80% Culture 20% System

Culture is an endlessly fascinating topic of thought, discussion, amusement, and too often consternation for me. Culture impacts our perceptions, thoughts, and actions. Culture can be one of the most powerful forces within a team, organization, society, or region.

Studying cultures and learning about working within them and working to change them is one of my keenest interests. One of the biggest reasons I left my home in SE Michigan and spent one month of 2010 traveling throughout China was to get tiny glimpses of cultures that are different from what I am accustomed to. (More on that adventure in future posts)

Defining ‘culture’ and examining its various aspects could be the topic of countless future posts – its not my intention to engage in such a mammoth exercise at the moment. I would however, like to take a quick peek at….

The Importance of Integrated Systems and Culture

Many thanks to Tom Peters for providing a spark of inspiration for this topic with following tweet from a very worthy rant on patient safety:

“Patient [safety] is 80% a “culture” issue, 20% a systems issue. Systems effort mostly wasted without culture change.” – Tom Peters

Tom Peter’s application of the Pareto Principle to patient safety got me thinking about other applications as it relates to culture and systems.

I’ve Been Working on the Railroad…

In the fall of 2007 I saw the importance of systems and culture first hand when I spent a day with a safety supervisor for a major railway line observing a railroad work gang replace a section of rails. The parade of enormous and powerful machines that could lift up a heavy rail and pluck out a railroad tie as if it were nothing, was incredible to watch. These big, complex machines had the potential to be quite dangerous to the people who were around them and operating them.

This railroad company was very concerned about its employees’ safety and had instituted strict safety policies to keep its workers safe. The supervisor I was with explained that, despite these safety policies, some workers continued to get injured. I even got to listen in on a conference call between safety supervisors where they reviewed an accident where an unfortunate worker lost his finger. This worker had made a choice to not follow some safety procedures – likely because they would have slowed down his work.

A Double Standard

The railroad safety supervisor explained that nearly every accident could be traced to a violation of the safety procedures. The safety supervisor astutely observed that their problem was not with the safety systems they already had in place, but with their culture. If there was any kind of double standard – if employees felt that they might be penalized or punished in any way for following safety procedures, the procedures would likely not be followed. For example, workers may have been receiving pressure to meet certain quotas from one angle, and from another angle receive pressure to conform to more time consuming safety procedures. If the railroad’s culture didn’t support their safety systems – the systems were doomed to failure.

Culture vs. Systems?

Matters of personal safety obviously deserve meticulously planned systems, but aside from personal safety rigid rules, processes, and systems tend to rub me the wrong way. I would much rather see leaders cultivate an environment where everyone can learn from their mistakes and take responsibility, as opposed to creating a new rule every time someone hits a bump in the road. My perspective has been that of someone who typically shuns systems but who embraces tactics that strengthen a desired aspect within a culture. As I have considered this topic over the past several days, I’ve come to realize that systems and culture are not mutually exclusive.

The Bottom Line

Systems Can strengthen Culture

Chris Guillebeau, author of the Art of Non-Conformity blog seems like anything but a ‘system’ type guy. His tagline is “Challenging Authority since 1978.” Yet in his profoundly insightful manifesto entitled “279 Days to Overnight Success” he explains how he devised rules to govern his writing and management of the Art of Non-Conformity. He explains that he firmly committed to himself to write at least 1,000 words per day, six days per week. Chris also committed to himself and to his readers to post to his blog every Monday and Thursday.

The system guidelines Chris established for writing and publishing strengthens the cultural framework he is trying to nurture within himself and his online community.

Systems Fail Without the Proper Culture.

Without the proper culture, rules and systems will eventually wither and die. The railroad example clearly shows that even in matters of safety and life/death situations, systems can fall apart if the culture doesn’t support them.

More Questions…

Culture is at the forefront of my mind as I work towards the launch of my new company. What is the best culture to nurture? How do you instill and nurture a particular culture with in an organization?

Any thoughts?

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