In terms of workplace culture organisations are as deep as the ocean and, like the ocean, much of what happens lies beneath the surface. Those who seek to change cultures have to find novel ways of surfacing existing barriers such as the mental models employees cling to and use to navigate their response to organisational life. Tuning into these existing employee metaphors can deliver sunken treasures that throw much needed light on the direction effective change initiatives must take.
Over the past 10 years we have mapped the organisational cultural footprint of over two dozen Australian organisations and have found that employees speak in a very different language to that of management. Furthermore their language suggests that they seek to understand how their organisations work as a whole rather than just their immediate workplace environment. This calls into question the conventional management belief that knowledge should be imparted on a need-to-know basis only but rather points up the enormous potential that exists when you tap into more of the whole person.
Metaphors and the stories behind them are not new. Specific images have been used for a long time by organisational consultants wishing to offer new ways of thinking and responding to the daily dynamics of organisational life. From the early Taylorist images of the organisation as a well-oiled machine to the more recent inclusive images of organisation as orchestras, managers have been invited to apply themselves to the task of managing a living system that is worth more than the sum of its individual members. However, these images are often imposed on the organisation by consultants or the management of the day. They are used as predictors of organisational direction rather than as tools to tap into the collective wisdom of employee experience
Organisations are made up of people. They are a legal fiction but a living reality. Ask someone to describe their organisation and you will likely get trite or cliched responses about what they might be expected to say; ask them to choose a metaphor that most closely resembles their personal experience of organisational life and you will almost certainly get a completely different story – vivid, imaginative, insightful and complex. Cognitive research indicates that most people think in pictures. Listening to the messages from this living system can provide a vital indicator of an organisations’ cultural temperature. Walk through the corridors of any organisation and you will soon pick up the tell-tale signs of well being or decay. Listen to what’s being talked about and you’ll gather enough informal data to point to how the culture is managed on a day-to-day basis. But informal processes can only provide instinctive pointers. Capturing culture through a more rigorous process such as ‘story workshops’ cuts through the fog of organisational complexity and provides more thorough and valuable insights into blockages to cultural change.
The benefits don’t only flow on to management seeking change. Time and again, we have found that participants gain valuable insights into their own motivations, values and family stories. They discover the personal source of their frustrations at work by gaining insights into their projections and deepening their understanding of personal drivers for workplace success.
The past 10 years have seen a fundamental shift in the focus of control in organisations. Today this means involving employees in decision-making rather than telling them what decision has been made. It also means having to recognise that most of the organisational wisdom resides in the minds and hearts of those employees. Getting that information out to use in a meaningful way calls for new processes. The easiest way is to explore the language that employees themselves use in everyday conversation and harness this to build a thematic base for changing cultural perspectives. This “subterranean language” of colourful imagery surfaces sources of organisational tension and, unlike employee surveys, indicates how employees themselves see change unfolding and management’s role in that change, whether it be as barrier, enabler or orchestrator of the desired change. In so doing it unleashes a potent energy by facilitating collective learning around existing blockages, as well as providing vibrant new visions that employees can willingly move towards.
Animals are a popular choice of metaphor by employees in describing their personal experiences of the workplace. Images are varied and often display an awesome knowledge of zoology. Elephants are common, as are buffalos, whales, hippos and mammoths, representing large, cumbersome organisations. Sloths are similar while octopuses and snakes represent more complex cultures. Speedy animals such as gazelles, leopards, pumas and lions (male) generally signify smaller, leaner enterprises but the predatory nature of these animals is a common characteristic in describing internal as well as external orientations. Female lions often come up, signifying strength and aggression but also symbolising nurturing characteristics. Domestic animals such as dogs, cats and horses are used to describe ‘safe’ organisations but these can also represent ‘soft’ values and an unwillingness to take ‘tough’ decisions. Chameleons are a popular choice to describe organisations where employees experience daily life as unpredictable, inconsistent and reactive characterised by frequent management changes, high staff turnover and a tendency to fad programs or quick fix solutions.
In one organisation, which had been subject to massive downsizing, employees provided images of the organisation they believed would emerge from the restructuring. The pre-occupation was with extinct animals like the dodo or dinosaur. When asked why, one employee replied: “You can’t have a dream when you’re losing all your people.” A company with employees unwilling even to speculate about a positive future presented management with a compelling mandate to address fundamental issues of trust and uncertainty. In another company, management thought that employees were not focusing sufficiently on customer service the overwhelming metaphor in use was that of a huge elephant, cautious and awkward and slow to respond, suggesting that employees felt that there was little real imperative to change and reflecting a serious lack of urgency. Such compelling images are vital clues to the collective psyche of the employees who are being asked to adjust to a new reality. Only by grappling with these existing mental models can management seek to transform the organisation and only by surfacing the underlying images can employees begin the complex process of visioning a new future to move towards.
More broadly, employees have described their organisations as dogs chasing their tails; unwieldy elephants thrashing through disappearing jungles; extinct dinosaurs; guide dogs for the blind; and tired old sharks circling aimlessly. The need to surface and work with such guiding images, sometimes of defeat, stagnation and entropy, are a precursor to reconciliation and alignment with change initiatives. Unless this ‘distress’ can find an outlet it can ensure that the existing culture remains anchored in deep-seated images of failure that will continue to stymie even the most brilliant corporate strategy or newly recruited managerial talent. Critically, negative imagery is not confined to the lower reaches of organisations but is often typically characteristic of the “frozen middle-level” where most change programs flounder.
Of course, the language of metaphors also reflects healthy and high performing workplaces. In one engineering company, employees across the board saw their company as a powerful but disciplined bear – a massive, king-of-the-jungle animal and for the future they wanted to see the same animal but demonstrating a kinder nature. The result was a sharply focused impression of a workforce united in its image of the organisation as hard charging and high performing. And the message to management was, “the rules are clear, we’re on the right track, let’s stick to it.”
Hybrids can indicate an organisation in transition or an organisation characterised by fiefdoms where different groups experience the organisation differently because there is a lack of consistency in management styles.
What can we learn from this new language of imagery and desire? Firstly, the process allows for self-discovery as well as collective learning. Many or most employees are unaware of the organisational models that they carry in their heads and that effectively shape their day-to-day actions. Expressing themselves in metaphors allows them to bring these to conscious reality. For example, in one company which had several independent and competing divisions, one division saw itself as a mighty bear while another saw itself more as a solid workhorse that was strong, dependable and able to run fast if required, softer and friendlier than the first division. And yet another strategic business unit chose an army of ants and a beaver as their image; their success formula, was seen to be built on quiet confidence, cooperation and teamwork. What they all had in common was a sense of moving forward.
The second major advantage of using metaphors is that surfacing this subconscious pictorial language enables the discussion of previous “undiscussables” in a non-threatening environment. Individuals are freed to experiment with new ideas and see things from different perspectives. From this out-of-the-box thinking, new ideas are born and self-awareness is an important by-product. Metaphors can provide the ideal vehicle to skill employees in critical thinking by exposing existing tensions between their differing views of a situation; they are able to stand in someone else’s shoes freed from having to defend their role or position. A high performance culture is the Holy Grail of most managers. To aspire to what is possible, managers must be skilled in helping people make meaning so that employees can experience a synergy between their own needs and those of the organisation. Using employees’ metaphors assists in creating such synergy by validating employees’ perceptions. This was perfectly illustrated by the experience of a merchant bank, where the metaphors surfaced reflected the frustration felt by many senior managers at the political nature of the succession planning process, characterised by lack of clarity and transparency, arbitrary promotion and blatant favouritism. The metaphorical process helped flush out an otherwise “undiscussable” topic, the issue subsequently being addressed by formalising and documenting the succession process so that all managers could understand the rules.
A strong corporate vision seeks to unify employees around a compelling picture of the future. In our experience most vision statements are bland, generic checklists of key words designed to appeal to the heads (rather than hearts) of external stakeholders and, often as an afterthought, the employees. Typically, over-ambitious images and advertising hype are imposed upon the organisation and the employees’ aspirations made to fit this impossible dream. Ironically, employees’ pictures of the future are often of renewed growth, invigoration and commercial success: the exact images management is often struggling to project but the disconnect comes when the two images don’t match. The real challenge for management is to take advantage of this good intent and speak to employees in their language – of heartfelt pictures and images – to reach a shared goal.
How this positive energy can be released is exemplified by the experience of a large not-for-profit organisation run by a religious order, with schools, community centres and hospitals under their sponsorship. The compelling picture was one of an organisation that had lost sight of how it might live out its mission in an increasingly secularised society. It had lost its way and needed cultural renewal. Its renewed vision for the future crystallised when members pictured themselves as a heart pumping blood through arteries to different parts of the “body,” an image that sat well with their ecclesiastical calling. Articulating this metaphor clarified for them that their order’s core mission was no longer one of managing the operational units themselves, but rather one of playing a supportive role, infusing those units – the body parts – with the will to incorporate spiritual concerns into the workplace.
The process of surfacing organisational culture through metaphors can be likened to diving for pearls: plunging into the hidden depths of employee understanding and surfacing mental models. A vision conveyed in the language of employees’ own metaphors has more potential for realisation than one based on wishful thinking. Consultants know too well that most employees have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done they just need to be asked. If employees identify new directions, they are talking about ways that will work for them and, assuming these directions are reasonable, they will work for the company too.
Great leaders through time have known that it is by giving voice to their peoples’ desires that they win commitment and loyalty. Napoleon once said, “There go my people. I must follow them, I am their leader”. Listening to the stories of your people and finding new ways to tap into the enormous reservoir of spiritual energy is surely the fastest way to gain a competitive advantage in the turbulent ocean of 21st.century enterprise.
Popular metaphors & familiar stories
1. The Queen Mary – the organisation described as a large and powerful ship steaming along and proud because of its past success but oblivious to the change around and resistant to new ideas. This metaphor was traditionally characteristic of large monopolies such as utilities as well as large engineering firms.
2. The Shark tank or snake pits – in these organisations the rules are unclear and subject to frequent change so that only the most politically astute survive. The metaphor typically describes a workplace where the duty of care goes unrecognised so that people are thrown in at the deep end to either sink or swim. It describes an organisational culture where individualism is seen as strength and accountability to others is weak and winning is valued above all else– traditionally found in financial, retail and consulting sectors.
3. The Octopus – here employees experience their organisation as having multiple centers of activity characterised by multiply management style with no clear vision about how all the parts fit together. Instead, the organisation comes to mean different things to different people and employees find chance plays a major influence in shaping their daily quality of life. We also call this the Silo mentality
4. The Chameleon – here the ruling principles is “do as I say not as I do”. Management is experienced as being volatile and unpredictable and employees openly recognise the gap between the walk and the talk where as management remains blindsided to it.
5. The Lollypop lady – used to describe organisations which bring in new management teams. Employees liken this to the lollypop lady because they watch as the latest new recruits pass through the organisation like children across a pedestrian crossing. Also known as the ‘revolving door’ syndrome. Employees in such organisations ‘opt out’ of the change process because they see it as the latest management fad and know it will pass. “Keep your head down’ is the enduring principle.
6. The Cowboy outfit- this is common in low tech. industries such as office equipment, technology products, financial products and low end industrial products. Characterised by a culture of “whatever it takes to get the deal done”. Sales champions are glorified, formal rules are abandoned, indiscretions are sanctioned, integrity is abandoned and support staff scatter like wildebeasts before a pride of lions.
7. The Sheltered workshop – organisations where typically poor performance management applies, people are left to their own devices and generally make it up as they go along. No one gets fired and increasingly ingenious reasons are developed for keeping non-achievers. Re-designation to non-essential but imaginatively titled roles is favoured. Characterised by political machinations, missionary zeal and personality cults. Poor systems, inefficient processes and little upward communications. Accountability absent, except to some notion of the superordinate goal. Intellectual harassment common. Typically found in NGOs, not-for-profit organisations and some public sector organisations.
8. The Ostrich Farm – Secure, stagnant organisations such as research facilities, the few remaining old monopolies and some former pubic sector utilities. Little prospect of change, long term leadership, promotion by ‘dead man’s shoes’. Attractive superannuation plan and non-financial incentives. Many long-term employees. High degree of technical skills, little need for productive output. Characterised by volume of reports and distance from discerning consumers. Also known as Parkinson’s Place, after C. Northcote Parkinson who developed Parkinson’s Law.
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