Corporate Cultures – Culture Trumps Strategy

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Culture is hard to quantify but its impact on business operations is unmistakable. Even the well-conceived strategy cannot withstand the onslaught of a counter focused culture. In order for a strategy to be implementable, it must be formulated to work within the confines of the corporate culture. Alternatively, the corporate culture must be changed before the strategy is implemented… typically a years long process.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 51 – An Interview with Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen, co-authors of Riding the Tiger

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 51 – An Interview with Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen, co-authors of Riding the Tiger examines what it takes to lead a thriving global organization through an Enron-like catastrophic event. During our discussion, Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen, co-authors of Riding the Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times, share with us their insights, personal experiences, and illustrative examples regarding:

  • a brief history of the catastrophic events that took place at Satyam Computer Services and the impact those events had on the company
  • the six components of the ‘Lights On’ strategy
  • the role of communications and learning in executing the ‘Lights On’ strategy
  • the most important leadership guidelines when dealing with a crisis
  • what executives should do to ensure their organization’s leadership team is prepared to deal with a crisis should one occur
  • what leaders should do to ensure their personnel don’t revert to an undesired way of behaving during a time of crisis
  • how leaders can keep their employees focused on the good of the company and its salvation during troubled times

Additional Information

In addition to the incredible insights Priscilla and Ed share in Riding the Tiger and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from their websites, www.NelsonCohen.com and www.RidingTheTiger.com.   Priscilla and Ed’s book, Riding the Tiger, can be purchased by clicking here.

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About the Authors

Ed Cohen & Priscilla Nelson, partners at Nelson Cohen Global Consulting ( www.NelsonCohen.com), provide thought leadership and strategic guidance to leaders and companies around the world. They are co-authors of Riding the Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times (www.ridingthetiger.com) published by ASTD 2010.

Ed has worked in more than 40 countries with organizations including Booz Allen Hamilton, Satyam, Seer Technologies, National Australia Bank, Larson & Toubro and the World Economic Forum. He is the only Chief Learning Officer to lead two companies to ASTD BEST Award #1 ranking; Booz Allen Hamilton and Satyam Computer Services (only company outside United States to achieve this).

Pris has 30 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies around the world. She has received international acclaim for her work in global leadership development, diversity and executive coaching.

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Leading Through Turbulent Times

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While working as senior talent leaders for a global organization that went through a 2.5 billion dollar scandal (not counting peripheral damages) when the Chairman confessed to “cooking the books” causing the near bankruptcy and closure of the company, we had the opportunity to observe and be a part of culture’s true influence. During turbulent times, like those we have been going through, leadership is not determined by rank but by the strength of the talent and conviction to build the relationships necessary to bring about collaboration and seek solutions. In our situation, leaders came from all areas and from all levels. There was desire, but without knowledge, they required continuous guidance. This is a must-start, high-impact area for learning and development. Learning professionals communicate with leaders, provide advice on how to lead during turbulence, and make available rapid skill enhancement. One such area where learning professionals can have tremendous impact is by educating (yes we mean educating) leaders about how much they influence their organizational culture.

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About the Authors

Ed Cohen & Priscilla Nelson, partners at Nelson Cohen Global Consulting ( www.nelsoncohen.com), provide thought leadership and strategic guidance to leaders and companies around the world. They are co-authors of Riding the Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times (www.ridingthetiger.com) published by ASTD 2010.

Ed has worked in more than 40 countries with organizations including Booz Allen Hamilton, Satyam, Seer Technologies, National Australia Bank, Larson & Toubro and the World Economic Forum. He is the only Chief Learning Officer to lead two companies to ASTD BEST Award #1 ranking; Booz Allen Hamilton and Satyam Computer Services (only company outside United States to achieve this).
 
Pris has 30 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies around the world. She has received international acclaim for her work in global leadership development, diversity and executive coaching.

Diversity and Inclusion – What Does Your Environment Communicate?

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We have often asserted that organizations, like people, act in a manner consistent with its shared values. Subsequently, those ideals in which an organization’s members truly believe manifest themselves in every aspect of the organization’s physical and social environments. These environments are categorically represented as an organization’s:

  • physical environment
  • social environment
  • decision environment
  • positional environment
  • developmental environment
  • recognition and rewards environment

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Additional Information

As with all self assessments, there exists a wide array of tools that can be employed when examining each organizational environment. These tools range from the concrete direct observation to the less tangible surveys and interviews. Recommendations regarding the collection and synthesis of self assessment data can be found in Evaluation and Control Best Practice 1 – Data Synthesis and the Information Development Model.

Additionally, the most valuable self assessments use standards of excellence as their comparative basis and apply a highly critical eye to the organization’s conditions and performance. Information regarding the application of this high level of scrutiny can be found in:

Organizational Accountability – Evaluating Organizational Culture, part 1

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StrategyDriven Organizational Accountability ArticleWhile it might sound cliche, there exists a significant truth to the phrase, actions speak louder than words. As individuals, we all hold certain values, beliefs, and biases which guide our decisions and subsequently our actions. So strong and yet so unperceivable are these convictions that on a day-to-day basis our reactions and responses to hundreds of seemingly benign situations are defined by them. Therefore, an individual’s values, the beliefs, and biases can be interpreted and understood by observing the individual’s actions.

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Additional Information

Additional information regarding organizational roles, responsibilities, and the propagation of values through performance measures, processes, procedures, and behavioral reinforcement can be found in the StrategyDriven model Strategic Organizational Alignment.

Return to the Organizational Accountability Forum

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.