Culture and Culture Change
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
Our mental models
(frames, values, beliefs, attitudes, assumptions)
direct what we perceive and what we do
Mental
models
Choice of
behaviour
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
Consequences
Perception does not equal reality
but it does determine behaviour
My actions are based on my beliefs
I adopt beliefs about the world
I make assumptions based on the meanings I added
I add meanings (cultural and personal)
I perceive part of the data
The ladder
of inference
Observable data
and experiences
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
Culture = shared mental models
• The culture of a social group is the shared
norms and expectations that guide the
behaviour of its members.
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
Consequences/outcomes are a source of
feedback for learning
Mental models
Choice of
behaviour
Consequences
Single Loop learning
Double Loop learning = REFRAMING
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
Revealing cultural/personal meanings,
assumptions and beliefs is difficult because:
•
Our mental models are largely unconscious;
people are not aware of the mental models
underpinning their ways of working and, therefore,
are blind to the fact that they can choose to behave
differently.
• What we think and say are our values,
attitudes and beliefs can be quite
different to what is actually guiding our
behaviour
We resist operating from different values and
beliefs because:
• We seek to confirm rather than disconfirm what we
consciously believe by selective attention (Daniel
Kahneman)
• We have a built in immunity to adaptive change
because of the anxiety associated with acting out of
new mental models (Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey)
• We engage in defensive thinking to avoid facing up
to the inconsistencies between what we say we do
and what we actually do (Chris Argyris)
Argyris says:
there are basically two strategies
that underpin all human behaviour
which he calls Model I and Model II
Model I
• Model I is the strategy that supports cognitive
bias and defensive reasoning
• Nearly everyone has been conditioned to
adopt Model I as their unconscious strategy
• We are usually deluded in thinking that we are
acting from values and beliefs that are not
Model I
Normally we behave according to Model I
AIMS
(Governing Values)
BEHAVIOUR
(Action Strategies)
IMPACT
(Consequences)
Control the purpose of Asserting your own
the meeting or
position in order to be
encounter
in control and win
Miscommunication
Promoting save face Maximise winning and
your own and others
minimise losing for
Taking your own
yourself
reasoning for granted
Minimise upsetting
Asking leading
yourself and others
questions
Protectiveness
Maximise rationality
Avoiding enquiry into
others’ views
Mistrust
Self-fulfilling
prophecies
Self-sealing
processes
Escalating error
That IMPACT of Model I is described
by Argyris as a defensive routine
Model I defensiveness is the source of
most failure to learn (personally and
organisationally)
What we think and say are the drivers
our choice of behaviour does not
stand up to close examination
The typical Model I meeting:
1. The informal conversations that take
place before
2. The public, explicit conversation
3. The internal conversations unfolding
inside the participants’ heads (their
LHC)
4. The informal corridor meetings
after the meeting
Double loop learning is enabled by Model II
AIMS
(Governing Values)
Use valid
(confirmable)
information
Enable free and
informed choice
Allow internal
commitment to the
choice
BEHAVIOUR
(Action Strategies)
IMPACT
(Consequences)
Advocating your
position and subjecting
it to inquiry and public
testing
Reduction of selffulfilling, self-sealing,
error-escalating
processes
Minimising unilateral
face saving
Effective problem
Enquiring into others’
views
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
solving
Culture change is double loop learning
• Culture change is commonly referred to as
winning “hearts and minds” – influencing people
to make changes in their shared mental models.
• Leaders advocating behaviour change, being
explicit about their reasoning for making that
change and being open to challenging questions
about their reasoning
• Leaders revealing the disconnection between
what is said and what is done - discussing the
undiscussible
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
Social Virtues
MODEL I
MODEL II
Help and Support
Give approval and praise to
others. Tell others what you
believe will make them feel
good about themselves.
Reduce their feelings of hurt by
telling them how much you
care and, if possible, agree
with them that the others acted
improperly.
Increase the other's capacity to
confront their own ideas, to
create a window into their own
mind, and to face the unsurfaced
assumptions, biases and fears
through the use of publicly
compelling and testable
reasoning
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
MODEL I
MODEL II
Respect for Others
Attribute to others a high capacity
for self-reflection and selfexamination without becoming so
upset that they lose their
effectiveness or their sense of selfresponsibility and choice. Keep
testing this attribution openly.
Defer to others and do not
confront others' reasoning or
action.
Honesty
Tell others no lies or tell others
all you think and feel.
Encourage your self and others to
say what you know yet fear to say.
Minimise what would otherwise be
subject to distortion and cover up of
the distortion.
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
MODEL I
MODEL II
Strength
Acquire a capacity for advocating
Acquire a capacity for
your position combined with
advocating your position in
inquiry and self-reflection.
order to win and for holding
Feeling vulnerable while
your own position in the face of
encouraging enquiry is a sign of
others advocacy. Feeling
strength.
vulnerable is a sign of
weakness.
Integrity
Stick to your principles, values
and beliefs
Advocate your principles, values
and beliefs in a way that invites
inquiry into them and encourages
others to do the same.
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
Group Work
• Most culture change programmes reflect
Model I thinking.
• What can you do about that?
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
How we learn Model I
•
•
•
•
PARENT
Persuade by logic that
my views are right
Control / appear strong
Do what I say even if it
is not always what I do
Punish deviance
•
•
•
•
CHILD
Conform or manipulate
to get my own way
Avoid confronting the
mismatch between said
and done
I am wrong (not OK) –
my parents are OK
Don’t contradict
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
Learning Model II
•
•
•
•
ADULT – ADULT
State my truth but know that it is a personal
construction, just as is theirs is.
My perspective is influenced by my current
frames – try to discover what I am failing to see.
Help the other see what I think they are missing.
Invite enquiry into and testing of my viewpoint
and enquire into/test theirs.
See conflict as healthy and productive
Malcolm Young & Associates 2014
External
Environment
Leadership
Burke-Litwin
Model of
Organisation
Performance
Mission &
Strategy
Organisation
Culture
Management
Practices
Systems
Structure
Climate
Task &
individual
skills
Motivation
Individual
needs &
values
Individual & Organisational
Performance
Malcolm Young
& Associates
Complex problem
Model II
Dialogue about
what and how
Model II Dialogue about how
My / our
goal
Collective /
System goals
PARTNERSHIP
COORDINATION
COMPETITION
Change Management problem
Adapted from - Working in Systems: The Landscapes Framework
Pat Gordon Diane Plamping Julian Pratt