Setting:
Structure is the place where culture grows. The structure of the organization,
its physical structure, its work processes and systems support and create the
behavior of the people who work there. Often organizations distribute new
mission statements, beautiful posters with new values on them, but since the
structure of the workplace does not support the mission or values, they are
doomed to disappear.
The networks of an organization function as culture maintainers – organization members who communicate in predictable ways about predictable things based on history. Fundamental and lasting change requires the transformation of the networks that are the foundation for communication and relationships within the organization. By changing the way people sit, the processes they use, the structure of relationships between departments – new networks form and old ones fade away.
Solution:
The structural changes should be small, many and high leverage. The changes
should be small so that small numbers of volunteers can implement them quickly.
Changing many things at the same time destabilizes the old, out-dated systems
and processes. High leverage changes have a profound impact on the whole
system. New structure forces new behaviors, just as changing the position
of a wall in a room, or taking it away all together, causes people in the room
to move and to change their focus.
Structural change is enduring and difficult to undo. Once new walls, new
systems and new processes are built to replace old structures, it is hard to
return to the old way of doing things. Remember when the typewriter and the
computer sat in side-by-side in the offices and how the people continued to
use their typewriters? As soon as the typewriters were gone, people
switched to computers.
Challenge:
Structural change does not work by itself. Many organizations put new
systems in place without addressing the "rules of the road." How often
do people hang on to the old way of doing things and create workarounds so that
they can avoid change?
In one customer satisfaction organization we worked with, new software was installed but old behaviors prevailed, so data was printed then re-entered manually, allowing people to hang on to history.