To foster change, you need to get naked.
I was inspired by visiting the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin recently. The famous “The Big Nudes” encouraged me to think about organizational culture and the success or failure of organizational change initiatives.
In a metaphor, I could see different levels of impact and acceptance of change in a culture, because there are different surfaces we can touch in terms of cultural and organizational change. Like a portrait of a person: the depiction with clothes will be different from the naked one.
What could a portrait of a company’s culture look like with and without its layers of clothes?
Clothes and outfits are the outer layers of an organization.
This is the easiest layer to change, and it is also the one with lighter longterm effects. Just like clothes, this layer is made of the visible elements of a culture; the spaces in which we come together physically, interact with branding, structures, equipment, documentation… all elements that are visible to employees as well as to external entities, exactly as we can see and interact with outfits. Being the most visible level, it’s the easiest to change and adapt, because we usually don’t have big fears to show these things and it’s not difficult to change them. We change clothes every day. ;)
A naked portrait shows the inner layers of a system.
Being naked is something confidential. Showing ourselves naked is something we have to decide to do. Also the inner layers of a culture are where we find the behaviors, habits and boundaries that are less easy to see and clearly interact with. If we think about our body, it is already much harder to change compared to an outfit. Transforming our bodies, figures and the perceptions we have of them can take months, or even years, depending how challenging the final goal is. Moreover, getting naked takes the courage to step out of our comfort zone made of clothes. A naked culture is made of strategy, a business model, processes, network systems… This level is harder to change and not everyone can see clearly where change is needed. The challenge is also to have a clear nude portrait of the organization. This is not easy since every piece of this inner layer is accessible in different measures to people, and the opinions of what to change and how much can really vary.
Changing this layer takes much longer and it takes much more willingness to get out of our comfort zone: get naked and experience conflicts, challenges and criticism, to allow new paths.
What conditions and circumstances does a culture need to make a naked portrait to start from?
The inner layer of an individual is made of beliefs, assumptions, worries and desires. The inner layer of a culture is also made of values, guiding principles, conscious and unconscious processes, and conscious and hidden habits. One condition to embrace them, see them clearly and work for the change, is to start to break your own habits (individual and group habits), and to face uncertain situations balancing between what we know and discovering what we don’t know. Changing a culture is a process in which a specific aspect of cognitive diversity plays an important part: how individuals think about and engage with new, uncertain and complex situations.
As you can see, the deeper the level, the harder it becomes to see it and adjust it. Change is a transformation process, and attention to these different levels is fundamental. Organizational and cultural habits must be identified und unlearned first, before new behaviors, attitudes and thinking can be learned in their place. The responsibility lies with senior management, which needs to be part of the change, seeing change as a strategic move and becoming the mentors and sponsors of it.
It’s worth getting naked first! ;)
