In the Northshore suburb of Chicago where I currently live, the Cubs are almost a religion. After all, didn’t God cause that rain delay in the last game of the World Series so the Cubs could regroup after losing their comfortable lead and come back to win for the first time in 108 years? Chicago city officials estimated the parade down Michigan Avenue and celebration in Grant Park was attended by 5 million (yes, 5 million) people. Part of what they heard is captured in the short video at the top of this post. (If you haven’t watched the video yet, take a moment and do so right now —it’s only 60 seconds.)
The speaker, Crane Kenny, has been with the Cubs 23 years, far longer than anyone in the current management; he knows what he’s talking about. Crane says that to become a winning team, the Rickett’s family helped the Cubs change their culture. They changed how the Cubs did some things. For example, they put up a new scoreboard and posted the names of corporate sponsors around the ballpark, which caused quite a stir among traditionalists who complained they had ruined the ambience of Wrigley Field.
As the Cub’s culture slowly began to change, they took a second step. They determined what kind of leaders they needed to push this new winning culture forward. They found leaders like Theo Epstein, manager of baseball operations, who is given lots of credit for helping the Cubs become a winning culture. Before coming to the Cubs, he helped the Boston Red Sox achieve a similar renewal that saw them win the World Series.
Most of all, the Ricketts family didn’t want to simply make money from the Cubs—they wanted to win. The Tribune company, long-time owner of the Cubs, made out famously because their TV station (WGN) held exclusive rights to Cubs games. The Cubs didn’t need to win to make money. With a huge fan base and “lovable loser” persona, winning was secondary, if even on the radar. But all that changed when the Ricketts family bought the Cubs seven years ago. As Crane Kenny suggests, it was the culture change the Ricketts brought with them that was responsible for ending the 108 year drought.
So, what is ‘culture’ and why is it important? As Crane says at one point, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” A Harvard Business Review article by Nilofer Merchant (March 22, 2011) has a similar title: “Culture Trumps Strategy, Every Time.” Here is how the article defines culture:
Culture’s all that invisible stuff that glues organizations together…It includes things like norms of purpose, values, approach — the stuff that’s hard to codify, hard to evaluate, and certainly hard to measure and therefore manage. Culture is the set of habits that allows a group of people to cooperate by assumption rather than by negotiation. Based on that definition, culture is not what we say, but what we do without asking.
Here are some examples of culture trumping strategy:
- A family’s two-year-old is on a terror. Her exhausted parents are combing the internet for tips to keep the rampaging child in check. Unfortunately, their efforts (strategies) will not change anything because their discipline is based on Mom and Dad’s moods or caffeine levels. Sometimes they hold the child to certain expectations, but then later the same day let her get away with the same behavior they earlier disciplined. The inconsistency that is part of their parenting culture—unspoken and perhaps un-realized—will always trump their good intentions.
- A married couple’s unspoken assumption is disagreement is to be avoided at all costs; all potential conflict is swept under the emotional rug. Now they must decide where they will move in retirement and do lots of research about “best places to retire.” But if their marital culture avoids risking open and honest sharing, all the good ideas (strategies) they generate will not insure their final decision will be satisfying to either of them.
- A church sees attendance and giving declining and knows something must be done. They hire a consultant who develops a comprehensive outreach strategy involving the latest techniques in community analysis and social media marketing. They launch all the recommended initiatives, but nothing changes. Unfortunately, their efforts are doomed to fail. Their church culture values their own long-term relationships with one another, so when new people do arrive, they are ignored. Why would anyone want to return?
- A pastor I was coaching had as his goal to see his mostly older congregation attract new younger members. Unfortunately, previous life experiences had set ‘low expectations” as his own cultural default, the glasses through which he viewed his world—both his own possibilities and his hopes for the church. His previous strategies never gained traction because he never expected much. We eventually discussed how his unspoken internal assumptions were keeping him from moving outside the box of what seemed possible to him.
To quote the Harvard article again:
After working on strategy for 20 years, I can say this: culture will trump strategy, every time. The best strategic idea means nothing in isolation. If the strategy conflicts with how a group of people already believe, behave or make decisions it will fail.
When you feel frustrated by lack of change in your marriage, family, church or personal life, ask yourself this question:
How might the unspoken assumptions I take for granted be preventing change?
I’ll let the Harvard article have the last word, for it is a word of hope. While culture can indeed inhibit change, a healthy culture can also super-charge change!
When frustrated by lack of change, instead of looking for new ideas, ask yourself how the underlying culture might increase the velocity of growth:
A healthy culture allows us to produce something with each other, not in spite of each other. That is how a group of people generates something much bigger than the sum of the individuals involved. If we only get 2+5+10 = 17, we haven’t gotten any benefit of leverage. What we are looking for is 2*5*10 = 100, delivering an explosive return on effort. Culture is the domain that enables or obstructs a velocity of function. By addressing where an organization is limiting its velocity, you can accelerate the engine that fuels innovation and growth.
How do you see underlying assumptions inhibiting needed change in yourself, your church or your family? Please share your thoughts in a comment.
