The
Quarterly’s mission is to help define the senior management agenda; this
anniversary issue* is focused on McKinsey’s vision for the future of
management. (p. 1) The issue is organized
around several themes (strategy, productivity, etc.) but we’re interested in
how it addresses culture. The word
appears in several articles, but usually in passing or in a way not readily
applied to nuclear safety culture. There
were, however, a few interesting tidbits.
One article
focused on artificial intelligence as a sweeping technological change with
exponential impacts on business. An
interviewee opined that current senior management culture based on domain
expertise will need to give way to becoming data-driven. “[D]ata expertise is at least as important [as
domain expertise] and will become exponentially more important. So this is the trick. Data will tell you what’s really going on,
whereas domain expertise will always bias you toward the status quo, and that makes
it very hard to keep up with these disruptions.” (p. 73) Does the culture of the nuclear industry
ignore or undervalue disruptions of all types because they may threaten the
status quo?
McKinsey’s
former managing director listed several keys to corporate longevity, including
“creating a culture of dissatisfaction with current performance, however good”
and “focus[ing] relentlessly on values . . . A company’s values are judged by
actions and behavior, not words and mission statements.” (pp. 121-22) The first point reinforces the concept of a
learning organization; the second the belief that behavior, e.g., the series of
decisions made in an organization, is culture-in-action. Any design for a strong safety culture should
consider both.
Lou
Gerstner (the man who saved IBM) also had something to say about values in
action: “The rewards system is a powerful driver of behavior and therefore
culture. Teamwork is hard to cultivate in a world where employees are paid
solely on their individual performance.” (p. 126) We have long argued that executive compensation
schemes that pay more for production or cost control than safety send an accurate,
although inappropriate, signal of what’s really important throughout the
organization.
Finally, management
guru Tom Peters had some comments about leadership. “If you take a leadership job, you do
people. Period. It’s what you do. It’s what you’re paid to do. People, period. Should you have a great strategy? Yes, you should. How do you get a great strategy? By finding the world’s greatest strategist,
not by being the world’s greatest strategist.
You do people. Not my fault. You chose it.
And if you don’t get off on it, do the world a favor and get the hell
out before dawn, preferably without a gilded parachute. But if you want the gilded parachute, it’s
worth it to get rid of you.” (p. 93) Too
simplistic? Probably, but the point that
senior managers have to spend significant time identifying, developing and
keeping the most qualified people is well-taken.
Our Perspective
None of
this is groundbreaking news. But in a
world awash in technology innovations and “big data” it’s interesting that one
of the world’s foremost management consulting practices still sees a major role
for culture in management’s future.
* McKinsey Quarterly, no. 3 (2014).