MAP and the Cultural Web
by Miki SaxonKevin Dwyer’s guest post yesterday gives excellent information on the benefits of using Johnson and Scholes Cultural Web. In a sense, the part described is the middle of cultural change.
The true beginning is in the MAP of the CEO who must desire and support the changes or they won’t really happen. In fact, that’s the main reason why culture so often changes when the top person changes. (One of the most glaring examples of this is Robert Nardelli, who quit GE when he was passed over for the top job; was fired (may require free registration) from Home Depot, but not before destroying the culture and sending attrition rates at all levels soaring; and who just became CEO at Chrysler, which should make for an interesting show for culture-watchers and case study writers. As you may have guessed, I’m not in the pro-Nardelli camp.)
Culture always looks like the boss, even when it bubbles up from the workers, since it’s the boss who allows and enables it to bubble up and then supports its implementation.
When seeking to change a culture it’s critical to identify the source(s) of each trait displayed in your Cultural Web (Power Structures, Organisational Structures, Rituals and Routines, Symbols, Control Systems, Myths and Stories). If the source, CEO/boss, senior executive, etc., isn’t willing to change their MAP enough to let go of the previous approach then change is not only difficult, but unlikely.
Sometimes the bottleneck isn’t a person, it’s tradition, usually some variation of, “…we’ve always done it that way.” But tradition is habit and habits are part of MAP.
Assuming that you’re not the bottleneck, it’s your responsibility as a leader to not only engender, but also facilitate, MAP changes in those below you; doing the same in those above you is far more difficult and often ends up an exercise in futility.
Successful change, whether in your own MAP or in others, isn’t just a function of how open you/the person is, but of what level of trust is inherent in your organization. No one is going to admit to a problem, let alone to being the source of it, in a culture where the messenger is killed.
Finally, getting people to change their MAP is similar to getting alcoholics to stop drinking-you can explain the importance, appeal to their intelligence, threaten their livelihood, use any other coercion you dream up, but it won’t happen until they choose to change.
As always, moving forward means change and changing is a private decision that each of us makes consciously or not, in large and small ways on a daily basis—and that’s really the bottom line.
