“The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.” So says Prof. Edgar Schein, author of Organizational Culture and Leadership , Jossey-Bass, and a trusted advisor of mine. Never was Ed as helpful as when he said to me, “Bob, your problem is one of culture”. That was back in 1982 when I was presented with the opportunity to build an organization from the rubble left from the breakup of the old Bell System, a structure that excelled under monopoly conditions. The new organization was to provide support services for Bellcore, a successor to Bell Labs, a technological behemoth and home of the transistor, Unix and a host of other major advances. The Labs was given the freedom to do research in areas that would someday advance the telecommunications infrastructure of the U. S. While we were sensitive to costs, it was never an inhibitor to good research under the monopoly umbrella. The divestiture of the Bell System sent us into the world of competition. In case, you didn’t know, it was a very different world than we were used to. The saying, “If God wanted to punish a company, he would give it 40 years of success was never more accurate than as it applied to the more than 100 years of success of “Ma Bell”. The family culture worked well and each of Ma’s offspring (AT&T, Western Electric, Bell Labs and the many local telephone companies) developed its own sub-culture consistent with its function (planning, manufacturing, research and service, respectively).
When the Support Services Division of Bellcore was conceived, it would be comprised of people from each of the functions of the former entity. We were faced with the challenge of acquiring and outfitting 2.7 million sq. ft. of space in 18 months for 8000 of our country’s best scientists and engineers. As we set upon the task, I had no choice but to rely on the diversity of the people from the different functions. As long as they were operating in their own silo, everything was great; the planners planned, the manufactures built, the researchers sought new solutions and the servers delivered services. The problem came when I dared to deconstruct the silos. Typically, I would ask the collective for suggestions and I would see four anxious hands waving to provide “the answer”. As you may have guessed, each answer was different, because it was predicated on the culture of the old function. After trying the same thing over and over and getting the same result, I decided to ask Ed Schein for help (he was my thesis advisor when I was a Sloan Fellow at MIT). This is when he introduced me to the importance and influence of culture. I left Ed and went back to work, not worrying as much about bricks and mortar as culture.
I realized I had to create a culture that was more responsive to a competitive environment than a monopoly one. The first thing I did was change the order of my staff meeting. At each meeting, first up was our financial standing, not a big worry in the good ol’ days. Next was a visit from one of my peers, our internal customer, whom I had asked to survey his people and give us a grade on each service we provided. We rolled these results up to a monthly scorecard that we published for all to see, warts and all. We created a mission statement that included the phrase “provide quality service at ever decreasing levels of cost”. And finally we would watch one of Tom Peters’ In Search of Excellence tapes and discuss the values we should imbue going forward. We met our deadlines and I was able to turn a highly functioning organization over to my successor as I moved on to the next challenge.
As I now look back on that experience, I realize how closely I followed Ed’s advice about the embedding mechanisms leaders should use as listed in his book (e.g., What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis). That experience made believer out of me. The quotes:
- “The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.” (Schein),
- "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" that from the war room of the new Ford makeover, and
- “The thing I have learned at IBM is that culture is everything.” Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. former CEO IBM
have become mantras for me as I now spend my time helping organizations surface their culture so they understand why their people behave as they do.
Robert (Bob) L. Davis has served as a senior consultant for the past 20 years strengthening organization's understanding of their culture and facilitating the effectiveness of their leadership teams. http://www.leadershipedge.com/#!our-team/vstc3=robert-(bob)-l.-davis