five truisms to help change your organization's culture

Over the years, I have been blessed with the opportunity and the fortune to help shape organizational culture. Some instances were by design, and some were the result of circumstance. None of them, I believe, have been accidental.

I mean that certain factors in my ministry and career take shape from the definition of who I am created to be. All of us can lay claim to a specific calling (okay, maybe not specific, but specific enough) and to a uniqueness about ourselves. In my case, one of those particular things is being an influencer for culture change.

In looking back at almost three decades of being involved in culture shaping, there are certain truths that I can find across all of those instances. None of these truisms are unique to my experience, nor can I take credit for them. However cliché they may seem, they are all critical in the process of culture change.

Anyone who has gone through business school over the past three decades most likely has come across a copy of Edgar Schein’s “Organizational Culture and Leadership.” In Schein’s model, organizational culture is defined as something akin to the patterns of shared assumptions (or norms) a culture has that are observable in organizational artifacts, espoused values, and the basic assumptions made in the organization.

So to change culture, you need first to identify what assumptions, values, and artifacts need to be changed, then go about changing them.

Simple, right?

When I served as executive pastor at a church in Los Angeles, I worked with the lead pastor on changing culture. Much of what we did was designed to break free of ethnicity-based cultural norms and to move towards something different (to be fair, we both probably did not have a good grasp on what that was supposed to be). In this case, most leadership and volunteers were open and desirous of change. We did some great things. It was a good time and one of my favorite experiences. Several years later, under the weight of other unforeseen circumstances, the culture we built did not last.

In contrast, I also worked for a privately held organization where top leadership was concerned with culture, strived to build a strong culture, yet engaged me knowing I would help bring about change. To them, change meant better alignment in my sphere of influence towards the corporate culture they were building. To my team members, it meant fixing a problem that they disliked. There were different expectations put on me from both the top and the bottom. While I could do some good things, the culture I built didn’t last. This was due to many things, but my theory is that the cultural change I was engaged in did not fully align my team members with senior leadership.

In both cases, culture was temporary and changing. And that is the rub. Organizational culture is not and cannot be something static. The moment something in your organization changes, the culture changes (Shawn Lord has an interesting read on this).

So whether you are the senior leader in your organization, someone with empowered organizational influence, or rank-and-file on your team, here are five truisms that will help you change culture – or do something enough like it.

#1 - everyone has an idea of how to “fix” culture

From the most senior to the most entry-level person in any organization, everyone has an opinion. And none of them is correct. Some may be more right than others, but no one monopolizes what makes good organizational culture. Rather, organizational cultures fit some people better than others. It is up to us to decide if, and how we fit into the cultures we are part of.

Takeaway: do not try to fit organizational culture around the people you have, but around what you are trying to accomplish. Then find people that fit into that culture.

No. 2: You are not in control

As a rational-reasonable human being, you can make concrete, effective decisions. So are the people you work with (well, most of them probably). As such, we all crave and wield a certain level of independence and autonomy in organizations. You cannot control how others will react to culture setting or the change you are trying to make. So do not try to.

Takeaway: rather than set expectations or have expectations that others will follow in your pursuit, create a set of standards you can all strive towards (I wrote about that here).

No. 3: Your (current) values are not necessarily real

Edgar Schein defines expressed values as things organizations say they are about. These tend to be aspirational (what organizations hope to be) rather than incarnational (what an organization actually is). Nothing can erode culture faster than an organization that says it is one thing and actually is something else – this usually manifests itself in organizational goals that are not aligned with actual values.

Takeaway: do not fear simple organizational goals, especially if you are a non-profit (including churches). Be honest – what do you want to accomplish? Articulate those in simple metrics, then state how they should help guide decisions. Most importantly, please do not be ashamed of them. There is nothing wrong with measuring what you do.

No. 4: Be unrelenting and ruthless

Most leaders have this notion that others’ thoughts and opinions are valid in defining their organizational culture. While input is good and an inclusive process can be helpful, culture shaping should not be a plutocracy.

Takeaway: once you have decided what you will be about, do not let anything stop you. Even if it means changing personnel or team members, one of the best things I ever heard about church growth was from a mega-church pastor in Southern California: “You have to be willing to fire your friends.”

No. 5: Live out the culture you are trying to establish

One of the most intriguing things about cultural change is that it usually resides in the realm of “that would be great if.” As in, “That would be great if we could do things differently, but we are too busy, and we just need to get stuff done.” Results matter, but organizational culture is not about results but how you get those results. And often, that makes all the difference.

Takeaway: at the end of the day, no matter if you are the one defining the organization's culture or someone involved in the change, you need to live out the culture. Otherwise, all you are doing is just saying words.