Culture. You Know It When You See It

On January 28, 1986, seven American astronauts were killed when the Challenger space shuttle they were piloting exploded just after liftoff. On February 1, 2003, seven American astronauts were killed when the Columbia space shuttle they were piloting exploded upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere. In both cases there were mechanical failures. In both cases the mechanical failures were avoidable. In both cases the cause of the mechanical failure was previously known. In both cases the real cause of the accidents was not only rooted in culture, but in an unwillingness by NASA’s leadership to understand what their subordinates understood, and an inability to fully digest the consequences of their leadership decisions.

The Leader’s Charge

Everyone knows leaders are expected to make the decisions necessary to ensure the future success of the organization. Leaders are expected to develop the strategic vison for the organization and offer a clear and compelling direction to those they are charged with leading. Leaders are expected to influence those they lead in such a way that the organization’s strategic vision becomes reality. Part of that strategic direction includes the development of a set of core values that will serve to drive the organization’s culture, which will ultimately be the catalyst for achieving the strategic vision.

Many think a leader’s primary responsibility is rooted in managing the scorecard. Revenue growth, profit margin, cost efficiency, ROI, strategic initiatives, innovation, etc. tend to be the components many use to determine a leader’s effectiveness. While each of these and many more are certainly vital signs to be monitored and attended to, all of them are driven by one key component that can be very hard to measure, but very noticeable to the outside observe.

You Know It When You See It

In 1964 the Supreme Court heard an obscenity case (Jacobellis v. Ohio). Justice Potter Stewart attempted to describe what constitutes “hard-core pornography”. In his explanation he stated that hard-core porn was hard to define, but “I know it when I see it.”

Culture is similar, in that most people know it when they see it but struggle to describe it or understand it. This is true for all types of organizational culture. Many know a great culture, an average culture, and a poor culture when they see it. Organization’s that have great cultures then to achieve beyond most others. Their employees tend to be more committed to the organization’s vision, more passionate about the organization’s strategic direction, and more loyal to the organization. They work harder, longer and with greater effectiveness. As a result, the scorecard tends to light up and customer satisfaction tends to go through the roof. The same is true for employee satisfaction. Employees that work for organizations with healthy cultures tend to be happier and turnover less.

Culture Becomes What the Leader Tolerates

Every position of leadership within any organization is extremely difficult and more complex than most realize. Too many times leaders make decision without consideration for the unintended consequences. In many cases decisions are seen as exactly that, just another decision, when in fact each decision molds and refines the norms of the organization. As was the case for NASA, many times leaders make decisions based on social and political pressure. For NASA, financial ramifications and schedule overshadowed the real priority, life, and the future of the organization. As a result, a series of very bad decisions led to a new normal. This new culture resulted in tragic consequences and destroyed NASA’s image and credibility. The decisions that led to these two tragic events could have been avoided had the leaders taken the time to truly understand the ramifications of their decisions. This could have been easily done by trying to see things through the eyes of those they were charged with leading.

The Power of Dirty Hands

Alan Hassenfeld, former CEO of Hasbro, has said that you could identify a good leader by how much dirt is on his/her hands. He went on to say that leaders never ask their people to do something they wouldn't do. Implying that great leaders are not only willing to do whatever is necessary to help the organization succeed, but they are also willing to invest the time necessary to understand the complexity involved in every aspect of every job within the organization. As a result of that understanding, better decisions are made, and fewer unintended consequences are realized.

Get Off Your Seat and Lead

If leadership was as simple as sitting in the corner office, or cubicle for that matter, and doling out orders and making unadvised decisions, anyone could do it and great leaders wouldn't be in such high demand. Leadership is bigger than management by walking around. As Stephen Covey said, great leaders "seek first to understand". Seeking first to understand naturally implies that before you decide you first make sure you completely understand the impact of the decision you are about to make. This includes understanding both the potential positive and negative ramifications of the decision. The only way to do that is to understand every aspect of the business and seek counsel from those who are in the trenches doing the work. Leaders must know from the doer’s perspective what could potentially happen if a certain decision is made. It is only then that a leader is well prepared to move forward with a decision.

20-20 Leadership Vision

Thankfully, the ramifications of most decisions rarely result in the loss of a life. However, that doesn't mean each decision isn't extremely important. Many decisions that are not life threatening on the surface can certainly be life altering. The goal with every leadership decision should be that they result in the outcome the leader expects. Sure, there are going to be some outcomes a leader didn't anticipate, but those should be as minor and minimal as possible. If a leader finds him or herself saying "hindsight is always 20-20" after a decision is made and the resulting impact is realized, then they didn't do their due diligence in trying to make their foresight 20-20.

Having as much clarity about a decision as possible ensures success and leads to high performance. This is not to say that we want to create a culture of paralysis through analysis. Leaders are placed in the positions they are because they have the unique ability to know when they have enough information to decide. However, and like NASA did, leaders need to be careful not to let their egos get the better of them and begin to shortcut decisions because of their past decision-making success.

A Leader's Real Work

In the end, the real work of a leader is to do exactly as their position implies, lead. When you lead others, it is expected that you will take care of those you are charged with leading and treat their livelihood just as you treat your own. It is also expected that you will protect the organization by making the best decisions possible for the organization. Sometimes this requires making some very hard decisions. These decisions may delay a project or halt production. But in the end, if due diligence is done right, the decision the leader makes will be the best decision for everyone. Had NASA's leaders done their due diligence they would have halted the programs at those key moments when they recognized something wasn’t right. NASA’s leaders knew O-rings weren’t designed to withstand extreme cold and foam was not designed to detach from the fuel tanks. The decision should not have been to let it go and keep launching, but to fix the problems when they were known. Yes, it would have cost a lot of money and taken a significant amount of time to fix, but it would have also saved more money than it ended up costing NASA. Most importantly, the decision to fix instead of fly would have saved lives, heartache, and organizational embarrassment.

Organizational culture becomes what the leaders tolerate. The question is, are you tolerating things you know you shouldn’t?

Randy Stepp is a Principal with Renaissance Leadership Group. RLG is a full-service business and franchise development company whose purpose is to help business owners realize their dreams of independence and freedom.

Visit Renaissance Leadership Group at www.renaissanceleadershipgroup.com to learn more about business development