The Need for Cultural Learning, Change & Development
In strictly technical terms, it was a chunk of foam about
the size of a briefcase that downed the Columbia space
shuttle in February. But a scathing U.S. government inquiry
has concluded that the root cause of the fatal crash
was the culture at NASA, which for two decades had
sacrificed safety in the pursuit of budget efficiency and
tight schedules. “NASA’s organizational culture had as much
to do with this accident as the foam did” the Columbia
Accident Investigation Board noted in a 248-page report
released in Washington”. The New York Times, 26/08/03
In the business and popular press, references to the need
for cultural change in large organizations are commonplace.
What's generally ignored is what this need says about the
organization's culture management practices. Large or small,
the question for all companies is whether pronounced cultural
change will occur belatedly triggered by a crisis, or the
need for it minimized through the proactive management of
company culture; whether the agenda will be set by one's
competition or by an organization's development of an effective
culture unique to its strategy, mission and
vision of a preferred future.
The pivotal role of culture in the success of any company
was eloquently captured by (former) IBM CEO Lou Gerstner
in
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround:
I have spent more than twenty-five years as a senior
executive of three different corporations — and I peeked
into many more as a consultant in the years before that.
Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that
culture was just one among several important elements in
any organization's makeup and success – along with vision,
strategy, marketing, financials and the like. …I came to
see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect
of the game – it is
the game. (pg.182)
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