Summary of the Monkeys Experiment
In the end, all the monkeys in the cage were new and had never experienced cold water, but all would not tolerate any monkey climbing up the ladder to get the banana.
You don't understand a culture by studying it. You know a culture by analyzing behavior. Thus, understanding culture means knowing all the facets of a community/organization that influence people's behavior.
How Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast?
To understand the impact of culture on strategy, we have to understand the DNA of culture and its breadth. The influence of culture cuts across all the facets of a business. Let’s make use of the iceberg theory to explore further. Culture consists of three elements:
Artifacts: these are visible aspects such as behavior, structure, and processes
Espoused beliefs and values: these are ideologies, goals, and aspirations.
Basic underlying assumptions: these are unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs and values which determine behavior perception, thought, and feelings and are not easily visible.
1. Culture and Structure
Culture creates the frame of reference that informs the organizational structure. Let's keep in mind that structure details the organization's basic operational processes and is a visible culture element. An organization's foundational days are highly significant in that initial behaviors that get attention during the foundational phase become reinforced. Thus, culture can act as an enabler of business operations or an obstacle. Using our Monkey experiment, Monkeys are curios by nature, which is what one of them tried to do, climb up to get a banana, all of them got sprayed ice-cold water. The sting of cold water influenced a new behavior.
2. Culture and Strategy
Corporate culture and strategy are separate but interdependent. Culture will either support the business strategy or undermine it. In today's turbulent business environment, a strategy is a much-needed tool for survival and growth. The sad reality is that only two out of ten clients will effectively execute their strategy. One of the main reasons behind the ineffective execution of strategy is resistance to new ways of doing things. The bottom line is that a plan will not deliver unless the right culture supports it. The monkeys became ineffective, not because they cannot climb but because of the espoused beliefs and values. Ice-cold- water wiped out their creativity, innovation, and daring to try. Indeed, there was no discussion on how they could safely climb the ladder without raising suspicion or even a conversation around what triggered the cold water, who did that, and where they stand? It happens in an organization.
3. Culture and Change
Organizations as living organisms interact with their external environment; creativity, innovation, and adaptation are essential for survival. However, culture is one of the top reasons why change efforts fail in organizations. Consider this fact: culture is the most significant enabler of business strategy and performance. Also, culture is the biggest obstacle to change and transformation. In the end, a good plan can be rendered ineffective by a hostile culture.
Conclusion
Each new monkey that joined the experimental group saw the opportunity to grab the banana but was discouraged by some basic underlying assumptions that influenced the group's behavior. Firstly, it was “if you climb the ladder, we will get sprayed ice-cold-water" This assumption was not up for discussion, only up for conformance. Later, with all new monkeys in the cage, the assumption was, "climbing the ladder is bad behavior that is not acceptable in the community." The visible artifacts of culture in this experimental team were that no team member was allowed to cross the line by climbing the ladder- such a team member would learn the hard way. These are some of the examples of how culture plays out in our organizations. Many basic underlying assumptions are running organizations, and a team member who dares to challenge them may suffer the heavy hand of culture. When you hear phrases like, "we have always used this approach, and it works very well." Just know that you have experienced the heavy hand of culture.
What's been your experience?
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