Organizational Behavior Topic

1. Organization Culture
Edited version as of January 2023

2. What images of organization culture can we start the discourse with?

3. What are shared assumptions?

4. Shared assumptions and shared histories

10. What are cultural artifacts?

11. Source: Makabayan at Makatotohanan post on FB
What happened after 2016 can best be
attributed by the climate of tongpats and
the cavalier attitude by Duterte on the
handling of public funds as reflected by
his favorite joke, "ihulog nyo sa hagdan
yang makulit na COA". Almost overnight,
the same DBM-PS created to tame the
vast disparities in prices of items
commonly used by agencies and LGUs
became the single most corrupt
sub-agency ever.

13. This is where the game basketball may have originated!
The Mayan ball game goes back 3,500 years,
making it the first organized game in the
history of sports. Mayans loved the game and
everyone played at various times, but it also
held deep religious, ritual meaning as well.
Around A.D. 1200, stone circles with a
hole in the middle were attached high up
on the walls of the ball court, up to six
meters high. While getting a ball through
the hole was rare, if a player got the ball
through the hole, it was an instant win.

14. to the Maya it was a matter of life and
death and one of the reasons for human
sacrifice. The gods needed human
blood and hearts to keep the sun and
moon in orbit. Some Mayan ball games
were played to resolve bitter disputes
between rival cities or as a proxy for
war. The Maya also saw the game as a
battle between the gods of death and
the gods of life or between good and
evil.

22. Finland is said to be one of the countries with the happiest people
In Finland, school starts when the child has turned 7
years old. It is considered the best school system in the
world. The lessons last 60 minutes, of which 45 +15
breaks. Monday to Thursday 8 hours a day, Friday until 1
pm and Saturday off. School education in Finland is
absolutely free. Parents don't pay a dime for anything. It's
all at the expense of the state. Every child receives from
the state a free tablet, and all textbooks are placed on
the tablet so that kids don't have to bring heavy
backpacks. School food is free, varied and clean and
every student can get what and how much they want.
Every investment in a country's education is an
investment in its future. This is the most important
investment. An educated nation is the engine of both
economy, health and justice...

26. What are examples of rituals used in planting and harvesting of rice?
“Accordingly, farming rituals among Magindanawn
farmers are aimed to achieve maximum crop
production. Without observing and practicing
farming rituals, crop production would be lesser. It
was also believed that rice, given proper conduct of
rituals, would usually take a longer period to be
consumed; on the other hand, rice without the
proper rituals and care would be consumed in a
relatively shorter time.” (Source: Saavedra M.
Mantikayan, Esmael L. Abas. “Traditional Rice
Farming Ritual Practices of the Magindanawn in
Southern Philippines
“As the Filipino people’s staple food, it shouldn’t
be surprising that early farmers did everything
they could to ensure a bountiful harvest. In the
Cordillera Region, just west of the Cagayan
Valley, ritual priests known as mumbaki sought
the aid of their ancestral spirits (anitos) and rice
gods called bul-ul to provide them with the right
conditions during planting and protection against
diseases and pestilence so farmers may enjoy
bountiful harvests.” (Source: Alaric Francis
Santiaguel. “Field of Spirits.” )

28. Breeching was the occasion when a small boy
was first dressed in breeches or trousers.
From the mid-16th century until the late 19th or
early 20th century, young boys in the Western
world were unbreeched and wore gowns or
dresses until an age that varied between two
and eight.
Breeching was an important rite of passage in
the life of a boy, looked forward to with much
excitement, and often celebrated with a small
party. It often marked the point at which the
father became more involved with the raising
of a boy.

31. What is Zappos?

33. Culture and Johnson and Johnson’s “principled response.”

34. In September 1982, Tylenol
(acetaminophen) hard capsule laced with
Cyanide took the lives of 7 patients in
Chicago (USA), making this a severe
quality-affecting event in the global
pharmaceutical industry. However, the
way Johnson & Johnson (J&J) handled
the problem helped the company quickly
overcome the sales crisis and regain
consumer trust.
Within a year, by putting the patient
first and launching new products
with different protection measures,
J&J has gradually regained the trust
of consumers and medical
professionals. As a result, the
Tylenol product line quickly regained
its pre-crisis market share (29%).

35. 1886
Johnson & Johnson was among the
first companies to put corporate
social responsibility into practice.
From its founding, the company has
been guided by a value system that
prioritizes people over profits.
1887
Since its first years, the company relied
on consumer trust and feedback to
develop products and educational
materials. Sterile surgical supplies,
household products, and medical guides
were all created with the public in mind.

36. 1970
In the decades after Our
Credo was published, it
transformed into a living
document, guiding the
company's work, employees,
and leaders.
1975
By the 1970s, CEO James E. Burke
was concerned with Our Credo’s
relevance in the new era. So, he
organized the Credo Challenge for the
company to debate it. Johnson &
Johnson emerged from these
discussions more committed to the
philosophy.

37. 1982
Johnson & Johnson's dedication to the Credo
proved critical in the early 1980s when
someone contaminated Extra Strength
TYLENOL® Capsules with cyanide, causing
seven deaths in Chicago. The Credo guided
the company's response; Johnson &
Johnson prioritized public safety above all
else.
1982
The company immediately issued
mass-warnings through the media, recalled
31 million bottles of TYLENOL® worldwide,
and offered replacement products free of
charge. The response, which cost over $100
million, showed Johnson & Johnson’s
commitment to public safety, helping to
re-establish consumer trust.

40. Japanese Wabi Sabi- the beauty/art of imperfection

43. HANA SCHANKELIZABETH WALLACE. “Rethinking
What Success Looks Like.” theatlantic.com,
12/19/2016
● Ambition is easy to
define—Merriam-Webster
describes it as “an ardent desire for
rank, fame, or power”—but hard to
concretely identify. How ardent
does that desire need to be? Does
it look different in different people?
Perhaps the most accurate thing to
say about ambition is that you know
it when you see it.
● “They asked everyone who had
been editor-in-chief of their school
newspaper to raise their hand,” she
said. “And every single person in
the room raised their hand, except
me.” She’d been the most
ambitious member of her high
school’s graduating class in her
small town in Georgia, but now she
was in a class full of people at least
as driven.

44. ● Future plans formulated during
college included: “I was going to
be the best prosecuting attorney
the world had ever seen,” “My
name was going to be in lights. I
was going to be singing at the
Met,” and “I thought I was going
to be the press secretary at the
White House.”
● But 23 years after graduation, only a
little more than a quarter went on to
become what we've called the High
Achievers. These women are
impressive; they include two
high-ranking banking executives, two
physicians who have achieved
distinction in their fields, a marketing
executive, a pharmaceutical executive,
and a Hollywood screenwriter.

45. ● A Bain & Co study from
2015 found that women enter
their careers with a higher level
of ambition than men. But while
men’s aspiration levels stay the
same for at least the first two
years on the job, women’s levels
plummet by 60 percent.
● In a survey conducted
by Moremagazine, 43 percent
of the women surveyed
reported that their ambition
had dropped in the last 10
years.

46. ● When we talked to our
former classmates in 2016
who had chosen to scale
back or opt out of their
careers, they didn’t strike us
as any less ambitious than
they’d been in college.
● We came to see that many
of our subjects chose not
to pursue that high flight
in the professional arena,
but continued to soar in
nearly every other avenue
of their lives.

47. ● One woman who had aspired to be
an opera star, and then switched to
a career in finance before leaving
the workforce after her first child
was born, said she’d “been the
president of everything”:
neighborhood associations, school
organizations, and charitable
groups.
● A former classmate living in
Guatemala organized a volunteer
group to help educate
impoverished children living at a
dump site, who otherwise would
have received no schooling.
● Some of them became High
Achievers, but some actively chose
other paths.

48. ● “Most of them were divorced,
grossly overweight, exceptionally ill.
They were good at their jobs but
that’s all they did. They had no
other hobbies. They never went on
vacation because they didn’t know
what to do when they had free time.
So I do not aspire to that. I aspire
against it.”
● These women hadn’t lost their
ambition; instead they’d changed the
definition of the word. They saw that
ambition takes many forms, only one
of which is becoming CEO. While
everyone may have started out with
lofty career goals, many also had
lofty personal goals; ambition
doesn’t stay in a neatly contained
career-goals-only box.

49. ● “I’m not a doctor, I’m not an
attorney. I get the
[Northwestern alumni]
magazine and I’m like, look at
what all the cool people are
doing—I’m such a loser. But
for me, I’m not a
loser—because I’m happy.”

50. Summary: Leonid Bershidsky. Why North Europeans Are
the Happiest People.”www.bloomberg.com, April 14, 2015
● Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark and
Norway are the world's happiest
countries, according to the 2015
World Happiness Report, which is
put out by some influential
economists. Three of these
European states are not members
of the European Union. What are
they doing right that the rest of the
world is doing wrong?

51. ● The report's authors say six
variables account for three-quarters
of the differences in happiness
levels among countries:
● Gross domestic product per capita,
social support, healthy life
expectancy, freedom to make life
choices, generosity and freedom
from corruption.
● Two of these -- social support and
generosity -- are relatively
independent of economic
development or the political system,
which explains why some relatively
poor, institutionally weak countries
have happier populations than the
strongest Western democracies.

52. ● For example, Mexicans are
happier than Americans,
Brazilians enjoy higher
perceived well-being than the
residents of rich, free
Luxembourg, and Venezuelans
like their life better than
Singaporeans.
● A country is an all-around
winner, however, when it's
rich, healthy, free and
populated with generous
people who support one
another when there's
trouble.

53. ● One has to wonder if Northern
Europe's Law of Jante might
not be responsible for the
presence of Iceland, Denmark,
Norway, Finland and Sweden
among the world's 10 happiest
nations.
● The report contains a chapter that
stresses the role of "relational
goods," such as reciprocity and
simultaneity (which describes
people taking part in meaningful
activities together), in building
happy nations. People are happier
when they're socially fulfilled,
perhaps as members of a group
(both group membership and
happiness levels are high in
Scandinavia):

54. Law of Jante
● .
● The happiest countries are
participatory. That goes for
Switzerland with its direct
democracy and tight-knit
local communities, as well
as for the Scandinavian
countries, which, as Sachs
wrote in his chapter of the
report, have "perhaps the
highest social capital in the
world."

57. Why are Northern Europeans happy people?

59. ● Participation and deliberative
democracy help to build
mutual trust, an important
part of social capital. People
are more willing to pay taxes,
less prone to corruption, and
expansive social safety nets
become the norm.
● This kind of social fabric, however, is
finely woven and delicate. The
happiest countries in the world have
small populations (the biggest
country in the top 10 is Canada, with
35 million people). Bringing countries
together in a big bloc such as the EU
doesn't help increase social capital.

60. ● And when some countries in such a
union do worse than others, their social
fabric rips in a dramatic way, trust
erodes and the decline in happiness
becomes more pronounced than
economic losses alone can explain.
That's what happened in Greece, the
biggest happiness loser compared with
data for 2005-2007. Other big losers are
Italy and Spain.

61. Greve, Bent, Bo Rothstein, Juho Saari. “The Nordic Exceptionalism. What
Explains Why the Nordic Countries Are Constantly Among the Happiest in the
Word.” WHR 2020/Chapter 7, 03/2020
● From 2013 until today, every time the
World Happiness Report (WHR) has
published its annual ranking of
countries, the five Nordic countries –
Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
and Iceland – have all been in the top
ten, with Nordic countries occupying the
top three spots in 2017, 2018, and
2019.
● Nordic exceptionalism isn’t confined to citizen’s
happiness.
● No matter whether we look at the state of
democracy and political rights, lack of
corruption, trust between citizens, felt safety,
social cohesion, gender equality, equal
distribution of incomes, Human Development
Index, or many other global comparisons, one
tends to find the Nordic countries in the global
top spots.[1]

62. Through reviewing the existing studies, theories, and data behind the
World Happiness Report, we find that the most prominent explanations
include factors related to the quality of institutions, such as reliable and
extensive welfare benefits, low corruption, and well-functioning democracy
and state institutions.
Furthermore, Nordic citizens experience a high sense of autonomy and
freedom, as well as high levels of social trust towards each other, which
play an important role in determining life satisfaction.
Most of the potential explanatory factors for Nordic happiness are highly
correlated with each other and often also mutually reinforcing, making it
hard to disentangle cause from effect. Therefore, focusing on just a single
explanation may result in distorted interpretations.

63. In Norway, when people see that there is an excess of apples on
their trees, they do this kind of action so others can pick them and
consume them instead of rotting on the ground. Beautiful

70. Arthur Brooks. “Success Addicts Choose Being Special Over Being Happy.” theatlantic.com.
07/30/2020
Praise and dopamine
•Dopamine is an important
chemical messenger involved in
reward, motivation, memory,
attention and even regulating body
movements.
•“likes” in social media make us
crave to keep going back to posts
we made!

71. Overwork, success and
dopamine hits
•Success addicts value
being special, being
noticed favorably by
people who matter to them

72. Success and Sisyphus
•Success as hedonic treadmill.
•Success attained through
extreme sacrifice
•Success and depression
•Culture that valorizes
overwork

73. •Happiness in things that are
ordinary
•Make amends with
relationships you may have
offended in search of success
•Alternative metrics of success

74. Mercy Torres. “Why We Need to Stop Chasing Success and Start Enjoying the Little Things in
Life.” tinybuddha.com
The philosopher Alan Watts always said
that life is like a song, and the sole
purpose of the song is to dance.
He said that when we listen to a song, we
don’t dance with the goal of getting to the
end of the music. We dance to enjoy it.
This isn’t always how we live our lives.
Instead, we rush through our moments,
thinking there’s always something better,
there’s always some goal we need to
achieve.
The point is, no matter how far you get or how
hard you work you will always want to get to the
next level. Sure material things bring comfort,
but they don’t bring happiness. You will always
be where you are in your heart until you realize
that life isn’t about material possessions.
Our lives are not about things and status. Even
though we’ve made ourselves miserable with
wanting, we already have everything we need. Life
is meant to be lived. If you can’t quit your job
tomorrow, enjoy where you are. Focus on the best
parts of every day. Believe that everything you do
has a purpose and a place in the world.

80. Bcz it’s the socially accepted
response.
The person offering is being
courteous as well. The script
reads it is a formality, a familiar
greeting. Kain tayo! Filipinos
who are raised properly know
the right response.

82. Public Seminar: “The Art of Napping in Japan.” www.theeast.org
•many foreign visitors to
Japan.. …see a number of
people in public… napping
during the day, whether in the
train or in a restaurant, in the
classroom or in the office, or
even in a TV broadcast from
parliament.

85. Reuters. “Dream job: the Japanese man who gets paid to do nothing.”
rappler.com, 08/06/2022
SEP 6, 2022 10:06 AM PHT
REUTERS
The 38-year-old Tokyo resident charges
10,000 yen ($71) an hour to accompany
clients and simply exist as a
companion…..“Basically, I rent myself out.
My job is to be wherever my clients want me
to be and to do nothing in particular,”
Morimoto told Reuters, adding that he had
handled some 4,000 sessions in the past
four years”…….“People tend to think that my
‘doing nothing’ is valuable because it is
useful (for others) … But it’s fine to really not
do anything. People do not have to be useful
in any specific way,” he said.

89. •“The existence with organizations of groups that have different
backgrounds and professional affiliations and high degree of internal
interaction (Ibid, 156)
•“Van Maanen and Barlay (1985) argue that unitary organization
cultures evolve when all members of an organization face roughly
the same problems, when everyone communicates with almost
everyone and when each member adopts a common sense of
understanding for enacting proper and consensually approved
behavior….these conditions are of course rare!” (Ibid)
Why organizations rarely have a common strong culture

91. What are enhancing subcultures?

92. Characteristics of enhancing sub-cultures?

93. What are examples of orthogonal sub cultures?
Do you think there are sub-groups in
organizations who may not completely agree
with the dominant culture but who nevertheless
spend their productive lives in their work places?
Do you think sub groups like these exist in work
environments where there are very few
alternative choices for employment?

95. Nick Garcia. “'Quiet quitting' is taking over the workplace – what exactly does
it mean? Philstarlife.com, 08/23/2022
Many millennials and Gen Z
professionals are already getting
disillusioned with such a system
nowadays. A phenomenon called
"quiet quitting" is looming over
workforces here and abroad.
To put it simply, quiet quitting is doing
just the bare minimum at work. As
TikTok user @zaidleppelin explained in
a viral video, it's not about intentionally
failing to fulfill one's expected tasks
but rather doing away with hustle
culture.

96. In fact, the workplace trend of quiet
quitting isn’t exactly new. United
Kingdom-based human resources
magazine People Management
reported that workers have already
been doing it for years, whether to look
for a new job or to disconnect due to
lack of career growth, poor pay, or
unmanageable workload.
A study this year by UK-based professional
services network Deloitte found that
millennials and Gen Z professionals are
seeking more flexibility and purpose in their
work, increased learning and development
opportunities, and better mental health and
wellness support. A 2021 survey from
American analytics company Gallup also
found that millennials and Gen Z
professionals, above anything else, want
employers that care about well-being, not
only on the physical level but also career,
social, financial, and community levels.

98. Examples of counter culture groups

100. Bryce Covert. “How Corporations Create a Culture of Impunity for Sexual
Harassers.” thenewrepublic.com, 11/12/2017
Allegations have overwhelmed influential
figures in industries as diverse as art, food,
media, sports, and technology. Powerful men
who had for decades preyed on women
without rebuke are being toppled from their
positions of influence.
Now that these men, whose abuses had been
“open secrets” for decades, are finally facing
repercussions, important questions remain.
How were their acts kept secret for so long?

101. how were they allowed to continue victimizing
women over and over again? A huge piece of
the answer lies in the methods companies have
increasingly deployed to protect these men from
public scrutiny. Complaints of abuse have been
tidily swept under the rug through
non-disparagement agreements that keep
victims quiet and contract clauses that push
them into private arbitration and away from
court.
Weinstein deployed non-disclosure agreements
against many of his victims. The New York
Times reported that he reached at least eight
settlements with women over the years, and one
common feature seems to have been a
requirement that they not speak to anyone about
what happened.
The same strategy was used by former Fox
News host Bill O’Reilly, who also settled with a
number of women alleging sexual harassment,
but required their silence in return for the sums
of money he and Fox gave them.

102. Many include non-disclosure or confidentiality
agreements in employment contracts upfront.
The Weinstein Company required employees to
sign NDAs just to work there. Google,
Facebook, and LinkedIn go so far as to make
anyone who enters their offices sign an NDA.
Even more widespread, however, is the use of
forced arbitration clauses. These requirements,
often buried deep into the fine print of
employment agreements, block an employee
from bringing a lawsuit over harassment or
discrimination in a public court. Instead, she has
to go through a private arbitration process
where the person making the decision is often
handpicked by the employer.
And even if an employee does go through
arbitration over a claim of harassment and
win, the public will likely never know.
Everything that happens in arbitration tends
to be kept private. There are no opening
statements or the press stories that
accompany a jury trial. So an employer can
rest assured that there will be no headlines
and therefore no public pressure to make any
changes, while a perpetrator knows that
future victims won’t be forewarned about his
record of behavior.

103. Emily Peck. “Want to End Sexual Harassment? Landmark Study Finds
Ousting ‘Bad Men’ Isn’t Enough.” huffingtonpost.com, 06/16/2018
A major study from the National Academies
of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
outlines a more comprehensive way of
looking at sexual harassment within
organizations and identifies the strongest
predictor of such behavior. Surprisingly, it
has little to do with individual perpetrators.
The study finds that the strongest, most
potent predictor of sexual harassment is
essentially the culture of the company ―
what the researchers call “organizational
climate.”
“When organizations really cultivate a
climate that makes clear it will not tolerate
sex harassment, employees are much less
likely to engage in sexual harassment,” she
said.
The belief that a company will fairly handle
harassment even trickles down to would-be
perpetrators, who become less likely to
actually harass anyone if they understand
there are real consequences for bad
behavior, added Cortina, who has been
researching sexual harassment for nearly
25 years.

105. The study uncovered a massive
harassment problem in the sciences,
particularly at medical schools, where
students were most likely to be harassed,
The Washington Post pointed out. More
than 50 percent of the faculty members said
they experienced harassment, according to
the data.
If you dig to the bottom of any of the recent
news reports on men who’ve been accused
of sexual misconduct, you’ll typically find a
twisted corporate culture.
This is what is meant by organizational climate.
Intentionally or not, NBC employees got the
message that the company, which is mostly run by
men, didn’t want to hear about their problems with
Lauer, a network star.
In an environment where employees fear
retaliation and don’t believe perpetrators will be
punished, harassers ― particular company stars
― can more easily get away with bad behavior.

106. The second most potent predictor of
harassment, the study found, is whether the
men at an organization outnumber the
women, particularly at the top of the org
chart. That puts most big public companies
at risk, especially in the male-dominated
tech and finance sectors.
If the profession is traditionally male ―
again, tech and banking serve as good
examples ― the chances of harassment
rise.
The researchers helpfully define sexual
harassment, too ― it’s a spectrum of
behaviors, some of which are not illegal.
It ranges from a pattern of hostile
remarks about a person’s gender to
unwelcome sexual advances to requests
for quid pro quo romance ― e.g., have
sex with me and I’ll promote you; don’t
and I’ll fire you.

107. At Nike, women were reportedly routinely mistreated,
demeaned and under-valued. There were corporate
outings to strip clubs, bosses who groped female
subordinates and entire departments where women
weren’t welcome, according to The New York Times.
There was a deep mistrust of the human resources
department. “Some avoided the department
altogether, fearing retribution or convinced nothing
would happen,” according to the Times.
The National Academies’ study contains detailed
recommendations for companies that truly want to
root out harassment. First, make it clear what
kinds of behaviors are not tolerated. It is not
enough to merely say harassment isn’t tolerated,
but to offer detailed and clear examples.
Facebook, for example, offers a list of
unacceptable behaviors including insensitive
jokes, slurs, unwelcome advances, leering and
more.
Businesses should also dispense with the secrecy
and let employees know what sorts of actions
have been taken. Too often, cases are settled and
shrouded in nondisclosure agreements or secretly
punted to private arbitration.

108. Who is former Commissioner Rowena Guanzon?
The Commission on Elections (Comelec)
pressed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday,
January 10, for more solid proof that he
was too sick to attend a recent hearing
on cases to stop his presidential bid.
“Now I have to require the doctor who
examined Marcos Jr. to have his medical
certificate notarized and indicate his
medical license number,” tweeted
Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon
on Monday.

111. WHAT WE, THE PEOPLE, CAN BUY WITH THE CONFIDENTIAL FUNDS ?
Instead of spending such a huge amount
on “dubious activities,” the agency would be
better served using the money to purchase
150,000 armchairs, 3 million textbooks, or
4,286 laptops for teachers at P35,000
apiece, according to the group. | via Dexter
Cabalza, Philippine Daily Inquirer

113. How organizational culture is borne and perpetuated
•Culture is borne out of
vision of its founders. How
for example was culture at
Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream
the result of the philosophies
of its founders? Please
Google Ben and Jerry’s Ice
Cream

115. How organizational culture is borne and perpetuated
•Culture borne out of
critical incidence, defining
moments, of struggles of
organizations to deal with
challenges related to
internal consistency and
external adaptation

116. Examples of critical incidence?

118. What could be examples of of critical incidents in organizations?

119. What are defining moments?

121. What are defining moments?

122. How organizational culture is borne and perpetuated
•Culture elements that
develop through time is
perpetuated by the types
of practices related to
rewarding acceptable
behaviors and punishing
unwanted behaviors, etc.

124. Edgar Schein’s Model of Organization Culture

134. Classifications of organization culture based on the
descriptions of Geert Hofstede

141. Charles Handy’s categories of culture

142. Gustavo Razzetti. “Your Company Culture is a Wicked Problem” 12/08/2021
How good is your company culture? That's a tricky
question. Workplace culture is a wicked problem – it's
too dynamic and complex to be addressed in
right-or-wrong terms.
Take Google's culture as an example. What information
would you use to assess how good it is? The fact that
the tech titan won the Best Global Company Culture
2021 award? Or would you instead consider that
former employees sued Google for betraying its "do no
evil" motto? You can also ponder the story of an
employee who was fired for complaining on Facebook
about a broken bottle, but then got her job back – with
retro pay and a new Google water bottle.

145. For many people, Google is the poster child of workplace
culture. For others, it has long lost its north star. How can
both be right and wrong? That's the beauty of culture. It's
more complex and slippery than most realize – the epitome
of a wicked problem.
Peter Senge wrote: "Reality is made up of circles, but we see
straight lines."
Culture happens anytime and anywhere, but it's also elusive
– even invisible. This paradox is why culture is a wicked
problem. Instead of trying to fix it, leaders must learn to deal
with its complex and contradictory nature.
Social planners Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber
introduced the term "wicked problem" to draw attention
to the complexities and challenges of social problems.
Unlike the "tame" problems of mathematics and
chess, the wicked problems of planning lack clarity in
both their aims and solutions.
The design theorists described wicked problems as
persistent, pervasive, or slippery – they seem
insoluble. The term "wicked" refers to resistance to
resolution rather than evil.

146. The traditional change management approach to
problem-solving is rooted in a linear and simplified
worldview. It follows a sequential puzzle-solving
method. However, most company culture problems
are wicked; they require a distinctive approach.
Solving wicked problems requires focusing on the
system, not symptoms. You have to tackle the web of
interrelationships, norms, mindsets, and behaviors
that shape culture. Action and iteration are more
important than getting stuck – prioritize improvement
even over perfection.
Over the past few years, I've been studying how
companies create powerful cultures. Most leaders
recognize that culture precedes performance – and
want to future-proof theirs. As many CEOs tell me, "I
want to move my culture from point A to point B."
However, they miss the point that culture is hard to
control.
Even worse, executives tend to ignore the complications
and unexpected turns along the way. Culture is not
static, but dynamic. The culture that got you here won't
get you there. Organizations need to reset their culture
to deal with an increasingly hybrid and complex
workplace.

147. Tom Ritchey said it best: "Wicked problems are messy,
devious, and reactive – they fight back when you try to
resolve them."
Culture is not a solvable problem, but one that will
keep leaders busy forever. You can't move culture
from point A to point B. It's a complex system with
too many moving pieces. Think about the Google
examples I shared before – all those contradictions
drive its culture in different directions.
Moreover, you can't solve all your culture problems –
there's no definite solution.
Stop trying to fix your culture
Identify your wicked cultural problems. Acknowledge
the ones you cannot solve, but only work on. Giving up
the expectation of fixing your culture is vital.
Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
For wicked problems, there are no easy fixes or best
practices that will work for every company, every
time. You have to create, test, and iterate solutions
constantly. Wicked problems usually mutate – so
should the solution.

148. Tap into Collective Wisdom
Leaders cannot deal with complex, unsolvable
problems on their own. Culture evolution is
everyone's job. Unlock infinite possible solutions by
bringing together people with diverse perspectives.
Welcome Mistakes
Don't approach wicked problems in "right-or-wrong"
terms. Increase your mistake-tolerance. Make it safer
for people to adopt a trial-and-error approach. Don't
punish those who don't get it right the first time.
Don't Look for Preexisting Solutions
Each workplace culture is unique – and so are its
problems. Avoid the temptation to copy others. Stop
trying to build a culture like Netflix's or extrapolating
what you did in a previous organization to your current
one.
Focus on Improvement
For wicked problems, there is no finish line. Focus on the
journey – the destination is a moving target. There is no
idealized state to arrive at, but always more to be done.