Contents contributed and discussions participated by Robert Christensen
A Corporate Climate of Mutual Help - 1 views
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The Schein approach to changing a culture - and to developing better ways of helping others within organizations - is one of observation, inquiry, and leverage. This means observing the ways in which an organization's employees act; deducing (or inquiring about) the ways they think; and putting in place small behavioral changes that lead them, bit by bit, to think about things differently...... People need to be able to raise concerns, and persist in raising them, in a way that cultures like NASA, aimed at results, can accept. S+B: Are most managers capable of this? SCHEIN: Probably not. They would need a culture that rewards them for raising concerns, and in most organizations the norms are to punish it. It's the very nature of authority to say, "Don't be a squeaky wheel. You made your point, but we're going to go ahead anyway. I don't want to hear any more."