Learn the Culture.
The most glaring mistakes I’ve made as a new employee or a leader new to an organization have been related to my lack of understanding of the culture. This issue can be related to a new geographic location or the different culture of the organization and, sometimes, both. The message is simple: if you are motivated to make a change that will affect others, make sure you’re not breaking a major cultural rule.
My brilliant idea to change Columbus Day to Heritage Day at a school for the blind was rooted in my own culture and background. I was a westerner, from places where there were anti-Columbus protests and a common understanding that this dude was bad for indigenous people. My infamous line, shared loudly at a meeting with mostly-New England natives, went something like this: “What? You mean we celebrate the man who pillaged the land?” I took people’s looks of horror in stride; I was stirring things up that deserved messing with.
Sometime later, I took the next step. In a meeting with the organization’s president, I suggested that we reframe Columbus Day as Heritage Day on campus and spotlight the many cultures represented on our campus. He agreed heartily, and I set out to make a few changes. Easy, right? I was in a position of power, where decisions could be made unilaterally and others would agree by virtue of my role. (This is another leadership stone I’ll hit on later: being in a position of power does not lead to successful unilateral decision-making.)
My decision blew up in my face. What I had failed to understand is that I had moved to a geographic location where many of Italian heritage lived, and Columbus Day was akin to Italian pride. I’d smacked that pride right in the face with my one-sided thinking and offended a whole bunch of people in the process.
So what’s the learning here? The answer is: Ask. Float the trial balloon, as they say. Run your idea by a few people you trust and listen to their perspectives. Then weigh the risks and make your decision. Be sensitive to the culture. As a person new to an organization who has not yet earned the trust of your colleagues, you should be more risk-adverse when considering a change that will challenge the heart of the culture.
I’ve got bunches of cultural faux paux stories, but here’s another that was harder to recognize than the Columbus Day debacle. I had been a new (interim) principal for a school for the blind for just over a year. And yes, that still counts as “new.” I didn’t fall into a routine at that job for over four years, when I finally had decent support staffing. (But that’s another story.) We were working on the school calendar for the year, trying to fit in some in-service time to implement a program that would bring people together across the school in a self-study. I was super enthusiastic about this program and assumed that others, once they caught the fever, would be too. I was so sure of this, in fact, that I decided to place one in-service day on a Monday of a break week. What harm could making a five-day week into a four-day week do?
As it turns out: plenty. Break weeks were sacred at this school. Because many of our students boarded and lived far from the school, we sent them home for week-long breaks every four-six weeks. Doing this made the school year longer and the summer break shorter, but the system was highly regarded by staff. They saw the week-long breaks as respite for the intense work the carried out, and many were in the habit of traveling during those times.
Scheduling “just one day” of their break week turned out to go against the school’s culture in a big way. From their point of view, I had taken away a full nine days of self-care. And let’s just say that the energetic in-service day wasn’t. I had difficulty engaging folks fully and didn’t make much progress.
I should have asked.
Culture can take many forms in an organization. We are influenced by internal history as well as that of the local town or state. Non-profit differs from school district from state or federal agency. Education and medical models change the way we interpret and deliver services. Culture is complex, and it takes time to understand it. When you are new, take care to observe, ask questions, and learn about your organization’s culture. Value the information you discover, and revel I the fact that we are not all the same.