I recently talked to a member of a search committee who was disappointed that the person that was hired a year ago to lead a non-profit had not done enough to change the culture. He was considering demoting the person and starting another search.
I think his response is typical of our cultural expectations (the US is the most individualistic off all cultures). We are too quick to praise or blame the individual and too slow to look to the group and the underlying system.
Cultural change is a collective, not an individual responsibility. The top person plays an important role but will fail unless the cultural change takes root within the system.
In terms of Kotter’s model, the most important leadership role seems to be creating a sense of urgency and stimulating the development of a strong coalition of key influencers and missionaries for the new culture.
The next most important leadership activity involves removing obstacles. Policies and structure are relatively easy compared to dealing with people who are sabotaging and blocking the cultural change. It is ironic that organizations needing to change their culture to accommodate the post-layoff new psychological contract sometimes have to resort to firing people to facilitate the change. In my experience, the most effective leaders have little patience with cultural saboteurs or blockers.
