Chief Culture Officer - Want one? Want to be one?

I like this post from Jory over on Pause called, A job I want someday - Chief Culture Officer. Check it out. I could argue both sides of this argument.

Yes, the need for a CCO is there. People do there best work in healthy and thriving cultures. And a major barrier to change is often the organizational culture - its strong and broad reaching habits and back-channel beliefs and habits.

On the other hand, having a CCO seems a bit like a cop out for managers and leaders. I believe that all managers and leaders - at all levels in the organization - are CCOs. Or they ought to be. This is a fundamental part of the job and I could argue the most important part.

If you were to ask me, "Lisa, what's the one word you would say is synonymous with great management?" I would respond that the one word is:

CHANGE

This is what management is supposed to do. Help get people, processes, and all aspects of their piece of the enterprise get from A to B. In other words, lead change, facilitate change, be a change agent, make change happen. And this includes bringing the culture along from A to B, too.

Sure, you are too busy. But that is because your role has not changed with the times. This is because we have not trained you to be great change makers. Should we solve the problem by bifurcating away a critical part of the job (like we have done some many times before with quality, OD, coaching, etc)? Do we solve the problem by end-running around the problem? It's a common response today, for sure, but one that will only lead to a time when the manager's role is so lacking of real challenge and the opportunity to contribute (read: maintaining the mess) that we can't get smart people to take these important jobs and can have no hope they will improve our businesses. Wait.... we might be getting close to this now.

Your thoughts?

Comments

[Tony Cipollone]

Lisa, I agree with your basic point about culture in organizations. From what I've been reading lately, the culture piece seems to be the province of "leaders" vs. "managers," if this is a real difference. The two roles are, indeed, different but I would argue that they need to be found in each individual. In that sense, your point about the copout of "bifurcating away a critical part of the job" is right on. However, I suspect that the reason for such bifurcation is that these elements get lost in the midst of either firefighting or people doing what they consider their "real job." So, while creating a new job title can signal renewed energy, it also can be the copout you suggest.

By the way, Jory's post doesn't seem to me to address culture within an organization but rather the connectedness of the organization to the culture "out there" in its marketplace. Her examples point out misreadings or ignorance of consumer trends that led to bad business decisions. Could certainly be the result of a particular sort of corporate culture, but not quite the same thing.

Tony

[Management Dissertation]

Looks a nice post which having lots of information for blog readers.

[lisa haneberg]

Tony, thanks for the comment and Happy New Year to you. I agree that culture "out there"and organizational culture are different and it is one consideration for managers in terms of making sure that the external brand and internal employee brand are aligned and moving in the same direction. And then there are the melding of cultures that comes from reorgs, mergers, changes in leadership, etc... These all are handled by managers who have been trained and reinforced to be change makers.

[Robyn Hatcher]

Hi Lisa,
I agree that in a perfect world we would find leaders and managers who would be skilled at embracing, enabling and ushering in change. However, I believe Tony is correct. Managers are far too busy putting out fires and trying to save their own jobs. Perhaps the role of managers and leaders is what bears looking into. As a communication and executive coach, I'm finding that most organizations these days want their managers to function more like CEO's. There is more supervision expected, more paper work, more metrics to keep track of. Because technology is advancing so quickly and is alleged to make things easier, top executives are expecting much more from their managers. And the skills that are being expected of and respected in manager's these days are not skills that are conducive to the effective management of company culture. Today's managers are often very skilled in marketing, branding, IT, numbers crunching, productivity etc. etc. But may be short on skills like perspective, creativity and interpersonal skills. All important for being able to help manage and improve company culture.

Therefore, I believe the idea of a Chief Cultural Officer is interesting. HOWEVER, it would only work if the CCO's were temporary or not really part of the organization. The very nature of joining an organization or being part of a company or organization seems to limit one's ability to implement, appreciate or see the need for change. Or maybe CEOs and other executives need to redefine the role of managers.

[Alina]

: I agree with you on the fact that the chief cultural officer can bring in a wide range of changes by keeping a holistic view of the cultural aspects of the organization allowing him to be pro actively prepared. He is the chief change catalyst for an organization. But according to Jamie Beckland C-suite would never get to hang around long enough to make that happen. You can see some more insights into the functionings of the CCO here:http://jamiebeckland.com/2010/05/chief-culture-officer/#more-506

[Alina]

I agree with you on the fact that the chief cultural officer can bring in a wide range of changes by keeping a holistic view of the cultural aspects of the organization allowing him to be pro actively prepared. He is the chief change catalyst for an organization. But according to Jamie Beckland C-suite would never get to hang around long enough to make that happen. You can see some more insights into the functionings of the CCO here:http://jamiebeckland.com/2010/05/chief-culture-officer/#more-506