This
entire course has centered around organizational development (OD) which “comprises
the long-range efforts and programs aimed at improving an organization’s
ability to survive by changing its problem-solving and renewal processes” (Brown,
2011, p. 4). OD is an organization-wide planned approach to intentional change.
The goal is, of course, to improve the overall health and effectiveness of the
organization. The focus of study this week was on effective strategies for
leading an organization through organizational transformation which is a “drastic,
abrupt change to total structures, managerial processes, and corporate
cultures. It requires a redesign of everything in the organization, including
the norms and the culture, the very soul of the organization” (p. 399). As I
was reading the assigned material for the week, I noticed a little problem with
applying OD – something which we have established will increase the health and effectiveness
of the organization – through a time or organizational transformation. Actually,
it is a major problem. (Just bear with me here and I have to throw a couple of
things together and it may seem like I am jumping around a bit. It all ties
together, though.)
One
of the many things that we are taught as leaders is to help our subordinates “own”
their work. In Army recruiting, we call this buy-in. You see, as recruiters, we
are salespeople. In a civilian organization, how do you get a job? You apply
for it, right? You prepare a resume and go to an interview and present your
best self. It doesn’t work like that in the Army. I am the only one on my team
that actually asked to become a recruiter. The rest of my team is comprised of
non-volunteers. They are what we call “DA Select” meaning that the Department
of the Army sent all of these poor fools an e-mail and said, “Congratulations!
We have reviewed your records and your exemplary performance in your career
field has earned you a new job that you didn’t ask for. The hours are long and
you will be forced to face rejection over and over on a daily basis. You’re
going to love it!” Yeah, they hate it. My office is full of disgruntled
infantrymen that enlisted to fight. To get them to embrace our mission and
accept it as their own requires complete buy-in. They have to believe in what
they are selling (and they do, I might add).
Part
of what we read this week in our assigned readings had to do with corporate culture.
I kept thinking about my team while reading that because a word that is always
tossed around along with “buy-in” is “culture”. Just as culture exists within
the world at large, it exists within our organizations. When we feel that we
are a part of the culture and it is a part of us, we have a high level of
buy-in and ownership. We embrace it as ours so we want to make it better! We
have a shared vision and a trust and loyalty when there is a strong culture.
The evidence
suggests that strong cultures have more impact on employee behavior and are
more directly related to lower turnover. Research evidence also suggests that a
strong culture helps workers march to the same drummer, creates high levels of
employee loyalty and motivation, and provides the company with structure and
controls without the need for an innovation-stifling bureaucracy. (Brown, 2011,
p. 405)
Hold
that thought on culture for a moment and I will circle right back to it.
In
our class discussion for the week, we talked about organizations becoming
flatter (meaning that there are fewer managers and leadership is spread through
all levels through empowerment). I brought in the research of Nick Obolensky (2014)
who is on the forefront of leadership in complex adaptive systems. (To condense
his 230 page book and a 9 week course on his studies into one thought –
traditional hierarchies of leadership based on oligarchies are giving way to
polyarchies in organizations and those the organizations that don’t adapt are
doomed to fail.) As a part of that discussion, we examined why there is a
resistance to the flattening of organizations and all of the sudden it hit me.
The culture.
Let’s
look at it like this. Imagine you are living the American dream. You have your
happy little family with 2 ½ kids and a perfectly groomed dog living in the
perfect suburban house. You have your perfect routine and your normal Mon-Fri
job with no stress. Your life is very happy. Now your spouse approaches you and
says, “You know, I got a new job. We are going to have to move. You and I will
switch roles within the household and we will be living in an apartment now. The
kids will have to make all new friends. We may even have to get a cat (yuck!). We
will be making more money and will eventually be happier. This is better.” There
may be some pretty stiff resistance to that change. Now imagine a young pair of
college roommates and apply the same thing to them. They probably will be
excited for the new opportunity. This may not be the best analogy out there but
I think it highlights the point that I am making. When we are that happy couple
that has embraced the suburban life, we don’t want to change, even if it is ultimately for the better. When there
is little loyalty and little buy-in, that change is a lot easier. When an
organization has a strong culture, resistance to change will be strong because
you are asking people to voluntarily change that which they own. This makes
them very uncomfortable as the culture is an actual part of who they are. How
in the world do you lead through that? How do I lead my team of recruiters that
have achieved buy-in and are working together not just as a team but as a
family through uncomfortable change?
A man that I very much admire, General (Ret)
Stanley McChrystal (2011) shared some amazing insight into leading through organizational
transformation. He shared a story about how he was participating in a training
jump into Sicily Drop Zone at Ft Bragg on a beautiful morning one September. If
you want to talk about an organization with culture, you would be hard-pressed
to find a stronger example than the Airborne corps of the Army. It is strong
fraternity. When Gen McChrystal boarded the C-130 that morning, it was a normal
day with the Army training for conventional contingencies. However, by the time
that his stick reached the DZ, we were a nation on our knees. Imagine being a
Soldier at that time. You see, when I enlisted, just like those men and women,
the primary threat to our nation was still Communism. Yes, the USSR had fallen
but we were still planning how to defend our interests should they try
something. All of the sudden, we went from planning for something that we knew
wasn’t going to happen to full involvement in asymmetric warfare where there
was no front line. We were scared. We were confused. We were clinging on to the
ways of the past. Do you think that we wanted to change? No, absolutely not,
but our leaders helped us change our culture to ensure our success.
I
guess that is really the bottom line. OD cannot be successful through
organizational transformation where there is a strong culture without actually
changing the culture. To lead through that change, we have to find a way to
change the culture. That task is not an easy one, either. Oertli (2017) noted
that in order to accomplish this, we must first be honest. We must be willing
to speak a truth that is often hard to hear but also be sensitive to how our
audience will receive it. However, we must also recognize the appropriate time
to speak these truths. And above all else, give the organization the time it
needs to process the message. Don’t force change. Just lead it naturally.
Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experimental Approach to Organizational Development (8th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
McChrystal,
S. (2011, March). Listen, Learn…Then Lead
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty (2nd ed). Farnham: Gower
Oertli,
J. (2017). How Getting Real with Leaders can Help Company Culture Change. Leadership Excellence Essentials, 34(8),
30.
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