I feel a change coming on
And the fourth part of the day is already gone.
Bob Dylan
Culture eats strategy for breakfast.
Peter Drucker
People do not resist change when it is their choice. People resist being changed.
Michael Basch
The culture of any organization can seem immutable to those within it. That is certainly the case in higher education. Many colleges, like many organizations of all stripes, tend to view their cultures as almost sacrosanct, as though they can never, will never, and should never change. I know I lost out on several university dean jobs when, during my interview, I offered observations of culture and the need to innovate. I even had a slideshow on the subject to support my presentations to faculty and staff. People would nod along with my ideas, but I was told more than once that my so-much-as-mentioning change or innovation was too “scary” for people.
It’s not that the faculty, staff, and administrations of these institutions were oblivious to the often glaring need to alter their practices in order to move forward. In fact, that very criterion was frequently listed in the position descriptions. Once when I started as the chief academic officer (provost) of a college, the president flat-out told me that she wanted me to change their academic practices in order to improve the educational outcomes, but she warned me that I needed to “mind the culture.” Well, duh.
What I quickly learned, though, was that the prevalent culture of the administration and the prevalent culture of the faculty and staff were wildly divergent at that school. In fact, the faculty and staff were hungry for new directions and understood that their longstanding culture would need to adapt. Meanwhile, the president and her administration believed that somehow you could effect meaningful and lasting progress without altering the standard practices and assumptions that the administration perceived as the culture. In this way, the faculty and staff were far more realistic than the president and her closest advisors. That college did not deserve the faculty and staff it had.
Most evidently, strategic change of any value is not possible without cultural change. Not understanding this fundamental concept of organizational thinking is tantamount to repeating the same actions over and over and expecting different results. Insane. Not surprisingly, that college and I soon had to part ways, and, of course, that college continues to founder as its administration pits its own self-perceptions against reality.
I relate this tale not to tout my own competence. I made plenty of mistakes there that certainly hastened my departure. My point is that culture is a far more potent factor in the reality of an organization than strategy or even policy. This is why government and military reform is so hard to accomplish the way we usually go about it. We imagine that by changing the rules, the structures will change. The truth is that even if we manage to alter a few elements, the whole structure will ultimate continue to bend to the prevailing culture.
So what makes culture so formidable? Unlike structures, strategies, or policies, we internalize culture. Culture is a mindset, a habitual way of thinking. Culture creates paradigms in our minds, and soon those paradigms become personal practices. Similarly, organizational practices are always subservient to the culture. The only way to intentionally effect organizational change — to innovate, and to make progress if such outcomes are not part of the culture — is to alter the culture as it lodges in each individual and manifests in their interactions. That, obviously, takes time, care, and much patience.
The reality is that all culture can change, and it in fact invariably does — just not always at a sufficient pace or in a proper direction. Since culture is driven by people, the most obvious way to intentionally change a culture is to change the personnel or make some other drastic and sudden alteration. When that is impractical or undesirable — which is almost always the case — prepare for a long slog. Even when the current personnel desire a new direction or practice, it takes time and patience and openness to ween them from the familiar and move everyone in the desired direction. It’s just like teaching.
Any educator of any worth knows that quality learning does not take place when students are complacent and comfortable with the material. Students need to operate outside the conditions to which they have grown accustomed to absorb any new understanding. After all, you cannot learn something that you are already familiar with. The best teachers are expert at pushing students to push themselves — not just to work hard but to work different.
For instance, my oldest friend is a high school English teacher, and I have had the privilege and felt the joy of observing him at work. It’s like being at the circus and wowing at the highwire act. He moves his students by removing the net, and their engagement and excitement is evident. That’s how learning happens. His students are lucky. They never get to stagnate.
It is with learning as it is with culture. For an inert or misdirected organization to improve, its culture must change first, and real culture change can be a slow and arduous process, like reading a difficult piece of literature for the first time. But, as with reading literature, the payoff can be considerable. As a novel progresses, new worlds of ideas and insights can unfold to a mind that is receptive to them, and the same is true with a culture. As a culture progresses, minds change with it.
Note that in both the classroom and in the workplace, the teachers and the bosses have to be open to progress themselves and actively encourage it. These leaders also have to be willing to accept new directions they may not have ever conceived. For instance, my friend the teacher will allow his students to discover new ways of thinking he never anticipated, and he is skilled enough to shape those discoveries to keep the students on the right track. A good manager does much the same, remaining open to novel approaches, ideas, and even directions but able to focus still on the desired outcome.
Yes, change is scary, and — Halloween lore, haunted houses, and slasher flicks aside — humans tend to abhor scary. But beings, minds, and organizations that don’t change and progress are in fact dead or damn close to it. Change in any living organism or organization is therefore inevitable, so understanding how we change is critical. Step one is to willingly dip your toe in the unfamiliar. Step two, dip a second toe.
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