Changing the Meme Pool

 In a recent Financial Times article¹, John Weeks and Charles Galunic of INSEAD call for a re-assessment of our concept of 'culture' in organisations since its introduction by Peters and Waterman in 'In Search of Excellence' almost 20 years ago.

They claim that research over the years shows that we are no closer to answering questions like 'What is culture', 'How does it operate?' 'Can it be managed and if so, how?'. They suggest it is an over-simplification to see organisations as 'monolithic' with respect to culture and that if you examine cultures that are held up as, for example, 'entrepreneurial' you find that some parts still remain 'command and control'.

Culture change, as we have come to know, it is not the answer, and Weeks and Galunic offer an alternative view of culture:

"A better way to think of organisational culture is as a pattern of beliefs and behaviours, assumptions and routines - various elements of culture collectively we call 'memes' - which are distributed across the organisation, usually in an uneven fashion. When new ideas arrive, they infect the minds of some people before others and of some people more than others. When a new routine proves successful in one part of the organisation, it may or may not spread to other parts. Organisations are overflowing with initiatives, projects, programmes, best practices, ways of thinking and behaving, all competing for the scarcest resource of all: human attention."

Introducing new 'memes' alone does not necessarily improve performance. We must also pay attention to how memes are introduced if they are to be adopted. In their book "Shifting the Patterns'², If Price and Ray Shaw observe:

"Where patterns create they also limit. If we want to create a great result, to step beyond the limits of current patterns, then somehow we must extricate ourselves from the familiar; undo old patterns, or at least the grip of old patterns, before creating new. This is key because if we merely try to add powerful enablers onto powerful disablers, that is, build on what is already limiting, the result is likely to be more cosmetic than substance. This helps explain, incidentally, why many executives become frustrated when major initiatives appear to run out of steam within their organisation."

This gives us another way of explaining current performance and of looking more deeply into what's needed to bring about change. Just as the medical profession realized that there are certain diseases that cannot be treated by traditional methods and can only be eradicated by changing the deep patterns held in the genes, so it is with organisations. Unless we look deeply into the current patterns of attitudes, opinions, beliefs and images that shape behaviour and make changes at this underlying level, we are in effect treating a genetic condition with palliatives.

Mike W Bell has been a senior executive, leadership coach and organizational development consultant for over 30 years. For the last 15 or more of these I have been weaving an old wisdom tradition with the latest science and research to find more whole and balanced approaches to leadership and organization. 

My latest eBook, a modern fable entitled Leadership Intelligences in Action can be previewed at http://mutualinspiration.co.uk/leadershipintelligences/liaebook/

1. J Weeks and Charles Galunic, A cultural evolution in business thinking, Financial Times, Mastering People Management supplement, 29/10/2001
2. If Price and Ray Shaw, Shifting the Patterns, Management Books 2000 Ltd, 1998