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Entered 16/09/03

AUSTRALIAN CEO CHANGES
TO CHANGE CULTURE
(or The Lion Who Changed His Spots)
Fox, C. (2003) The Born-Again CEO. AFR Boss
Magasine May P.40-43

A destructive organisational culture ? Can it be revived, overhauled or is it doomed for good ? KM practitioners also argue for a radically different organisational culture from traditional mistrusting ones. One CEO dared to go on an upward journey...the company was already in crisis mode. This time... the power of one...worked !

The beverages company, Lion Nathan, was struggling...a dog-eat-dog internal work relations, poor performances and a 'lacklustre share price.' In stepped Gordon Cairns, the new CEO in 1997. His managers needed to demonstrate new attitudes to work and new behaviours. "Constructive Leadership Styles." And then the epiphany came.

"If you expect people who work for you to
change, then you must also. And it has to be
real change, not just rhetoric.

It's about changing the nature of the organisation,
and that can only happen if the person at the top changes...the person at the top has to lead the
charge themselves."

The HR director would closely facilitate the organisational and personal voyages anticipated. The CEO agreed to use a Constructive Leadership Style 360 Degree Assessment ... also on himself ... with anonymous assessment (Life Styles Inventory/Human Synergistics International).He realised that his own attitude and behaviours may impede desired attitude and behaviour change in others.

He was right... to his own shock !

He discovered others' perceptions of his leadership style : demanding, insensitive, excessively task-oriented, aggressive/defensive leadership style.
He scored highly on perfectionism. In the specific area of constructive leadership style, he scored poorly. It deflated him... particularly if he was attempting a leadership style that is already a marked mismatch from his.

But reviewing the old profile, he confessed to the researcher,

"Would YOU work for this moron ?"

He decided one day to commit to changing himself ! ...Even if he was going to retire in 2004 !

RESULTS

Did he change ?

Yes.... High scores in all key constructive leadership style indicators given by board members, peers and direct reports in the period of four years.

'There was more emphasis on people skills and self-actualising, a competitive leader, but one who is more sensititve and caring, driven less by power and conflict than by achievement.'

He found it pain-staking to change ("bloody hard") but he can declare "I'm much more effective.... despite the occasional relapses."

'He used to think he had to walk into a room knowing all the answers. Now he can say 'I don't know.' But he found that quite difficult...."I'm spending more time on people; it used to be two-thirds of my time, now it's three quarters..."

Did the company change ?

Yes....

"It (Lion Nathan) has changed, and for the better. Business performance has improved. We are a better company and a better performing company."

Lion Nathan achieved Best Employer status for 2003 as a validation of its changed culture. The CEO discovered in his own journey of leadership growth a universal principle, a Law, about human work relationships :

"People are volunteers, and they don't have to come to work, or to come to work for you. They are becoming independent and their relationship with work is changing, and we have to give them a reason to work for us. That will only happen if you care for them as much as you expect them to care for the job."

He declares that his own journey is still continuing...

and so to is Lion-Nathan's.

- DEBRIEF -

This is a rare, startling case study.

It shows that a determined leader can change a destructive culture into a constructive one. A 'lion' has shown me that he can 'change his spots.' Not by edicts, instant roll-outs, road-shows, threats and punishment... but by demonstrating the desired behaviours the company desires.

Putting measurements in place for this desired behaviour was also a contributing success factor.

KM Most Admired companies invariably show that they are driven by model KM-savvy CEO's... Bob Buckman (Buckman Labs), John Seely-Brown (Xerox) and others we know. It is a given. Without them championing it ...the nature of the company won't change... and the enterprise-wide initiative won't stick.

We are not advocating Rescuer/Saviour mentality by a CEO but we are arguing for a Mentor mentality... traits worthy to follow.

Lion Nathan's CEO decided to take the personal journey... to uncover harmful work values and noble work values... and to move towards the noble ones... perhaps for the first time in his life. And to take atleast a couple of years to do it.

Admired business researchers like Peter Senge would affirm the notion of the importance and the difficulty of a leader's mindset change, recently stating...

'I believe this growing recognition comes in large measure from appreciating that the behaviors and assumptions of managers are a part of the problem, that we do have embedded defenses against seeing gaps in our own actions, and that confronting these problems requires deep personal commitment.'

So, an organisational culture can change... if the CEO is prepared to pay the price.

But may be we have to wait for a crisis to happen before people, including CEOs, are prepared to change ? Do most people only really change in crisis mode ? Again, Peter Senge declares 'new' types of organisational crises like globalising a company, cross-cultural management practices and environmental stewardship are springing up and put companies further under strain. He also says that these 'new' crises can ONLY be met when the personal dimension of leadership is allowed to be adequately cultivated. That remains brand new, bold thinking.

The Lion Nathan CEO declares that most CEOs atleast in the early terms of office do want to make real changes to the companies they lead. Who is feeding them worthy process improvements like KM ?

Do you have a KM advocate in the Executive team ? Are you briefing them to act as your spokesperson ? Do you chat with them regularly ? Do you provide statistically-based latest studies like those found in this website to inspire and influence them ? Are you an informal advisor to them, grooming their thinking in this new area ? .... Are you the groomsman or a spectator in the pew ?

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