A metaphor for cultural change

Leaders wrestle with the culture of organisations on a regular basis. Understanding organisational culture is never more important than when a major cultural change is required. In Actinium we frequently work through cultural challenges with clients and find the use of metaphors helpful. To set the scene it is useful to do two things.

 The first is to provide a definition or description of culture:

“The accumulated shared learning of a group as it solves its problems of external adaptation and internal integration which has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, feel, and behave in relation to those problems. This accumulated learning is a pattern or system of beliefs, values and behavioural norms that come to be taken for granted as basic assumptions and eventually drop out of awareness”

(Professor Edgar Schein: Organisational Culture and Leadership. Fifth Edition, 2017)   

 The second is to set out a structure that helps understand the layers of culture in organisations and their effect. Edgar Schein also provides the following three level view of culture in organisations:

1.     Artefacts:

Visible,- and some almost touchable - structures, processes, objects, etc.

Observed acts and behaviours

(Despite being ‘visible’ they may often be difficult to decipher)     

2.     Espoused Values

Ideals, goals, values, aspirations

Ideologies, philosophies, and rationalisations

(These may or may not be congruent with behaviours and other artefacts)

3.     Basic Underlying Assumptions

Unconscious, taken for granted beliefs and values

(These determine behaviours, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings)

The use of a metaphor may help to identify why we so often fail when undertaking cultural change.  

The Blue-water Cruising Yacht

Imagine you have an overarching ‘Espoused Value’ to undertake long distance, deep ocean sailing. Your ancillary espoused values, ideals or goals might include, safety, comfort, easy sail handling, long term reliability, able to sustain long periods at sea in heavy weather. Consequently, you may design your cruising yacht paying attention to two areas:

1.     Above water – e.g.  robust deck fittings, masts, sails, rigging, equipment, cabin comfort, large spares storage, etc.

2.     Below water – e.g. strong hull construction, sea keeping hull shape, long heavy keel for stable steering, long range water and fuel tanks, etc. 

You no doubt have the idea by now. As the owner you have designed the cruising yacht to meet your ideas and needs and consequently it might typically look like Fig 1.

In terms of the three levels of Schein’s Culture Model we can see the following for the cruising yacht:

Level 1. Artefacts

Readily observable artefacts will be elements such as masts, sails, rigging, winches, fittings, deck layout, cabin layouts and domestic equipment, etc. However, the reasons why rigging is oversize, winches are powered, why there are two masts not one, and many more fittings or equipment than seems necessary, may not be easily understood, or deciphered, by the observer. More significantly new crew will be taught how things work by old crew who themselves may not know why things are arranged in certain ways. They have become basic assumptions that have dropped out of awareness.          

Level 2: Espoused Values

The overarching values or ideals of wanting a safe, robust, comfortable sailing yacht for long distance ocean cruising will be clear. However, one might question the design congruence with the espoused values. For example, the boat could be deemed overly burdened with ‘comfort’ equipment that may not be robust and easy to maintain when sailing in remote areas. 

Level 3: Basic Assumptions  

The key thing to note is that critical design elements are invisible. They are either below the waterline or under decking and not easily apparent, especially to the untrained observer.  Imagine a new crew member joining the boat. They may not know there is a long heavy keel or why. They won’t question the two-mast layout and the more numerous, smaller sails. They may have no idea why the rigging is oversized. The yacht, and everything it comprises, just works. For you as the owner, the yacht makes sense. For any new crew joining they also, in a short space of time, come to absorb and assimilate the basic assumptions They simply accept that this is how this yacht is sailed. It works and they have no need to be aware of the ‘why’ of the original design assumptions.     

The Racing Yacht

Now imagine that the above cruising yacht is bought by a new owner who is new to sailing but their ‘espoused values’ are to win short duration, sailing races. Let’s also assume they buy the boat unseen and based only on the size of boat the new owner wants.

A typical ‘short course’ racing yacht needs to be lighter, have a hull, keel and rudder design that is more responsive to fast manoeuvring, is stripped back of unnecessary equipment, have the latest and lightest technology and materials used in masts, rigging, sails, equipment and have a minimally obstructed flush deck.  Consequently, the type of design required is very different from the cruising yacht and may look like Fig 2.

The new owner quickly observes that the ‘Artefacts’ of the boat he has bought are not fit for racing and makes what seems a simple decision – change the observable, cruising artefacts to racing ones that match their espoused racing values and goals. Consequently, the two masts are changed for one. New sets of racing sails are bought. Heavy duty rigging is replaced with lighter high-tech materials. All the unnecessary heavy, cruising equipment is stripped out, along with many other expensive, artefact modifications. Eventually, above the waterline, the visible profile begins to resemble a racing yacht.

Unfortunately, unless the yacht is lifted out of the water and the decking and bulkheads opened-up the ‘Basic Underlying Assumptions’ are never exposed or understood. The new owner will fail to realise that the hull shape, keel design, strength of construction and large built-in tanks are at odds with the Espoused ‘racing’ Values. The yacht will never win a race no matter how much money and technology is thrown at modifying the Artefacts.

Conclusion

Too often leaders of organisations undertake cultural change in ways similar to the racing yacht example. They fail to, metaphorically, lift the boat out of the water and inspect it closely to understand its fundamental design and performance characteristics. Consequently, they misunderstand the nature, magnitude and difficulty of the cultural change required. By failing to interrogate the Basic Underlying Assumptions they fail to understand those ‘taken for granted basic assumptions that have dropped out of awareness’. Yet these are the most powerful determinants of often unconscious behaviours, perceptions, thoughts and feelings for almost every member of the organisation. Without this understanding the leaders will likely also miss the fact that even the Espoused Values may be non-congruent. They may be tempted to focus on addressing the Artefacts because they seem visible and simple. Directing the change efforts on the observable artefacts is unlikely to deliver the cultural change required for all the reasons we hope this article, and its metaphor, make clear.