ved is demonstrated in tangible, measurable, and objective results, it has not been effective and will fade into memory. The time and resources that have been spent on the culture change will have been a waste of money. While there might be a new possibility of a culture shift, and a lot of excitement, the reality is that the organisation’s results still reflect the former culture, and what typically happens is that early attempts to alter results are met with resistance in some way - either cultural or structural - and the enthusiasm for change is blunted or killed entirely.

Until the point when the important results have changed to reflect

Around the world's coffee machines, talk about the culture of an organisation and its impact on performance wastes thousands of hours a day. We talk about the results that would be possible if the culture were just right; we complain where we see issues of organisational culture impacting performance.

Talking is one thing; what’s rare, however, is real recognition of the fact that great leaders explicitly manage the culture of their organisation. They understand that results are not only linked to culture, results are the expression of an organisation's culture.

Results are the Expression of Culture

Results are tangible, measurable, and objective. Results in business always include profit and cash. Results in other organisations may be different, but every credible organisation will have a set of tangible results to produce.

The state of the results of an organisation displays the prevalent culture. We're not just talking about the long-term results; we're talking about results in every period - including this one! We're talking about the results that need to be produced this week, and even today. Where there is a shortfall in results, there is always a shortfall in culture. If you look for the cultural shortfall and resolve it, your required results will be easier to produce.

A client recently was off track in producing agreed cost savings. They had a target of ?50k to find in one week. It was Thursday and they hadn’t properly identified any savings. They called us up and said that they wouldn’t meet the target - they had had a very busy week. They felt it would be OK, because they had a lot of ideas “in the pipeline”, and were confident they could recover later. Ordinarily, this would have been accepted, but we had them confront the culture that was being expressed: “It’s OK not to deliver on commitments; we’re busy and we’ll catch up later”.

They decided to challenge this, and instead to build and develop a culture of: “We deliver on our commitments, regardless of the circumstances”. The result was that they identified ?50k of cost savings by the deadline on Friday.

Culture Change hasn’t happened until the Results are produced

Some groups are very diligent in addressing cultural issues. In these groups we often see the same issue from the other perspective. Often people celebrate a wonderful “breakthrough” in culture. Relationships are repaired and teams are built – hooray! Surely, breakthrough results are on the way? Don’t count on it.

Unless the breakthrough that has been achieved is demonstrated in tangible, measurable, and objective results, it has not been effective and will fade into memory. The time and resources that have been spent on the culture change will have been a waste of money. While there might be a new possibility of a culture shift, and a lot of excitement, the reality is that the organisation’s results still reflect the former culture, and what typically happens is that early attempts to alter results are met with resistance in some way - either cultural or structural - and the enthusiasm for change is blunted or killed entirely.

Until the point when the important results have changed to reflect

re tangible, measurable, and objective. Results in business always include profit and cash. Results in other organisations may be different, but every credible organisation will have a set of tangible results to produce.

The state of the results of an organisation displays the prevalent culture. We're not just talking about the long-term results; we're talking about results in every period - including this one! We're talking about the results that need to be produced this week, and even today. Where there is a shortfall in results, there is always a shortfall in culture. If you look for the cultural shortfall and resolve it, your required results will be easier to produce.

A client recently was off track in producing agreed cost savings. They had a target of ?50k to find in one week. It was Thursday and they hadn’t properly identified any savings. They called us up and said that they wouldn’t meet the target - they had had a very busy week. They felt it would be OK, because they had a lot of ideas “in the pipeline”, and were confident they could recover later. Ordinarily, this would have been accepted, but we had them confront the culture that was being expressed: “It’s OK not to deliver on commitments; we’re busy and we’ll catch up later”.

They decided to challenge this, and instead to build and develop a culture of: “We deliver on our commitments, regardless of the circumstances”. The result was that they identified ?50k of cost savings by the deadline on Friday.

Culture Change hasn’t happened until the Results are produced

Some groups are very diligent in addressing cultural issues. In these groups we often see the same issue from the other perspective. Often people celebrate a wonderful “breakthrough” in culture. Relationships are repaired and teams are built – hooray! Surely, breakthrough results are on the way? Don’t count on it.

Unless the breakthrough that has been achieved is demonstrated in tangible, measurable, and objective results, it has not been effective and will fade into memory. The time and resources that have been spent on the culture change will have been a waste of money. While there might be a new possibility of a culture shift, and a lot of excitement, the reality is that the organisation’s results still reflect the former culture, and what typically happens is that early attempts to alter results are met with resistance in some way - either cultural or structural - and the enthusiasm for change is blunted or killed entirely.

Until the point when the important results have changed to reflect

d results will be easier to produce.

A client recently was off track in producing agreed cost savings. They had a target of ?50k to find in one week. It was Thursday and they hadn’t properly identified any savings. They called us up and said that they wouldn’t meet the target - they had had a very busy week. They felt it would be OK, because they had a lot of ideas “in the pipeline”, and were confident they could recover later. Ordinarily, this would have been accepted, but we had them confront the culture that was being expressed: “It’s OK not to deliver on commitments; we’re busy and we’ll catch up later”.

They decided to challenge this, and instead to build and develop a culture of: “We deliver on our commitments, regardless of the circumstances”. The result was that they identified ?50k of cost savings by the deadline on Friday.

Culture Change hasn’t happened until the Results are produced

Some groups are very diligent in addressing cultural issues. In these groups we often see the same issue from the other perspective. Often people celebrate a wonderful “breakthrough” in culture. Relationships are repaired and teams are built – hooray! Surely, breakthrough results are on the way? Don’t count on it.

Unless the breakthrough that has been achieved is demonstrated in tangible, measurable, and objective results, it has not been effective and will fade into memory. The time and resources that have been spent on the culture change will have been a waste of money. While there might be a new possibility of a culture shift, and a lot of excitement, the reality is that the organisation’s results still reflect the former culture, and what typically happens is that early attempts to alter results are met with resistance in some way - either cultural or structural - and the enthusiasm for change is blunted or killed entirely.

Until the point when the important results have changed to reflect

e this, and instead to build and develop a culture of: “We deliver on our commitments, regardless of the circumstances”. The result was that they identified ?50k of cost savings by the deadline on Friday.

Culture Change hasn’t happened until the Results are produced

Some groups are very diligent in addressing cultural issues. In these groups we often see the same issue from the other perspective. Often people celebrate a wonderful “breakthrough” in culture. Relationships are repaired and teams are built – hooray! Surely, breakthrough results are on the way? Don’t count on it.

Unless the breakthrough that has been achieved is demonstrated in tangible, measurable, and objective results, it has not been effective and will fade into memory. The time and resources that have been spent on the culture change will have been a waste of money. While there might be a new possibility of a culture shift, and a lot of excitement, the reality is that the organisation’s results still reflect the former culture, and what typically happens is that early attempts to alter results are met with resistance in some way - either cultural or structural - and the enthusiasm for change is blunted or killed entirely.

Until the point when the important results have changed to reflect

ved is demonstrated in tangible, measurable, and objective results, it has not been effective and will fade into memory. The time and resources that have been spent on the culture change will have been a waste of money. While there might be a new possibility of a culture shift, and a lot of excitement, the reality is that the organisation’s results still reflect the former culture, and what typically happens is that early attempts to alter results are met with resistance in some way - either cultural or structural - and the enthusiasm for change is blunted or killed entirely.

Until the point when the important results have changed to reflect the new culture, and it has been demonstrated that the new level of performance can be consistently and sustainably delivered, the hard work of organisation change is not complete!

==> to find out how to quantify the impact of culture on performance see the original newsletter here <==