If you don't hula, you can't play!

According to a report from the Center for Creative Leadership, 40 percent of new executives fail within the first 18 months. The report goes on to site lack of fit within the organizational culture as a primary reason. Organization values and performance standards for most companies are communicated in every conceivable way as attempts to educate employees on what it takes to be successful here. Most likely you would not see a sign that says "if you don't hula you can't play". But, in fact, that may be the case.

According to MIT's Edgar Schein, a guru on organizational culture, primary embedded mechanisms for organization culture are the "criteria used for allocation of rewards and status. These teach people what is really valued regardless of company rhetoric", says Schein.

Examples of these mechanisms include:

• What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis.
• How leaders react to critical incidents and organizational crises.
• Observed criteria by which leaders allocate scarce resources.
• Observed criteria by which leaders allocate rewards and status.
• Observed criteria by which leaders recruit, select, promote, retire, and excommunicate organizational members.
  

Bridge's culture assessments and leadership development solutions help leaders see the unspoken rules for what they really are. We then guide leaders to make conscious choices in leading transparently with norms that are fully disclosed. Now, your talking performance and you can save the hula skirt for your next holiday.

Contact me at jenny.whitener@bcillp.com for more information on how to create and navigate culture change.