Below the Bottom Line
Why most companies and organizations stay stuck in the status quo.
Why is the most powerful asset a company or organization could have usually the most misunderstood and least used, even though it holds the most potential for organizational success? It is because this most powerful organizational asset operates underneath and outside of the orientation of logical and rational processes, the preverbal Bottom Line.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with logical and rational processes. And, in fact, we can’t get anything done well without them. But they are powerless to significantly challenge the current status quo when things aren’t working well anymore. So, what is this most powerful element? It is the organization’s culture.
Every company or organization has a culture. It can be good, bad, or somewhere in between. But the truth is, most don’t know what their culture really is. It seems hard to get a clear understanding. Lots of definitions, but not much real understanding.
There are “Laws” of human group dynamics and human functioning. Some things always end up proving to be “true” over time. They are a hard reality. Never bet against reality.
Let’s start with two of the most important “Laws” as they apply to organizational culture and functioning.
NO COMPANY OR ORGANIZATION CAN OUTPERFORM ITS CULTURE
An organization’s culture is like a person’s self-image or their true identity. We end up living according to whatever our actual internal image is. (Yes, it is true that we can operate above that image at times, but only for short periods of time and at enormous costs. Then we tend to revert to what we are comfortable with the status quo).
MUCH OF (AND MAYBE MOST) ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IS BELOW CONSCIOUS THOUGHT AND IS INVISIBLE TO THOSE IN THE ORGANIZATION
This is what drives us so crazy. Organizational culture is like a computer’s operating system. We don’t see it, but it drives everything. It’s like the body’s autonomic nervous system that keeps everything running (like breathing) without conscious thought.
A very typical experience of an organization that tries to make significant changes (or even small ones) through rational processes and fixes, and ignores the effect of its culture, usually goes something like this. About six months into the process, the owner/manager will call and say with much energy and exasperation).
“I just don’t understand. “It’s been six months since we started our Improvement effort, and nothing has really changed. We met with management, developed a strategy and plan, and assigned duties and responsibilities. We announced our plan to everyone, put up motivational posters, sent out regular emails, and more. And everyone said they were on board. BUT IT’S BEEN SIX MONTHS NOW AND NOTHING, I MEAN NOTHING, IS REALLY ANY DIFFERENT. IT’S JUST BACK ABOUT LIKE IT WAS WHEN WE STARTED.”
I have found, through my study and interactions with most of my clients, that people mean well and want to do well. They want to contribute, to be innovative, and feel good about their group. But all of us are bound by our personal and organizational culture or image.
We can’t break the “law” of living in line with that image or culture, but we can change it to what we aspire it to be if we are willing to go where culture lives; Below the Bottom line. And then we can live in there.
Subtotal: We are talking about not just what works but what things mean. Meaning, (the why we do what we do) is found “below the bottom line” of rational thought (even AI “thought”). This is where culture lives. It can seem hard to grasp and even seem like some kind of “Kum-by -Ya” but it is actually the most powerful thing we can have.
Culture is more like “Habits of the Heart”
If you want your bottom line to improve, you have to go below it.
Thanks,
Richard Baggett
Cultural Architect
Masters certificate in Organizational Development
Notes: This article doesn’t provide many definitions or “how-tos”. Those will come in subsequent articles. However, the main purpose is to help you save time, effort, and resources by accepting the validity of the power of culture in organizations.
I do hope this has been helpful.