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By Chris Chittenden

In our article entitled, Organisational Culture, we defined culture in terms of climate, values, beliefs, norms, symbols and philosophy. Of those we see climate or mood as being the key to assessing the overall culture of an organisation.

So what shapes organisational culture? Again we refer to "The Paradox Principles" written by the Price Waterhouse Change Integration Team. They have defined the major shapers as:

• Leadership actions - not words;
• Performance measures;
• People practices;
• Vision, purpose and strategy;
• Structure; and
• Competitive context.

As we indicated in other articles on this web site, we use an interpretation of human beings in the domains of language, emotions and the body. You might notice from the list above that the only one that contains a purely individual human element is the actions of organisational leaders. All the others are systemic and created in language such that they provide a framework and direction for the organisation.

We have already spoken in other articles on the importance of the leaders of organisation in establishing the right organisational climate. From our perspective, they are the drivers who will set all the other factors in place.

Whenever, we work with an organisation that wants to change its culture, we start with the leader. We help them understand the importance organisational mood has on the likelihood of success and continuance of any change. Our premise is that mood and emotions are a predisposition for action. You are not likely to take certain actions from within certain moods. If you accept this premise, then the first step in establishing any changes in culture is to create an ambitious mood. One that will generate the actions required for the proposed change.

One of the phenomena about moods are they are contagious and we believe leaders can act as the catalyst to generate the right mood. Similarly through their actions they can also create the wrong mood. To that end, we assist leaders learn how to embody an ambitious mood.

Once they hold the right mood, they are then in a position to take that mood into the organisation. This is where the process of developing visions and strategies can be so important. Although the words should encapsulate the vision for the organisation, it is the mood that is associated with the vision that will determine whether it is the organisation’s future or just words on a page.

Therefore the process of creating a vision is firstly about creating the right mood within those involved. This will have a twofold effect. Firstly, the right mood will put people in a space where they are likely to speculate more freely and therefore come up with a more worthy vision for the future. Secondly, those people will have a strong commitment to the vision and are more likely to take an ambitious mood back to their teams. This will enhance the likelihood of the vision, and the changes it might entail, being adopted throughout the organisation.

When we run workshops aimed at establishing a vision, we start with the question: How do we establish the right mood? If you would like to find out more about how we go about achieving this, e-mail us at info@talkingabout.com.au.

Copyright © 1999 Chris Chittenden