Mr. Tony Hayward knew there were safety problems at British Petroleum (BP) when he became CEO in 2007.  And according to an in-depth article in the New York Times, he put on a ‘culture change’ hat and started altering the outward symbols of what was valued at the company (art in the corporate hdqtr’s lobby) – talking about the need to act differently and learn from mistakes (during business school speeches). 

What he did not seem to do was  to first put on a “culture sleuth’ hat - and dig deeper to understand the reasons for why BP had a problem with keeping safety – a number 1 priority.

 …forgetting the past and moving quickly into the future is a common approach of leaders who are striving to transform their organization.  What starkly stands out in this article and other commentaries is the difficulty BP had in recent years in balancing the company’s more recent ‘high risk=high gain’ strategy with maintaining ‘safety first priorities.’

 From a ‘culture sleuth’ perspective, it is easy to understand why risk-taking over-rode safety concerns.  ’High risk=high gain’ is the new strategic driver of the BP culture and positioned by leadership as a primary source of competitive advantage.  It is always going to trump operational ‘safety first’ practices, unless balancing systems are engrained into the culture.

These balancing systems are not easy to establish and many times are learned the hard way through trial & error experience – not what traditional transformative leaders want to wait around for.  Their heads are already five years into the future – not always on the nitty-gritty operational details.

Consequently what can 21^st century leaders learn from BP’s experience?

• Strategic drivers in a culture are strong and can over-ride operational drivers
• Transformation of an organization requires multiple lines of focus
  • eyes on the long-term prize of a new strategic direction
  • attention and muscle on the operational messages and reward systems
    • but, most of all the ability to listen and respond to the input of employees who are on the ground making things happen

 Finally, if you do not develop a culture sleuth ability to link clues together, you may find yourself without a job, as Mr. Hayward is now facing at BP….

The brave new world of 21^st century organizations is making folks re-think the fundamentals of corporate culture.  Rather than thinking of sub-cultures as problems to work around – the newer ideas are more about how to openly create sub-cultures as strategies for improved performance.  At the same time, recognizing the increased diversity this will bring!

 In a www.forbes.com opinion piece Saj-nicole Joni notes:

…in many corporations the push for a unified, monolithic organizational culture needs to yield to the development of a multicultural landscape where different units build the localized cultures they specifically need…

She also notes this openness to sub-cultures will require:

…the whole organization (to be) unified by a fundamental set of values, (and to) develop its skill at working across those multiple cultures, respecting their differences and making the tensions between them productive.

 We are seeing examples of this new thinking, specifically in holding companies with multiple consumer brands – across differing continents with a younger and more independent workforce.  Their focus is on achieving results through their people with a focus on the customer to build an emotional attachment to a brand – all fundamental, unifying values.

 Simultaneously, these companies are giving leaders of differing brands and units freedom in how to reach goals on the operational level based on national culture, target audience of the brand and characteristics of their local workforce.

 Integrating and supporting all of these sub-cultures is what a mentor of mine, Dr. Roosevelt Thomas has been talking about for years – he calls these sub-cultures, strategic diversity mixtures.  And, he advances the craft of making quality decisions in the midst of diversity (differences, similarities, tension and complexity).

 It looks like 21^st  century leaders are starting to see shaping flexible corporate cultures and leveraging diversity as part of our brave new world.  They are viewing these challenges, not as problems, but as answers to bind organizations together in our changing world.

A friend recently asked – “please help me figure out how to navigate the dysfunctional world of my non-profit workplace.  This place has a great external reputation for helping children, but internally is a crazy place to work.”

She proceeded to describe the craziness as lack of consistent ways of doing things, slow decision-making and a management style of friendly to your face – but finger pointing and blaming when something goes wrong. 

What most disturbed my friend was the lack of support from the non-profit’s general manager and board of directors for any of her efforts to document spending and provide more transparent financial reporting.  All the while expressing fear and gloom about the non-profit’s cash flow and ability to pay its bills!

My friend is experiencing the classic corporate culture of a mission-driven organization – outwardly focused on the task of helping children – and rightly so.  But when taken to the extreme, the culture opposes anything which takes time away from ‘doing the mission.’ 

This many times leads to lack of  focus on putting in efficient operational systems and disdain for managerial expertise and accountability.  To survive, employees must become self-motivated enough by the mission to figure out how to do things on their own – reinforcing the belief that systems are not necessary.

Some recommendations I gave to my friend to help navigate this kind of culture are:

• recognize that many people work in a non-profit in order to personally ’do the mission’
• link all ideas for change to how ‘to do the mission’ better
• seek out similar-minded people to be allies in change – you are most likely not alone
• work in a small group to produce improved ways to ‘do the mission’ and then share your results

Many people working in non-profits accept the dysfunction of their workplace as the downside of being able to work at something meaningful to them.  It does not have to be that way.  The focus on the mission should always be strong, but it is possible to balance it with a just as meaninful focus on internal operations.  Decide if you want to take on the role of being a ‘culture shape-shifter,’ and know it will take dedication and a thick skin. 

Sometimes you believe in something and act upon it in your life – and then someone else finds a way to name and describe it and you say – “ah-hah, that is what I have been doing, but now I have a name for it.”  The term ‘Fast Zebras’ is one of those names.

‘Fast Zebras’ are folks who know how to work the formal and informal elements of organizations to make things happen.  They are important folks in helping to ‘shape-shift’ corporate culture within all kinds of enterprises.  A new book – Leading Outside the Lines describes these kind of folks and the authors even have a quiz to test your own personal ‘Fast Zebra’ quotient!

This book talks about how to mobilize and balance the rationale/structural with the emotional/tribal elements found in all groups.  This mobilization helps people work together to more easily achieve goals. 

For example, I recently got my extended family to work together and make a tough decision- where to go on a holiday vacation – the key was combining cost and ease of travel with renewing family memories.  It definitely took some ‘Fast Zebra’ footwork!

This kind of footwork is all about balance and mobilization – instilling pride in the past to drive change in the future while knowing how and when to go outside standard operating procedures.  These sound like good approaches for all of us in navigating life and if we need to be culture shape-shifters to achieve enterprise-wide goals. 

So take the quiz and if you get high marks as a ‘Fast Zebra,’ wear your stripes and hooves proudly. If not, try out some of the behaviors outlined and see how they work for you. 

As current leaders of companies and governments around the world struggle to address the issues of today, there is a gnawing sense that we need to do a better job in preparing the next generation of leaders.  What do they need to even want to take on the mantle of 21st century leadership?

To start – it is a belief that being part of a larger group-an organization can be good.  And this goodness can come from knowledge and skills on how to shape the culture of a group to meet the needs of changing times.

A column in The National Newspaper, based in Abu Dhabi made me realize this is a global concern.  The columnist, Rehan Khan noted:

Times are tough for young leaders;  their role models in business have failed them; the ideas they were taught have been undermined; and the companies they looked up to have disappeared.

Later in the column, he quotes a London Business School professor as offering next steps (hope).

Young managers will often look to the top to emulate their leaders, but the next generation of leaders would do better to look at themselves in order to create the leadership culture that is fit for purpose in the 21st century.

Accordingly, for all potential 21st century leaders – experienced or not – start to think about taking charge of corporate culture as your job, within organizations and across national boundaries.  There are skills to be learned and successes/mistakes to live through.  It will be your personal source of competitive advantage and a source of pride of being part of something bigger than yourself.

Recently observed an article on msn.com’s Career Builder page that piqued my interest – 5 Workplace Rules That Are Made to Be Bent.  I put on my culture sleuth hat and decided to investigate – looking for some clues about potential shifts in corporate culture, based on changing worker expectations.  What I found is that the work hard, action-oriented and look out for yourself workplace may have a harder time finding and keeping employees. 

Work smart rather than hard was the first shift that popped out.

The advice from career builder was – Logging more time doesn’t necessarily mean you’re more productive or turning out better quality work. 

 The second shift was be strategic when taking on more responsibilities.

…biting off more than you can chew can lead to burn-out…In short, never over-promise and under-deliver.

Next was the shift toward managing people well is important.

If you assume a management-level role, you may not be able to do as much of the hands-on work that you enjoy, instead spending your time securing resources, making sure projects move forward and resolving workplace conflicts. 

The final shift is a deepening of the current trend toward the networked organization where work gets done through relationships rather than through hierarchy.

Don’t under-estimate how important your relationships with peers can be.  When faced with a tight deadline on an important project, help from a colleague could mean the difference between success or not.

These trends are what I see folks talking about within organizations, but not always so sure on whether to act upon or not.  

Sounds like the outsiders’ advice is to go ahead – take the risk- try on new behaviors – and see if they work – and start creating the corporate culture of the future!

I’ve taken to reading about current events through the eyes of  news outlets from around the world - looking for cultural clues as to the values and belief systems that drive decisions of countries, regions and their organizations across the globe.  A cultural clue that recently caught my eye was the consistent long-term planning focus of the government of China.

A brief article in chinadaily.com, recaps Chinese President Hu Jintao’s New Year Address.  The focus was on Major Achievements in 2009.  He talked about how 2010 will be the last year of the country’s 11^th Five Year Plan!  Their first Five Year Plan started in 1953.  You can also go to a Chinese Government website to read about each of these Plans.  On this site, there are charts tracking the results/achievements of previous Five Year Plans.

Of course, long-term planning is a traditional characteristic of centralized, communist economies.  Though China now describes its planning as from a “socialist market economy approach,” the focus is still long-term with measurement of results.

As China plays more and more of a global leadership role, be on the look-out for how these values of: thinking long-term and achievement-orientation affect the workings of global companies and institutions.

If you have the inclination or the need to tinker with an organization’s culture – you might want to start by becoming a culture sleuth.

Culture sleuths are problem solvers.  Their job is to uncover clues and develop leads which explain why problems are not easily solved.  The secret is to keep personal antennae tuned for data that can be linked together to detect the underlying cause for a problem.

You want to become a culture sleuth to become more successful in what you do –  help yourself more deeply recognize and solve problems in the workplace – in community organizations – or why there is a global crisis in the banking industry!

Imagine yourself to be an investigative reporter, such as Carl Bernstein or Bob Woodward - or work for Al Jazeera news network – or at The Smoking Gun website.

The job of a culture sleuth is to look for the story behind the story – to be curious and to continuously dig deeper.  The purpose is to find the underlying reasons for people’s actions today that may have been put in place during another time and place.  These underlying clues guide the sleuth to a set of shared values and a belief system that help solve a problem.

Does this kind of problem-solving work sound intriguing to you?  It is a good way to get yourself ready to tinker with organizational culture.

1.     Observe what is put up on the wall (pictures, plaques, web-pages)

2.     Investigate what an organization or community measures (annual reports)

3.     Dig deeper into stories about founders, leaders – their response to crisis and success (news articles & history timelines)

4.     Link the clues together (create a shared culture map)  

Economic instability is still with us.  And, we keep hearing it is going to take awhile to work ourselves out of this financial crisis of the new global age.  Are there culture best practices that allow some companies to make it through hard economic time more easily than others?

Yes, recently deceased management guru Peter Drucker, recommended in 1991 that leaders build on their existing culture to make change happen.  He gave examples about how Japan and Germany re-built their societies after the Second World War through rewarding new habits based on traditional national values.

Today, it is still the most reliable and quickest way to tinker with and re-direct an organizational culture.  An important heads-up for leaders before they start tinkering is to first understand the lay-of-the-land today – what are their organization’s current beliefs and values…and what new habits are needed to move forward into the future.

Now comes Drucker’s best kept secret of culture change – DO NOT REINVENT THE WHEEL – seek out individuals or groups within your organization that already exhibit these desired new habits and ask them how they do it.

Next, shift recognitions, rewards and consequences in support of the new desired habits.  And finally, here comes the hardest part.  

Leaders need to practice the new habits themselves – be willing to make mistakes and tinker some more – until the formula is found that helps their organization move through the hard economic times and into the future!

Voila – best practices for tinkering with culture in five easy to read paragraphs!

Something felt out-of-kilter while watching the State of the Union (SOTU) address last week.  As usual in this event, the media seemed to focus more on who clapped, stood up and frowned than on the content of the speech.  This focus is a traditional ritual at SOTU, as a way to determine the degree of political support for the President’s proposed agenda.  At the same time, you could read this attention as highlighting the reality of a very inwardly focused U.S. Congress – more interested in themselves than on meeting performance goals of crafting legislation.

After watching the drama unfold, I started to think about the U.S. Congress as a corporation – we can call it “U.S. Congress, Inc.”  It has a budget of $3.5 trillion and a customer base of 308 million people.  It has approximately 15,000 employees – 635 professionals (with union-like affiliations to political parties), 14,000 staff and an outsourced administrative staff of about 1,000.

Its formal leaders, President Pro-tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House are really in name only with little positional power.  While the real power is held informally by the professional union (party) leaders.  The most common forms of decision-making are consensus, arm-wrestling, filibustering and voting.  And finally, the strategic planning process is a set of vague recommendations done by another group, called the Executive Branch with little power to enforce.  Mmmm, not an organizational design that one would say is designed for efficient achievement of performance goals.

Now, this complicated design was fostered by the founding fathers of “U.S. Congress, Inc.”  This design’s purpose was to support their belief in the importance of checks and balances as the best way to maintain a democratic form of government.  This central belief of division of power is what drives the corporate culture of “U.S. Congress, Inc” and it is not a bad belief.

Following this line of thought, it also makes sense why the professional employees of “U.S. Congress, Inc.” spend much time inwardly focused.  Deciding when to stand up and when to clap is most likely one of the easiest decisions of their work day!

As an outsider looking in, there is only one recommendation that makes sense to increase organizational efficiency at “U.S. Congress, Inc.”  It is a very similar recommendation given to leaders of many big corporations.  Before next year’s State of the Union address, have formal and informal leaders spend time with the Executive Branch to develop clear performance goals.

So next year, the media focus will be on which of “U.S. Congress, Inc’s” customers are standing, applauding or frowning!