The Cranky Middle Manager Show #124 Gorillas in the Corporate Culture Linda Ford
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #124 (MP3 13MB 29.00Min)
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Welcome to the Cranky Middle Manager Show. Today we’re talking Corporate Culture and how it’s the 800 pound gorilla inside your company. The book in question is The Fourth Factor, Managing Corporate Culture and the author is Linda Ford.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking about corporate culture- what it is, who cares and what does it have to do with big hairy apes? We dedicate this show to Paul du Chaillu, the first white man to see…. and kill and stuff cause that’s what we do….. but he was also an experienced- if not terribly accurate- anthropologist. You identify culture by the stories you tell…..
2:00 One way to form a corporate culture is by keeping all your employees- even remote ones- engaged and involved. Join us for our webinar on January 3rd. Get The Details Here
2:32 The quote of the week is from Rensis Likert, a smart guy and if you’ve ever fudged a course evaluation after training you know his work. Anyway……. corporate culture is a kind of peer pressure, but it’s a way to get things done.
3:13 Welcome Dr. Linda Ford, author of The Fourth Factor, Managing Corporate Culture. What is corporate culture, and what does it have to do with gorillas????? Well, like the 800 pound gorilla in the room, it’s inescapable and does what it’s going to do with or without you.. ignore it at your peril.
8:35 How do you see and measure corporate culture? You’ve got about 90 days to define it or you become it. You see it every time you work with a company. Southwest Airlines is a great example. For those who’ve never traveled it, it’s a fun place to work and it shows. You don’t need to quantify it so much as see how people behave and then notice whether it’s useful or not. My biggest clue that it’s a culture issue is when you realize “that ain’t gonna fly here” and you can define why.
13:45 Linda tells us about a scientific experiment that demonstrates how strong culture is.
16:00 I can’t think of too much that’s more difficult than changing culture. Linda runs down how you do that. It starts by making sure the culture you want aligns with your strategy. You have to
- State the directive
- Be the message
- Second-nature the behaviors
Of course, the behaviors are a little trickier. There are 6 behaviors to achieve these directives.
- question rigorously
- include respectfully
- commit responsibly
- experiment relentlessly
- integrate radically
- connect- really
21:50 For instance: why don’t we question why we do things at work? That’s culture at work.
Resources
Check out her website for some cool “gorilla” stuff Fourth Factor On-line.
In the first year of the show, we interviewed Richard Conniff about his book Ape in the Corner Office. If the conversation intrigues you, check it out.
She recommends Mad Dogs, Dreamers and Sages
December 21st, 2007 at 6:30 am
During one of my first management trainings, the monkey/banana story was brought up as well. However, the way it was brought was more convincing than the way Linda Ford brought it on the show. I am not sure whether the experiment was actually conducted, or whether it is just a nice story,
Imagine a high monkey cage with a troup of monkeys. A ladder in the center goes all the way to the top.
Start of the experiment. In the morning, a banana is hung at the top of the ladder. Monkeys all get excited. As soon as one is at the top of the ladder and grabs the banana, all the other monkeys are sprayed soaking wet using firehoses from outside. They really hate it.
Next day. A new banana is hung. As soon as one of the monkeys lay their hand on the banana, all the others are sprayed soaking wet.
This is repeated every day. The monkeys soon learn to appreciate the correlation. They learn to leave the banana and not touch it.
Next stage of the experiment. One monkey out, another monkey in. The new monkey soon notices the banana, takes a run for the ladder, is grabbed by his new mates, and is beaten up. This happens a few times, and the new monkey soon learns to leave the banana up there.
One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. At some point, none of the original monkeys that have been wet is left in the cage. Still, whenever a new monkey is brought in and takes a run for the banana, he is beaten up.
This is corporate culture. None of the monkeys know why they beat up the new guy that runs for the banana. “It is just the way things are done around here”.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:44 am
Rob, thanks for the explanation. In Linda’s defense she was giving us the very short version as part of another story, but this is great stuff. The image of the monkey getting beat up for just trying to get the banana is a far more apt description of what goes on at work than many of us would like to admit. Let me see if I got this right… beating someone up to save them from a fire hose…. good. Beating someone up for reasons no one can remember…probably a sign that corporate culture is strong and needs adjustment…. actually picking nits off your boss… time to talk to the nice lady in HR.
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Do search on Google “Monkey banana experiment” and the top link is a Navy site that tells a similar story so is this an Urban legend or not?
http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/Articles/a-m/monkeys.htm
January 8th, 2008 at 12:03 am
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