You can change an organisation to adopt a new culture through celebrating followship.
You can change people in organisations to be cultural architects.
You can create whole systems change through culture.
We know that this is achievable as we watch social influencers, technology companies and their leaders. We adopt the latest craze and see transforming communities across the world.
We know change is true as we now use technology, phones and self driving cars. We have a computer on our wrist and communicate virtually.
So transformation happens and is achievable.
So why has changing organisational culture been so challenging.
I have had some lightbulb moments recently exploring how we make decisions and experience the world with Dr Steve Suckling: https://themaslow.foundation/surviving-storms/.
This led to some thoughts which I believe have undermined our efforts.
We have put systems, policies and processes in place, hoping these will enable us to implement change however
- Culture is about people, with a shared mission
The social influencer movement has captured this through creating experiences and messages uniting us into communities. Sharing our lived experience can be a joyful exchange of ideas and inspiration.
In achieving change, we need to celebrate followship as well as leadership and unite to achieve a goal.
- We have ignored Philosophy over Science
‘Quite often we focus on what we know and what we can do. This focus, taken too far, can lead to a defensive approach which shuts down active open mindedness. Focusing too much on procedural and propositional knowledge can pit our knowledge against the knowledge of others’ Dr Steve Suckling
- Underestimating the dynamic of power
To create a wave of change, we need to harness all the energy of our workforce, empowering the marginalised alongside SWOT analysis and the stakeholder influence matrix.
Cognitive Dissonance and Domicide
Leon Festinger published his theory of cognitive dissonance, the distressing mental state that arises when people find that their beliefs are inconsistent with their actions. Recent decades have seen a rise in “deaths of despair” which cognitive science researchers have situated within a wider “crisis of meaning” (Vervaeke 2017). Increasing amounts of people are experiencing domicide (literally, the death of home), a process by which an individual, or group, comes to experience a lack of grounding or connection to society. In Health and Care and many other environments, we believe we should be making a positive difference to the people we serve however many of the actions we undertake do not align to this purpose creating a feeling of distress.
Aligning to our culture is important to recreate a sense of belonging and shared purpose.
What are the first steps?
To create a different culture, we need to share a common vision. This vision needs to make sense and be logical. Even where individuals, are sceptical, they can be followers and build the foundations as a legacy for the future.
The flip side of leadership is followership. It stands to reason that if leadership is important, followership must have something to do with it too. But curiously, followership is not spoken about and will be negatively framed as ‘sheep’ and ‘being easily led’.
Followership is the ability to take direction well, to get in line behind a plan, to be part of a team and to deliver on what is expected of you. Yet, who gets gold stars when they are described as an excellent follower.
Good followers have a number of qualities:
- Judgement
Followers have an underlying obligation to follow only when the direction is ethical and proper.
- Work ethic, competency and being a team player
Followers are diligent, motivated, committed, pay attention to detail and make the effort to participate.
- Courage
Good leaders are grateful for constructive feedback and followers need to have the courage to be honest and share wisdom and experience
We need to understand how to include, not exclude individuals, and create a momentum of change.
We need to build trust, to ensure that people know when they do something, the reaction and that this is consistent and authentic.
Although organisational change theory is helpful and we are aware of Pavlovs dog and Skinners experiments on rats, demonstrating behaviours generated by reward and punishment, is ignoring the great sense of community, peer to peer engagement and our own insight and perspectives.
Creating a Community that Identifies with the Vision
To build your change agents and cultural architects, you need to engage with people and listen.
Our workforces need to be involved in conversations, applying culture to create a framework for shared understanding and providing opportunities for bridging professional differences of opinion.
A new model of peer supervision is needed, where when we have the ability to explore events, experiences and our policies and processes through the lens of active open mindedness.
• What is the context in which we are working? This will be often overlooked, but in a COVID world, with AI looming and a systemised, regulated service, understanding how we apply culture is critical.
• How is culture perceived by different individuals and groups – the word psychological safety which feels a positive shared cultural value may have different meaning to different people and it is important to explore the words generated by culture together.
• How can you develop a strong and engaging narrative and set of key messages? These again are often dull, but look to social media for inspiration, the power of storytelling should not be underestimated.
• Ensure that you fully represent the people affected and ask them what is needed?
• Strengthen the agency and action of people to achieve change themselves.
Distributed Wisdom
Using this strategy of enabling people to step back and see the wider picture, identifying threads and relationships, a new common vision, goals and behaviours can be achieved with shared understanding.
Do not underestimate the dynamic of Power
Power lies at the heart of change and understanding where power is held or who is experiencing marginalisation is critical to success.
Power in organisations is often captured through professional identity or department identity but can be economic, political, social, cultural or symbolic. People’s experiences of power depends on their identities, related to age, gender, race, class, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or disability status.
A common conception of power is control over others, having authority and control over individuals, groups or institutions which can be backed up by action – often loss of a job.
Visible power is when decision making is observable and leads to formal and recognisable rules, laws, structures and procedures.
Resistance is a form of power often influencing of the agenda from behind the scenes.
However, power is subtler and can be positive.
• Collective Power is the strength and capacity gained from joining others in working towards a common goal.
• Power within is personal self-confidence and role modelling can be a form of power.
• The norms, values, attitudes, beliefs and ideology that shape a person’s way of thinking can influence decisions and form a powerful opportunity.
So looking into the organisation to identify how power can be understood and utilised to create a positive optimising effect is important.
What is Needed to Build a New Culture across Systems?
To create whole system transformation, organisations need to share a common vision, role model successful application and create win:win changes recognising the value we all bring to the whole community.
We can apply the same principles at an organisational level.
- A shared mission
- Including Philosophy alongside Science
- Leveraging the dynamic of power
Developing a powerful message and narrative that will engage, motivate and resonate with your audiences and key stakeholders to make a change is a critical element of effective influencing.
Finding Inspiration in a Journey
With cultural change, embrace the journey and focus on making small, incremental steps and work closely with your workforce to create a movement of change.
Even when you are struggling, walking creates a pathway of footsteps and others can follow.
