Because the HP community is much larger in scope than golf and racquet sports, I thought it might be instructive to expand the focus of this article to groups in general, i.e. committees, special interest groups, and work groups. A significant element of a group (or organization) is its culture. Many of us use the term “culture,” with little understanding of what it means and how it determines behavior within a group. Perhaps the best way to explain group/organizational culture is to compare it to group/organizational “structure” and identify both as the primary elements of an organization’s infrastructure. Structure refers to formal, written and codified elements of an organization, such as policies, procedures, strategic plans, goals, mission, etc. It is the way things are “supposed to work.”
Culture refers to traditions, values, symbols, norms (expectations), and customs, which are not typically written or codified except in the case of “explicit norms” which are written standards of behavior. It is the way things “really do work,” as opposed to how they are “supposed to work.” Depending upon the length of time the group has been together, membership history for individual members, leadership, cohesiveness and other group characteristics, members often rely more on culture than structure for behavioral cues. Phrases such as “that’s just the way we do it here,” or “we have always done it that way (without a compelling rational explanation),” reveal culture driven behavior. Culture is powerful and very resistant to change, so understanding group culture is paramount to member survival.
Here are a couple of examples of culture at work.
Last year you joined a golf group that has been playing together for ten years. Group membership is relatively stable and most of the members have been in the group for at least four to five years. With the help of the popular media, the issue of slow play has surfaced and drawn group attention. Group members have talked about and identified causes of slow play and one of them has confronted you about your putting preparation process taking too long. Interestingly enough, the member who confronted you takes about ten minutes to look for a lost ball every time he hits one, so in defense of yourself you cite the three-minute rule and indicate that taking too long to look for a lost ball contributes to slow play. And here’s what happens; other members in the group side with his criticism of you but, take exception at your criticism of him. When you inquire about the fairness of it, you are told that Mr. X is older and may need more time to look for his ball, so the group tolerates it. That is group culture at work; different rules for different people.
Another example commonly occurs in committee work. You are new to the group and one of the senior members is aggressively pushing an idea which you find to have flaws in the logic. You challenge the idea and immediately, the leader and others label you as disagreeable and not a team player. When you point out the flaws in the idea, you get no support. Group members indicate that the senior committee member has been in the group since its inception and has done many wonderful things, and would never allow an idea to be pushed through if it was not “good” for HP. Discussing the merits and limitations of the idea in an open forum never happens as group members don’t want to challenge the leader or senior member. This is an element of what is known as a “groupthink” culture; consensus and agreement become more important than seeking a more effective solution to a problem. Disagreement is viewed as dissension and is frowned upon. History is replete with examples of “groupthink” and poor organizational decision making (see Bay of Pigs, Pearl Harbor, and the Challenger Mission of 1986).
Violating cultural norms is the quickest way to become ostracized from a group. So, when you hear someone say, “we need to change the culture of the team/organization,” whether they know it or not, they are talking about lots of hard work. Never underestimate the power of culture. As the famous management guru, Peter Drucker once said about how things get done in organizations, “culture trumps strategy every time.”
