Anonymous Business Success
PeopleNology by Gregory Bodenhamer Ph.D. Nollijy University
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Social and System Motor Freight Trucking Engineering
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Culture is a perennial problem in change projects and needs to be carefully understood, especially if there is any expectation or desire to change the culture as a part of the project. Culture includes common values, attitudes and consequent behaviors. It directs how people make decisions and how they react to change. It can also vary within an organization, for example a 'leading edge' attitude may be found in research departments and 'customer first' value in service areas.
There are many areas of preferences that people have that shape cultures. There are, within these, a few which are of particular influence around change.
There are many reasons learn and use peoplenology;
Motivation: The overall subject of what drives us.
Processing: The thinking that leads to action.
Behaviors: That result from our decisions.
Culture: How we socially act together.
Learning Theory: How we get to make sense.
Personality: What makes us who we are.
Power: Our capability to act. Where we get it and how we use it.
Social Research: philosophers, philosophies and the search for meaning.
Stress: What winds us up.
Fear of retribution
Following out of fear is not so much following as being tugged along at the end of a rope.
Blind hope
Here, the follower is desperate for some solution, and what the leader is offering is either the only option they see or the best of a relatively weak set of choices.
Faith in leader
In this situation, the follower is blind to the solution but is following because they have such faith in the leader, they believe that they will, by some magic or genius, provide the answer to the follower's needs.
Intellectual agreement
Here, the follower understands the logic of the argument that the leader is putting forward and hence is following the rationale rather than the leader as a person, who they may respect but are not blindly following.
Buying the vision
When people buy a vision, they are emotionally closing on a view of the future that is appealing to them in some way and pulls them forward.
Followers and Respect
When a person is evaluating a situation and deciding whether to collaborate (and hence become a follower), they judge both the leader and also the solution the leader is offering to determine what action they will take.
Respect for the leader
When the leader is respected, which means they are at the very least trusted and probably liked as well, then this enables the leader to make proposals that followers will take seriously.
Respect for the solution
When the solution is respected, then the respect for the leader is not as important, although if the leader is not respected then the followers may doubt the ability of the leader to make the right choices along the way.
Followers and Trust
People follow those they trust.
Care and concern
We all have a very basic need for safety, which we can get either by taking control ourselves, or, as followers do, ceding this to our leaders.
Passive concern
Leaders make choices that can harm people. If you carefully avoid harming me, then I can trust you.
Active care
Beyond a passive concern is the active care where you may take deliberate action, which you would not otherwise take, to look after and actively care for me.
Reliability
Leaders need for their followers to trust that they will do as they say they will do.
Keep your promises
A simple rule for leaders is : 'Do what you say'. Keep your promises.
Honesty
The problem with honesty is that the short-term implications can be bad for leaders.
Tell the whole truth
If you always tell the truth, including the unvarnished whole truth and bad news that others might hide, then I know that when you say something, I have the complete story.
Followers and Liking
If I do not like you, then I will not follow you.
Goodness
If I judge you to be good, then I know you have similar values to me.
Similarity
We use external similarity as a short-cut to determine if a person is like us on the inside.
Vulnerability
We see ourselves as vulnerable, often with the sense of being a child that we all have to some degree. We see our failings, our limitations, and weaknesses.
Followers and Support
People follow those that help them.
Goals
Where the personal goals of the followers are aligned with the direction that the leaders is pointing, then it seems like a good idea to follow the leader, especially if it looks like they will be able to help me get what I want.
Support
I will also follow a person who actively helps me to get what I want.
Followers and Ideas
People will follow an idea, but not constraining objectives, then I may do it, but not in a way that makes me want to follow you.
Objectives as instructions
Objectives are useful in most organizations, of course, but they are often presented as fixed instructions, telling people what to do and how to do it in so much detail that it leaves little to the imagination.
Objectives as ideas
Objectives can be used to motivate and leaders can make effective use of formal systems of objective-setting to provide effective challenge and stimulation that will motivate people not only to do the work but also to follow the leader.
Ideas as inspiration
Inspiration occurs when an idea both aligns with my values and also gives me a sense of possibility, of what is not now but which could be in the future. It might thus change my beliefs and mental models.
Context Analysis
When investigating change it is important to understand the context within which the current situation is operating.
External context
The external context that affects the organization provides the forces to which the business must react and are common root causes of the need for change.
PESTLE forces
The broader business climate includes the external sea in which the business and its competitors must swim and provides the ultimate playing ground.
Market forces
Within the chosen markets, forces as price pressures, competitive shifts, customer demands and so on may be creating business tensions.
Internal context
As well as the external context, there are many contextual factors within organizations that can lead to the need for change.
Driving objectives
Out of the external forces and internal ambitions, business leaders identify the key purposes and objectives that they want to achieve and hence achieve success in the organization.
Organizational alignment
An aligned organization has its processes, technology, reporting structures and individual objectives all aligned with one another.
Organizational capability
As well as alignment, an organization needs its people to be able to complete work given to them.
Leadership
Leadership is a subject which includes a great deal about changing people's minds, often in fundamental ways.
Followership
The nature of leadership can perhaps be best understood by turning the coin over and studying followership.
The Leader-Follower loop
Leaders who want to create true followers do not just stand at the front of the army, yell 'charge' and then run forward.
Followers respond
Followers are seldom blind. They are human.
Gossip
If the leader does something that concerns them, then they will voice these concerns to one another long before letting the leader know.
Pack response
There may well be some level of pack response from followers.
Leaders adjust
If leaders do not do anything about the situation, then followers, who are volunteers, remember, will abandon in droves.
Noticing
At some point in the proceedings, the leader notices that followers are not as inclined to follow as they once were.
Diagnosing
When the shift in follower behavior is noticed, the next step is to figure out why, and particularly to know whether and how to connect this to the leader's own words or actions, or at least to external events that have shifted the playing field.
Adjusting
When you know where it is going and why it happened, then you can do something about it.
The dance continues
And so the band plays on. It is a closed system, with followers responding to leaders, who themselves adjust in response to this. Leadership and followership is thus an ongoing dance.
Structural Analysis
There are many structures within an organization which influence people's behavior. 'Function follows form' is a relevant saying.
Organizational structure
The hierarchical organization with its 'scalar chain of command' is at the heart of most organizations.
Process structure
People work within processes, which may stretch across functions or be contained within them.
Motivational structure
There are deliberate structures in the organization that seek to motivate people. Typically, this is based on financial reward.
Social structure
Overlaid across the organization is another invisible structure which is made up of the many and complex social relationships across the company.
Physical structure
The physical structure of the organization can have a very significant effect on the social structuring.
Causal Analysis
An excellent question when analyzing around change is 'why?' Causal Analysis seeks to identify and understand the reasons why things are as they are and hence enabling focus of change activity.
Root causes
The basic principle of causal analysis is to find causes that you can treat rather than treating symptoms (which, as all doctors know, seldom effects a lasting cure).
Ask why five times
The trick with seeking root causes is to keep looking. When you ask 'why' of
