How - Dov Seidman [128]
In the next chapter, we chart a path forward toward a new model for group culture that can best equip us for the road ahead: values-based self-governance.
CHAPTER 11
The Case for Self-Governing Cultures
If from lawlessness or fickleness, from folly
or self-indulgence, [we] refuse to govern
[our]selves, then assuredly in the end [we]
will have to be governed from the outside.
—Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
Culture lies in the synapses between individual units of a system, whether that be neurons in the brain, individuals in a group, or units in a conglomerate. Now that we understand something about the general types of culture at work in most business endeavors today, and the various dimensions that define and influence how these cultures function, what do we do with that knowledge? How does it help us make Waves, go on TRIPs, and continue to thrive in the new conditions of twenty-first-century business?
Blind obedience, informed acquiescence, and values-based self-governance are not just types of culture; they also describe an approach to governing—how organizations create the rules, structures, policies, and procedures that shape the way people behave and perform. As we discussed, blind obedience and informed acquiescence cultures place most governance outside the individual, in the hands of a boss or a set of rules. They seek to control things the same way the guardrails in a bowling alley are used to keep kids’ balls from rolling into the gutter; roll the ball and the guardrails keep it on the lane and moving in the right direction. Transparency and connectedness, however, make cultures based on one form of external control or another less ideal for our new world. It is no longer enough to just get the ball to the pins; because everyone is watching, we must now bowl strikes. Few would deny that in a horizontal, hyperconnected, and hypertransparent world, to bowl strikes we need a working environment that connects people and groups more intensely, is powered by communication and information flow, and enfranchises individuals at all levels of the company to act quickly and autonomously when presented with new opportunities by the fast-moving marketplace.
But as the rapid changes in technology since the mid-1990s created a new type of hyperconnected worker, little has changed in the underlying structures of how we organize and govern ourselves to truly take advantage of our new reality. The guardrails are still in place. To thrive in the new conditions of twenty-first-century capitalism, groups must learn to place the structures of governance in each individual’s hands. At the heart of this process lies a fundamentally different relationship between governance—the way we seek to control things—and culture—the way things really happen. Instead of achieving culture through governance, companies must learn to govern through culture, to put the guardrails of governance within the culture itself.
To govern through culture is to govern through HOWs, through the internal structures that influence every action and relationship in an organization. This represents a profound shift in focus from blind obedience and informed acquiescence, the two governing systems with which we are most familiar. It moves governance higher up the food chain, if you will, while also distributing it throughout the diverse parts of the variegated whole. Rather than governing with a matrix of rules and authorities laid over the organization, governing through culture is about governing from within the corpus. When governing through culture, rules don’t work well, values do; motivation does not bind people together, beliefs will; external controls are less effective, and self-governance is more efficient. A culture of HOW, one that uniquely