| p>In a world of increasing stakeholder | | | | Patterns of Interaction (POI): What is not |
| expectations and decreasing resources, | | | | common knowledge is that the patterns of |
| aggressive cost cutting programs have run their | | | | interactions (POI) that make up most day-to-day |
| course. Where do you turn next? Increasing a | | | | operations in companies are performed on |
| company's revenues and gross margins, and | | | | autopilot, e.g. they are done out of habit and |
| knowing where (and how) to reduce costs | | | | routine, seamlessly, without consciously thinking |
| without negatively impacting customer | | | | about them. It is important to remember that |
| satisfaction, employee productivity and morale, or | | | | automatic pilot operations are a doubled-edge |
| business processes that are working effectively | | | | sword. When done effectively, they can be your |
| requires a precise and systematic understanding | | | | greatest ally because they increase your ability to |
| of exactly what organizational culture is and how | | | | compete and achieve your goals. But in most |
| it works in organizations. | | | | cases autopilot operations are self-defeating |
| Most managers struggle against the flow of | | | | because they perpetuate problems with work |
| overly complex structures and systems and are | | | | performance, communication, interpersonal |
| often frustrated by an invisible force that | | | | conflict, and decision-making and then derail |
| undermines their attempts to affect positive | | | | attempts to create positive change. |
| change. Their instincts tell them that the | | | | Repository of Interaction (ROI): Culture is most |
| organization's culture and people are preventing | | | | frequently described as the underlying |
| them from getting the results they want, but | | | | assumptions, tacit beliefs and attitudes that an |
| culture remains one of the least understood | | | | organization holds in common (ROI), but this is |
| aspects of organizational life. Organizational culture | | | | only one of the four elements that organizational |
| often acts like an Invisible Bureaucracy(TM) that | | | | culture is made of. The ROI is a collective |
| frustrates and undermines effective business | | | | repository of group learning: a lens through which |
| performance. In fact, what many managers find | | | | managers and staff members see (and interpret) |
| most frustrating is that although they have little | | | | day-to-day operations and the realities of |
| or no control over changing the ineffective | | | | organizational life. The ROI includes an |
| structures and systems of the larger organization | | | | organization's accumulated history, key events, |
| within which their work-group is embedded, they | | | | stories, heroes, prohibitions, rituals, ceremonies, |
| are still held accountable for delivering on | | | | traditions, and folk wisdom about how things |
| commitments and goals. | | | | should (or should not) be done. It also includes an |
| Defining culture in a more precise and systematic | | | | organization's accumulated business experience |
| way enables us to better understand what the | | | | and knowledge base - its unique capabilities and |
| Invisible Bureaucracy(TM) is and how it works. | | | | intellectual property that allow them to create |
| More specifically, organizational culture consists of | | | | their products and services. |
| four distinct (but interdependent) categories of | | | | Current Results: An organization's current results |
| business elements that interact with each other | | | | consist of things like its actual level of financial and |
| to produce an organization's financial and | | | | non-financial performance and its actual level of |
| non-financial results (see below). The interaction of | | | | customer satisfaction, as opposed to the goals or |
| these four elements creates organizational culture | | | | key performance targets that a company sets |
| and many managers experience this as the | | | | for itself. Over time, the four elements tend to |
| Invisible Bureaucracy(TM). | | | | settle down on an organization-wide pattern of |
| 1. Patterns of Interaction (POI) | | | | interaction (POI) that emerges within the larger |
| 2. Context of Interaction (COI) | | | | context of interaction of the business |
| 3. Repository of Interaction (ROI) | | | | environment (COI) and this creates the actual |
| 4. Current Results | | | | results that an organization gets, as opposed to |
| Here is how the four elements work together to | | | | its planned results, e.g. its key performance |
| create organizational culture. Day-to-day | | | | indicators and goals. Because all four terms |
| operations occur as patterns of interactions (POI) | | | | function interdependently, the actual results |
| within the context of interaction of an | | | | reinforce the other three cultural elements. |
| organization's structures and systems (COI). Over | | | | Bottom Line: So what enables the Invisible |
| time, the interaction of POI and COI functions like | | | | Bureaucracy(TM) to continue operating |
| a group learning process that creates a repository | | | | undetected time and time again? What gives the |
| of interaction (ROI) that becomes an | | | | Invisible Bureaucracy(TM) the force and power to |
| organization's knowledge-base and the tacit beliefs | | | | continue to derail positive change, even against |
| that managers and staff members have about | | | | the best efforts of managers and staff members |
| the organization and the people in it. Over time, | | | | to the contrary? Two of the four elements |
| these first three elements settle down on an | | | | described above are the main culprits: |
| organization-wide pattern of interaction (POI) | | | | 1. POI: Day-to-day operations that are habitual, |
| within the larger context of interaction of the | | | | routine, and happen on autopilot (POI), combined |
| business environment (COI) and the combination | | | | with, |
| of these elements produces the financial and | | | | 2. ROI: Tacit (unquestioned) beliefs and attitudes |
| non-financial results that an organization actually | | | | that create decision-making bias and predictable |
| gets. This is the underlying process that Dave | | | | errors in judgment, e.g. managers choose |
| Hanna is describing when he says that, "All | | | | ineffective solutions to problems because they |
| organizations are perfectly designed to get the | | | | are familiar and are within their comfort zone |
| results they get." Each of the four terms is briefly | | | | So the key to making the power of the Invisible |
| described below. | | | | Bureaucracy(TM) work for you rather than |
| Context of Interaction (COI): After decades of | | | | against you is to take ineffective day-to-day |
| research on organizations, it has become common | | | | operations off autopilot, reconfigure them, and |
| knowledge that 85% or more of the root causes | | | | then migrate them back to autopilot operations |
| of performance problems are in the organizational | | | | that produce the desired results. To reiterate, |
| structures and systems within which people work | | | | when done effectively, autopilot operations can be |
| (COI). In other words, if you put good people in | | | | an organization's greatest ally because they |
| bad systems you will get poor performance. So | | | | increase its ability to compete and achieve its |
| focusing on improving performance in a | | | | goals. It also allows managers to focus on |
| work-group without understanding the context | | | | improving performance by increasing service to |
| within which it is embedded almost guarantees | | | | clients, streamlining delivery channels, growing |
| that change will not be sustainable, because the | | | | markets, and delivering higher value to all of an |
| managers and staff within the work-group are | | | | organization's stakeholders. |
| less then 15% of the real problem. | | | | |