Culture Islands & Landlocked Leaders

Leadership trying to change the culture from the outside without first evaluating the underlying cause of existing problems is an expensive attempt at a makeover that will predictably end in zero meaningful change.

Self-sustaining organizations within substantial companies only sometimes reflect the overarching ethos of the broader company. These “culture islands,” cut off from the mission of the whole but requiring resources to exist, will create ways to measure success to demonstrate their utility.

In the cultural island scenario, the opportunity to change and innovate is low because the perceived value is all required to prove the necessity and, thus, continued existence (rather than the actual significance, which requires freedom to question and iterate upon ideas that are no longer working). A surprising amount of time can pass before the decay is evident enough for shareholders to become skeptical. As long as the price of shares remains or elevates, there is no need to look behind the curtain.

Teams working within the cultural island appendage of a more prominent firm will often have a silent mandate that requires compliance with a hierarchical vision, the questioning of which is forbidden (enforced by indirect methods such as isolation or excessive busy work).

These silos will only retain insecure talent about their prospects in the broader job market. They will perpetually remain less productive, innovative, and engaged than their corporate counterparts in an otherwise thriving company.

The cultural island scenario requires massive corporate change and a willingness by senior leadership to look at themselves and their closest allies in an organization (the very top, not the vast middle swath of directors and VPs).

Generally, there is no willingness for navel-gazing within companies that have grown large enough to grow toxic and aimless limbs, nor will one find the self-awareness required to look inward. After all, the first part of fixing a problem is admitting that one exists in the first place.

When an organizational unit has reached the point of sustaining itself by validating itself with manufactured metrics, there is no recourse other than removal of the gangrenous limb; or the rot will spread and begin to atrophy the whole by reproducing the corrosive system across the organization. But I think everyone starts to end up differently.

The tragedy of the aimless organizational unit is that hundreds and thousands of employees work in companies and parts of companies that function in this manner. The people I have worked with in this situation always have one thing in common, they are deeply dissatisfied with their work but do not feel safe questioning their leaders.

This behavior is patterned in us by our society which does not encourage critical thought and encourages us to seek simplistic answers avoiding complexity at all costs. We have created a compliance culture at a time when we desperately need deep critical thinking.

This is especially true in the culture island scenario. You can tell that you are on an island if you know that almost everyone around you is unhappy with the status quo, but even the leaders of teams remain silent when they are offered the opportunity to speak truth to power.

This malignant system will leave traces of itself up the leadership ladder, often in the form of a monoculture, i.e., cronyism. Other symptoms include but are not limited to the following: finger-pointing/blame before solutions, isolating teams by never holding meetings where individuals have the opportunity to ask questions of leadership, metrics, and dashboards that require “data massaging,” unclear targets and goals, gossip and just about any other unsavory example of behavior in human dynamics that are demonstrably the lesser versions of what we are capable of doing and whom we are capable of becoming.

To leave such toxicity as an individual is both existential and invigorating. We must face that one person will use up all their tremendous energy trying to change an intrinsically toxic system from within. The individual will do better for their energy conservation and good humor to leave for brighter horizons and tell their stuck friends what greener pastures lie on the other side of the impasse once they can share this new perspective. The feeling that you have wasted time and effort where real effort was never desired in the first place can be unsettling. However, the individual who has freed themself from the emotional and intellectual shackles of the culture island will soon take pride in their ability to overcome the fear of the unknown and uncharted path that is now unfolding before them and relish in the joy of self-awareness.

Good luck, brave voyager, if you are taking a leap of faith in yourself!

You have the tools within yourself. Surround yourself with strong mentors and leaders and offer your knowledge as a mentor to others.

You will not look back. I wrote this entry some months ago when I felt pretty stuck. With the layoffs in tech this year, now is an excellent time to share these thoughts. We have systematic issues requiring novel approaches, and the only way to deliver novel solutions is outside established institutions. 🚀

Be kind to yourselves — Sonia @TheTechMargin