Culture Casualties

Over the next few posts, we are going to talk about resistance and culture change...

In the animal kingdom, there is a type of caterpillar known as the “line” worm. This worm gets its name from its simple behavior of always following in line one behind the other. A group of scientists were fascinated by this unusual behavior and wanted to see how far the worms would take it. So they “led” the lead worm in a circle instead of a straight line so that the lead worm came up behind the last worm. And what did the lead worm do? Exactly. He started to follow the last worm in the line.

The worms would continue this circular pattern for hours. Then the scientists did an amazing thing. (Actually, it’s probably the worms that were amazing.) They placed food in the middle of the ring of worms in plain sight. And the worms continued their marching following in line until – you guessed it – they died!

How does this relate to your company? Be careful of the line worms who will follow old systems, old processes and refuse to eat from the new “culture” even to the point of death. But that may not be so bad.

You must accept the fact now that there will be casualties. There are people working inside your organization right now who will not like, nor will they adapt to your new culture. They will resist and fight you all the way until either they leave you or you leave them. This is an unfortunate fact of culture change. It makes sense, though. When you have been involved in a project or organization outside of work and they have decided to change the “rules,” you may have decided to quit. There is nothing wrong with this. Believe it or not, there are people in this world who do not think integrity is such a great value to have. It’s better to let them go than to let them damage your new company. Accept the casualty fact now or do not attempt the change.

It will be okay. What you have is a vision of tomorrow. This vision must have visible and unvisible signs for the people if they are to understand it and accept it as their own. Plan for this.