Observation 5 - Context is King and the Executive and Board set the Context

“The last thing a fish notices is the water it swims in” ~ Ralph Linton

I love this quote. Every time I read it I have a little internal giggle. Water has a massive influence on the fish. Here are some reasons why:
  • Evolution: During hundreds of millions of years of evolution, so much of it was likely focused on how to thrive in water.
  • Water quality: Many parts of the world have modern-day issues with water pollution. If a fish lives in polluted water, its "quality of life" is significantly reduced. At its worst, the polluted water will kill the fish.

While the fish doesn't notice the water, it sets the context for what makes a fish a fish. When Linton wrote this quote, he was using the relationship between the fish and the water as a metaphor for the unseen influence of institutions on citizens and society. To change society or how citizens think and act (positive or negative), change the institutions as they set the context in which society exists.

The metaphor also works for leaders and their impact on organizations and people linked to the organization. Leaders are the water in which the organization and all people in the organization operate. While all leaders can have an impact on the organization, the most important leaders are the board and senior executive team (which I will collectively call senior leaders).

So, what is the organizational equivalent of society's institutions? The short answer is organizational culture. For this blog, organizational culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, customs, behaviors, and practices that characterize an organization. It is the underlying set of assumptions and values that guide the way people behave and interact within an organization.

Organizational culture can have a significant impact on:
  • Employee behavior
  • Productivity
  • The overall success of the organization

Organizational culture can also shape the way an organization interacts with its customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Organizational culture is shaped by a variety of factors, including the organization's history, mission, and values, as well as the personalities and behaviors of its leaders and employees. It can be intentionally shaped and managed by leaders, but it can also develop organically over time.

GPT4 - 4 May 2023 in response to the question "can you provide a definition for 'organizational culture'?"  Formatting is mine.


For too many organizations, culture is not actively managed and explicitly examined; rather, it is left to develop organically over time. For many others, when culture is examined, the focus tends to be on the perceived negative behaviors of employees (for example, why do employees resist change, if only they would get on board), and almost never do senior teams examine the impact of their behavior on culture. That is, too few senior leadership teams choose to actively examine the quality of the water they are producing, preferring instead to complain that the fish have unhealthy behaviors' or are not the fish they want or need.

To put it another way (and remix my metaphor), if senior leaders are actually committed to change, they need to stop complaining that fish are fish, acknowledge their impact on the organization (both positive and negative), invest in examining and actively managing their actions from the perspective of culture building, and therefore actively influence what's possible within the organization.

A note to senior leaders

If you continue to:
Act the same way
Ask for the same things
Make the same decisions
You will continue to get the same results

So, senior leaders:
  • What context are you setting?
  • What are you doing that may make change difficult?
  • What can you do differently to make change easy, or at least possible?

P.S. for those interested below are some links to previous blogs which talk to similar issues:
  1. Change vs Progress. We shouldn't manage change; rather, we should manage progress
  2. When Leaders Are The Problem. What are the real barriers to innovation?
  3. The Case For System Level Change. Lessons from Malcolm McLean and the shipping container
  4. Sustainable Change. Thoughts on how to make change stick
  5. Education Principles at Work. Montessori is a case study in deliberate culture building. This explores how Montessori principles could be adapted to the workplace.

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