top of page

How to inluence the way things get done around here

Many authors have suggested that, from a systemic point of view, ‘the organization’ does not exist (Lewin, Weick, Homan, Stapley…). Organizations are shaped around individuals performing a task, and whose behavior is shaped by a complex interaction of their inner psychological world and the social dynamics going on within groups.

In this blog, I want to show how certain behavior becomes ‘the way things are done around here’ - the culture so to speak - and what is important to keep in mind if you want to influence organizational behavior.

The way things get done around here

To understand how certain behavior becomes interwoven in the culture of an organization, we need to understand that humans will do what they need to do to get rid of tension. In many cases, tension experienced within organizations can be linked to the task a team needs to perform. In order to get rid of this tension, individuals may use projection to get rid of it.

Imagine a sales team. Targets are high and competition is fierce. It’s easy for the salespeople to feel incompetent in the face of set targets, which might at times seem unachievable. In order to get rid of the tension of feeling incompetent, the sales team projects their feelings of inadequacy into another team, for instance, the finance team, which then becomes incompetent. With incompetency safely projected into the finance team, the sales team can pursue the completion of their task free of tension.

Another example: nurses in a hospital are confronted with disease and death over which they have no control. Nurturing the sick is a task which can provoke feelings of powerlessness. Again, these feelings need to be managed. A solution can be to blame for instance the director in charge of medical supplies and apparel. The unconscious reasoning being something like this: “With better medical apparel and so on, we would be able to save more people, so he is to blame”.

If enough people join into the dynamic, the behavior of blaming another group or individual then simply becomes ‘the way things get done around here’.

Of course, these dynamics are often unconscious and mostly they help people to stay focused on their task and perform. But sometimes this behavior becomes so disturbing that it can be categorized as anti-task. In that case, something needs to be done.

How to influence 'The way things get done around here'

When, as a manager, you feel you need to intervene, your intervention will need to include allowing the space for people to explore the group dynamics and psychological themes that shape their behavior.

The reasons are the following:

  • Everything starts with the individual employee who is trying to make sense of what is going on around him, by applying his or her inner psychological framework,which in itself has been shaped by previous experiences and which will also shape behavior.

  • This inner world is introduced into the relationship the individual has with his or her colleagues. It is only by exploring each other’s inner world that two people can come to a common understanding of reality.

  • It is this common understanding which - if shared by many - will eventually influence the organizational culture.

Here are some tips:

  • Include different stakeholders in your intervention, people from different departments and from all ranks. It’s well worth taking the time to find out who is to be involved.

  • Build shared meaning by setting up the process in such a way that people can explore the themes that arouse the tension, not the problems you want to address (which are only a symptom of the tension that exists within the organization).

  • Make people responsible for what it is they are trying to achieve. If you are the leader, you don’t want to be in a position where everyone is looking at you for a solution. They have to do it together.

If you want to learn more about the principles that can help you with whole system change, then order my book: Co-creation is… 13 myth debunked (2015, Lannoo).

bottom of page