The Culture Solution©

If you must change a culture, you must be ready to alter habits.

Strategy according to Hannibal

Hannibal; the Barbarian warlord never lost a single battle against the Romans. His Carthaginian forces defeated the Roman army every single time they clashed. He is regarded as the father of strategic thinking. Before Hannibal's method, the Romans military strategy was based on playing offensive. Hannibal consistently deployed containment and envelopment strategies.Those who are familiar with this piece of human history readily would agree that what passes for strategy today is indeed mere fluff. Real strategy is not pie in the sky. Strategy according to Richard Rumelt is a coherent set of actions. Such sets of actions are coordinated in time and space and driven by fundamental assumptions. The general consensus is that while idea generation is relatively easy, the key success factor is execution. The road to hell is paved with good strategies. On a single day, Hannibal wiped out more than 80,000 Roman soldiers. This loss is the greatest loss in modern war history. It took Rome 10 years to recover from this massacre. I posit here and now that any strategy that promises an easy route to Eldorado is almost a wishful thinking. Hannibal travelled hundreds of kilometers to fight the Romans on their own territory. This was dangerously contrarian and it came at a high cost. He fought against the elements, suffered losses but Hannibal won the war.

 

If success is such an imperative, why is it so elusive?

Human history is awash with classic cases of failures cutting across the hallway of politics, economy, social and even religion. For every victory, there is a vanquished. Every winning idea is surrounded by several other failed attempts. For every Mahatma Gandhi, there is an Abacha. For every Martin Luther, there is an Adolf Hitler. According to leading actuarial agencies, as much as 80% product launched fails annually. The implication of this is wasted value. Billions upon billions of money is lost in the process of achieving success. The mental and psychological cost of failure is fatal to say the least. The consequence of failure is grave just as the glory of success make the human experience all more worth it. We are wired for success and it gives us great pleasure when we accomplish our set goals. So if success is such an imperative, why is success so elusive and failure is so pervasive?

 

Culture eats strategy all the time

Culture is the general way of life. It is the way we do things around here. Through the lens of experience, I have come to understand that culture is the most important element of what accounts for success or failure. It is so because people make things happen. I reckon that no matter how sophisticated the architecture of governance or management is, an organisation cannot rise above its culture lid. The best way to predict the outcome and long term sustainability of any enterprise is to assess its culture. Wall Street should take note.  Culture is a big concept that encompasses a number of things. It morphs and like many intangible elements of enterprise is subject to change. Ever wondered why many organisations can't seem to get people to move in a particular direction? Its because many leaders and managers find it difficult to embrace the fact that people are individuals. One cannot afford to divorce common sense when dealing with people. Humans are not machines. They are emotional entities and for every action, there is a reaction. This is why motivation is the entire class of drives that move people to action. Leadership is the act of inspiring people to do what you want them to do. All you have to do is understand that there are principles at work. You want people to move in a particular way? Connect to them at the emotional level. Find out what is in it for them.

Alter habits

Management is getting things done through people and with people (Mary Parker Folliet). We live in a world of uncertainty where people make things happen. My modest proposal is that leaders and managers alike whose business it is to get things done should recognize the place of culture in result management and if the question arises that you want to change the culture of your people, then alter their habits. Bet on the little things and the bigger things will fall in place naturally. I must warn though that the chain of habit is difficult to break. This is certainly the most difficult aspect of getting people to do the right thing. One thing to remember though is that people don't do what we say. They do what we do. Leaders take note.

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