What's for Breakfast?

The late management guru Peter Drucker once said, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." For anyone who has tried to lead a new strategic plan or been on the receiving end of a new initiative know this statement is true. Culture is everything. It represents the set of values and ways of doing things that exist in every organization. Culture is a powerful force, much like a river. A strategy that seeks to change the way things are done in an organization needs to start with culture. Any other way will leave you down the river in a place you did not want to be, fighting against the current of culture.

The good news is that cultural change is possible, just as it is possible to change the course of a river. So how does one begin the change the culture?

• What's your purpose? John O'Brien said in The Power of Purpose  that "Culture eats strategy for breakfast, and culture gets its appetite from purpose." If you are going to change the way things are done in an organization you have to give your people a new purpose. As Simon Sinek says, "It starts with why."
• Start with your people. Too often outsiders are brought in as the experts to bring about change, overlooking the expertise within the organization. Build the capacity of your people, empowering them to be the leaders of change.
• Be the facilitator of your teacher's success. In The Missing Link in School Reform, Carrie Leana makes the claim that the new principal is not the leader of school instructional reform, but the principal supports teachers reform efforts through giving them the resources they need to be successful. 

When wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park they had such an impact on the ecosystem that in the end, the flow of the rivers changed. In the same way, starting with cultural before the strategy is like introducing wolves into your organization. Culture change lays the groundwork for the real organizational changed need for school reform. Without it, the real wolves in your organization will devour whatever new strategy you introduce. Either bring the wolves, or the wolves will eat you for breakfast.