Multiple Suppliers – A Common Culture
A few years ago the conversation around cultures associated with multisourcing would not have arisen. Instead the conversation would have revolved around the policy of the day and its supporting reasons/rationalisations such as; cost saving; moving cost from the spreadsheet; increasing scalability; transfer of refresh responsibility; risk management; and, very occasionally, as a vehicle for changing culture.
But today, we’ve learnt that the very best intentions came come unstuck, or at best consume too much management time and effort. The only way to make it work is to get people from all parties to do things you want them to do, how, and when you want them done.
And that brings us to the culture. The question is – why do we look at culture?
The only explanation is because we want something to be different. We want people to behave and interact differently and perhaps even value things differently than they do at present.
Wikipedia defines culture as: the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group. Every population, group and sub-group has a culture. It’s the way it works. Racial, religious and national cultures are fascinating to look at… but this paper is concerned with organisational cultures.
Every organisation has its own culture, and when introduced to another organisation people will attempt to move the culture towards what they have been used to – that’s human nature, and saying it’s the culture doesn’t make it so.
There are two parts to culture:
- The explicit/overt – where the vision, mission, values and rules are written down and communicated and reinforced through induction, training, reminder sessions, brochures, posters, email updates and consequential reactions to breaches.
- The implicit/covert – those parts of a culture that are widely known but rarely spoken about. Overt culture is usually easy to identify, covert culture is not.
When bringing organisations together as part of a multi-sourcing agreement it is essential to be mindful of three things:
- People will not work against their own self interest – the most important person in any organisation is me, where me is each and every person involved.
- Each organisation has its overt and covert cultures – and the multi-sourcing arrangement won’t change the source cultures.
- The only way to make change is to change the covert culture – rules are ok, but they don’t tell the story of what really goes on. Why not just make rules and enforce them? There is no evidence that rules change a culture. In fact rules sometimes define cultures in the opposite. For example, there are rules about speeding on the roads.
Yet the culture is to push the boundaries, avoid speeding near cameras, watch out for radar traps and set cruise control at a few kilometers over the limit hoping that if clocked the minor transgression will be ignored. Organisations are no different.
Here are a few examples of how the covert culture informs what is really going on.
- Everyone knows of, or has worked in, organisations where there are rules about time keeping, expense use and reporting, timely attendance at meetings, management reporting, approval levels and processes for expenditure – and the list goes on.
- Often in these organisations though, the real culture is that the high performers, people close to the top and the people close to the people close to the top – don’t follow the rules and are allowed to continue to do so. Reprimands, if any are given lightly and without at all changing the actual behaviour.
- There might be a culture of meritocracy for promotion – at least on paper.
- However, very often no matter how many rules, processes and procedures are in place, the overt culture is clearly that competence is not the main driver for promotion – it’s about how well you get on with the boss, how well you fit in with the ‘in’ crowd. (Nothing much has changed since high school and that makes so much sense it could be the subject of an entirely separate presentation).
- A stated culture of open door, tell the truth and no surprises.
- But, in reality, the covert culture is that most conversations are held behind closed doors, and only good news is actually accepted.
It’s tempting to list pages of these examples but you can think of some yourself – and start watching your own organisation, if you haven’t thought about it before it can be entertaining and enlightening.
So, to the question of how to make multi-sourced cultures work?
- The first thing is accept that culture matters. That it needs to be considered and it needs to be addressed. If you don’t address it, the most dominant people and covert cultures will persist and the result will be bafflement and bewilderment that something that held such promise has turned into a nightmare. Be determined and committed to do what it takes.
- The explicit. Make the overt/explicit rules as visible as possible. The easiest way to do this is to:
- Identify and agree on the overarching reason for providing service. The purpose of the client organisation. Align responsibility and accountability with the overall agenda of the organisation. Aligning with the IT strategy isn’t adequate – go for the purpose of the organisation.
- Make responsibility clear
- Make accountability clear
- Remove ambiguity, overlap and gaps in responsibility and accountability (this is hard but so worth it)
- Develop charters and agreements outlining/specifying the reasons for what people are doing
- Agree referees for disagreements
- Agree separation paths.
- Covert/implicit culture. These are the behaviours you and everyone in your organisation exhibit and know to be true even if they are never spoken about. These are the behaviours that determine what really goes on and these are the behaviours that determine whether your multi- sourcing arrangement will be successful.
To recap, every organisation that is party to the multi-sourcing has its own culture.
You won’t be able to change the source cultures to meet your requirements, what you need to aspire to, is having all parties agree to and work with the multi-sourced culture. Don’t worry, we are all good at working in, for, with, and across cultures – we learn that as children as soon as we take part in any activity outside the home.
The following are suggestions on how to go about determining and putting into place the covert/implicit culture that you want. This is in addition to the overt/explicit culture already covered.
- Bravely go where few have gone before. Actually think about, and acknowledge your covert culture. Take an inventory of what actually happens, what are the actual behaviours, what is the difference between what’s said and what’s done? This can be hard, distracting and confronting. Chances are you’ll feel defensive, not wanting to accept that some of the realities of the culture aren’t exactly what you would have thought, or liked them to be. It’s ok. If you need help and input, seek it – but please don’t delegate responsibility or visibility.
- Ask the leads from each party to the multi-sourcing arrangement to do the same. They may not pay as much attention and that too will give you information.
- Then have a meeting where the covert is discussed and agreement reached about what will be the acceptable culture. You might have to change a few things too.
- Now discuss and agree what will be the consequences of transgressions against the agreed culture.
- Then do it, model it, live it. Remember any deviation will become the culture – and very quickly.
- Review regularly and guard against thinking the culture is one thing when it is in fact another. Quite simply, when all the other aspects of a multi-sourcing arrangement are in place – it still won’t work unless you get the culture right. It’s hard, but worth it. Over invest in this aspect and the rewards will be many fold.
Questions
What about when suppliers have people working on more than one account?
People are good at knowing the rules of where they are playing at a given time.
From an early age we learn, accept and adopt the rules at school, on sports teams, at home, at family gatherings. The only requirement is that the rules at each place are clear, understood and the consequences for negative deviation known and enforced.
What do you do if the culture of one group is out of kilter with the cultures of the other groups?
If any party is out of kilter with either the overtly of covertly accepted cultures then one of three things will happen:
- The out of kilter party changes
- leave; or
- The culture changes and now accommodates the out of kilter culture and it becomes mainstream. This is the most usual road to cultural decay in and across organizations. When people with the power to enforce culture are unwilling or unable to address the problem.
Does the organization sourcing the suppliers get to call the culture?
Yes and no. Yes in that they need to know what they want, and source to a cultural fit through the engagement process. And no, in that all parties need to evolve together to build a successful culture. A culture imposed by the sourcing organisation of either dominance, control, bullying, withholding information and using power will only result in negatively deviant behaviours – there is no alternative.