Identifying a Corporate Cultural Challenge

Identifying and addressing a cultural challenge:

Cultural challenges are among the hardest to rectify in an office setting. With the spread of telecommuting, the process has gotten a bit harder.

Step 1: Look for bias in perception.

The big three here are the bandwagon effect, confirmation and survivorship biases. Leading the caravan should be different than jumping on the bandwagon. Don't get lost in the big picture of company culture and "what we do". Something that was a good decision at the time, may be causing an issue. It's important to address that some solutions, no matter how successful, may need to be updated.

Trust the facts and explore the reasons behind them. Nothing can be taken at face value because what's noticed is what's always been seen. It's like trying to proofread personal prose.

Employees in high stress positions avoid issues by chance, endurance, or skill. The first may not be able to tell what an issue is, and the others probably won't speak up because it's safer to stay quiet. Look for what the failures have in common, not what the successful are doing. Where is the common denominator?

Step 2: Listen to the stories.

What stories are being told where, and by whom? Our stories make the backbone of people's perception of the company, and the most important ones are not told during training. A disgruntled employee or gossip may become considered an expert on "how things really are" if they've been around long enough, and the employees with the context for their behavior are gone.

Step 3: Check the filter.

At best, reading an employee's written feedback gets 7% of the intended message across, which is further limited by the employee's prosaic skill. There's no such thing as non-verbal communication or tone over text, it's all in the reader's head. Other information, whether pointed up or down the chain of command, is filtered through secondary sources. These people have their own perception of the message, sender, recipient, and the reasons behind the message. This telephone effect adds or changes the tone, and non-verbal communication in the information, while also changing the wording. Combined, this is guaranteed to alter the meaning. It is important to be sure the people that relay information are doing so in a manner that is in line with the cultural message leadership wants.

Step 4: Explore the outliers.

When companies are focused on digital data employee and customer feedback is often measured with a form, on a five or ten point scale. This information is lumped, parsed, and quantified without much human interaction. Check the "Other" section of these forms. Employees will often vent in these areas, and they may be attached to scores that do not match the norm. These complaints may be an extreme reaction to a too common problem. Though the scores may be disregarded safely in some analyses, the information they contain is priceless.

Step 5: Self assessment!

This should be first, but if leadership is the issue, an internal investigation will be easier now that all the facts are available.

● Are there any policies or procedures that are causing an unintended consequence?

● Is there any aspect of the company that can be more transparent or that is causing confusion?

● Is there something about leaderships' personal communication styles that contradict the cultural message that is the standard?

It’s said that the best reflection is self reflection, and that holds true here. It is only after finding and working on eliminating biases that it becomes possible to listen and act on the experiences of others. These steps should take some of that pain away, and make the change management process that much easier.