ABSTRACT
Most organizations are improving, but they are not winning the race.
H. James Harrington
Everyone is talking about the need for a cultural change, but I believe that focusing on it is the wrong answer to today’s problems. It doesn’t prepare most organizations to prosper in the twenty-first century. Culture is defined as one’s background, history, heritage, religion, your beliefs. Most organizations want to hold onto their culture and, in fact, are worried about losing it. Americans should be proud of the culture they have worked so hard to create. It is a culture rich in imagination, hard work, caring, risk taking, and accomplishments. It is a culture that has made the United States the richest, the most powerful, most productive nation in the world. Our culture is not the problem. It is the personality of today’s population that is the problem. We talk about “workaholics” like “work” is the worst four-letter word in the English language. People work overtime begrudgingly if they are notified 72 hours in advance, and, if not, they refuse. It is the personality of today’s workforce and our children that needs to be changed. Personality is defined as an individual’s or group’s impact on other individuals or groups. We need to change the personality of our people before we lose the culture that our forefathers worked so hard to create. It is the personality of our key managers that dictate the personality of the total organization. When a new CEO (chief
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executive officer) is appointed, the total organization adapts to his or her personality. If he or she is a baseball fan, you would be surprised how many people all of a sudden know last night’s baseball scores. Just picture the organization’s culture as a rubber band stretched around four posts to form a rectangle (Figure 1.1). When a new CEO/president takes charge of the organization, the rectangle is distorted forming a temporary culture to meet the personality of the individual (Figure 1.2). As soon as the CEO/president moves onto another assignment, the rubber band snaps back to its original rectangular shape as seen in Figure 1.1, because this is a culture of the organization. Often the next new CEO/ president’s personality and hot points cause the temporary culture of the organization to be shifted again in line with the new leader’s personality and preferences (Figure 1.3).
