Intense innovation and customer
focus are the keys to an emerging organization.
Often complexity and distraction lead to increased focus on the
short-term bottom-line with core-principles left on the backburner. This focus
mirrors a lost sense of identity, value and vision. When the critical
foundation of maintaining core-principles is lost, the result is inflexibility
and stagnation instead of bold growth and cultural maturity that are necessary
to continuously be dynamically resilient.
Changing a mindset is never easy.
Usually, a strong jolt is needed before people realize that the current way of
doing things is no longer adequate. Awareness to the need for change is
achieved most effectively when the culture is under pressure. This stress
triggers a cultural change process.
Pain in the cultural system makes
people aware of the serious consequences of maintaining existing patterns.
Often, however, key players initially react to this awareness with shock and
disbelief. These reactions activate defensive routines that block further
movement; fear of the unknown contributes to a reluctance to identify the root
cause and implement a change solution.
Hopefully, this is only a short
term reaction. Once there is the recognition that the status quo cannot be
maintained, the stress, fear and change is to be confronted. There comes a point when clinging on to the
status quo only creates deeper problems.
At that point, diving into the
unknown is the lesser of two evils and the commitment to change begins. This
may seem an insurmountable obstacle for the key players, especially if core
values have become lost in a changing environment. Yet, the vital awakening power starts from
becoming aware of how the key player’s behavior impedes or promotes healthy
functioning in the culture. Unawareness
or resistance to either can seriously affect performance throughout the
organization. A softer approach is
recommended to develop a culture that enhances human capability through
individual and organizational learning.
Top-down structural changes and
policy enhancements only produce an illusion of order and control. Power holders assume that employees will
internalize the new rules they prescribe and automatically change. Cultural
defensive patterns cannot be changed by only structural changes, however,
because they only scratch the surface of any transformation effort Instead,
considerable social interaction is needed among participants for mindset change
because most behavior takes place at an unconscious level, which is not easily
altered.
Change occurs when an examination
of unconscious activity in the daily work and new activities are introduced,
followed by a new interpretation of the construction of shared meanings among
participants at all levels of the organization.
This act instills the vital power to create a shared mindset, changed
behavior, institutionalize change, and transform the organization into a
renewed cultural identity of resilience.
Genuinely,
Christine
