Most boards don’t focus on their organizational culture, but they should. The culture is how the organization’s leaders interact with each other and management to get the work done.
Culture develops over time, and people don’t really think that much about it. Things just are the way they are. Leaders don’t understand that there is a high degree of correlation between a positive organizational culture and success.
As managers of multiple associations, we know that organizational cultures vary widely. More than anything else, the organizational culture drives success or failure. I will describe the two extremes. Many organizations fall in the middle range, with room for improvement.
Negative Culture
- Blame game
- Reactive
- Missed deadlines
- Slow decisions
- Personal attacks
- Not organized
- Poor collaboration with management
- Low accountability
- Negative energy
Positive Culture
- Focus on goals
- Proactive – stop problems before they happen
- Resolve problems
- Adhere to timelines
- Makes informed, timely decisions
- Collaborates with management
- Has clear expectations for all concerned
- Accountability
- Positive energy
- Celebrates success
If a board wants to change its culture, the best way is to identify what is going wrong, then put a plan in place to fix each problem. Awareness is a big part of the solution. Work through each problem area with a clear plan with goals, timelines and metrics.
