Culture eats strategy for breakfast

I have been working closely with a school and its leadership team during the current COVID-19 outbreak. The leaders have managed school closure, online meetings, preparing a roll out of online learning, canceling local trips, getting groups back in to the USA from abroad, communicating to parents, closing boarding programs, monitoring several news channels, communicating with multiple stakeholders and health and government officials and so on. Challenging times indeed.

No school was fully ready for the outbreak in spite of all their emergency plans; but, some are better prepared than others to pivot to a new way of teaching and learning in the online space. (Yes, resources do matter, and some schools unfortunately, and through no fault of their own do not have the resources and nor do their students). Why are some schools, including the one I am working with specifically, pivoting successfully to managing change and move to online learning?

The schools most ready to adapt to online learning are not necessarily the schools with the best strategies or resources for online learning. The schools best able to adapt are those with an already established culture of ongoing learning and development, risk taking, collaboration and trust. The move to online teaching and learning at this particular school will not be seamless, but it will shift quickly, creatively and successfully. Why? Because ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. This school has an established culture for innovation. Teachers are already in the mindset of trying something new (and not sticking rigidly to the old); looking to solve a problem creatively (rather than becoming frozen); ready to take risks (and not being afraid of making mistakes); collaborating with peers (instead of being stingy with ideas). This is a culture that enables buy-in, flexibility and innovation and where the faculty daily collectively take responsibility to create an engaging and future-ready environment.

Culture cannot be left alone to self-create, and leaders must embark daily on an intentional journey to cultivate the culture they know will create an engaging, productive and innovative work place, or school in this case. School culture (or any organizational culture) is tough to create. It acts like a moving target and can often mean something different to everyone. It grows organically, and emerges from stories, interactions, conversations and policies. Thus, it must be carefully and intentionally cultivated.

This school’s leadership has over the past several years purposefully nurtured a culture for innovation that has as a key element (there are many aspects to building culture), magnifying the good. Some examples of this include, starting each meeting with an agenda item to magnify the good; sending handwritten notes of gratitude to peers and students; running magnify the good assemblies; encouraging shout-outs and, importantly, creating a strengths-based culture where the culture takes a more positive approach by focusing on identifying each person’s strengths and supporting the productive application of those strengths at work.

Another name for magnifying the good is appreciative inquiry. When a culture rests on this foundation, practices of appreciative conversations fill the hallways, meeting rooms and minds of people. Even the end-of-year summative reviews have an appreciative tone. Teachers and administrators are asked questions like “What are your leadership highpoints?”; “What are your hopes and dreams?”; “What are the opportunities for improvement?” Appreciative conversations and relationships mold values and attitudes of the people so they can both individually and collectively “imagine a preferred future together that is more hopeful, boundless, and inherently good…It is about … finding those positive, anticipatory images that compel action toward them.” An appreciative inquiry approach has proven to be foundational in “designing, transforming, and growing” an effective school culture that is ready to adapt to this massive global change. Teachers are eager to activate positive change in their teaching and learning approaches to make them more relevant to the rapidly changing needs of the students.

In conclusion, ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ is believed to be a famous quote from the great scholar of leadership and management, Peter Drucker. Drucker was not saying that strategy was unimportant, but that rather that an intentionally cultivated, powerful and inspiring culture is a surer path to organizational success especially when the world is changing so rapidly and immensely that we may no longer have the strategies required to manage the change.

Dr. Peter Dry March, 2020

Reference: 

Appreciative Inquiry Handbook for Leaders of Change by Cooperrider, Whitney and Stavros. 2008

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What would you need on a desert island?

What is it that innovators can’t do without and that leaders need to provide for their ideas to take hold and flourish?

You know the old conversation starter, “If you were stuck on a desert island, what 3 things could you possibly not do without?” The answers I have received range from three good books, play station, skin moisturizer, soccer ball, pen and paper, Swiss Army Penknife, hat, sunglasses, yoyo, Rubik’s cube and so on.

This got me wondering about what innovators (or even intrapreneurs) could not do without in order for their ideas to take hold and flourish. So, I did a little research, had a few conversations and this is what emerged.

The experiences of Steve Sasson (the inventor of the digital camera) at Kodak showed that individuals in an organization cannot take a new and ground-breaking idea from birth to profitable product. Innovation must live in the DNA of the company. When I am asked to help innovation to flourish in organizations, I look to create a culture for innovation. I work with leaders to help them understand that innovation has to live in the culture, and the culture is largely defined by the leadership. Innovation has to be to an organizational-wide effort and must be supported across the organization by culture and systems and practices that encourage groundbreaking ideas and products. Innovation seldom flows freely. Organizations across the sectors need to have all systems working to create a mental space for innovation. That is, employees know they have permission and are supported by systems to challenge the status quo. If that does not occur, innovation will be stifled and the innovators will take their ideas elsewhere.

Here are principles for leaders to follow for innovation to flourish:

1.     If the culture allows for it, identify your potential innovators. Give them opportunities to ideate, create, design, prototype, implement and even scale the new ideas keeping the innovation connected to the organization and not siloed.

2.     Find the shepherds; someone who can act as a protector and guide the innovator through the political maze that exists in many organizations. Especially if the culture of the innovation defaults to the status quo and tends to squash new ideas. The shepherd opens financial doors too, being an advocate for the innovator allowing the latter to focus on developing the new idea and not expending too much energy on other matters.

3.     Ensure a strong business/team partner. Times get tough especially when you are breaking new ground and you need a strong partner to lean on. The partner provides support, guidance, and feedback. They also offer another point of view encouraging you to see things in different ways.

4.     Talk to your innovators about their role models. These range from the Steve Jobs and Elon Musk’s of the world to the small business owners who deliver great value to customers and build a strong brand. These people provide inspiration and lessons.

5.     Build a sense of team around your innovators. They can be tricky people to work with, but we need them and they need a team. Team support of innovations can take down opposing forces (or use them to make the product/service even better) to make successful innovation stick. The sense of team can also mean empowering everyone with the ability to contribute towards significant change. Have conversations about innovators and innovation with your people. A cultural valuing of innovation, creativity, learning and quality helps to unite a team or business and provide a clear framework of ‘how things are done around here.’

6.     Encourage love of the product. Many innovators speak about how they love what they do. Loving the customer meant being deeply aware of customer needs. After all, innovation happens where the customer is. Loving the product/services means really caring about the quality ensuring it is defect free and goes beyond the expectations of the customer. Part of love is patience which is required in the relentless pursuit of an optimal solution (there is seldom an ‘aha’ moment) to yield high-impact breakthrough.

7.     Encourage and model a harmonious lifestyle. Pay attention to all the aspects of what makes us who we are; mental, physical, social/emotional and spiritual. Productivity and happiness increase when you feel healthy, aligned, stimulated and importantly playing to your strengths. Successful people take holidays, exercise and catch up with friends and family. This creates space for contemplation and mental ‘tinkering’. Making this an element of the culture is one step to creating a culture for innovation that all your people can be part of.

I know this list contains more than three things, and they may not help you survive on a desert island, but I wonder which of these exists in your team or company to give innovation and innovators a chance to thrive?

By Dr. Peter Dry, 2020

Picture source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Desertisland.jpg