Data, culture and leadership skills

At the moment the news is full with organisations that announce they have adopted AI. They are cutting costs or restructuring their activities. Their decisions are made based on data, and data is used to measure the outcome. Sales numbers, profit-loss calculations or turnover. They redefine job functions and make employees redundant. The impact on the people who suddenly find themselves without a job is massive. Life-changing.

Questions without answers

The employees that remain suffer in a different way. They are informed of new team structures, new roles and new responsibilities. Everything is described - on paper. But the most pressing questions are: “What does this mean in practice?” “How will my daily job change, what do I have to do differently?” However, they don’t get any clear answers from team leaders and managers. For weeks, sometimes months.

Like plague

Because of this void the uncertainty spreads like plague. When employees don’t know how they are expected to deal with daily challenges, a sort of action paralysis takes over. No one dares taking action. The list of unanswered questions grow. It feels like the organisation is at a standstill.

Hands tied

The team leaders and managers want to turn this around. They want to empower their people to take the initiative and figure things out. And provide answers where needed. But they have not been empowered. They have not been enabled to lead and inspire their people into action during these turbulent times. When they need it the most. Their hands are tied behind their backs.

The issue

Here is the issue in my view: focusing on data can result in disregard of behaviour and culture. While behaviour and culture are critical for a new organisational structure to succeed. Instead, they tend to be treated as “soft” or “fussy”. The question "how do we want the new organisation to operate?” is never asked.

Web

This happens despite all organisations relying on employees to work effectively and efficiently together. They do that in a complex web of relationships, daily conversations and commitments. When changes to this web are done without sufficient attention and respect for its complexity, the only possible outcome is chaos.

What I have seen

This is not a new phenomenon. When my professional career in product management started in 2001, it did not take long before the first reorganisation was a fact. The result was uncertainty and chaos. In the 20+ years that followed, I was part of numerous change initiatives. The same pattern of data-focus leading to uncertainty and chaos repeated itself every time.

I have also seen the consequences. When they occur, they become visible a few months after a change initiative has been implemented. Deadlines that are missed. Or key individuals who resign and go to a competitor. It can also be a feeling that fewer people than before care about outcomes and results. Sometimes an employee engagement survey is sent out, and the results show a decreased engagement score.

HR or People & Culture have conversations with senior management about the underlying issues. They are often described as:

• Lack of communication,

• Inexperienced managers, or

• Lack of a growth mindset in individual employees.

In most cases the decision is made to kick off a development programme. Success will be measured by the scores in the next employee engagement survey. The employees need to increase their engagement score.

As a coach

And now, I am working as a coach. And this is the point where I have become involved, on several occasions. I was hired to support leaders and their teams through the development programme. To help them align their behaviour with what has been communicated as the “correct” behaviour.

The leaders and teams I work with often feel that fingers are pointing in their direction. There is confusion about why the development programme was launched, and I notice the low engagement. They experience being blamed for the chaos instigated by the preceding change initiative.

Data-driven initiatives aimed at solving problems are not necessarily “bad“ or “wrong”. They can be effective to resolve challenging issues, as long as the issues are straightforward enough and not related to behaviour or culture. But when data-driven change initiatives are managed separately from behaviour-focused programmes, the results are uncertainty, chaos, frustrated leaders and disengaged employees. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

A different approach

I believe in a different approach. An approach where data, culture and leadership skills are managed as equally important and interdependent success factors.

Culture is what you see happening on the work floor on a daily basis. It determines the conversations that take place, and the ones that don’t. It influences how commitments are made and delivered upon. It provides norms and standards, values and beliefs. An organisation’s culture is created and manifested in the behaviour of its leaders. And it starts at the very top. Employees copy what their leaders do. Not what they say.

Imagine a future where leaders are involved in the implementation of the next change initiative. All leaders, from senior managers to team leaders. What if they would be responsible for defining and embodying an organisational culture that drives success?

They would need to be empowered and supported to develop the required skills in the midst of change. They would have the opportunity to learn how to communicate with clarity, and practice what they were preaching. They would provide focus and purpose. They would inspire the organisation to follow in their footsteps.

The future

That future is possible. With change initiatives that focus on a combination of data, culture and leadership skills. This way organisations can develop the leaders who can inspire and lead their teams - when the change is happening. Leaders who can create focus and clarity. Leaders who know how to boost employee engagement and create an inspiring culture.

It can be done: by using data for justification, by showing an understanding of human behaviour when designing the new organisation, and by leveraging inspirational leadership for implementation of the restructure. The objective should not consist of numbers alone. Culture needs to be an equally important objective. And that means to enable leaders to reclaim the ownership and accountability for the organisation’s culture.