Chapter 17 Leadership Lessons from West Point edited by Major Doug Crandall
313 – “Culture consists of the collective values, beliefs, norms, underlying assumptions, languages, behavioral expectations, and artifacts that shape and define the social life of a group. Culture is to a group what personality is to an individual. It serves as an internal radar that enables us to discern others who are similar and dissimilar.”
316 – “Leaders must take into account that the people in their organizations exist in several cultures and subcultures simultaneously.”
316 – “Organizations need people who reinforce effective aspects of the preexisting culture, and they need members who innovate and challenge established procedures and beliefs to influence beneficial change.”
317 – “Leaders must also perceive and leverage the different reaction values of organizational members to unit culture, which enhances the ability to leverage the power of culture. There are two types: organizational conformists and organizational mavericks. The first type of reaction is generally the conformist variety, where people abide by, apply, and expect fellow members to follow historically based cultural expectations, practices, mind-sets, and values. Conformists actively recreate organizational culture by reinforcing established values and traditions: this is the process of cultural reproductions. The second type of reaction to culture generally involves those who attempt to change culture and at times think and act differently from culturally prescribed expectations. One example entrails organizational mavericks who act in new ways that are not in line with cultural norms: these members are also reacting to organizational culture. They are contributing to (or trying to spur) the process of culture change, and if their idea or new behaviors prove relevant to the unit and subsequently become accepted and adopted, they help enhance the culture and ultimately the organization as a whole.”
319 – “Leaders who ignore the diversity of the US in general, their clients, their constituents, and their organizations are not fully leveraging the potentially rich, unique, and insightful range of ideas in the organization’s members, and they also are potentially creating or reinforcing destructive obstacles to building solidarity and cohesion. In addition, leaders who fail to perceive, acknowledge, and leverage the diversity in their customers, peer competitors, and other people in their organizational environs miss tremendous opportunities to improve performance.”
324 – “The fundamentals of processing cultural diversity effectively are:
- Knowledge of the meaning and complexity of the concept of culture
- A refined sense of objectivity and genuine self-awareness, including how one’s deeply held values, beliefs, and biases bear on thinking and can cause harmful ethnocentrism.
- Awareness, understanding, acceptance, appreciation for, and ideally, a thirst to learn about diverse cultures and people—practicing open-mindedness and cultural relativism.
327 – “But what specifically do Army leaders do to influence culture to enhance their organization’s performance? The answer is twofold: (1) they assess and analyze the unit’s existing culture, and (2) they reinforce elements of that culture that promote mission accomplishment and change parts of the culture to further enhance their units. Although this notion of assessing culture and then changing parts of it may seems straightforward, often it is quite difficult to do well. Based on my experiences, I have come to the conclusion that this is one thing that separates the best Army leaders from their contemporaries: using everything possible, including a culture game plan, to build the best winning teams.”
329 – “Army posts have a dedicated agency that conducts voluntary unit climate surveys for commanders who request them. Surveys provide important insights, such as on the following topics:
- The overall morale of the unit
- The existence of significant differences in opinions among different ethnic groups, sexes, or ranks within the unit
- The feelings of members about their ability to accomplish the mission
329 – “Equal opportunity creates healthier competition and professionalism, and diversity brings more skills and backgrounds.”
331 – “As for the racial-and sex-based divisions in the unit, the cultural changes began with the company’s command team’s influence. When the company needed to make important decisions about its vision, objectives, and short, medium, and long-term training strategies, collective thinking and brainstorming sessios that included every company leader (all demographics included) occurred. This practice countered what had happened in the past, where the unit norm for making big decisions involved bickering and infighting between a split command team, with each member of the team generally siding with subordinates from his or her demographic group. Clearly this former practice created a unit culture of distrust and dysfunctional alliances, and, ultimately, this was a fragmented unit that performed poorly.”
332 – “Ultimately our unit’s diversity became an asset, which illuminates the power of leveraging culture and differences in people.”
334 – “And it states that if the military wishes to evolve to the next level of cultural intelligence with regard to diversity, then collectively the armed forces must enhance their ability to accept, understand, and value differences in people.”
