TABLE 3.5: Organizational Culture Checklist

To what extent:

Does the culture support a systems view of issues and problems that is open to different worldviews or mental models?

Does the culture reinforce team learning and cross-team collaboration?

Is the culture supportive of innovation and risk-taking?

Does the culture promote creativity and change through supportive feedback, recognition, and rewards?

Are power and influence in the organization determined by personal attributes and skills rather than position?

Are employees personally committed to the organization’s mission?

Are employees comfortable challenging existing traditions, norms, and values?

Do employees share ideas for improving the quality of their work?

Do organizational norms and processes support a learning culture?

Does the culture support a democratic approach to decision-making?

The more affirmative the responses to these questions, the higher the likelihood that the culture will provide a strong foundation for change efforts. If many responses are negative, leaders should pursue efforts to make the culture more change-centric during the change initiatives. At the very least, change leaders will need to address those elements of the culture that are most problematic for the change effort. Since cultural change typically comes very slowly, leaders of change will need to address those areas of greatest weakness and develop a broad strategy to gradually introduce the organization to an approach that is more welcoming of change.

Change Implementation Mechanisms

Change leaders need tools to plan, steer, implement, and evaluate organizational changes. While a number of change mechanisms may be helpful, three primary mechanisms are especially effective: (1) the use of strategic management processes to create a shared change vision and to align resources with that vision among employees; (2) the development or more effective use of specific channels (or change structures) to facilitate two-way communications about the change throughout the organization; and (3) the development of continuous improvement programs, after-action reports, and other approaches to creating a learning organization.

As leaders initiate major change, they must take a hard look at their existing strategies, processes, policies, and structures to determine whether they support the change initiative. If agencies have continuous improvement programs or other change mechanisms in place, new changes will occur much more easily. If not, the challenge is twofold. In the short run, leaders have to create a mechanism to initiate the change successfully. In the long run, leaders need to devise a strategy to make processes and structures more change-centric and to encourage their agencies to become “learning organizations.”

Table 3.6 provides a set of questions that can assist leaders in assessing their change implementation mechanisms. (Chapter 7 provides advice on how to create mechanisms that support change initiatives and promote continuous learning.)