CHANGE, BELIEF, and PARADOX
Keep in mind that the goal of culture change is to shift the way people think and act in order to achieve a new results. Once they define results, they can then identify the actions that will produce those results, the beliefs that will not motivate those actions, and the experiences that will foster those beliefs. Experiences determine beliefs and beliefs motivate actions, so ultimately, they do so because beliefs dictate actions that produce results. Extinguishing old, negative, worn-out beliefs, that cannot produce positive action, and, equally important, shifting people to new, positive, useful beliefs, stand as the central task of managing culture change. But many companies don’t do as good a job of clearly defining results for their employees.
Organizations do not work on their culture for sake of having a better culture. When organization fails to achieve its results, managers typically look outside, casting about for some resource or pat answer that will change things. Often, they resort to making repairs by utilizing the “re-“ fixes of the times. They redeploy their people or ask some to resign. They recognize their structure, reengineer their processes, rethink their plans, revisit their goals, and review their efforts. Yet most discover that the company returns to its old ways. Some ultimately decide that change is impossible and that they must resign themselves to live with the situation until “something happens.”
A shift to a new culture is generally motivated by a changing business environment that makes continued high performance harder to achieve. In addition, in most organizations results achieved in one year become more difficult to attain the next year as the bar is raised and the goals are stretched. The decision to shift a company to a new culture starts by considering the results you want the company to achieve. You start with results because the organizations exist in order to produce results. Therefore, the targeted results should drive the activity, energy, and effort of the company. Focusing squarely on the results you must achieve provides an important context for the needed cultural change. These changes potentially represent significant shifts that can undermine an organization’s ability to achieve results.
The shift in beliefs usually begins with management. Many of the words chosen in beliefs statement have a specific meaning to the team that created it. That’s why it is important that the statement not just be placed on the wall, or handed out to everyone, once it is created. There is an effective process for getting people to understand, buy into, and own this statement. Once the beliefs are formed, the team must focus their efforts and do it. They must work together to ensure ongoing alignment and implementation of the beliefs by reporting proactively, following up relentlessly, doing what they say they will do (that is, what they believe), and measuring progress toward the result. All of these will reinforce the beliefs and help align the company around them.
Remember, too, that beliefs exist as a system. Adopting one belief could skew people’s behaviour or otherwise put the organization out of alignment. If people share a set of belief and are aligned with the sought-for results, then the company is well on its way to changing its culture and achieving the results.
Beliefs, however, cannot be changed simply by asking people to change them. Shifting beliefs is not a matter of just developing new and useful beliefs and posting them on the company bulletin boards or distributing them on e-mail. Management must create experiences that will cause people to change their beliefs. At the action level, as opposed to analytical level, this is the greatest challenge leader face.
**** A wonderful message by George Carlin:
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment;
More experts, yet more problems; More medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much , and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour.
We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember, to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we ake, but by the moments that take our breath away.
If you don't ....Who cares?
WILL YOU RECOGNIZE SUCCESS WHEN IT COMES? AND CAN YOU HANDLE IT?
Success sounds wonderful, but we often don’t recognize it because it can arrive as incremental steps of failure. If you don’t recognize your future success in each failure, you’ll get derailed. Take comfort in the fact that failure is often a stepping-stone to success. And when the opportunity for success comes, remember that future success will likely to be linked to incremental failure. In other words, calculate the cost for success in your life and be ready to pay.
To help you to answer those above questions, first take a mental account of your recent failures. Record them at your list. Remember, successful people aren’t afraid to fail because the road to success is paved with failure.
Second, get ready for success by always staying one step ahead of your own comfort zone. Challenge yourself every day, even in the little things. Do something different to break your routine. Run around the block. Turn off the TV (he.. he… since the Indonesian TV contents a lot of celebrities gossips, sillies soap operas/telenovelas , problems dialogues without solution, etc.) Go to work a half hour early. Skip a meal one day. Read a good book. Pray! Build something!
Success will change your life, and more important, it will change you. But it simply cannot happen unless you prepare yourself. That might mean throwing away some old habits and cleaning out some dark corners in your life. It may take some time and some of the cleaning might even be a little painful. But it’s necessary – and it’s worth it. Remember, success isn’t step cheap. It has price. And the price is you.
One final note on success: it has an interesting way of putting a megaphone to your failures. Those little mistakes you used to make that no one else noticed now seriously impact other people – friends, coworkers, business associates. Some of these relationships may never be restored. That has been the single most painful lesson that success has taught me. It’s the highest price. I have paid.
Let me quote the lyric of “Sugar Mice” song of Fish-Marillion as follows:
I was flicking through the channels on the TV on a Sunday in Milwaukee in the rain… trying to piece together conversations,
trying to find out where to lay the blame
But when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend…For when it gets right down to it there's no one here
that's left to blame, blame it on me, you can blame it on me..we're just sugar mice in the rain
I heard Sinatra calling me through the floor boards.. where you pay a quarter for a partnership in rhyme
to the jukebox crying in the corner while the waitress is counting out the time
Well the toughest thing that I ever did was talk to the kids on the phone, when I heard them asking questions that I knew
that you were all alone,
Can't you understand that the government left me out of work..
I just couldn't stand the looks on their faces saying what a jerk
How about you?
