Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2015 - (Page 45)

BY DR. SYDNEY SAVION CU TURE: THE ENEMY AT THE GATE OF I NN OVATION The scene opens with a sensational combat sequence in the film, "Enemy at the Gates." Based on one account at the Battle of Stalingrad, the story begins to narrowly focus on a cunning duel between two formidable adversaries that unfolds on a rubble-laden backdrop. With his astonishing display of marksmanship, a Russian sniper takes down German officers one by one, resulting in the erosion of German morale and a boost to Russian morale. A German sniper is dispatched in an effort to eliminate the Russian sniper. The Russian sniper perilously hides behind enemy lines. Both men are soldiers with mission objectives, but are from different generations with different rituals and learning styles. They are from two different countries each one having strong norms, values, behavior patterns, traditions, perceptions and prevailing assumptions about the other. Organizational culture works much like this. Culture is known to outlast company founders, leaders, products, services and even the bricks and two-by-fours of the company building. It is a powerful energy source that can be harnessed to fuel or smother creativity and innovation. This can be a slippery slope because culture is its own counter-opposing force. While culture is the immutable thread that tightly weaves the organization together, it is also an essential force to effect change. Change is inevitable in business. With the shift in generational demographics, fluidity of societal and political undercurrents, and morphing learning, development and performance demands, creativity and innovation are emerging as a company's greatest asset for survival. A question confronting many leaders today is whether established organizational cultures can be transformed to fuel creativity and innovation. DEFINING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Edgar Schein, a former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and noted expert in organizational culture, contends organizational culture is "a pattern of shared basic assumptions that a group has learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems." T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - SPRING20 1 5 I WWW.TRAIN INGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE 45 http://www.trainingindustry.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2015

Soft Skills Make Up Vital Part of Corporate Training
Table of Contents
Guest Editor: Leadership: The Artichoke Effect
Focusing on Mindsets and Attitudes
The Importance of Soft Skills For Trainers
Social Simulators Bring Training to Life
The Power of Storytelling in Organizational Development
Leading Change with Resilience
Why Perspective Selling Makes Sense
Harnessing the Power of Teamwork
Collaborate to Innovate: Building an Innovation-Friendly Business Culture
Are You Using the Best Metrics to Evaluate Your Skills Training?
Influencing into the Future
Culture: The Enemy at the Gate of Innovation
Casebook: T-Mobile: Answering the Call for Leadership Development
Leadership is an Inside Job
Vendor Selection Tips for Corporate Sales Training
Checking Your Motivation to Lead
The Real ROI of Leadership Training: Soft Skills Lead to Hard Results
Closing Deals
Company News
What's Online
Training Talk

Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2015