Complacency, Compromise and Competition: Silent Killers of Healthy Culture

You’ve heard the sayings ‘change what you are doing and you will change the results’ and ‘change your beliefs and change your life’.  These are powerful principles that work in individuals who will apply them. Did you know that these truths can be applied to your organizational culture?

I define culture as the product of how things are done, what people believe and how people are treated.  If you want to improve or change your culture, you have to change what you are doing, what you believe and how people are treated.

The prevalent culture I see in large and small organizations are wrapped in one of these attitudes: complacency, compromise or competition (the internal kind). When leaders, managers, employees have grown complacent, they are still working; but they are not taking responsibility for solving problems or making improvements. You hear the same problems year after year, and the response is always a blame game. Always the fault of the customers, the vendors, the leadership, the other department, the manager, or the economy. It is an insidious attitude and everyone, even leadership, can succumb.

Compromise is when you accept standards that are less than desirable, or even more dangerous is when you accept behaviors or attitudes that fall short of principled and ethical behavior. This mindset also continues in a gradual and subtle way, and you many not see the collateral damage until the culture implodes. Enron being a classic case.

Organizations that promote internal competition to create a sense of urgency walk a dangerous line because this typically results in building silos, distrust and hidden agendas. Pogo’s famous line, “We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us” becomes your mission du jour.

Changing organizational culture will always begin with leadership embracing the norms for accountability and for ‘going first’. It will be sustained through healthier relationships, information sharing and individual accountability.

What about your organization? Do you identify with any of these attitudes?