THE TERM "organisational culture" can
obscure an important truth: An organisation often has many cultures.
Because each business unit or team may have its own subculture,
collaboration requires working across cultures effectively. Mastering
this requires three steps.
1. Understand what team culture is and how it works:
A team’s culture is its shared values and assumptions, and is a product of multiple elements: the organisation, industry, geographic region and nation, and profession or function the team represents. Values are what we strive for, such as honesty, accountability and compassion. Assumptions are beliefs we hold about how the world works and how things are related. A team manifests its culture in many artifacts, including norms that lead members to act in certain ways and create structures, processes and policies.
2. Identify your and other teams’ cultures: To determine how cultures differ, you need to identify the values and assumptions that constitute each. Start by identifying artifacts that strike each team as notably different from its own. These include norms, behaviours, structures and processes. Next, identify the assumptions and values that generate these artifacts. Finally, determine whether each artifact is shared, different but congruent, or conflicting. Conflicting artifacts are the most important to address.
3. Design a joint solution for the conflicting values and assumptions: If one team is particularly bound to its values and assumptions in a certain situation, the other team may just decide to adopt that team’s approach. Or the teams can develop a solution that integrates both cultures. But if these options don’t work, the teams can compromise, which may be the best solution. However, because compromises don’t resolve conflicting values and assumptions, they tend to leave everyone somewhat dissatisfied, jeopardising their sustainability.
(Adapted from "Midsize Companies Shouldn’t Confuse Growth With Scaling" at HBR.org.)
© 2016 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp
1. Understand what team culture is and how it works:
A team’s culture is its shared values and assumptions, and is a product of multiple elements: the organisation, industry, geographic region and nation, and profession or function the team represents. Values are what we strive for, such as honesty, accountability and compassion. Assumptions are beliefs we hold about how the world works and how things are related. A team manifests its culture in many artifacts, including norms that lead members to act in certain ways and create structures, processes and policies.
2. Identify your and other teams’ cultures: To determine how cultures differ, you need to identify the values and assumptions that constitute each. Start by identifying artifacts that strike each team as notably different from its own. These include norms, behaviours, structures and processes. Next, identify the assumptions and values that generate these artifacts. Finally, determine whether each artifact is shared, different but congruent, or conflicting. Conflicting artifacts are the most important to address.
3. Design a joint solution for the conflicting values and assumptions: If one team is particularly bound to its values and assumptions in a certain situation, the other team may just decide to adopt that team’s approach. Or the teams can develop a solution that integrates both cultures. But if these options don’t work, the teams can compromise, which may be the best solution. However, because compromises don’t resolve conflicting values and assumptions, they tend to leave everyone somewhat dissatisfied, jeopardising their sustainability.
(Adapted from "Midsize Companies Shouldn’t Confuse Growth With Scaling" at HBR.org.)
© 2016 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp
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