Culture is very powerful. Like all things powerful it can be good or bad. My definition of organizational culture is a set of beliefs, values, and attitudes that result in the behaviors of members. Our teams have cultures as do our departments, schools, campuses as well as NYU.
When we are in a situation with a positive culture, it seems like we are capable of anything. Work is rewarding and people are generally happy. A negative culture is a miserable place to work and rarely productive in the long run. When addressing organizational culture two questions come to mind. The first is what kind of culture is best for my organization and the second is how do we build it? As Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you wind up someplace else.”
Changing culture is the hard part. In my experience it takes patience and persistence. These are the ways I have succeeded in changing culture.
- Be clear about the culture and behaviors that you want. These emails are an example of how I try to define the culture of IT at NYU.
- Reward the right behaviors and punish the wrong ones. I find it takes a conscious effort to remember to praise people for the behaviors that I think should be routine. “Punish” is a harsh word, but letting people know when they have done something outside the culture you want is important. It can be as minimal as a question like “Could you have handled that differently?”
- Keep at it. I’ve heard the analogy of turning an aircraft carrier. To me that’s easy. The captain says do it, but it takes a long time. I liken it to turning a gaggle. You have to tell everyone, keep reminding them, and tell them again. It takes a long time and there is no guarantee that they won’t turn back.
Just to make it harder you have to constantly look at your organization’s culture to ensure it is still the right one. When you have put so much effort into building a culture it is very hard to look objectively and think that was then, now we need to act differently. Listen to outsiders, listen to your team, and look at other teams. Don’t be the last to know that your team has a culture problem.
Since it is baseball season I’ll finish with another Yogi quote, “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”