Riding The Tiger

Organizations are made up of both conscious and accidental cultures and turbulent times truly magnify both.  The conscious culture comes from what’s written and documented.  Its accidental culture comes about from those accepting and performing around unwritten or unspoken behaviors and norms passed from one employee to the next, and even one generation to the next.  Most likely an employee “knows” that it is part of the culture, yet it has never been documented. Accidental cultures can create both positive and negative outcomes.  Here are examples of how the accidental culture emerges:  At one business, a team has an impromptu happy hour every Friday where they celebrate all their accomplishments, welcome new members and say goodbye to those leaving. 
 
Another business tolerates leaders and managers that chastise employees in front of others.  Yes, we’ve all seen this at some point in our careers and maybe you are currently experiencing this kind of culture in your organization.  Obviously you would not see anything written that encourages this behavior which is why this is a good example of how accidental culture emerges.  And in fact over time, it may become so acceptable that it is actually not considered a violation of core values when it happens.
 
Sometimes process leads to accidental culture.  Many organizations require their people to complete times sheets (beyond the hourly workers).  This is quite common in service organizations where time is billed to the customers.  Logging hours spent on each project is a mandatory part of the job and yet while necessary, it can accidentally create a “watch the clock” type of culture.
 
As stated earlier, a conscious culture evolves from written and spoken goals, values and behaviors, and practices that are taught, measured and reinforced in the organization.  There are distinct benefits to a conscious culture:
 
·       Leaders more rapidly assimilating to the culture
·       Employees more quickly understanding the range of acceptable behaviors
·       Recruitment is easier
·       It is easier to identify and take action when there is a lack of fit.
·       There is a likelihood of successful integration in the case of a merger or acquisition
·       Systemic change is easier because there is no battle between the conscious and accidental cultures

As a business leader and learning professional, my eye is always geared toward exploring insights into learning cultures and models. During my visit to India in 2008, I was the keynote speaker for the Indian Society for Training & Development’s annual conference, which was hosted by Satyam. I was immediately struck by the power of Satyam’s image and infrastructure. The support provided for the conference in the sparkling, high-technology facility in Hyderabad was impressive. Even more affecting was the learning culture that had been created by Ed Cohen and Priscilla Nelson. A few days later, I facilitated an offsite seminar for Satyam professionals on how they could use a “whole brain” approach in designing their teaching and learning. I had the unique opportunity to discover Satyam via this vibrant, growing team of professionals, who demonstrated such passion and dedication to their mission that, at first, I was a bit suspicious. As my time with them unfolded, however, I felt the power of an organizational culture that was designed on the basis of learning and growth—in contrast to so many, who treat learning as a separate function or an add-on. The leadership approach that Ed and Priscilla delineated at this seminar has as one of its core principles the recognition that a learning organization is engendered from within each employee and the infrastructure that is made available to them.

“I read it. I lived it, and I recommend it. Ed and Priscilla have carefully and eloquently captured the essence of the betrayal of a Leader (Ramalinga Raju) to those who not only respected him personally but admired his professional leadership vision.

This book highlights for the reader those attributes and characteristics of “true” leaders – who benefitted from Raju’s vision of “everyone is a leader” and the Satyam School of Leadership’s meteoric rise in recognition (Ed Cohen’s drive) that transcended the misplaced trust and actually provided the corner stone of a firms unparalleled successful survival. ” Hetzel Folden, CSC