Understanding And Developing Organizational Culture

Ricardo Troiano, Group Head, Change and Organizational development, Syngenta

Iremember riding in the car with my family when I was young. Sitting in the back seat, staring out of the window and watching the hills slowly scroll past in the horizon as the clouds beyond the hills keep pace with our car. Then I would be abruptly shocked out of my daydream as a truck would thunder by in the opposite direction, and becoming suddenly aware of the swoosh of wind as the telephone poles whizzed past. I can recall being puzzled about why the hills moved so slowly in the background, appearing to stand still, while the car and everything nearby moved so quickly.

As I grew older I came to understand this optical phenomenon of the slow moving background, known as motion parallax. I am reminded of this phenomenon as I work with and observe organisations as they look to significantly impact the movement and direction of their cultures. The organisation, typically through its senior leaders, recognizes that the accelerated pace of change in its industry or respective market requires a response to fuel growth and capitalise on emergent opportunities. While this can take the shape of adjustments in strategy, policies or processes, it often calls on our ability to help usher in some level of culture change. Specifically, in shifts around the fundamental beliefs and concrete behaviors that drive performance and ultimately, business outcomes.

Returning to the analogy from my childhood experience in the car, the ‘optical’ illusion is the speed and amount of effort poured into the transformation activities and how they don’t seem to align with the glacial pace of change that many in the organization are experiencing. After all, you can’t expect to drive a culture of agility, digital savviness, innovation, customer-centricity overnight, overnight. It takes time, focus, energy and aligned, concerted effort. These cultural changes aimed at defining a shared language and channeling leadership focus in service of the aspirational outcomes are expected to change employee behaviors at scale. If you’ve ever tried to sustainably change your own behavior, for example based on feedback you get from colleagues or loved ones, you know how hard and time consuming this is, and outcomes are never guaranteed.

"The important thing is to remember that everyone will move at different speeds, but listening closely to ensure the destination is clear and direction is maintained is crucial"

A behavioral science study conducted a couple of years ago suggested that social norms could shift as soon as an activist group reached approximately 25 percent of the population. Some culture experts would contend that the number may be closer to 10 percent of the population. This would be in line with the long-held view that smaller, dedicated advocate groups could successfully shift social norms across a broader society. Regardless of where you would place your bets across that continuum, you will likely get to the view that on average most people will not readily shift their habitual behaviors. So even when you reach a tipping point, most of those around you won’t seem to be onboard with the change. In my analogy, the average employee would see the fast-moving trees zip by, in the form of hyper activity around talk of new values, principles and competencies, but a quick look around at their colleagues would suggest their behavioral change looks more like the slow moving hills in the distance.

To help accelerate to and beyond this tipping point I feel there are three major areas to focus on. Namely to ensure that we are clear about the destination, we are highlighting what positive steps in the right direction look like, and are measuring them along the way. In the first area, we should be very clear about the aspirational vision and what exactly that would look like from the perspective of observable behaviors. With this understanding and clarity, we can support our leaders in starting to experiment with the new ways of working that they will benefit from adopting and role-modeling for others. In the second one we are supporting and rewarding the early adopters and seeding these success stories into the organisation who will help widen the adoption and “bring the hills closer” where you can see them start to pick up speed. The final area, around measurement, is where we can tap into our broader networks and leverage technology to tune in to what is really occurring across the organistion. Examples include deeper people analytics work leveraging data from org wide culture assessments, social network analysis, employee surveys, focus groups, interviews, system usage metrics and typical HR metrics.

In summary, culture work is a long journey that sometimes involves wrong turns and isn’t always exciting. The important thing is to remember that everyone will move at different speeds, but listening closely to ensure the destination is clear and direction is maintained is crucial. Support all of the travelers along the way and highlight those ahead on the road to pave the way for the others that will surely follow. Ok, perhaps I took the driving analogy a bit too far but what better way to keep moving forward together than on a joint road trip!