Transforming Your Leadership Culture

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 45

hidden, infl uence passes unconsciously from left to right, and
unconscious organizational culture transmits beliefs into observ-
able actions. Beliefs and repeated patterns are the root cause;
our actions are the effect. As a rule in daily organizational life,
we make dozens of decisions without much conscious observa-
tion of them or any conscious truth - telling process within our-
selves or with others. What we believe to be true goes mostly
unchecked by our reason.
So in the fi gure, the arrow points to the right. Should an
arrow point from right to left also? In other words, don ’ t prac-
tices, systems, and structures also affect our values and beliefs?
Don ’ t operations affect the culture? They do, but as long as the
left, internal side is hidden, our way of detecting or judging its
effect is very limited, so we and the organization are simply at
their mercy.
We contend that making the hidden dimension less hid-
den and more conscious does not dilute its power. Rather, it
places that power more nearly within a leader ’ s grasp to infl u-
ence outcomes. As another of our clients observed, “ The cul-
ture always wins. ”

Operating Space

Where work gets done

Sensory Dimension

Conscious

Behaviors and Practices

Doing

Hidden Dimension

Unconscious

Values and Beliefs

Being

External Realm

Outside-In

Systems and Processes

Internal Realm

Inside-Out

Culture

Decisions

Leading to actions

Figure 2.1 Inside - Out: The Driver of Results