corners and cheat and above all are always in a hurry… fleeing into the future.” 

You can sense that hustler persona emerge in companies today, especially those with a “win-at-all-costs” culture.  When asked what it takes to be successful in these companies,  the following  behaviors are many times noted by employees:

• must create opportunities & exploit them
• must be aggressive, compete & take calculated risks
• do whatever it takes to get the deal done

In the more successful of these companies, there are two important values that are in place in order to harness the hustler instincts and these are:

• Achieve Results for the Good of the Customer/Public Mission
  • not for industry dominance or for personal gain
• Working Together to Serve the Customer/Public Mission

It is clear from these two required values that having a focus linking the hustler instinct to something beyond personal gain or power is important.  This is not an easy job and usually very much of a juggling act on the part of leadership. Their work is to set and maintain the customer/public service mission front and center at all times without sacrificing the willingness of individuals to take personal risks and create opportunities for the future.

Tags: Corporate Culture Observer, Good Books and Articles, Leaders Leading by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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I recently saw the documentary movie – “Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, and was enamored how this movie so unexpectedly summarizes a powerful aspect of American popular and corporate culture.  The movie filters out the American “win-at-all-costs” characteristic as one of the underlying drivers for rampant steroid use in sports today.  We see this characteristic as a strategic cultural driver in many American companies as well and it can be hard to manage.

Then I read Bob Longino’s interview with the film’s director, Chris Bell in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6/13/08).  I realized director Bell’s perspective that you need rules and they need to be reinforced in sports as similar to how the “win-at-all-costs” culture driver needs to be harnessed in companies.  In new fields or markets when the game has not been clearly defined, there are great opportunities and usually a lack of rules – think of the de-regulation of the energy business in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.  Some individuals and companies were solely out for personal gain – they saw the energy trading business as a “gravy train and they did not want to do anything to upset the train for themselves.”

Harnessing the hustler instincts of the American persona is what good leaders should be about – providing ground rules, incentives and adherence to an over-riding mission and values.  The culture of a company does not develop in a vacuum and director Bell’s sub-title to his movie – “*The Side Effects of Being American” reminds us that we are all part of the great American dream and having rules to play by can help us all.

Tags: Corporate Culture Observer by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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I just wrote a blog about a top-down culture which made me remember my first  visceral experience as a culture consultant in a company with a Daddy Knows Best culture. These kind of workplaces are similar to top-down cultures, but there is clearly a more family feel about the work environment where employees are taken care of; job security is usually guaranteed; and in return, employees are expected to be loyal.  There are not many of these Daddy Knows Best or Family cultures left as most companies broke the psychological contract with employees of life-time employment in the last 10 to 15 years.

But now, back to my first visceral experience with a Daddy Knows Best culture - we were presenting the results of our culture assessment to the top management team of the company - we had come to the point of offering recommended next steps, but then quietly, the CEO’s assistant came in and whispered in the CEO’s ear about something.  The CEO politely excused himself . No one said anything, we all just waited - 10 minutes - 30, 45 minutes.  It was very uncomfortable for everyone and it was clear (nonverbally) that it was our role as consultants to wait for the CEO to come back before we should continue.

I remember looking around the room and thinking that all of the company officers sitting around the table were male, the age of my Father and most likely had children my age - in their mid-30’s.  I suddenly realized that my Father was not infallible and that he probably sometimes worked in environments where he was treated like a child without any power.  I started to worry about the leadership of this company, of our country…  Finally, the door opened and the CEO came back into the room - we took up where we left off. 

The CEO led a spirited debate about our recommended next steps and then politely thanked us for our work.  We presented the findings to differing levels over the next 6 months, but follow-up actions were minimal. Within the next 10 years, this company was purchased by another company in its industry. Another time, we will talk about the delicate balance between loyalty, security and innovation.

Tags: Personal-Ah-Hah Moments by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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We recently started a culture project with an organization that was once part of the federal government and became “privatized” in the last 10 years.  This organization is also very safety conscious and rightly so, as they deal in hazardous materials.  So as you might expect guidelines on how work gets done are specific - expectations are that you follow all process steps.

As in many companies, they wanted their culture results in time for a big management meeting - two months away.  We were told, “don’t worry, we can get this project done quickly, we are a top-down kind of place.  We can send out notices today and people will be at a meeting tomorrow!  This sounded like a nice break from some of the companies, we had been working with where work gets done through relationships, and scheduling meetings can take forever.

Planning moved along quickly, but we came up with a few snags that are also part of top-down cultures. We got push back on some of our culture questions as being “too vague and employees would never understand them.” We are used to these kind of “level conscious” comments from managers and were able to help them realize that the openness was on purpose to enable line employees as well as managers to express in their own way how work gets done in their company.

The major barrier turned out to be waiting for the CEO to sign off on an introductory letter explaining the purpose of the culture project.  In a top-down culture, this is very important and the right process step to adhere to.  But, here we are - four weeks later, waiting for the CEO to return from a trip to Asia; attend a son’s graduation; and leave time for a long holiday weekend.  Yes, the command and control culture is alive and well. You have to wait for the commander’s OK.

Tags: Workplace Stories by Terri – older, but wiser white lady
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