The Culture That Trumps Strategy - Aditya Yadav

1. *
“Running an Agile Fortune 500 Company”
Aditya Yadav, aditya.yadav@gmail.com
in.linkedin.com/in/adityayadav76

2. * A Typical Global Company
* Fortune 500/1000
* 200 Divisions
* 40 Countries
* 25000 Employees
*

3. *
@ Acme Inc.

4. * Original Question “We need stricter Command
and Control and Checks and Balances. How do
we get it which Aligns with our Strategy (By
Design)?”
* The Correct Question - “Culture Trumps
Strategy Anyday. How do we create a culture
that beats any amount of Upfront Strategy (By
Design) and lets us evolve an Emergent
Strategy over time in a business and
environment as dynamic and complex as ours?”
*

5. *
And The Philosophy Behind The Answer

6. * Strategy By Design
* Heavy Upfront Planning Effort
* Stable Business and Environment
* Managers the most critical
* Command and Control
* Checks and Balances
* Process reigns Supreme
* Mass Standardization
* Coordination the key to Success
* Hopefully if everyone delivers on their exact Target in parts we would
achieve the Business Goal
* Why worry about Culture? Absence of an explicit or implicit culture is
also a Culture. There is nothing like Cultureless organization, right?
*

7. * The business starts failing
* Profits continue to decline
* No Strategy seems to work
* Very low Employee Engagement
* Processes are emphasized even more
* The company comes to a grinding halt and starts a quick
steep downward spiral
* You have no option but to restructure and exit the business
* But in Hindsight things could have been different and you
assign someone to create the Organizational Culture and
drive a turnaround
*

8. * Denison‟s Model
* Mission - Strategic Direction and Intent, Goals
and Objectives and Vision
* Adaptability - Creating Change, Customer Focus
and Organizational Learning
* Involvement - Empowerment, Team Orientation
and Capability Development
* Consistency - Core Values, Agreement,
Coordination/Integration
*

9. * Deal & Kennedy
* Work-hard, play-hard culture
* Tough-guy macho culture
* Process culture
* Bet-the-company culture
*

10. * Gerry Johnson‟s Factors
* The Paradigm: What the organization is about, what it does, its mission, its
values.
* Control Systems: The processes in place to monitor what is going on. Role
cultures would have vast rulebooks. There would be more reliance on
individualism in a power culture.
* Organizational Structures: Reporting lines, hierarchies, and the way that
work flows through the business.
* Power Structures: Who makes the decisions, how widely spread is power,
and on what is power based?
* Symbols: These include organizational logos and designs, but also extend to
symbols of power such as parking spaces and executive washrooms.
* Rituals and Routines: Management meetings, board reports and so on may
become more habitual than necessary.
* Stories and Myths: build up about people and events, and convey a message
about what is valued within the organization.
*

11. * Mission clarity
* Employee commitment
* Fully empowered employees
* High integrity workplace
* Strong trust relationships
* Highly effective leadership
* Effective systems and processes
* Performance-based compensation and reward programs
* Customer-focused
* Effective 360-degree communications
* Commitment to learning and skill development
* Emphasis on recruiting and retaining outstanding employees
* High degree of adaptability
* High accountability standards
* Demonstrated support for innovation
*

12. *
Don‟t boil the Ocean!

13. *
All You Need Is A Culture That Supports An
Emergent Strategy

14. * Opt-in [The Choice]
* Fail Fast [The Learning]
* Fun [The Act]
* Freedom of Speech [The Right]
* Empowerment [The Power]
* The Right Thing [The Values]
* Introspection [The Thinking]
* Energy [The Fuel]
* Reputation [The Force]
*

15. * "You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever
you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you
how deep the rabbit hole goes."―Morpheus to Neo, Matrix, The Movie
* Never Assign Tasks -> Make Individuals Solely Accountable -> Put them on the
„Guillotine‟. That‟s not empowerment!
* Employees have goals, ambitions, motivations, constraints, choices…
* Always lay down and explain the options…. And ask for a choice to be made
* Everything more or less should be Opt-in!
* E.g. Would you like to take up this assignment?
* E.g. Would you consider relocating to Brazil for 2 years to setup the office there?
* No Forcing… Respect And Accommodate Personal Constraints
* It‟s a great opportunity for organizational learning, reflection and to make changes to
processes, strategy, and the business and the way things work
* It might seem things will never work this way
* Soon everything will start working
* Gotcha: If you dictate terms, employees will comply for the moment but will
immediately break your organization and any chances of business success
*

16. * Failure is not a Crime
* Emphasize to prevent Last Minute extremely Costly
Failures but rather Fail Fast
* Even then Take a Portfolio approach at the
Organizational Level
* Remove all fear and repercussions of Failure
* Encourage people to try out new ideas and things
* But its not a free for all Joy Ride
* Coach Coach Coach
*

17. * Creativity is Intelligence Having Fun
* Need Both Types Of Fun
* Fun Work
* Fun Besides Work
* Conversations
* Collaboration
* Bouncing Ideas
* Serendipity – Emergent Success While Fooling
Around!
*

18. * Doesn‟t imply insubordination: critical choices and
decisions are necessary
* Doesn‟t imply „Active Sabotage‟ should be tolerated
* It means „Everything is open for a free and respectful
debate‟
* Google says – “You can argue as long as you are right”
* But many people don‟t know before hand if they are
right or wrong because they are not Nobel Laureates
* So we say –”You can argue as long as you are
„respectful‟”
*

19. * People doing the job should be allowed to make related
decisions… That‟s the real empowerment
* Collaboratively!
* Coach Coach Coach
* Explain Flaws in their Rationale if need be. But don‟t take
the decisions for them… That leads to real ownership (Not
something you force down their throat and make them liable
to be executed if they fail)
* If they are unable to decide or arrive at a consensus the
manager uses Veto
* Google‟s People Analytics Conclusion – Initiatives decide
business and personal success Degrees and Qualifications
don‟t
*

20. * Outcomes are important
* But always discuss „The Right Thing To Do‟
* Reward not just outcomes, but rather
* The Right Behavior, Values and Principles
* Gotcha: The Right Outcome will make
everything else Irrelevant
*

21. * The Organization is not a Machine [The Metaphor]
* Rhythm and Mindlessly Repeating The Process wont take you far
* It‟s the Thought leadership that matters
* Inculcate and Coach Thinking and Introspection
* Rather than
* Blindly Following Orders or
* Processes or
* What Has Worked in the Past
* Ask
* What do you think about this?
* What should we do?
* Would you have done anything different?
* What do you recommend we do the next time?
* …
*

22. * Exhaustion Causes
* Exponential Drop in Productivity & Output
* Exponential Increase in Mistakes
* Exponential Increase in Costs & Risks
* Exponential loss of Creativity, Innovation and Original Thought
* 100% Employee Utilization => Extremely Low Throughput. Get away from this Mindset
* Reasonable Utilization => Innovation, High Throughput, Thinking, Creativity, Business
Value => Success!
* Don‟t Penalize but at least Don‟t Reward Pure Slogging!
* Life is a Marathon
* Promote Sustainable Work Hours
* Also Recommend and Promote breaks, vacations, sabbaticals, travel, tourism, hobbies,
creativity, arts, music, reading etc.
* Gotcha: If you are out of Gas! You will not win the race come what may!
*

23. * When you use Culture for Emergent Strategy
* You don‟t rely on Org. Structures
* You rely on Reputation Based Hierarchies across your Organization and Ecosystem
outside your organization
* Abolish all employee -> manager -> dept. -> dept. -> manager-> employee workflows
and channels of communication
* Promote Free Collaboration & Communication within the org. and in the community
* Minimize all Policies that prevent interaction on digital collaboration platforms inside
and outside the company
* Create and promote a vibrant Reputation based Knowledge Economy where ideas and
knowledge is traded
* Your Formal Structures & Hierarchies can only inhibit success. There is no Universally
Optimal Org. Structure for the Emergent Strategies your organization needs to
succeed.
* Reputation based Hierarchy in your Org. is an informal Org. Structure that will drive
your company to success.
* This is the most natural and most powerful form of Gamification on the Planet and you
don‟t need a Ph.D. in Gamification to implement it.
*

24. * Culture Starts from a Philosophy
* Culture Starts At The Top
* Sustained and Grown by Mid Management
Coaching
* Communicate & Over Communicate!
* Emergent Strategy & Sustained Success will
follow very soon!
*

25. Aditya!!!
*