Smart Teams

Chapter 8 Creating a more productive culture

How do we create a productive culture, where flow replaces friction? How do we lead our team into a new way of operating, and sustain the positive changes for years to come?

Even if you accept the challenge of leading your team into this new future, how do you overcome the roadblocks that external parties such as clients, head office, stakeholders and other divisions will build while you endeavour to make this cultural shift? They probably don't know or care that you and your team are on a journey to increased productivity.

Create ripples

If you are the CEO, or one of the senior leadership team, you may have the power and influence to create a change project that will have a positive effect on the whole organisation. But what if you are a divisional manager in a larger organisation or a team manager? What chance do you have of changing the wider culture when you are a small cog in a big machine?

As Stephen Scott Johnson suggests in chapter 3, you need to create ripples. Start with changes to your own team culture, and slowly but surely see how your behaviours create a ripple effect in the teams you interface with. Watch how your micro-culture influences the wider culture.

Create a micro-culture

I believe that even in situations where we cannot change the whole organisation, we can create micro-cultures that operate slightly differently from the wider organisational culture.

A micro-culture works in the same way as a micro-climate, ...