While no one knows what really happened at that time, a customer who was supposed to fly off into the air, was wrestled to the ground by the airline staff. For a past few days, the media has been buzzing with the viral video of a customer being manhandled by a couple of Indigo employees The CEO has issued an apology, the ‘culprit’ has been sacked and an inquiry demanded by the ministry. But the damage has been done. I have occasionally travelled by Indigo and so far have not faced any major issues. But now the image of the struggling customer has been downloaded into my hard drive and any future interaction with the airline might be clouded by this data.
All it takes is one incident to damage the reputation and image that has been carefully cultivated over many years. Almost always, this incident is the result of human behavior. It could be sexual harassment , fraud or just uncouth behavior- Think Nick Leeson bringing down Barings bank or former the Uber chief yelling at a driver.
Peter Drucker once declared ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ and most companies did sit up and take notice. Organizations do spend a considerable amount of money and effort to identify and communicate the values and code of conduct for all its employees. Websites and walls of many organizations proclaim their values and competencies.
Yet incidents happen.
If you search through Indigo’s website, across the banners flashing low fares and new routes, and delve into Careers, you can find its Culture Values- Integrity, Customer Orientation and Future Mindedness. Customer Orientation- means always seeing things from a customer’s perspective, identifying customers unstated as well as emerging needs.
Clearly, not everyone saw it this way.
Even if all employees do believe in all this good stuff, it goes out of the window during a crisis.
The writing on the wall can be quite different from the writing on the ground.
Over the course of the last 20 years of working with organizations, I have seen that there are often two cultures that exist in organizations- the desired culture which is visible in pockets and the actual culture which is displayed on a day to day basis. All individuals in a company are different carrying their own baggage of life experiences, values and mindsets.
So how do companies create a culture where diverse individuals , different departments and different geographies can happily adhere to a set of values- no matter what the situation is. Certain norms can be enforced through the rule of law or through fear. However culture cannot be sustained through fear or coercion. The organizational health gets damaged through years of fear based culture just as smoking may slowly but surely kill a perfectly healthy person. We many not admit it or see it in the short term but long term effects will be deadly. Culture building needs commitment not just compliance.
Let us assume the organization has identified the values it stands for and the culture it wants to create. There are tools for identifying values such as the Barrett Culture Transformation Tool or Culture Assessment Tool. This can also be done through a facilitated session with senior leaders and organization wide surveys.
Now let us say the organization has identified 5 core values and the related descriptors of these values. They leaders know that they want to create a culture that focuses on Innovation, Integrity, customer orientation and Discipline. This is the easy part.
How do you make it stick? How do you make it last? How do you make everyone realize the importance of it?
Many leadership gurus and consulting firms have their theories and 16 point plans for this. Most of these can be synthesized into the 3 Rs- 3 simple things that every leader, every organization needs to do – daily and with determination.
Role Model
‘The culture of an organization is a reflection of the values and beliefs of the current leaders, and the institutional legacy of the values and beliefs of past leaders that have been institutionalized into the organization’s structures, policies and procedures. Therefore, if you want to transform your culture you must change your leaders or your leaders must change.’ – Richard Barrett
Monkey see, Monkey do holds for humans as well. We don’t really care about what the leader says unless he or she ‘Walks the Talk’. Kids learn about values more from the behavior of parents and teachers than from moral science classes or Aesop’s fables. Leaders have to live and breathe the company values. It helps if your own values are aligned with the organizations. If not, you are possibly not a cultural fit and might not last long in the place. If the senior leader needs to see a change in the company’s culture, she needs to role model it in every interaction, every meeting, every touch point. It can be daunting but that is why leaders are paid – of course to get performance but also be custodians of the organization’s culture. If the leader punishes those who take risks and does not actively seek new ways of doing things, it is unlikely that there will be a culture of innovation in the organization.
When the board wanted a change in Uber’s culture, they changed the CEO. Dara Kushrowshahi’s Uber will possibly look different from Travis Kalanick’s. He has now replaced the 14 values of Uber with 8 new cultural norms to reflect the new desired culture. These now need to be modeled by all leaders first.
Reinforce
Culture cannot be built in a day. Leaders need to reinforce the culture in many ways. Systems and processes need to be aligned with culture and not just for getting maximum performance from employees.
I was recently doing a workshop on coaching for some leaders and we all agreed on the importance of developing and supporting employees. ‘I want to do this,’ said a leader,’ but there is no time. It is much easier for me to direct my team member or do it myself because the company wants quick results.’ When leaders are incentivized only on numbers, there is no reason to focus on people development. Some organizations use the Balanced Scorecard to ensure that numbers alone are not recognized. Others do give awards for being great team players. What gets rewarded gets repeated.
Reinforcement can also be done by giving behavior based feedback openly and fearlessly. Most leaders are comfortable giving performance feedback but feedback on behavioral issues is more challenging. Just as positive behaviors need to be rewarded, behaviors that are not aligned to the culture needs to be pointed out quickly and effectively. Make a distinction between things that are’ Not done’ and areas for coaching and promoting diversity. A swift and just punishment for violating a value is just as important to reinforce behaviors.
Culture can be reinforced through structural alignment. An organization that wanted to enhance collaboration among different teams created a Collaboration space on each floor next to the coffee machine. The departments that needed to work closely together were put on the same floor so that they could meet and interact informally. Sometimes, processes need to be defined and aligned to the culture as well. A diverse and inclusive organization’s hiring process needs to reflect its ethos by broadening the candidate pool and consciously avoiding biases during the interviews.
Rituals
Rituals exist to remind and engage us. Rituals are a series of actions performed in a specific order. While rituals are usually associated with religions, they are of immense importance in creating cultures. Every religious ritual, even those we do without thinking has some meaning attached to them.
In a bank I work with, every morning starts with a group prayer which all employees sing together. In another company, a workshop cannot start without a safety briefing. Safety for this manufacturing organization is a key value. Some organizations have a Values day when different employees come together for a celebration of living the values. To reinforce Discipline as a value and behavior, another organization has a penalty box in every meeting room for every late comer to put in 100 Rs. The money collected every month is given for the CSR activities.
Rituals provide powerful visible reminders and involve everyone in a set of actions designed to promote the culture. A ritual exists as long there is meaning and energy around it. The ritual can fall apart if there is no role modelling by the leader. Imagine if the senior most person in the meeting comes late and does not put in his penalty. No one would do it again.
The culture needs to reflect the organization’s mission and vision and the changing context outside the organizations. While analysts and senior leaders monitor stock prices and profits, it is just as important to keep a check on the pulse of the organization’s culture. If there are symptoms such as attrition, absenteeism, destructive conflicts, customer complaints and poor performance, it is a sign that it is time to revisit the culture. If this is not done, then culture could become the monster that eats strategy and systems for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
