sr4 culture literature packet

8/9/2019 sr4 Culture Literature Packet

1/11

Produced by Green Circle Partners LLC

2009

cu ture iterature pac et

subsumeandresonate.com


2/11

Preparing to evolve your culture

The reading selections that have been

included in this packet represent a

collection of excerpts and stories on the

relationship between culture and

business. Consideration points have

been provided to help guide your

thinking as you read through the packet.

The intent is to initiate a process of

personal reflection on your culture and

prepare everyone for rich dialogue.

Space is provided below each question

for you to record personal thoughts and

ideas that can be shared with your

colleagues.

Section 1

Numerous books and articles have

been written about the role of

corporate culture within an

organization and its relationship to

organizational success. The selected

excerpts are provided to help you thinkabout your perspective on culture and

its relationship to your work.

Section 2

Storytelling is a powerful method for

sustaining and enhancing any culture.

Here, we have provided three

business stories that can help you

prepare your stories about your

culture.

Consideration Points: After youve read the attached, record your answers to

the following questions.

How do you define culture?

What are some of the commonly held assumptions and beliefs in your

culture?

What affect does culture have on performance at your company?

How would you describe the work climate at your company?

What insights or discoveries did you gain from reading the

business stories?


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4/11

What Is an Organizations Culture?

by Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School

Because culture is such an important

organizational phenomenon, many

scholars have proposed definitions of

what culture is. These include observed

behavioral regularities that occur when

people interact, the norms that evolve in

close working groups, the dominant

values espoused by an organization,

the philosophy that guides an

organizations policy toward employees

and customers, the rules for getting

along with other people in the

organization, and the feeling or climate

of a particular organization. However,

MITs Edgar Schein, one of the worlds

foremost scholars of organizational

culture, argues that while these

meanings might reflect the

organizations culture, they fail to

capture its essence.

Instead, Schein believes that culture is

the property of an independently

defined social unita unit whose

members share a significant number of

common experiences in successfully

addressing external and internal

problems. Because of these common

experiences, over time this group of

people will have formed a shared view

of the way that the world surrounding

them works, and of the methods for

problem solving that will be effective in

that world. This shared view of the

world has led to the formation of basic

assumptions and beliefs that have

worked well enough and long enough to

be taken for granted. These basic

assumptions and beliefs are learned

responses to the problems that the

group has encountered as its members

have tried to work together to survive in

the face of threats encountered in theexternal environment. Beliefs about

how to solve these problems have

become taken for granted because they

have worked repeatedly and reliably.

Because Schein defines culture as a

learned result of a group experience, he

asserts that culture is only found where

there is a definable group with a

significant history of togetherness.

In summary, Schein defines organiza-

tional culture as pattern of basic

assumptionsinvented, discovered,

or developed by a given group as it

learns to cope with its problems of

external adaptation and internal

integration that has worked well

enough to be considered valid and,

therefore to be taught to new

members as the correct way to

perceive, think, and feel in relation to

those problems.

To Read More

Organizational Culture

and Leadership

by Edgar H. Schein, 2004

www.josseybass.com


5/11

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan

Dialogue

Dialogue is the core of culture and the

basic unit of work. How people talk to

each other absolutely determines how

well the organization will function. Is the

dialogue stilted, politicized, fragmented,

and butt-covering? Or is it candid and

reality-based, raising the right

questions, debating them, and finding

realistic solutions? If its the formeras

it is in all too many companiesreality

will never come to the surface. If it is to

be the latter, the leader has to be on the

playing field with the management team,

practicing it consistently and forcefully.

Building Block Two

Theyre right to recognize that the soft

stuffpeoples beliefs and behaviors

is at least as important as hard stuff,

such as organizational structure, if not

more so. Making changes in strategy

or structure by itself takes a company

only so far. The hardware of a

computer is useless without the right

software. Similarly, in an organization

the hardware (strategy and structure) isinert without the software (beliefs and

behaviors).

To Read More

ExecutionThe

Discipline of Getting

Things Done

by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, 2002

www.randomhouse.com


6/11

What Really Works

by Nitin Nohria, William Joyce, and Bruce Roberson

The Idea in Brief

New management ideas heat up and

fizzle outseemingly overnight. So

how can you tell which ones are

critical for outperforming your

competitors? A groundbreaking study

of 200 management techniques

reveals surprising results: Most

techniques have no direct impact on

superior business performance. What

does? Mastery of business basics.

To sustain superior performance, you

have to excel at four primary

management practicesstrategy,

execution, culture, and structureand

any two of the four secondary

practicestalent, leadership,

innovation, and mergers and

partnerships.

The key to this 4+2 formula is not whichtechnique you choose within each

practice, but how well and consistently

you stick with it. Theres no recipe to

follow. But the most enduringly

successful companies in the study

those delivering a 10-fold return to

investors over a 10-year periodclearly

demonstrated hallmarks that any

company can follow.

The Idea in Practice

PRIMARY PRACTICES

To excel at the four primary

management practices,

consider these guidelines:

Strategy: Build your strategy on deep

knowledge of your target customers and

companys capabilities. Clearly and

consistently communicate that strategy

to employees, customers, and share-

holders. Refine your strategy only in

response to marketplace changes

new technologies or government

regulations, for example.

Execution: Streamline operational

processes essential to consistently

meetingnot exceedingcustomer

expectations. Eliminate waste to

increase productivity 6% to 7%annually.

Culture: Hold managers and

employees, individuals and teams to

unyielding performance expectations.

Link pay to specific goalsand raise

the bar every year. Withhold rewards

when targets are missed. State

company values clearly and forcefully.

Structure: Create a fast, flexible, and

flat structure that reduces bureaucracy

and simplifies work. Shatter depart-

mental boundaries that prevent

information sharing and cooperation.

Look to middle managers and

employees dedication and inven-

tivenessnot executives brilliance

for your companys future.

SECONDARY PRACTICES

Excel at any two of these

secondary management practices.

Talent: Achieve deep bench strength.

Its cheaper and more reliable to

develop stars than to buy them. Create

top-ofthe-line training programs to retain

skilled managers. Give them

challenging, intriguing jobs.

Leadership: Successful companies

leaders are committed to the business.

They reach out to front lines, forging

connections with people at all levels.

They seize opportunities before

competitors do and tackle problems

early. Also, such companies board

members have a financial stake in the

firms success and a solid

understanding of the industry.

Innovation: Lead your industry with

breakthrough innovationseven if that

means cannibalizing existing products.

Use new technologies to enhance all

operations, not just product-

development processes.

Mergers and partnerships: Enter only

new businesses that leverage existing

customer relationships and

complement your core strengths. Forge

partnerships that best use both

companies talents. Develop asystematic way of identifying,

screening, and closing such deals.


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Continued

To Read More

What Really Works

Primary Practice of Culture:

Develop and maintain a

performance-oriented culture.

In some corners of the business world,

culture is still considered softits not

taken as seriously as, say, operations.

In others, culture is considered

important, but the emphasis is on

making the work environment fun based

on the theory that when employees

enjoy themselves theyre more likely to

remain loyal to the company.

Our study made it clear that building the

right culture is imperative, but

promoting a fun environment isnt

nearly as important as promoting one

that champions high-level performance

and ethical behavior. In winning

companies, everyone works at the

highest level. These organizationsdesign and support a culture that

encourages outstanding individual and

team contributions, one that holds

employeesnot just managers

responsible for success.

Winners dont limit themselves to

besting their immediate competitors.

Once a company has overmatched its

rivals in, say, the effectiveness of its

logistics, it looks outside the industry.

Employees may ask, for instance, Why

cant we do it better than FedEx? If the

goal is unreachable, it still represents

an opportunitty for high-performing

employees and managers: If we cant

be the best at logistics, why not

outsource it to a partner that can?

Winners establish and abide by clear

company values, giving employees a

reason to embrace the organization.

These are not vague niceties;

winning companies write down their

values in clear, forceful language

and demonstrate them with concrete

actions.

What Really Works

by William Joyce, Nitin Nohria,

and Bruce Roberson, 2003

www.harpercollins.com


8/11


9/11

A Business Story on Medtronicsby Bill George

A Medtronic executive once told me that

all Medtronic employees have a

defining moment in which they come

face to face with a patient whose story

deeply touches them. For me that

moment came at my first Holiday Party.

As I entered the auditorium that day, a

colleague suggested I take a careful

look at the young person with cerebral

palsy who had received a Medtronic

drug pump earlier that year. After a few

minutes the patients and their families

came in, led by a young man named

T.J. Flack rolling along in a wheelchair.

T.J. was the last patient to tell his story

that day. Abandoning his wheelchair, he

walked up the steps to the podium

using just his arm braces. T.J. told of

the sixteen surgeries hed had, all in

vain attempts to relieve the growing

spasticity and rigidity of his cerebralpalsy. At age sixteen he had finally had

enough and refused further surgery. His

body became ever stiffer as the disease

progressed. It took him an hour just to

get out of bed. Until the Medtronic drug

pump transformed his life, T.J.s

simplest acts required Herculean effort.

Now he could get out of bed relatively

easily and walk up the stairs to his

classrooms; even his hampered speech

had improved markedly.

As I heard T.J. tell his story that day,my eyes filled with tears. Being new to

the company, I felt embarrassed until I

glanced at the person next to me. He

also had tears in his eyes. It was a

galvanizing moment. I saw the mission

itself come to life. This one young life

crystallized what our work at Medtronic

was all about. I realized everything

flowed from the mission: restored

patients, satisfied physician-partners,

empowered and proud employees, and

excellent returns to shareholders,

enabling us to reinvest in broadening

the application of medical technology.

Ironically, Medtronic management had

put the drug delivery venture that was

responsible for T.J.s pump on the

divestiture list the week before I joined

the company. After a dozen years of

losses, management had given up on

the business and decided to spin it off.

After hearing T.J.s story, we went back

to the drawing board and looked for

ways we could rejuvenate the venture.

As a result, we cancelled thedivestiture, cut administrative expenses

by consolidating it into another

business, and invested heavily in R&D

and sales. This decision proved to be a

good one, as drug delivery became one

of Medtronics fastest-growing

businesses.

This story is told by Medtronic Inc. CEO

Bill George in his book entitled

Authentic Leadership. A few years

earlier at an annual health services

convention, Bill George had been asked

to comment on Medtronics corporateculture:

Let me start with a philosophical

statement that may seem obvious but

isnt practiced in many places. I

believe

that people in organizations are

primarily looking for meaning in their

work. The psychologist Erik Erickson

told us that decades ago. But not many

people act as though they believe thats

what really motivates people. They think

money motivates people. So they put

more time into their work than they do

into anything elseeven their leisure

time, dine with their family and probably

time sleeping. At the end of the day,

they want to know that theyve really

done something meaningful.

Thats where the mission-driven organi-

zation comes in. Employees want to

identify with the mission of the organi-

zation. I believe that it is virtually

impossible for employees to identify

with a corporate mission of maximizing

shareholder wealth. They want to know

why they are in business. What are we

here for? They want to preserve the

mission of the enterprise. Thats why

we feel such a passion for Medtronics

mission of restoring people to full life

and full health. Were concerned with

patient welfare. Our view is that if we

take care of the patients, in the end the

economics will work out, and well learn

from the experience.

For More Info

Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering

the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value

by Bill George, 2004

www.josseybass.com


10/11

A Business Story on EDS

by Ram Charan

When Dick Brown arrived at Electronic

Date Systems (EDS) in early 1999, he

resolved to create a culture that did

more than pay lip service to the ideals

of collaboration, openness, and

decisiveness. He had a big job ahead of

him. EDS was known for its bright

aggressive people, but employees had

a reputation for competing against one

another at least as often as they pulled

together. The organization was marked

by a culture of lone heroes. Individual

operating units had little or no incentive

for sharing information or cooperating

with one another to win business. There

were few sanctions for lone behaviors

and for failure to meet performance

goals. And indecision was rife. As one

company veteran puts it, Meetings,

meetings, and more meetings. People

couldnt make decisions, wouldnt make

decisions. They didnt have to. Noaccountability. EDS was losing

business. Revenue was flat, earnings

were on the decline, and the price of the

companys stock was down sharply.

A central tenet of Browns management

philosophy is that leaders get the

behavior they tolerate. Shortly after he

arrived at EDS, he installed six social

operating mechanisms within one year

that signaled he would not put up with

the old culture of rampant individualism

and information hoarding. Onemechanism was the performance call,

as it is known around the company.

Once a month, the top 100 or so EDS

executives worldwide take part in a

conference call where the past months

numbers and critical activities are

reviewed in detail. Transparency and

simultaneous information are the rules;

information hoarding is no longer

possible. Everyone knows who is on

target for the year, who is ahead of

projections, and who is behind. Those

who are behind must explain the

shortfalland how they plan to get back

on track. Its not enough for a manager

to say shes assessing, reviewing, or

analyzing a problem. Those arent the

words of someone who is acting, Brown

says. Those are the words of someone

getting ready to act. To use them in

front of Brown is to invite two questions

in response: When youve finished your

analysis, what are you going to do? And

how soon are you going to do it? The

only way that Browns people can

answer those questions satisfactorily is

to make a decision and execute it.

The performance calls are also a

mechanism for airing and resolving the

conflicts inevitable in a large

organization, particularly when it comes

to cross-selling in order to accelerate

revenue growth. Two units may be

pursuing the same customer, for

example, or a customer serviced by one

unit may be acquired by the customer

serviced by another. Which unit should

lead the pursuit? Which unit should

service the merged entity? Its vitally

important to resolve these questions.Letting them fester doesnt just drain

emotional energy, it shrinks the

organizations capacity to act decisively.

Lack of speed becomes a competitive

disadvantage.

Brown encourages people to bring

these conflicts to the surface, both

because he views them as a sign of

organizational health and because they

provide an opportunity to demonstrate

the style of dialogue he advocates. He

tries to create a safe environment for

disagreement by reminding employees

that the conflict isnt personal. Conflict in

any global organization is built in. And,

Brown believes, its essential if

everyone is going to think in terms of

the entire organization, not just one little

corner of it. Instead of seeking the

solution favorable to their unit, theyll

look for the solution thats best for EDS

and its shareholders. It sounds simple,

even obvious. But in an organization

once characterized by lone heroes and

self-interest, highly visible exercises in

conflict resolution remind people to align

their interests with the company as a

whole. Its not enough to state the

message once and assume it will sink

in. Behavior is changed through

repetition. Stressing the message over

and over in social operating

mechanisms like the monthly

performance callsand rewarding or

sanctioning people based on their

adherence to itis one of Browns most

powerful tools for producing the

behavioral changes that usher in

genuine cultural change.

For More Info

Conquering a Culture of Indecision

by Ram Charan, April

2001 Harvard Business

Reviewwww.hbsp.harvard.edu


11/11

A Business Story on IBM

by Bill George

When Louis Gerstner arrived at IBM in

1993 as its new CEO, he found an

organization of three hundred thousand

employees that had lost touch with its

customers. Once famed for its superior

customer service, the mission articu-

lated by Thomas Watson Sr., IBM was

so internally focused and political that

the meaning of customer service had

devolved into servicing machines on

customer premises.

The culture Gerstner found in 1993 was

the opposite of the one Watson created:

customers were viewed as the problem,

to be manipulated rather than served. In

just three years, IBM had gone from the

worlds second most profitable

company, with net income of $6 billion

on sales of $69 billion, to an $8 billion

loss. The company was losing so much

market share to personal computersand hemorrhaging so much cash that

many industry experts were predicting it

could not survive.

Faced with such a crisis, most

turnaround CEOs would have reduced

the workforce immediately by fifty

thousand to a hundred thousand

people, chopped the $6 billion R&D

budget in half, and started selling off the

company in pieces. This is precisely

what the security analysts and the

media urged IBMs new CEO to do.

Gerstner did just the opposite. He kept

the company together, reinvested in

mainframes, and protected the core

R&D budget. To shift the focus back to

IBMs customers, he decided to make

IBM a market-driven company again

rather than an internally focused,

process-driven enterpriseby focusing

all initiatives on the customer.

With the companys survival in question,

Gerstner also had to make cutbacks in

expenses and employment levels. He

was able to garner employee support

for these painful actions by giving

people a renewed sense of purpose,

returning to the companys roots of

providing superior customer service.

For More Info

Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering

the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value

by Bill George, 2004

www.josseybass.com

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