Communication and Cultural change...

Following piece was sourced from a blog entry by VS, a management practitioner:

You can never over-communicate, more so if it concerns with building a cultural infrastructure to propel the organization towards its future goals.

Here is a small piece of communication by a leader to emphasize the importance of desired cultural changes in his organization. The communication underlines and clarifies desired cultural undertones, which will help transform the unit.

Thanks to a close friend who worked in this reputed firm, who enriched my collection of great “leadership communications” in business organizations, with this wonderful piece, which I have always wanted to share with others. Next follows the text of the communication:

Some of you must have noticed fresh set of posters in the reception area and must be wondering -- why do we need them and what is it that they are trying to communicate? If you have not noticed them – don’t worry for they will be everywhere; Very soon they are going to become a way of our life.

For us to be positioned successfully for the future, we need to undergo a cultural transformation for we are in crisis. The biggest challenge(s) that we face today are “What do we want to be known for?” and “What is our future roadmap?” All of us need to step up to the challenge and be a part of the cultural transformation that will help us find answers to the above questions. The poster campaign is going to remind each of you every single day on what needs to be done, how can we reach there and who can take us there.

These posters communicate the following:

• Building our Identity
• Moving up the value chain
• Identifying the leader in you
• Creating a culture of Excellence through Focus Demonstrating CLR: Creativity, Leadership and solid relationships with our partners, peers and customers.

We need to make sure that we are focused on what ever we do; be it technology, processes, business knowledge and/or project. It is only through focus can we achieve excellence and excellence is what we require to move up to the next level.

Creativity: It is a process of developing and expressing novel ideas for solving problems or satisfying needs.

• Ask yourself how flexibly and imaginatively did you approach problems?
• Did your solution challenge the status quo?
• Ask yourself what could you have done better?

If you have an inner passion to solve the problem at hand then creativity will automatically get reflected in proposed solutions. Also, to be creative you have to be an expert – be it technical, procedural or intellectual knowledge.

Leadership: Leadership is not just about leading people, it is about:

• Being focused on getting short term results and at the same time not losing sight of long term needs
• Understanding the specifics of how things work
• Respecting the limits of what are the available resources
• Being compassionate and responsive to other’s needs and feelings
• Listening to other’s opinions and ideas
• Thinking broadly on how can we move up the value chain Making tough calls, taking stands and articulating reasons for taking stands clearly

Relationship: Last but not the least, any success that is achieved at the cost of relationships is not truly success. Make sure that your relationships with partners, peers and customer are stellar for then only will we be truly successful.

Go, take a lead in building a culture of excellence through focus and demonstrate CLR every single day to reach new heights!

Two Great Wastes and Underutilizaton of Human Potential

We can get some good insights into Communication and its impact on our potential, from the following piece and attached paper, by Hal Macomber and Gregory Howell:

Two Great Wastes™:

Not Listening

Not Speaking

We need a story that is embraced and retold that champions the success of teams who operate in a setting of respect and dignity speaking freely while engaging in deep listening.

Not listening has been cited as the source of the tragedies of the NASA Mars Climatic Orbiter and the Columbia shuttle. Not listening results in resignation and resentment as people attempt to change a situation only to find no appreciation.

Not speaking deprives others of wisdom, perspective, and insight. Not speaking is culturally reinforced at young ages. We learn that speaking up can lead to punishment. We stifle ourselves out of fear.

Both not speaking and not listening become habits in our life and in organizations. That is the good news. The habit can be changed. The initiative for change can come from anyone taking an act of leadership.

Greg and I claim listening is the master skill of the leader. A corollary to that skill is creating the circumstances for others to speak. The only thing keeping us from bringing forth that leadership is the current story about the exercise of power and control on projects and in organizations. We must change our story of how we are most effective. We need a story that is embraced and retold that champions the success of teams who operate in a setting of respect and dignity speaking freely while engaging in deep listening. Let's battle the Two Great Wastes...

Here is the link to their paper:

http://www.iglc2004.dk/_root/media/13105_079-howell-macomber-final.pdf