The signpost and the sea
Organisational culture is like a sea. It ebbs and flows around decision making at every level, the words that are used in every brief/memo/email, the choices behind promotions ‘on merit’ and team selections and every other kind of day to day interaction.
“Culture by definition is elusive, intangible, implicit, and taken for granted. But every organisation develops a core set of assumptions, understandings, and implicit rules that govern day-to-day behaviour in the workplace…” (Deal, 1983).
These core assumptions and implicit rules wont be changed by simply reframing ‘the way things are done around here’ or creating a new ‘tone at the top’. Risk management policies and frameworks, like the old sign in the photograph above, do not exist independently of their environment or culture.
Yet time and time again, organisations rewrite and update risk (and other) policies, make pronouncements, rewrite procedures and publish pamphlets, all of which gets washed away by culture. The pervasiveness of culture can also be seen in the endless cycle of Royal Commissions and other inquiries established in reaction to unethical and immoral (but maybe not illegal at that time..) behaviour by those with organisational power. (And more recent allegations about rolex watches and tax returns..)
Laws, like signposts, have a purpose and function, but are not the solution. Stop signs and other road rules are necessary to enable roads to function effectively as transport hubs and provide a level of community safety, but our interpretation of those rules and of the risks of non-compliance will determine if those rules are effective. We ask questions like - Are those rules really enforced by the police? If there is no speed camera, then it’s alright to speed here isnt it? It’s only 8kmh over the limit.. The light only just went red.. (Guilty of all charges…)
People, and particularly leaders, do not sit above culture. They also swim within it, they are chosen because of their fit within it, and their pronouncements are interpreted through the lens of the same culture. And we often swim along as well, taking shortcuts here and there and not thinking that much about it...
But good organisational culture does exist. I have seen it thrive in organisations that tolerate open discussion and questioning as part of the decision making process, that recognise the benefits of diversity – of thought, culture, age and gender – that reward the right behaviours and penalise the wrong ones. That actually innovate! That make good on the promise of psychological safety and offer more than a passing RUOK towards the mental health of all their staff.
My point?
To change the cultural tide, organisations have to do much more than signal a change, more than change the rules, policies or procedures and even more than change leaders. Cultural change requires changing the boundaries of how we interact with each other at work, how we respect each other as flawed humans and how we bring that into our decision making at every level.
Yes this is hard.
Yes it takes long term, ongoing, commitment by everyone.
And yes it also requires more organisational resources than is used for such purposes now.
But that is how the tide can change..