I love my job as a sociologist and cultural anthropologist. The challenge for me is to dig beyond an organization´s conflicts and the dysfunction, into the rules, measures, structures, goals and all the variables that go into making a mini-society work-or fail.

I was working with a group of senior leaders recently and they were identifying some of the problems their company was experiencing. "There is so much conflict between departments," one leader explained. "The Project Managers are always wrestling with their project teams to get things done on time and with any sense of urgency."

"Morale is bad, too," another leader added. "We´re losing some good people and others are complaining that there is just too much work." "And people complain that we´re ´meeting people to death´," another added.

As the discussion progressed, I started asking some questions, to understand what the core problems might be.

• How are you structured? Are employees organized homogeneously by technical specialty, or cross-functionally organized by product group? By geographic region?
• How does your customer interact with your organization?
• How are people evaluated? What´s measured? Who gives feedback to whom?
• What is rewarded?
• What brings in the most revenue? How is that work assigned? What kind of work do you want more of in the future?

As we peeled away the layers of the onion, the core of the matter was exposed. All the while they had been saying "We have a matrix structure" and "We support project management" and "The customer wants integrated solutions." But the truth of the matter was that most of their internal infrastructure hadn´t changed much from years ago-but their demands and expectations had changed significantly. The leaders were getting more and more frustrated but no one else seemed to understand what the fuss was all about.

They surprised themselves when they realized that the employees were rewarded for individual and department performance and project work was not a part of the goal setting process or the reward process. No wonder Project Managers had a hard time getting any sense of urgency from members assigned to their cross-functional teams. The future strategy of the company hung on integrated solutions but people were happy doing their department-focused work because that was what counted when it came to salary review and promotion time.

As we uncovered the layers in our archeological dig, the leaders began to see what had been overlooked. When you are getting behavior you don´t want in your organization, it may not be personalities or "styles" at fault. You have to look deeper-at the cultural anthropology-at the formal and informal laws, hierarchy, and infrastructure that make up their organization as a "society". Organizations, departments and teams are just mini-versions of whole societies, just like the Navaho or the Aborigine.

So often, leaders will see the symptoms and want to fix them. "Let´s teach people how to manage conflict." "We need a teambuilding session." And sometimes those are absolutely the right moves to make...but just as often they won´t do a thing to fix the real problem.

So the next time you see the wrong behavior and you want to change it, think of yourself as an anthropologist or a sociologist studying a newly discovered tribe. Here are some of the cultural components you would want to examine:

• Who are the formal and informal leaders and how do they set the norm for the rest of the group? Look beyond what they say to what they do.
• What behavior is rewarded and reinforced? (Look beyond the obvious. Long-standing bad behavior is getting reinforced or it wouldn´t be happening.)
• What gets measured? What behavior do you want and how is that measured?
• Does the reporting structure point clearly to appropriate and clear accountability and lead naturally to the expected outcomes? Do people have to "work around" the system just get the right work done?
• Do the senior leaders all share the same vision for the future and have linked business goals?
• Do the policies and procedures reward the right behavior?
• What gets "punished"?
• Where is the corporate graveyard and who are the walking dead?
• Who do they tell stories about? What stories make up the oral history of the company, that are repeated over and over?

You get the idea. Dig deeper. You may be surprised at what you uncover.

Joan Lloyd is an executive coach, management consultant, facilitator and professional trainer/speaker.  Email your question to Joan at info@joanlloyd.com.  Joan Lloyd & Associates, (800) 348-1944, Visit www.JoanLloyd.com © Joan Lloyd & Associates, Inc.  Joan Lloyd has developed tools to help you recruit the best employees and create a culture that will encourage them to stay.  Visit http://www.joanlloyd.com/store/default.asp 

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