It’s about shifting or changing the basic underlying assumptions  

What is culture?

I recently reread Edgar Schein’s seminal book “Organizational Culture and Leadership” . Schein identifies culture as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems”.

Levels of culture

Schein (and other authors) distinguish three different levels through which culture can be looked at. The first level is the artefacts, all the easily observable elements of what goes on in the organization (office layout, meeting rituals, jargon used …). The second is the espoused beliefs and values, and encompasses how the organization wants to show itself and be seen both internally and externally. The basic underlying assumptions are the third level and according to Schein the essence of organizational culture. These assumptions are often unspoken and even unconscious. They have evolved from how the organization in the past dealt with challenges, and have stood the test of time. The basic underlying assumptions are “what works” and “the way things are around here”. They are – often unconsciously – accepted by all through the shared experiences and learning from the past. They are “the implicit assumptions that actually guide behavior, that tell group members how to perceive, think about and feel about things”.

What when we get stuck?

Culture is how an organization has solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration over time. But what if the environment has changed and new ways to adapt to the external world are needed? What if there are new competitors, new business models, new customer needs, or needs that disappear? And what if the organization has grown from a single product or country to multiple products with business units around the world, requiring new ways of communicating, making decisions or building strategy? The culture for sure worked well in the past, but if the needs for external adaptation and internal integration change drastically, the ways in which the organization used to deal with these may no longer work. In other words, the organization’s culture no longer allows to deal with these external and internal challenges and even becomes an obstacle to change.

Let’s change the culture!

When leadership becomes aware that the existing culture is becoming a constraint for continued growth and success, a culture change initiative is often launched. With the help of external experts, the organization will come up with new artefacts (open space to improve communication and collaboration!) and new espoused beliefs and values (a new list of values or a new tagline). Rarely though will the underlying basic assumptions be addressed, because these are lived and felt, more than expressed and managed. And although the culture change initiative gets all the fanfare and visibility that is needed, very often the old assumptions – the essence of culture according to Schein – remain the same.

Action Learning to the rescue!

You cannot instruct your organization to “lay bare” its basic assumptions (they are often subconscious!) and change them where needed. That just doesn’t work. And that is why change programs often scratch the surface (artefacts and espoused values) but do not fundamentally shift the basic assumptions. “Basic assumptions tend to be non-confrontable and non-debatable, and therefore extremely difficult to change. To learn something new in this realm requires us to resurrect, reexamine and possibly change some of the more stable portions of our cognitive structure, what Argyris calls double-loop learning.” Action Learning is a great support to organizational change initiatives! First of all, Action Learning always deals with a real, complex, urgent and important problem. These problems are typically about external adaptation (competition, growth, market issues) or internal integration (communication, decision-making, collaboration, improving processes …). Very often when team members dive into what the “real” problem is, they will unearth (with double and triple-loop interventions) what really underlies the symptoms that is holding back the organization. Complex and important problems are often those that exist because of the underlying culture assumptions: if the existing culture would be able to deal with them, they would not be problems! Embed Action Learning in your change program to ensure that those underlying assumptions that need to change are identified and addressed! Peter Cauwelier Master Action Learning Coach, Thailand / September 2022

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During an Action Learning Session, the team can get to a point that one or more persons discover how he/ she or they are part of the problem. In a fast changing environment around the organization and around the problem of the team, solutions are sometimes found in changing the perspective about the problem, instead of changing some parts of the chain of cause and effect in the environment of the organization. First,it is good to know that if a team can go this far and deep into the process of Action Learning. Two conditions then are fulfilled:

• the members in the team feel emotionally and psychologically safe;
• the members in the team can personally reflect about their behavior.

This is most likely due to openness by all persons present and to good Action Learning coaching. Second, it is good to acknowledge that through Action Learning, team members can develop their personal leadership skills. Asking open questions is not limited to Action Learning sessions. The course Leading With Questions from WIAL shows how personal leadership can be developed only by learning how to ask open questions. According to WIAL experience worldwide, there are four main reasons that make it difficult for you in general to ask questions: According to WIAL experience worldwide, there are f our main reasons that make it difficult for you in general to ask questions:

1. You avoid questions out of a natural desire to protect yourself. How does that feel to you?
2. You are too often and too much rushed and stressed. How is that right for you?
3. You are not trained to ask and answer questions due to lack of examples, training, opportunities and experience. How does this fit for you?
4. Your work environment discourages asking questions due to a corporate culture mainly due to adherence to existing assumptions and policies. How is or was this true for you?

The first one is the main reason for members in a team, not to open up for emotion and feeling in the team. And that should be possible, since opening up is t he main success factor for teams to become high performing. So, an Action Learning coach can enable performing teams by guiding the members in a team in their personal development and leadership. The basic conditions is the emotional and psychological safety in the team, during the sessions and outside the sessions. It is up to the Action Learning coach to personally intervene in the sessions whenever the team can learn how to secure safety only by asking open questions. So, any team, guided and coached to discover the benefits of asking questions the Action Learning way, will sooner or later be able to feel safe and to perform higher. Higher performance give access to coping with fast changing environments and highly complex problems. What personal development do you as a leader prefer to coach teams safely?   Prof.dr. Christoph Maria Ravesloot Professional Action Learning Coach (PALC) Director Action Research WIAL Netherlands CEO Action Learning WIAL Germany September 2022

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