Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Read Case
2. Identify 3 problems
3. Root of problem (why)
4. Action Plan (what you are solving, how you are solving, why this will work, how this will work)
5. Measurable Success
LPO Course
Three dimensions for Trust:
● Honesty/Integrity
● Credibility/Knowledge
● Caring/Benevolence
We aim to keep you in flow; high skills, high challenge
Flow: Fully immersed and involved, feeling both energized and focused, performing at one’s peak, and
fully enjoying the process of the activity
● Need to keep learning and increasing challenge to maintain flow
● Interdependency increases conflicts & emotions in teams
● Task conflict can be constructive
● Personal criticism, relationship conflict is destructive
● Either kinds can lead to negative emotions, which need to be managed
● Good leader vs. bad leader | Good follower vs. bad follower
BCPC
● In cross-functional teams with different hierarchies, leaders must manage power dynamics and
create psychological safety
● An individual does not have all the answers
o Teams synthesize important information/perspectives into brand new ideas
● Conflict management styles + HEXACO + EI
TEDx – How to turn a group of strangers into a team (Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School)
● Teaming – When people come together quickly (often temporarily) to solve new/urgent/unusual
problems
● “Professional culture clash” between professions & industries creates huge problems
● Situational Humility + Curiosity = Psychological Safety
o “It’s hard to learn if you already know”
o “It’s either me or you” is not true – Scarcity doesn’t exist in the situation
The Competitive Imperative of Learning
● Execution-as-learning > Execution-as-efficiency
o Sacrifice short-term efficiency
o Use best knowledge obtainable
o Enable employee collaborating by making information available
o Continuously capture data to discover and study how work is really being done
● Execution-as-efficiency
o Manufacturing-dominated era focused on employees performing controllable repetitive
tasks for maximum efficiency
▪ Motivated with carrots (tasks completed 🡪 higher pay) and sticks (reprimands &
threat of job loss)
● Employees are “fearful” and do not speak up about ideas, questions, &
mistakes
o Problem: Employee productivity and individual performance is almost impossible to
measure
▪ Performance is determined by unmeasurable factors (ex. Intelligent
experimentation, ingenuity, interpersonal skills, resilience in the face of
adversity, etc.)
o Results in:
▪ Critical information and ideas failing to rise to the top
▪ Not enough time & resources for people to learn (Ex. Not switching to a better
software because employee will work slower when they start learning)
▪ Unhealthy internal competition
▪ Companies who think they can do no wrong
▪ Confirmation Bias
● Psychological safety is independent from employee accountability
o Healthy organizations foster both by setting strong goals & acknowledging/discussing
uncertainty
o
● Execution-As-Learning Steps
1) Provide process guidelines that facilitate learning
a. Simplify routine action & highlights discrepancies
2) Provide tools for employees to collaborate in real-time
a. IT systems, face-to-face forums
3) Collect process data
a. Ex. Doctors can deviate from guidelines, but must explain what they did and why
4) Institutionalize disciplined reflection
Feedback
Building Block #1: Feedback process
Building Block #2: Core Content of Feedback
● Underlying basic assumptions – an organization’s default mode, by which the members deal
with everyday issues
o May become obsolete over time
● Organizational values – somewhat explicit social norms regarding appropriateness of actions,
choices, and behaviors
● Cultural artifacts – symbolic tangible/intangible creations of the organization (ex. Google
doodles)
o “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – Google employee petition against Project Maven
● Heroes – Individuals valued by the organization and whose deeds are celebrated by its members
o Role models that shape the way organizational members think 🡪 how they tackle
problems
Using Character to Shape a Culture of Excellence
Map the Underlying Assumptions of the Existing Culture
● Contrast with operating market/environment
Anchoring Organizational Values within Universal, Virtuous Values
● Universal values are contained in facets of character
Bringing Values to life
● Create cultural artifacts that embody the 11 character dimensions
● Ex. “flagship projects”, Mandela developing Rugby team & hiring former “enemies” as
bodyguards
Sustaining a Culture of Excellence (Align all 5 components with Organizational Culture)
Strategy – “The company’s formula for winning”
● Mission statement, vision, overarching goals/objects, etc.
Structure – Formal ways by which work is accomplished
● Shape - # of levels in organization’s hierarchy
● Specialization - # of job specialties required to complete a task (high specialization 🡪 only
perform outlined tasks)
● Distribution of Power – Degree of centralization
o “Matrix” design approach – Employees report to “functional manager” and also “project
manager”
Processes – Information Flow & Decision-Making
● Vertical processes – managerial decisions/actions regarding the allocation of resources & talent
● Horizontal processes – workflow & operations
Rewards – Ensure effort applied to asks is measured and acknowledged
● Tangible rewards lose their energizing effect after a certain income level
People/HR Management – Recruitment, selection, rotation, training, and development of individuals
● Misalignment leads to employees deviating towards practices implied by culture
● Human capital resources – high-level unit or firm capabilities arising from effective
combinations of individual-level capabilities
o Can drive competitive advantage
● Competencies – The sets of knowledge, skills, and abilities that enable individuals to perform
effectively in each job
o Incorporate character dimensions & competencies in hiring
● Vicarious Learning – role modelling
● Feedforward Loop – When great leaders use their unique position to communicate information
available for upper echelons to their close collaborators
● Feedback Loop
● Systems come first and performance comes later
o Systems are more impactful than individual practices
b. Seek assistance from senior management, third party mediation, legal advice
c. Get medical attention
d. Establish & protect boundaries
e. Do not blame yourself
f. Solicit witness statements
g. Follow internal complaint process
The Toxic Triangle
Extra Notes
● Assume positive intent, assume ignorance over malice
● Authoritarians are weak leaders
● Common Information Effect – Information held by more members before team discussion has
more influence on team judgements (independent of the validity of the information)
● VUCA – Volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous environment