Harvard Business Review: Cultural Change That Sticks

Most change initiatives either fail or fall far short of original expectations. Reasons vary but, more often than not, those who lead the initiatives are unable to avoid or overcome cultural resistance, the result of what James O’Toole so aptly characterizes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of customer.”

In the July/August 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review, Jon Katzenbach, Ilona Steffen, and Caroline Kronley share their thoughts about how to complete a “culture change that sticks.” Here is a brief introduction to this brilliant article.

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When properly harnessed, an organization’s culture can be a true differentiator that no competitor can duplicate. However, as pressures on companies build, leaders often become frustrated with the comparatively slow pace of culture evolution. In the rush to implement new strategies and make performance improvements, the legacy culture—employees’ ingrained ways of doing things—can seem like the greatest barrier to change. Unfortunately, most well-intended efforts to “change the culture” fizzle out, fail, or backfire.

Here’s the good news: There is an alternative.

Drawing on recent research and real examples, the article’s authors present a new approach that leverages what is strongest in an organization’s existing culture, providing a practical road map for real, substantive evolution in employees’ ways of behaving by focusing on a few critical shifts. This approach has been tested and proven in client engagements across a range of regions and industries.

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To download the pdf and read the complete article, please click here.

Jon R. Katzenbach is a senior vice president in the New York office of Booz & Company and the leader of the Katzenbach Center, which focuses on the development and application of innovative ideas for organizational culture and change. He is the co-author, with Douglas K. Smith, of The Wisdom of Teams (Harvard Business School Press, 1993) and, more recently, Leading Outside the Lines: How to Mobilize the Informal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results (Jossey-Bass, 2010), co-authored with Zia Khan. Ilona Steffen is a director in the Zurich office of Booz & Company, and Caroline Kronley is a former senior associate in the firm’s New York office.

6 Questions for a “Surviving in Chaos” era

News item – 17 year old Nive Jayasekar creates a mobile app for Home Depot for organizing projects over a weekend, wins $10,500, and she can’t decide wither or not to take job offer from Facebook.
Facebook Wants To Hire This 17-Year-Old But She Hasn’t Decided If She Wants The Job

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So, I was in an elevator recently with a man who was completely on task on his Blackberry.  As he looked up, I asked, “so, are you about ready to give your Blackberry up?  It is on its last legs, I read.”  His face registered the horror.  He said, “I’m just not ready.”  You know, the equivalent of the “they will have to pry it out of my hands” look.    After all, he grew up digitally on his Blackberry.  (And, after all, Blackberry is now “ancient” – the first ones came out in the days of the dinosaurs, way back in 1999).  He doesn’t want to learn the new replacement device.  But, he will have no choice.  If Blackberry survives, it will be a miracle.  (And, with a new touch screen, which I read just recently that RIM is  now preparing/developing.  The tiny little keyboard really is yesterday’s technology).

Chaos in 1987 – even more chaos today

The first book I presented at the First Friday Book Synopsis, way back in April, 1998, was The Circle of Innovation by Tom Peters.  A decade earlier, in 1987, Tom Peters wrote Thriving on Chaos.  The book begins with these words:

There are no excellent companies….  No companies are safe…  In 1987, and for the foreseeable future, there is no such thing as a solid, or even substantial lead, over your competitors.  Too much is changing for anyone to be complacent.    

This was true in 1987, has become more true as the years have gone by, and is even truer now than ever before.  Consider:  how secure do the following companies feel these days:  JC Penney; Research in Motion (BlackBerry); American Airlines, and a host of other companies?  I just read that Avon will probably disappear by the end of next year.

You know that each of these have had people, A+ players, with great insight and a terrific work ethic, work diligently to be competitive and stay competitive, and yet… their future is so very fragile, so very uncertain.

Tom Peters may say that we need to learn to “thrive” on chaos, but the part of the title that is on target is the “chaos” part.  Everything feels chaotic.

So, here’s some old, time-tested advice for surviving in this era of chaos.  Peters spoke of practicing “Proactive Management.”  Let’s put it this way – you’ve got to carve out plenty of time to think about your business, almost as much time as you carve out to spend on your business.

And, as you think about your business, you constantly ask these questions:

1)  What are our competitors doing that could do us in? How can we stay at least one step (preferably two, or more steps) ahead of them?
2)  Is our core business – our core product, our core service – genuinely “excellent?”  Is it genuinely competitive with what else is out there, and what else is coming right around the corner?
3)  What are we now doing that we could do better?
4)  What are we doing that we should just completely forget doing — that we should simply do no longer?
5)  What are the basics that we are neglecting?  (Are we having actual conversations with customers?  Are we listening to what they need rather than selling them on what we offer?)
6)  What are we doing to recruit, and keep, the best talent out there?  (There is a very real war for talent going on!).

There are other important questions to ask.  But the important point is this – it is a chaotic time.  A 17 year old may have the next idea that puts your business at risk…and if you don’t invest time in dealing with the chaos, thinking about your business, you may not have much business to conduct…

5 timeless leadership lessons

Image courtesy of Flickr user MAMJODH

Here is a brief excerpt from an article written by Steve Tobak for CBS MoneyWatch, the CBS Interactive Business Network. To check out an abundance of valuable resources and obtain a free subscription to one or more of the website’s newsletters, please click here.

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(MoneyWatch) COMMENTARY Forget all the latest leadership concepts and fads. Forget all the platitudes and parables, the laundry lists of attributes and qualities. Forget all the executive coaches, mentors, researchers, and inspirational gurus. Forget all the books and blogs.

I’ve got something you can read in less than an hour that will teach you everything you need to know about leadership. No, I’m not kidding.

Of course, you can’t just read it and walk away a great leader. That’s not how it works. What you do with it is entirely up to you. But everything you need to know is there.

I came upon this little treasure in 1995. I had just become vice president of marketing for a well-known public technology company, which was terrifying because it was a huge opportunity, I’d never done that sort of thing before, and I definitely didn’t want to screw it up.

Hanging around the business book section of a large used bookstore searching desperately for some inspiration, a little paperback caught my attention. Its title is The Tao of Leadership: Leadership Strategies for a New Age, by John Heider.

The beat-up book, written in 1985, set me back $2.40. I know that because the yellowed receipt — now a bookmark — is still in it. I’ve read it so many times, its 81 lessons are mostly bound with scotch tape. This humble little book changed my entire perspective on management and leadership.

Here are five timeless lessons I’ve excerpted. There’s a revelation or two, but there’s nothing like reading Heider’s book all the way through.

[Here is the first "timeless lesson"]

Knowing What Is Happening

•  When you cannot see what is happening in a group, do not stare harder. Relax and look gently with your inner eye.
•  When you do not understand what a person is saying, do not grasp for every word. Give up your efforts. Become silent inside and listen with your deepest self.
•  When you are puzzled by what you see or hear, do not strive to figure things out. Stand back for a moment and become calm. When a person is calm, complex events appear simple.
•  The more you can let go of trying, and the more open and receptive you become, the more easily you will know what is happening.
•  Stay in the present. The present is more available than either memories of the past or fantasies of the future.

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To read the complete article, please click here.

To read Steve’s other articles, please click here.

Steve Tobak is a consultant and former high-tech senior executive. He’s managing partner of Invisor Consulting, a management consulting and business strategy firm. Contact Steve, follow him on Facebook, or connect on LinkedIn.