My mother, Roslyn, and my Aunt Sena had a falling out in 1968. They stopped speaking to each other. My mother died in 2006. They never reconciled.

It’s now 2010 and Sena’s in a nursing home near my house. Her memory is dissolving away. Yet, when I say my mother’s name, Sena still scowls.

She doesn’t remember what happened all those years ago.

The details of the events have faded from memory. But, the emotional momentum continues. It’s an odd consequence of dementia – she’s still angry but can’t say why. The reaction is there, but for no known reason.

Organizations can have this kind of dementia, too.

It happens when the collective belief system – the culture – gets stuck in the past. When people’s behavior in the present are still shaped by events that have long faded from memory.

Here’s an example: the CEO of a client company was famous for repeating, “You can say anything you want around here . . . on your last day.”

He’d deliver this slogan with a sadistic grin on his face.

Or so I was told by the CFO. She’s one of the few employees who ever met him. The sadistic CEO left the organization 10 years ago.

Even though he was gone physically – his impact continued.

The climate of fear that he had instilled persisted long after his departure.

It was as though the emotional nervous system of the organization had been imprinted with the belief that “this is an unsafe environment – be careful of what you say”.

So, even though the CEO was long-gone, the cultural belief lived on. People were still afraid to be honest and open.

It’s as though the organization has a brain.

Just like a human brain, the organizational brain has three main sections.

There’s the neo-cortex. That’s the logical, rational, data-driven part of the organizational brain. It’s deals with strategy, tactics, metrics, planning and implementation.

Then, there are the mammalian and reptilian areas of the organizational brain – which are more primitive.

The mammalian and reptilian parts of the organizational brain shape the corporate culture.

The mammalian brain generates the emotional climate and emotional-driven beliefs of the organization. The reptilian brain governs the automatic, reactive, survival-based organizational behaviors.

These areas of the organizational brain set the mood, the morale, and the unwritten rules that determine how people interact.

The mammalian and reptilian parts of the organizational brain can lock onto an event and turn it into an enduring belief.

That’s why the impact of a bad leader can linger years after he or she departs.

Even if nobody was there when the actual events that transpired.

Because, when leaders act in ways that undermine trust – the memory of their betrayal lodges in the organization’s primitive brain.

The emotional impact of the events has it’s own momentum. A momentum that locks the culture – the people – into patterns of reactivity whose roots are in the distant past.

How can leaders overcome organizational dementia?

First of all, realize that you’re not dealing with logic, here. You’ve got to aim your communication to the more primitive – and more powerful – parts of the organizational brain.

These parts of the organizational brain:

• Aren’t convinced by numbers.
• Could care less about organizational charts.
• Don’t trust policies or procedures.

Please, don’t start with a PowerPoint slide show. The mammalian and reptilian parts of the organizational brain hate PowerPoint. They ignore it. Particularly if it’s filled with lots of graphs and numbers.

You can influence the primitive parts of the organization’s brain.

Here are ten strategies that can engage the mammalian/reptilian brains:

1) Create safety.

Any hint that you’re in attack mode, and you’re finished. The emotional culture that you want to transform is very sensitive to criticism and judgment. If you’re frustrated or punishing, in any way, the primitive parts of the organizational brain will shut you out.

These entrenched memories can’t be uprooted with a crowbar. They need a safe space in order to open up.

These patterns of behavior may have out-lived their usefulness, but they began as self-protective mechanisms. Tread lightly. And respect their original intention.

2) Be curious.

Ask questions. Learn about the history that shaped the culture. Invite people to tell their stories. Get interested in the unspoken beliefs and assumptions that underlie the reactive behaviors.

Bring these beliefs and assumptions out of the dark – where they operate automatically – and into the light of awareness.

Discuss the impact of the beliefs and assumptions on individuals, teams, and organizational effectiveness.

Ask:

“What are the consequences of this belief?”

“How does it impact performance?”

“How does it impact your experience of fun and fulfillment?”

3) Reveal your dilemma.

If you had a magic formula or a silver bullet to transform the culture – you’d use it. But, you don’t. Nobody does. So, share your dilemma, your dissatisfaction with the patterns of the past, and your longing for a new way of interacting with each other.

Declare your readiness to move on. Be personal.

Explain how you no longer want to let the old belief govern your thoughts and actions. That you’re ready to let go of that past pattern and want to move on.

4) Let people know what you long for – as a person.

Talk about what matters most to you at work. Not just in terms of the business. Name your deepest values.

Don’t play it safe and talk only about “productivity”, “effectiveness”, and other commonly accepted organizational values. Dig deeper. Explore and express the values that make life worth living for you. Maybe it’s love. Or spirituality. Or creativity. Put your values out there. And talk about what it would look like to infuse the organizational culture with these kinds of values.

5) Admit that you won’t always walk your talk.

You’re human. And while you aspire to live your values – you also have blind spots. You can lose your way and react out of emotion not principles.

Invite people to give you feedback about when you are and aren’t living your values. And when they give you feedback say, “Thank you. I appreciate the feedback and your willingness to help me grow as a leader.”

6) Be the change.

Start acting in accord with your values and your longing. Don’t wait for the culture to change. It never goes first.

Ask yourself, “What would it look like for me to express my values fully and authentically in this meeting?” This takes courage. It’s risky and powerful. Because while the culture will not immediately embrace your new stance, taking it will connect you with a source of inner strength.

7) Embrace resistance.

Your behavior will challenge the emotionally encoded beliefs of the past. This activates cultural survival instincts and people fight back. They may attack you. They’ll defend their behavior and attempt to marginalize your challenge as – idealistic, touchy feely, naïve, and impractical.

You’ll likely be made fun of (at least behind your back), ignored, marginalize, or accommodated (if you have enough positional power). It’s all part of the process.

It takes inner courage to persist in modeling the new behavior, without reverting to anger, blame, or power politics.

8) Engage people in renewing the organizational values.

If your organization has a statement of values, start a conversation on your team about what the values mean and how the reactive patterns don’t express those values.

This is not a training to teach values. It is a conversation that invites people to infuse the old values with new life.

Take any corporate value and have a team conversation. Ask:

• What does this mean to you personally?
• How does it connect with what matters to you?
• How would you express this value in action?

9) Encourage people talk about values from a personal perspective.

Don’t impose corporate definitions. Let shared understanding of values emerge though open dialogue. It’s the open dialogue that begins to recode the culture.

Your team’s definition doesn’t need to be a word-for-word replica of those on the corporate plaque. People need to make the values their own. And that means giving them meaning in words that resonate for them. It means envisioning what it means to live the values in their work.

10) Point out examples of the new values-in-action

Take time during staff meetings to celebrate individuals who have demonstrated the values-in-action. Invite team members to celebrate each other; to coach and support each other in living the shared values. By focusing on core values. By putting those values into action. By supporting each other in living those values – you can overcome the organizational dementia.

Questions for Reflection & Action

1) How is your organization suffering from dementia?

What are the outmoded beliefs, assumptions, grudges, fears that are shaping people’s actions/thoughts in the present?

How does this cultural dementia impact you, your team, those you serve?

2) What will you do to change this?

What is a small action you can take to “be the change”?

Who will you talk with?

What will you talk about?

(How can you purify any blame or judgment from what you say?)

Related Posts:

• Do You Want People to be More Accountable?
• Seven Steps to Overcome “Feedback Allergies”
• How to Stop Over Watering Your Communication
• 3 steps to solving long-standing problems
• Are You Balanced & Fair?