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March 2009
2 Reasons You Should Worry About Shared Assumptions

Here's a riddle. What aspect of an organization, any
organization, is everywhere? Wherever you go in the
organization, you can see it, hear it, feel it. Even when
you're outside the organization, you take it with you.

And yet, you can't pick it up, or put it in a box. Like the
air we breathe, we're often unaware of its existence.

The answer is culture, and it's one of my favorite subjects.  I'm excited and fascinated by it because it's so important to an organization, and has so many aspects to explore and understand. Many people take it for granted, or dismiss it.

They do so at their own peril, and that of their organizations.

In defining culture, I'll paraphrase Edgar Schein, an
organizational culture expert: Culture is a shared set of
assumptions about the correct way to talk, act, feel, perceive, and think in certain situations.

These shared assumptions evolve over time based on observations people make. Most times, these shared assumptions aren't written down anywhere; instead, they're just rattling around inside people's heads, influencing everyone's behavior.

These "shared assumptions" are important for two reasons.

The first is that they have a huge effect on how the
organization performs. These assumptions determine behavior that is critical to organizational success.

An example involves a VP of Sales who brought in tons of revenue, but was an absolute tyrant, terrorizing the support staff, and belittling his own sales force. But the President wouldn't take action to change the VP's behavior, because the VP generated so much revenue.

One shared assumption is that revenue trumps everything else.  That assumption often leads to unethical or illegal behavior.  Ask Bernie Madoff.

A second shared assumption is that we don't hold people accountable for bad behavior. This often results in demoralization of the rest of the staff. And if the shared assumption is that it's ok to belittle others, you'll soon see that behavior spreading.

The second reason you should be very concerned about shared assumptions is that those assumptions flow from you, the leader. That's right. You. Whether you're the head of a company, or a department, or even a team. As a leader, it's your responsibility.

You're responsible for the shared assumptions, the
organizational culture. You as the leader can also shape the culture, mold it into one that promotes organizational success, as opposed to stagnation.

We want the shared assumptions to be things like, "We trust and support each other, hold ourselves accountable, strive for excellence in everything we do."

You find out about culture by observing what's going on around you. It's harder to do when you're part of the organization, which is why outside third parties are usually better at unearthing the shared assumptions that comprise culture.

The subtle clues are there, from simple things like how people answer the phone, and talk to each other, to more complex areas like how they handle adversity and mistakes. You, as a leader, have to determine what these clues mean.

A survey (I use the Strategic Alignment Survey) is a great way to get a sense of culture. So is interviewing people. Better yet is doing surveys and interviews, mixed in with just walking around with your organizational culture radar switched on.

What are the shared assumptions rattling around in your
employees' heads?  What are you doing to proactively shape and mold those assumptions?

Until next edition, keep leading the way!

Copyright (C) 2009 by Terry Wall

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