Most friction in organisations arise between different groups inside the company. usually, there is no too much attention to the internal friction in the organisation. There are a number of reasons for bad leadership, including:
- The employees and the middle managers think it has to be that way, because it has always been that way.
- Middle managers often feel it is easier to “play the game” instead of trying to change the workplace culture
- Our research also shows, that some actually like that internal fighting and bullying
- The internal fighting can have many forms. It can be between different departments, who blame each other for poor performance or it can be between different profession groups, age-groups, different physical locations, etc.
What are the consequences of the internal fighting?
One of the most obvious consequences are that the perfomance of the entire organisation slows down. Instead of having focus on doing the best for the customers and helping your collagues i the best possible way, too much energy is wasted on positioning and even obstruction of colleagues.
That leads to a vicious circle starting with employees being dissatisfied and frustrated, which leads to dissatisfied customers which then leads to lower performance for the company. That lower performance just fuels even more internal bullying, finger-pointing, frustration and escalating conflicts.
How can we reverse development of a toxic workplace culture?
Apart from the few people in any organisation, who actually like the conflicts, most other employees and middle managers are looking for a way out of bad leadership . But that way out is very difficult to find when you, yourself is a part of the conflict. When we ask people whythey have the conflict and what they would do to selsolve it, they usually can’t produce a solution, which is very natural.
Make the entire organisation more cultural intelligent is the solution
The best way to lower the cultural friction and the internal fighting i to train everybody in the organisation to become more cultural intelligence. Cultural intellience is the ability to understand why other people are behaving the way they do based on their own norms, values and basic assumptions. When we have that understanding we an also find solutions for bridgig the differences instead of just jumping into a conflict, which never can be resolved.
Another great advantage of having a culturally intelligent organisation is that the organisation becomes more innovative, because people are more willing and even encouraged to include people with different perspectives. Innovation in a compny is only successful when severa functions are included. If you only innovate a product it doesn’t really give you an significant long-term advantage. If, however you innovate a product together with service offerings, distribution solutions etc, you create something that the customers really like. Remember, anyone, can copy your produsts, but nobody can copy your culture.
How do I make my organisation culturally intelligent?
Gugin has a number of solutions and it is our experience that the best and most cost-effective way to training the organisation is a combination of online training and in-class session for dedicated groups. You must also train your leaders to become global leaders, with the right open mindset. That is the only way you can change your organisation in time