Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast

Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

This is a saying from Peter Drucker, often considered the inventor and father of modern management. In our opinion, this saying explains why many people in a formal leadership position are struggling to obtain the results they are looking for. It also explains why so many change programs are failing, even when they are supported by a very clear and compelling vision. We will suggest you a roadmap to obtain more easily your desired results. As we all know, to realize a vision and obtain our desired results, we need to develop certain strategies, objectives and processes. This is the part most managers are very good at. What is often forgotten, however, is that other road to be followed. Indeed, there’s also the culture of the company, organization, division or team to take into account. Culture is defined by the common values, the individual behavior and the attitude of the people working in the organization (see figure 1). And this is where managers often fail – perhaps because they’re simply unaware of the cultural aspect’s importance, perhaps because they don’t feel comfortable with it or because they don’t have a proper road-map at their disposal.

Fig 1 We would like to suggest you a clear road-map, based on 3 simple principles: come out of your office, tell stories and focus on behavior.

First Principle: Management by wandering around

‘My door is always open. Whenever you feel the need to address any issue, feel free to come talk to me.’ This is what managers very often enjoin on their employees. Just as often, though, they find themselves surprised that when problems do arise, causing friction on the work-floor or even financial loss, no-one came to them beforehand. Many managers advocate the ‘open door policy’ but they too often see it as a one-way communication. And they forget what it’s all about: when the door 1

is always open, people can come in and talk to you, indeed, but you can go out and talk to your...