Why Organizational Culture Matters: “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”

January 11, 2016January 7, 2016 / Justin Irving / 3 Comments

Photo Credit: Rolled Eggs, by Cascadian Farm, Flickr

What Is Organizational Culture?

Although the language of culture is used frequently, organizational members do not always understand what is meant by the term “organizational culture.”

In his classic book on the subject (Organizational Culture and Leadership), Edgar Schein summarizes organizational culture as the accumulated shared learning of a give group. This shared learning is observed through a variety of organizational realities such as the way people behave, established group norms, and espoused values.

Culture is essentially the organizational air we breathe. Like air, culture is often not seen directly. Rather, it is seen indirectly through how organizational members engage in their work, how they behave, how they embody group norms, and how they live out espoused values.

Why Does Organizational Culture Matter?

Other authors, such as Patrick Lencioni in The Advantage, highlight the vital dimension of culture.

Lencioni argues that organizational health is the greatest opportunity for organizational improvement and competitive advantage. In contrast to what Lencioni refers to as smart business—engaging fundamentals like strategy, marketing, finance, and technology—organizational health is the real place where competitive advantage may shine beyond the first half of the equation of smart business.

These days, especially in the day and age of big data in business, being smart as a organization is not enough. Organizations also need to be healthy—they need to pay attention to their organizational culture.

“Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”

Expressing Lencioni’s points another way, Peter Drucker put the essence of culture in the following language: “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast.”

Does strategy (smart organizational practice) matter? Absolutely!
Is strategy (smart organizational practice) enough? No!
Therefore, what do organizational leaders need to do? Leaders must focus on both smart strategy AND healthy culture

Smart and Healthy

As you think about your organization, are you leading and managing in a way that encourages both smart organizational practice AND healthy organizational culture? What practical steps can you take in the coming weeks to help improve the culture of your organization, division, or team?

………..

For those interested in reading more on the priority of organizational culture, see the following post entitled: Organizational Culture vs. Organizational Identity

Are Markets Moral? … Reflecting on Economics and Virtue

January 6, 2016December 2, 2016 / Justin Irving / 1 Comment

Photo Credit: Economy is Doing Well, by Colleen Lane, Flickr

I’m not an economist, but am fascinated by conversations about economics. The reality is that we all live within economies, and yet rarely reflect on the morality of these systems within which we live.

Here are some of my reflections on the relationship between economics and virtue as I address this question: Are markets moral?

Healthy Cultures Included Healthy Economies

I would argue that healthy cultures are characterized in part by healthy economies. While most individuals quickly associate economies with transacted goods and services, the heart of economic systems is relational in nature—“the incredible social networks that capital both creates and depends upon.” Economies are the relational context within which we serve one another and contribute to human flourishing.

Healthy Economies Depend on a Healthy Environment or Culture

But one of the key challenges to healthy economies and markets is the environment or ecology that surrounds the economies or markets. If the surrounding ecology is healthy, this typically translates into a healthy economy. Conversely, if the surrounding ecology is unhealthy, this typically translates into a challenged and unhealthy economy.

Daniel Finn puts it this way: “An awareness of the interplay of markets and their contexts is critical for understanding under what conditions the outcomes of voluntary interactions of individuals and businesses in the market will be considered just.” Finn sees four dimensions the “context” or ecology surrounding economies:

The Construction of Markets by Government (markets being properly defined by law)
The Provision of Essential Goods and Services
The Presence of Morality among Individuals and Groups
The Existence of a Vibrant Civil Society

Depending on That which Markets Cannot Create

To answer the question of whether markets are moral therefore requires us to look outside economic markets. Markets depend on forces—such as individual and group morality—that markets themselves are not able to produce.

On this point William McGurn notes that the economy “depends on virtues—self-restraint, honesty, courage, diligence, the willingness to defer gratification—that it cannot itself create.” Restating it—healthy economy is dependent on something that the economy itself cannot produce.

Moral Markets Surrounded by Multiple Sectors

In light of such arguments by Finn and McGurn, health and morality of economic markets are dependent on the health and morality of the surrounding culture and ecology. As someone working to train leaders especially in the non-profit and church realms, I feel the need for leaders in these sectors to better understand their contribution to healthy economies and healthy cultures.

Such leaders play an important role in nurturing this dimension of virtue—virtue that serves as the social or spiritual capital upon which healthy economies are dependent. Just as the business and government sectors play vital roles, the non-profit and religious sectors also play a key role in nurturing healthy economies and the virtue upon which healthy markets may function.

Because of the power of healthy economies to contribute to human flourishing, it is vital for the people of God in religious sectors to engage in theological reflection and practical conversation that will help contribute to the social and spiritual capital upon which the incredible social network of the economy may flourish.

Virtues and Leadership

Though not specifically dealing with economics, for those wanting to engage the importance of virtue in leadership a bit more, I recommend you take a look at an article Jim Lanctot and I wrote for the International Journal of Leadership Studies entitled Character and Leadership: Situating Servant Leadership in a Proposed Virtues Framework.

The Moral Market and You

It is easy to look around and feel powerless to affect the economy in a positive and healthy manner. Drawing on the insights of William McGurn and others, perhaps a great first and best place to start is with your closest sphere of influence.

Are you working to nurture virtue and morality within your own life and the life of those closest to you (children, family friends)?
Are you using your place in the market as a voice and presence to help create what the market itself cannot create?
Are you engaging in your work and market activity with responsible action, a spirit of value creation (giving more than you take), and commitment to steward your gifts and talents in a way that productively contributes to the flourishing of the world around you?

Such action at the personal and local level leaves a powerful ripple in the markets and economies of which you are part.

So, are markets moral? It depends on the surrounding environment, which means it also depends on you. Let’s be a force for positive and healthy economic flourishing within our sphere of influence.

Rethinking Resolutions — Prioritizing for the New Year

January 4, 2016 / Justin Irving / 1 Comment

Purpose in Leadership

Photo Credit: New Year’s Resolutions, One Way Stock

New Year’s Resolutions

What are your typical New Year’s resolutions?

I’m actually not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, but I am a fan of using the beginning of a new year as an opportunity to reflect. As I look back on one year and then consider the next year ahead, it is an opportunity to step back and pay attention to the big picture—to pay attention to the things that matter most.

As you consider this past year what have been your significant challenges and what has gone well? What are the key lessons you are taking from this past year? How is this look to the past influencing your goals and desires for the future?

What Are the Big Rocks?

The reality is we cannot do everything. We have to make choices. We have to prioritize. As I look to…

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The Power of Vision, Part 5

December 28, 2015January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / 10 Comments

Photo Credit: Visions of Color, by Joe Dyndale, Flickr

I’m in a mini-series focused on the power of vision. Here’s a snapshot of where we’ve been in the series:

In Part 1, I began by providing the following definition of vision: vision is a picture of a preferred future. Further, I described the major work of leaders as communicating this picture of a preferred future in a manner that is compelling and unifying.

In Part 2, I engaged the capacity of vision to provide passion, motivation, direction, and purpose for life and leadership.

In Part 3, I engaged how leaders can help to make vision stick by casting the vision well, celebrating the vision well, and living the vision well.

In Part 4, I engaged how leaders can identify their burning passion and compelling vision.

This week, I’d like to provide a final encouragement as you consider the vision you are meant to pursue in the year ahead.

Looking to Your Future

As I write this post, New Year’s Day is just around the corner. In many ways, the start of a new year provides an opportunity for us to do what we should be regularly doing throughout the year—looking to the future and planning in light of it.

As you look out the future, what is the picture of a preferred future both for you and your organization?

First, what does this preferred future look like both personally and professionally?

Personally: What is your personal vision … for you, your family, and your community in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead?
Professionally: What is your professional or organizational vision … for you and the community you serve in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead?

Second, what does this future look like at different points along the way on the journey toward your preferred future?

What does it look like weeks in the future?
What does it look like months in the future?
What does it look like years in the future?

Developing a Strategy for Visionary Planning

Weekly	Carve out 15 minutes at the beginning of each week in order to prioritize your schedule and insure you are working toward your preferred future.
Monthly	Carve out 2 hours to evaluate the previous month and then plan for the coming month in light of your visionary priorities.
Quarterly	Carve out a day (workday length) in order to evaluate progress in light of your personal and professional vision. Use this evaluation to make adjustments for the coming 2-3 months.
Annually	Carve out a 1-2 day retreat (getting away to a hotel, cabin, or retreat center) where you can have focused time not only evaluating the past year, but also reevaluating your overall visionary priorities. This is an annual time to insure that the direction of your life and leadership is moving toward a preferred future in light of the things that matter most in life.
Seasonally (each 5-7 years)	Carve out a week or more every 5-7 years for a season of deep rest, refreshment, and renewal. This is not about simply taking a vacation—something that likely happens every year—but rather taking a genuine sabbatical from the normal routines of life. Some professions may allow for this seasonal time to be multiple months of rest, refreshment, and renewal. For other professions and work contexts, this seasonal time may be limited to a typical vacation week. In either case, find a path for intentional reflection on the trajectory of your life and leadership. Have you seen tangible progress toward major visionary dreams you had 5 to 7 years earlier (degrees you wanted to complete, job changes you wanted to pursue, organizational goals you wanted to accomplish, etc.)? As you look out into the next 5 to 7 years of your life and leadership, what are your major visionary priorities for the years ahead? What course corrections need to be made now to help navigate toward this preferred future? How can you adjust your schedule, budget, and general pace of life to make space for prioritizing movement toward this preferred future? Engaging major life questions like this takes time and space for rest, renewal, and reflection. Take time not only for vacation and recreation, but also for sabbatical in order to tackle such visionary reflection and dreaming in your life.

Vision: the Tool for Leading from the Front

Whether thinking of vision personally, professionally, or organizationally, vision is a powerful tool for your life and leadership.

Engaging the power of vision in leadership, Burt Nanus shares these thoughtful insights:

“Vision is the main tool leaders use to lead from the front.
Effective leaders don’t push or production their followers. They don’t boss them around or manipulate them. They are out front showing the way. The vision allows leaders to inspire, attract, align, and energize their followers—to empower them by encouraging them to become part of a common enterprise dedicated to achieving the vision.”

Rather than simply using push and production techniques, as leaders we need to learn to lead from the front. Vision provides the essential tool for moving from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation. Vision provides the path for painting a picture of a hopeful future that motives us personally and others organizationally. As Nanus notes, “Vision is the main tool leaders use to lead from the front.”

Taking Your Next Visionary Steps

As you look to your future, the key is to pay attention and make changes based on this visionary reflection. In the week ahead, I encourage you to take some time to pay attention to your preferred future (your vision), and begin to take steps toward this preferred future in practical, tangible, and meaningful ways.

God’s best to each of you as you make strides toward the things that matter most in your life.

Here are all of the post links for this series:

The Power of Vision, Part 1
The Power of Vision, Part 2
The Power of Vision, Part 3
The Power of Vision, Part 4
The Power of Vision, Part 5

A Poem for Christmas — Enjoy!

December 25, 2015 / Justin Irving / Leave a comment

Merry Christmas!

Purpose in Leadership

Immanuel, by Daniel Go, Flicker

On this Christmas Eve, my thoughts turn once again to the amazing reality we celebrate at Christmas. Incarnation — the reality that God came among us in human form. Immanuel — God with us. Christmas reminds us that God came near, that God cares, that God initiated a path to restore our brokenness. Here’s a poem I wrote in the early 1990s that helps me focus of the wonder and significance of what we celebrate at Christmas. Merry Christmas!

Immanuel — God with Us

It seems quite strange, that on this day
the Lord of heaven and earth would lay
Amidst the straw-filled stable stall
though He was sovereign over all.

For He was God, yet did not grasp
His rightful place before the mass
Of many laud-filled cherubim
and hosts of holy seraphim.

He rather made Himself to be
a humble servant of His King
And of…

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The Power of Vision, Part 4

December 21, 2015January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / 8 Comments

Photo Credit: Colorful Vision, by Lu Lacerda, Flickr

I’m in a mini-series focused on the power of vision.

In Part 1 I began by providing the following definition of vision: vision is a picture of a preferred future. Further, I described the major work of leaders as communicating this picture of a preferred future in a manner that is compelling and unifying.

In Part 2, I engaged the capacity of vision to provide passion, motivation, direction, and purpose for life and leadership.

In Part 3, I engaged how leaders can help to make vision stick by casting the vision well, celebrating the vision well, and living the vision well.

This week, I’d like to take on how leaders can identifying their burning vision.

“What Precedes Vision?”

In a 2005 talk at the Global Leadership Summit, bill Hybels provided his reflections on “The Leader’s State of Mind.” The focus of Hybels’ speech was engaging the following important questions:

“What precedes vision?”
“What gives birth to vision?”

Most leaders understand the importance of casting a vision for their people. Just yesterday I heard about a family company that spent a part of their day focusing on vision casting. As I sat in the stands at my girls’ high school basketball game this friend shared with me that the president of the family-owned company he works for spent a couple hours with employees sharing and talking about the implications of their company vision.

This work of vision casting is vital. When leaders have a vision, the advice shared last week is critical—cast the vision, celebrate the vision, live the vision.

But … how do leaders arrive at a vision for their team, division, or organization? Or, in the words of Hybels, “what gives birth to vision?”

Finding Your Burning Vision

What an important question to engage.

As Hybels discussed this he shared the example from the cartoon Popeye the Sailor man. When Olive was threatened, Popeye would get to a breaking point where he would say:

“That’s all I can stand, and I canst stands no more.”

In many ways, this line captures the heart of what passionate leadership is about. Rather than simply having a functional and lackluster vision, visions that change businesses, organizations, and societies arise from “Popeye-like” passion that sees something and says, “That’s all I can stand, and I canst stands no more.”

“I Canst Stands No More”

So what in your life raises that type of passion? In Hybels’ words, “What can’t you stand?”

This is the seed from which passionate vision often arises. When you consider your life, your leadership, your team, your organization, your work, your context for life, what in your life raises the response, “That’s all I can stand, and I canst stands no more?”

Is it the need to see students effectively engaging in learning in the K-12 environment?
Is it companies providing real value through effective research and product development?
Is it about your industry operating ethical standards?
Is it about working toward justice in some tangible way due to the needs of the oppressed or marginalized?
Is it about creating health rather than dysfunction in organizations?
Is it…?

Of course the list could go on to many other areas.

The key is to think through your life, your leadership, your context.

What bothers you?
What do you see that needs to be fixed?
What problems can you not stop thinking about and want to contribute toward a solution?

Living into Your Passion

Identifying your passion is the first step to identifying your burning vision. If this is not immediately clear to you, take some time in the week ahead to consider what it is that you “canst stands no more,” and then find a tangible way to live into this passion in your life. What first step can you take to consider a visionary response to this area of helpful discontentment?

The reality is, you will likely have multiple passions based on the multiple spheres of your life. Consider:

What is your burning vision for your team, business, or organization
What is your burning vision for your family?
What is your burning vision for your personal and professional life?

Although Popeye may not be the first “sage” we think of in identifying our passion and burning vision, it is a great metaphor to spur us on as we consider our burning vision and work to live into this vision with passion.

Next week we’ll take up some final vision reflections as we think through the visions we are meant to pursue in the year ahead.

As always, I love to hear your thoughts. Please share your reflections below.

Here are all of the post links for this series:

The Power of Vision, Part 1
The Power of Vision, Part 2
The Power of Vision, Part 3
The Power of Vision, Part 4
The Power of Vision, Part 5

The Power of Vision, Part 3

December 14, 2015January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / 10 Comments

Photo Credit: Vision of Transformation, by Hartwig HKD, Flickr

I’m in a mini-series focused on the power of vision.

I began by providing the following definition of vision: vision is a picture of a preferred future (see Part 1). Further, I described the major work of leaders as communicating this picture of a preferred future in a manner that is compelling and unifying.

Last I engaged the capacity of vision to provide passion, motivation, direction, and purpose for life and leadership (see Part 2).

This week I want to take some time to engage how leaders can help to make vision stick.

Making the Vision Stick

In a 2003 talk at the Global Leadership Summit, Andy Stanley provided his reflections on the importance of vision and how to make vision stick for organizations.

Why is this an issue for leaders? As most leaders can attest, vision tends to “leak” in organizations. The vision is put forward for all the key constituents and everyone seems to be on board and excited. Then a few weeks, or even a few days, go by, and suddenly the demands of day-to-day life and organizational needs turn the attention of people away from vision.

In light of this, leaders must be very intentional in working to help vision land and stick with their people. On this point, Stanley argues that leaders must do three primary things with vision: Cast it! Celebrate it! Live it!

Cast it! Celebrate it! Live it!

Casting the vision provides DEFINITION:

Casting the vision helps everyone in the organization to be on the same page. But the vision that is cast bust be clear first. Sometimes when we start talking about vision we realize it’s unclear. As Howard Hendricks states it: “if it’s a mist in the pulpit, it’s a fog in the pews.” Vision must not be “clear as mud.” Vision needs to be exceptionally clear to the leader so that it may be clear for followers once communicated.

Celebrating vision provides INSPIRATION:

Celebrating the vision helps everyone know what a “win” is for your organization. It helps put “skin” on the vision for your people. Make celebration a part of your culture. Celebration is what brings the vision alive to your people. Build in mechanism to celebrate. Normalize and regularize celebration. Tell the story well so that vision comes alive.

Living out the vision provides CREDIBILITY:

Leaders living out the vision helps you to be a leader worth following. When we live it out whether we’re the leader or not, this moves us from leading from position to leading from influence. The vision becomes connected to who you are. People want to know whether or not a leader is living the vision, not just talking about the vision. Without leaders living it, followers may question whether the credibility of the vision is intact. You can’t ask people to do something that the leader is not willing to do themselves.

Leading with Vision

As you lead with vision in your community, how are you working to cast it well, celebrate it well, and live it well? Take a moment to share your story below.

Here are all of the post links for this series:

The Power of Vision, Part 1
The Power of Vision, Part 2
The Power of Vision, Part 3
The Power of Vision, Part 4
The Power of Vision, Part 5

The Power of Vision, Part 2

December 7, 2015January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / 10 Comments

Photo Credit: vision, by EladeManu, Flickr

I’m in a mini-series focused on the power of vision.

Last week I provided my definition of vision as a picture of a preferred future, and described the major work of leaders as communicating this picture of a preferred future in a manner that is compelling and unifying (see Part 1).

This week I want to take some time to engage why vision is so powerful.

Visioneering

In his book, Visioneering, Andy Stanley makes the following observation:

“Too many times the routines of life begin to feel like shoveling dirt. But take those same routines, those same responsibilities, and view them through the lens of vision and everything looks different. Vision brings your world into focus. Vision brings order to chaos. A clear vision enables you to see everything differently.”

What Vision Provides

Building on these observations, Stanley notes that vision helps to weave four things into the fabric of our daily lives:

Passion

“Vision evokes passion…. A clear, focused vision actually allows us to experience ahead of time the emotions associated with our anticipated future.”

Motivation

“Vision provides motivation. The mundane begins to matter. The details, chores, and routines of life become a worthwhile means to a planned–for end.”

Direction

“[Vision] serves as a road map…. Vision simplifies decisions making…. Vision empowers you to move purposefully in a predetermined direction.”

Purpose

“Vision translates into purpose. A vision gives you a reason to get up in the morning…. Purpose carries with it the momentum to move you through the barriers that would otherwise slow you down and trip you up.”

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As you look to a picture of a preferred future for your life and organization, how is this work of “visioneering” (or vision casting) providing passion, motivation, direction, and purpose for you? In what ways has vision helped to provide clarity and focus to your life and leadership?

Here are all of the post links for this series:

The Power of Vision, Part 1
The Power of Vision, Part 2
The Power of Vision, Part 3
The Power of Vision, Part 4
The Power of Vision, Part 5

The Power of Vision, Part 1

November 30, 2015January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / 12 Comments

Photo Credit: Sight and Vision, by Kate Ter Haar, Flickr

Vision is central to the work of leadership.

What is Vision

So what is vision? I define vision simply as …

a picture of a preferred future.

This picture of a preferred future can be for an individual, a family, a team, an organization, or a society.

By “picture” I do not mean a literal image, but rather a mental picture of an envisioned future reality that is preferable and desirable by those most closely connected to the vision. A major part of the work of leadership is communicating this picture of a preferred future in a manner that is compelling and unifying.

Characterizing Vision

John Kotter provides the following characteristics of vision:

Imaginable
Desirable
Feasible
Focused
Flexible
Communicable

In keeping with these characteristics, Burt Nanus describes vision as a realistic, credible, and attractive future.

As leaders help to paint a picture of a preferable future for their followers, the vision becomes compelling and unifying as it is realistic, feasible, credible, attractive, and desirable.

From Sight to Vision

On this distinction between sight and vision, Max De Pree writes:

“We can teach ourselves to see things the way they are.
Only with vision can we begin to see things the way they can be.”

Although our eyes allow us to see what is, vision is the pathway by which we can see…and help others to see…what can be.

From Vision to Reality

As we move from sight to vision, the next step is about moving from vision to reality. Warren Bennis describes the work of leadership in the following manner:

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”

Vision is about possibility. The work of leadership is about helping to translate this preferable possibility into living reality.

But vision is not only a picture of preferred future possibility. Vision and the leadership work of vision casting become the means by which leaders help organizations move from vision to reality.

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In the month ahead I will be highlighting several additional features related to vision. Why is it important for leaders, followers, and organizations? What challenges come along with the leadership work of vision casting? Why is vision a primary tool with which leaders work?

Take a moment to share you thoughts on vision below.

Here are all of the post links for this series: