“A leader must be a social architect who understands the organization and shapes the way it works.”1 As such, the leader defines the culture of the organization and shapes they way people think, perceive, understand, feel and act. It includes the norms and values, but also the fundamental underlying beliefs and assumptions that are the basis of culture. Social architecture can be defined, assessed and shaped. Because culture is the lens through which meaning is interpreted, it is the medium through which a leader communicates a vision. A fundamental task of a leader is shaping action toward the vision for the agency’s future.
While the vision for positive outcomes for children, youth and families is the ultimate driving force of an agency, leaders may also have a vision for the agency’s future; that is, how she wants the agency to be perceived both by staff and stakeholder; e.g., its reputation for quality, compassionate services. Public child welfare Directors are often hired to “fix” some facet of culture; e.g., timeliness, responsiveness.
Vignette: A mid-western state publicly called the “Calcutta of Child Welfare” by President Clinton had a culture that embodied two critical beliefs: that the best and ultimate authority laid outside individuals so they are not expected (or rewarded) to act autonomously or on their own authority. A corollary belief was that the way one influences another person was to threaten the person with someone else’s authority. The director set out to change the culture by helping staff trust their instincts and take responsibility. He directly engaged the field by going to it and becoming the personal communicator of the vision of how staff should view and act.
Assessing the Current Culture
Leaders have several lenses they can use in understanding the current culture.
Use of Power
Leaders should examine the extent to which power is shared or centralized within the state office and particularly between the central office and the field, whether in county or state administered systems. It is also critical that they understand how their senior staff are using the “personal power” of relationships to enhance or hinder the leader’s agenda. There is as much a social contract between parts of an agency as there is between workers and families.
Vignette: In a southern state, the central office had centralized authority and decision-making using negative anecdotes and incidents as justification to take away authority from county directors. It was estimated that state office staff spent 80% of their time in permission giving and monitoring activities, with little left over for building capacity. In parallel, caseworkers often told families what they were to change, with little input or engagement. The agency director responded by eliminating layers of review and increasing the input to and review of critical decisions made in the central office.
There are stories staff tell repeatedly about significant events even years after the occurrence. Culture may have been shaped by a tragic child fatality or a lawsuit. Difficult budget times and how leadership responded may have shaped beliefs about what is valued. What is valued and what is punished can begin to reveal key aspects of culture. The stories people tell about previous directors also reveal much about culture because they tend to memorialize actions or circumstances that had a particular meaning. Sacred Cows
What isn’t talked about openly is equally diagnostic. Are particular subjects off limits or pushed aside? Is the organization spending inordinate time and energy avoiding talking about difficult issues such as disproportionality? What is the reason(s) staff are not willing to “know what they know?”
Priests and Shamans
These are the people who have been a prior leader’s principal conveyers of meaning and responsible for embedding and maintaining a culture. Their ability to reward and punish (e.g., determine who got promoted and who did not) made them powerful keepers of the current culture. They may reflect a subculture that formed as a means of surviving the tumult of frequent leadership changes.
Embedding a New Culture
There are a number of actions a leader may take to reshape the culture. Based on the assessment of current conditions, directors may find some of the following actions more appropriate than others, some may need to be sequenced or phased in and some may need to be implemented concurrently.
Set Boundaries With Human Services Secretary
A new leader will want to have a clear social contract with the CEO that identifies when and how decisions are made; the pace of change; relationships with senior public child welfare staff; relationships with critical stakeholders; freedom to champion ideas.
Vignette: In a western state, a new Secretary appointed two deputies with whom she had long standing relationships and another deputy, the public child welfare director, with whom she did not. As the public child welfare director began to formulate her own vision and move to put things into place, she found she was being undermined by the other two deputies who had the ear of the Secretary and were complaining about the nature and pace of her changes. This meant the public child welfare director had to back up and negotiate with the Secretary about who was to make what types of decisions with what input. Lost time and momentum were never regained.
Create the New Paradigm
Creating a new paradigm requires the leader to define how they want staff to perceive themselves and be perceived by others and the role of the agency within the larger societal context. For example, should public child welfare staff be regulators of family behavior or facilitators of change? What’s the role of the agency within the larger system of care? How “cutting edge” does the agency want to be? What is the reputation the agency wants to enjoy? As with the agency vision, the director may want to gather and consider input from various stakeholders about what the agency needs to “fix” and to be seen as credible in its action and respected for its work.
Address Existing Executive Team
Leaders need to be clear that senior executive team members must get on board quickly and enthusiastically. They need to be involved in major decisions, including strategic planning and problem solving. They are the most critical purveyors of the culture of the agency and their investment and commitment cannot be subject to chance.
Vignette: A public child welfare director of a western state inherited a key member of his senior team who, because of attitude and lack of critical skills, was the wrong person at the wrong time in the wrong job. The person was actively slowing the pace of change and the director knew the organization was watching whether he was going to take action. There were no repercussions when the director asked the senior staff to resign after three months because there was no longer a good job fit. Had he hesitated to act, he knew he would be reinforcing the “status quo” culture he was determined to change.
Institutionalize the New Paradigm
The leader’s own behavior and actions are the primary measures for embedding a new culture, i.e., walking the walk. Secondary measures, like structure, can be reinforcing, but are no substitute.
What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis
How leaders react to critical incidents and organizational crises
Observed criteria by which leaders allocate scarce resources and rewards and status
Deliberate role modeling, teaching and coaching
Observed criteria by which leaders recruit, select, promote, and retain or dismiss organizational members
Organizational structure, systems and processes including use of data
Organizational rites and rituals, stories, legends, and myths about events
Formal statements of organizational philosophy
Create a Bias for Action
Effective leaders have a bias toward action, an impatience for results and an unrelenting belief that organizational performance can change and outcomes for children, youth and families can be achieved. There may be setbacks, delays, false starts and mistakes, but failure is not an option. There are clear benchmarks for progress that have strong symbolic relevance to the vision.
Tackle the Crisis
Directors often are hired to fix some “crisis.” While the crisis may be the result of any number of other longer-term and systemic issues, the director must be able to steady the organization and steady it quickly. That is, they must be able to buy time, space and credibility needed to tackle the underlying causes.
Tackle a Big Issue
It is not possible to make significant changes to a culture by refusing to acknowledge the “elephant in the room.” Disparities in treatment and services for children of color provide a glaring example and reminder that children are paying a steep price for cultures that are unwilling to face and address an issue that usually requires significant change in every facet of the organization. A leader who is willing and able to help staff address underlying assumptions and biases, however, directly and materially changes the culture of an organization from one of fear to one of empowerment.
Address the External Environment
The governor, legislature, courts, law enforcement, district attorneys and community providers are also critical elements in the social architecture or culture of the public child welfare system. They have considerable power to shape behavior of the agency. Judges, in particular, operate with significant statutory authority to review cases and determine appropriate action. Leaders will need to present a vision of the system, not just the agency. Some stakeholders will see it as being in their best interest and others may not. For those whose interest diverges from the public child welfare agency, the director will want to use all levers available to encourage changes, e.g., performance contracting becomes a cultural lever to address both timely permanency and a way to reward better performing providers.
Address the Media
The relationship with the media deserves special attention because it can so quickly turn from an asset to a liability. The leader will be seen and quoted, accurately or not, and be the focus of efforts to assess blame. Both staff and community will be watching the words and actions closely for how the leader responds to crisis, which is a primary embedding mechanism.
Vignette: A northeastern agency had not had a child death during the current administration. A death of a child, after reuniting with his parents and a recent social work visit, sent shock waves through the state and set off speculation that the director would be fired. The leader handled the situation with compassion, integrity and transparency. The director did not avoid the media, rather using interviews to publicly take responsibility for the death. He did not assign blame other than to his office and he detailed what actions the agency took and what needed to be done. The staff and community knew the depth of feeling surrounding the case by both the family and the agency. He retained the support of the governor.
What isn’t talked about openly is equally diagnostic. Are particular subjects off limits or pushed aside? Is the organization spending inordinate time and energy avoiding talking about difficult issues such as disproportionality? What is the reason(s) staff are not willing to “know what they know?”
Priests and Shamans
These are the people who have been a prior leader’s principal conveyers of meaning and responsible for embedding and maintaining a culture. Their ability to reward and punish (e.g., determine who got promoted and who did not) made them powerful keepers of the current culture. They may reflect a subculture that formed as a means of surviving the tumult of frequent leadership changes.
Embedding a New Culture
There are a number of actions a leader may take to reshape the culture. Based on the assessment of current conditions, directors may find some of the following actions more appropriate than others, some may need to be sequenced or phased in and some may need to be implemented concurrently.
Set Boundaries With Human Services Secretary
A new leader will want to have a clear social contract with the CEO that identifies when and how decisions are made; the pace of change; relationships with senior public child welfare staff; relationships with critical stakeholders; freedom to champion ideas.
Vignette: In a western state, a new Secretary appointed two deputies with whom she had long standing relationships and another deputy, the public child welfare director, with whom she did not. As the public child welfare director began to formulate her own vision and move to put things into place, she found she was being undermined by the other two deputies who had the ear of the Secretary and were complaining about the nature and pace of her changes. This meant the public child welfare director had to back up and negotiate with the Secretary about who was to make what types of decisions with what input. Lost time and momentum were never regained.
Create the New Paradigm
Creating a new paradigm requires the leader to define how they want staff to perceive themselves and be perceived by others and the role of the agency within the larger societal context. For example, should public child welfare staff be regulators of family behavior or facilitators of change? What’s the role of the agency within the larger system of care? How “cutting edge” does the agency want to be? What is the reputation the agency wants to enjoy? As with the agency vision, the director may want to gather and consider input from various stakeholders about what the agency needs to “fix” and to be seen as credible in its action and respected for its work.
Address Existing Executive Team
Leaders need to be clear that senior executive team members must get on board quickly and enthusiastically. They need to be involved in major decisions, including strategic planning and problem solving. They are the most critical purveyors of the culture of the agency and their investment and commitment cannot be subject to chance.
Vignette: A public child welfare director of a western state inherited a key member of his senior team who, because of attitude and lack of critical skills, was the wrong person at the wrong time in the wrong job. The person was actively slowing the pace of change and the director knew the organization was watching whether he was going to take action. There were no repercussions when the director asked the senior staff to resign after three months because there was no longer a good job fit. Had he hesitated to act, he knew he would be reinforcing the “status quo” culture he was determined to change.
Institutionalize the New Paradigm
The leader’s own behavior and actions are the primary measures for embedding a new culture, i.e., walking the walk. Secondary measures, like structure, can be reinforcing, but are no substitute.
What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis
How leaders react to critical incidents and organizational crises
Observed criteria by which leaders allocate scarce resources and rewards and status
Deliberate role modeling, teaching and coaching
Observed criteria by which leaders recruit, select, promote, and retain or dismiss organizational members
Organizational structure, systems and processes including use of data
Organizational rites and rituals, stories, legends, and myths about events
Formal statements of organizational philosophy
Create a Bias for Action
Effective leaders have a bias toward action, an impatience for results and an unrelenting belief that organizational performance can change and outcomes for children, youth and families can be achieved. There may be setbacks, delays, false starts and mistakes, but failure is not an option. There are clear benchmarks for progress that have strong symbolic relevance to the vision.
Tackle the Crisis
Directors often are hired to fix some “crisis.” While the crisis may be the result of any number of other longer-term and systemic issues, the director must be able to steady the organization and steady it quickly. That is, they must be able to buy time, space and credibility needed to tackle the underlying causes.
Tackle a Big Issue
It is not possible to make significant changes to a culture by refusing to acknowledge the “elephant in the room.” Disparities in treatment and services for children of color provide a glaring example and reminder that children are paying a steep price for cultures that are unwilling to face and address an issue that usually requires significant change in every facet of the organization. A leader who is willing and able to help staff address underlying assumptions and biases, however, directly and materially changes the culture of an organization from one of fear to one of empowerment.
Address the External Environment
The governor, legislature, courts, law enforcement, district attorneys and community providers are also critical elements in the social architecture or culture of the public child welfare system. They have considerable power to shape behavior of the agency. Judges, in particular, operate with significant statutory authority to review cases and determine appropriate action. Leaders will need to present a vision of the system, not just the agency. Some stakeholders will see it as being in their best interest and others may not. For those whose interest diverges from the public child welfare agency, the director will want to use all levers available to encourage changes, e.g., performance contracting becomes a cultural lever to address both timely permanency and a way to reward better performing providers.
Address the Media
The relationship with the media deserves special attention because it can so quickly turn from an asset to a liability. The leader will be seen and quoted, accurately or not, and be the focus of efforts to assess blame. Both staff and community will be watching the words and actions closely for how the leader responds to crisis, which is a primary embedding mechanism.
Vignette: A northeastern agency had not had a child death during the current administration. A death of a child, after reuniting with his parents and a recent social work visit, sent shock waves through the state and set off speculation that the director would be fired. The leader handled the situation with compassion, integrity and transparency. The director did not avoid the media, rather using interviews to publicly take responsibility for the death. He did not assign blame other than to his office and he detailed what actions the agency took and what needed to be done. The staff and community knew the depth of feeling surrounding the case by both the family and the agency. He retained the support of the governor.
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