Chapter 2: Building a Partnering Organization

OVERVIEW

Those who have given out of their stock to any particular city without requiring any return from it receive what they lack from another to which they have given nothing. Thus, the whole island is like a single family.

—THOMAS MORE, UTOPIA.

Given how vital organization culture is to the success of an enterprise, a company's leaders sooner or later will face this question: Is our current culture going to get us where we want to go? This question should be keeping business leaders up at night. For if the answer is "no" or "not likely" or "maybe," another question arises: What kind of culture will get us where we want to go? And then a third: How do we get there from here? This implies three more pointed questions:

• How are legacy subcultures driving current behaviors, both productive and counterproductive?

• What is the fastest, cheapest way to introduce a new culture?

• How do we make the new culture stick?

Inasmuch as undertaking to change an organization's culture is one of the most difficult and costly endeavors on which a leadership team can embark, leaders must confidently know the answers to these key questions.