Does your organization have a Calumet Culture?

In my previous post, I once again blogged about how the key to success for most, if not all, organizational initiatives is the willingness of people all across the enterprise to embrace collaboration.

However, what happens when an organization’s corporate culture doesn’t foster an environment of collaboration?

Sometimes as a result of rapid business growth, an organization trades effectiveness for efficiency, prioritizes short-term tactics over long-term strategy, and even encourages “friendly” competition amongst its relatively autonomous business units.

However, when the need for a true enterprise-wide initiative such as data governance becomes (perhaps painfully) obvious, the organization decides to bring representatives from all of its different “tribes” together to discuss the complexities of the business, data, technical, and (most important) people related issues that would shape the realities of a truly collaborative environment.

“Calumet Culture” is the term I like using (and not just because of my affinity for alliteration) to describe the disingenuous way that I have occasionally witnessed these organizational stakeholder gathering “ceremonies” carried out.

Calumet was the Norman word used by Norman-French Canadian settlers to describe the “peace pipes” they witnessed the people of the First Nations (referred to as Native Americans in the United States) using at ceremonies marking a treaty between previously combative factions.

Simply gathering everyone together around the camp fire (or the conference room table) is an empty gesture, similar in many ways to non-Native Americans mimicking a “peace pipe ceremony” and using one of their words (Calumet) to describe what was in fact a deeply spiritual object used to convey true significance to the event.

When collaboration is discussed at strategic planning meetings with great pomp and circumstance, but after the meetings end, the organization returns to its non-collaborative status quo, then little, if any, true collaboration should be expected to happen.

Does your organization have a Calumet Culture?

In other words, does your organization have a corporate culture that talks the talk of collaboration, but doesn’t walk the walk?

If so, how have you attempted to overcome this common barrier to success?

Comments

[Jacqui Taylor]

Hi Jim,

Great post as ever. I hadn't heard this phrase before, possibly I live on the wrong continent.

However unlike the term Purple People, which describes our team members, the Calumet Culture is the normal starting point for the teams we meet when we work with a new client.

One of our strategies is to deploy Google Apps as a delivery mechanism for the change we are helping to create within the client organization. We have found that these products are a Trojan Horse for changing this culture. Adoption of the Google Apps products once enabled becomes viral, and delivers the platform for collaboration. We find the Purple People, and then as you know the magic happens and the culture begins to change.

I will be interested to see what other people do to overcome this issue.

[Garnie Bolling]

Jim,

So true, so true, so true.

I see this a lot. Great projects or initiatives start off, collaboration is expected across organizations, and there is initial interest, big meetings / events to jump start the Calumet. Now what, when the events no longer happen, funding to fly everyone to the same city to bond, share, explore together dries up.

Here is what we have seen work. After the initial kick off, have small events, focus groups, and let the Calumet grow organically. Sometimes after a big pow wow, folks assume others are taking care of the communication / collaboration, but with a small venue, it slowly grows.

Success breeds success and folks want to be part of that, so when the focus group achieves, the growth happens. This cycle is then repeated, hopefully.

While it is important for folks to come together at the kick off to see the big picture, it is the small rolling waves of success that will pick up momentum, and people will want to join the effort to collaborate vs waiting for others to pick up the ball and run.

Thanks for posting ... good topic ... now where is my small focus group :)