Rick Fullerton, Ph.D.

This article explores the relationship between coaching and organizational culture. You are invited to consider these ideas as they apply to your experience and situation. As you begin, you may want to reflect of what coaching and organizational culture mean to you, and what questions you have. Along the way, insights and perspectives will be shared. And to close, suggestions for continuing learning about coaching and organizational culture will be offered.

Organizational culture

When people refer to organizational culture, they often think of a broad collection of beliefs, values, symbols, and behaviour patterns that describe the nature of a workplace. Characteristics of culture include the level of formality or informality, the degree of trust, the amount of support for co-workers, and the level of openness.

Edgar Schein wrote a comprehensive book about Organizational Culture and Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 1985) in which he suggests that organizational culture has three levels: 1) Artifacts - those visible behaviours, symbols, stories, rituals and ceremonies that exist in the physical and social environment; 2) Values - those qualities or beliefs explicitly known to be important; and 3) Basic Assumptions - deeply held beliefs that shape perceptions and thinking.

A Coaching Perspective on Culture

Coaching also has many forms, definitions and approaches. Broadly, coaching is a collaborative learning relationship in which the client (or coachee) defines the agenda and the partner or coach serves as a committed listener and resource. In part, the coach helps the coachee see through new eyes. If coaching is about helping people become new observers, two questions arise:

1. How can coaching help us observe organizational culture?
2. How can coaching ideas help create a high performance culture?

Coaches learn to pay attention to the background conversation as they work with their coachees. By carefully listening to these conversations, noticing both what is said and what is not said, it is possible to learn a great deal about what impacts a person's ability to perform. Similarly, the essential distinctions of an organization's culture may be found, observed, explored and influenced through the conversations that occur in and about the organization. When we recognize this, we are able to see culture in a new way, and able to take actions to make the culture more effective.

Conversations as a Tool for Influencing Organizational Culture

Let's look at some specific examples of ways that a leader influences the culture of the organization though conversations. To do this, there are five types of statements (or speech acts) people use:

Declarations are statements that show who you are / what you stand for.

• "I stand for citizen-centered service."
• "Consider the possibility that we would achieve a ten-fold increase in the quality of our service, while actually reducing our budget."
• "I want to acknowledge the sensitivity and courage you displayed in dealing with the situation yesterday."

Requests and Promises are statements that produce action.

• "I accept your promise to complete the project report by July 10."
• "I request that you consult each region before finalizing the new policy next month." (The response will be 'I accept', 'I decline', 'I count offer' - e.g. it will take two months, or 'I will give you response by tomorrow'.)

Assessments and Assertions describe our observations of the world.

• "It is my assessment that women make most health care decisions. ( An assessment is an opinion or judgement, never true nor false).
• "I assert the survey found that women make 90% of health care decisions. We can read this on page xx of the survey report." (Assertions may be true or false and are verifiable by a neutral third party

When these five speech acts are managed well, you will find an organizational culture marked by commitment, where respect and clarity contribute to achieving great results for all stakeholders. In such organizations, people notice meetings are shorter and more productive. Deadlines are respected. Less time is spent on rehashing the past, as there is more focus on creating the future. Spirits are high as people acknowledge each other's contributions. And the increased emphasis on goal achievement leads people to look for what works and what is missing, not who is to blame. This in turn relieves everyone from the need to hide 'mistakes' or be defensive. In fact, over time the culture recognizes that such mistakes are actually very useful learnings as they become the fodder for breakthroughs - unprecedented action.

Organizational Culture and Change

The purpose of the background conversation, and thus the purpose of organizational culture, is to maintain the status quo. The culture is what orients new members, defines acceptable or unacceptable behaviour, and deals with disturbances and threats. So, when trying to implement a new practice or approach, (e.g. citizen-centered service), there will 'always' be a tendency for the background conversation to try to neutralize, minimize or extinguish the new 'disturbance' or change. Here are some expressions you might recognize:

"This citizen-centered service is just the latest fad."
"I don't see any benefits from citizen centered service."
"Citizen-centered service is a ploy to get higher classifications."
"This will just make my job more difficult."
"We must measure / standardize / document / evaluate this approach."

These are just a few examples. If you look in your organization, you can find lots more. Any attempt to change will produce a defensive reaction by the culture to protect itself. If we are promoting the new behaviour, we name this resistance to change and we may even blame the people we perceive to be the trouble-makers.

Coaching helps develop ways to listen and speak that will shift the culture rather than threaten it. Coaching, and implementing change in teams or organizations, is best achieved by working with the natural interests and commitments of those who are most impacted. To achieve this requires great listening - and respect for those involved. As well, coaching seeks to create new possibilities for stakeholders rather than forcing change upon them.

When the target of change is the organizational culture itself, Schein suggests there are five important elements to consider: 1) What leaders pay attention to; 2) How leaders react to crises; 3) How leaders behave; 4) How leaders allocate rewards; and 5) How leaders hire and fire individuals.

Continuing Exploration

In closing, here are questions that you may wish to consider as you continue to learn about organizational culture and coaching:

• Are there parts of yourself that you suppress, deny, or hide at work? What can this tell you about the nature of the background conversation and the culture?
• If culture is like 'water to a fish' or 'the box we live in' (i.e. invisible and taken granted) where would you go to find out about the culture? What can you do to clearly listen to the 'background conversation'?
• What are signs of getting caught up in 'the drift' - the ongoing background conversation? What can you do about this when it happens?
• Organizational cultures differ, just as social cultures do. What do you notice about differences in culture you observe when you interact with other organizations?