Most of our clients are engaged in attempts to develop or change their culture in some way, shape or form. They tend however to tell us they find such initiatives to be tricky, demanding and, ultimately, disappointing. To understand why this is the case, we have been inquiring with leaders and OD practitioners into their experience of trying to change culture.
During a recent meeting with a prospective client (let’s call him Paul), I was struck by how much he didn’t want us to sell what we did. He seemed to be much more fascinated in how we felt able to "just be ourselves"(his words). At one stage his challenge was “yeah, yeah I know when you are consulting you can do all that. I’m sure you will be good at partnering with us or anyone.
Organisation 'transformation' has become somewhat of a leitmotif. Increasingly, our clients are using the word 'transformation' when they talk about planned or ongoing change efforts. We’ve become curious about what they actually mean and are doing.
“Words create worlds” Abraham Heschel. Generally speaking, I don’t think philosophy is considered to have much practical relevance to organisations. Certainly, when I look back on my early training as a psychologist little attention was paid to questions of philosophy.
In recent years, I've noticed that enquiries for team development and coaching, invariably start with the statement: “we (or they) need to be a high performing team.” On face value, this strikes me as a reasonable request.
Bernard Cornwell’s 1981 novel, Sharpe’s Eagle, follows the exploits of Lieutenant Richard Sharpe in a campaign on the Iberian peninsula during the Napoleonic wars. The Sharpe novels were then adapted for UK channel ITV in the early 1990s, with British actor Sean Bean taking the lead role of Richard Sharpe. He’s the one in the middle.
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