The CBI’s new chief people officer faces the challenging task of overhauling the culture at the crisis-hit organisation. David Liddle looks at the areas she will need to prioritise.
Last week the CBI announced the appointment of former headhunter Elizabeth Wallace as chief people officer to change its culture in the wake of the organisation’s sexual misconduct crisis. Wallace will begin implementing 35 recommendations, put forward by law firm Fox Williams, following several serious allegations including sexual harassment and rape.
In my recent book, Transformational Culture, I describe my work with leaders who have been brought into high-profile organisations to overhaul toxic cultures. The CBI case is particularly interesting as it reflects the serious reputational harm that a toxic culture can create.
While wishing Wallace every success, there are three key actions I believe she will need to take if the CBI genuinely aims to rebuild its culture:
1. Deliver compassion at scale
CBI culture change
How to turn transformational culture from fantasy to reality
The serious failings identified by Fox Williams’ cultural audit will have created a gulf between the needs of the CBI’s workforce and the prevailing culture of the organisation. I describe this as ‘cultural dissonance’.
The CBI must take complete responsibility for the problems that have occurred and the antecedents which gave rise to the toxic culture in the first place.
An open letter from the CBI was published last month, however, this is nowhere near enough. We see various excuses emerge – that the wrong people were recruited, and the organisation failed to filter out culturally toxic people during the hiring process. Rather than being written through the lens of a genuine apology and a desire to take responsibility, the letter paints the picture of a few bad employees who have besmirched an otherwise supportive organisation.
This approach lacks compassion for real people who are relying on their leaders to possess the insights, wisdom and compassion to understand that a toxic culture isn’t just about the behaviour of a few bad actors.
If Wallace is to begin the painstaking task of rebuilding culture, the CBI must take full responsibility for the systems that didn’t work and a culture that is fundamentally broken. It needs to do this by delivering compassion to its people at scale, and this has to start with leaders serving the needs of its people, not the needs of the organisation itself.
2. Really listen
Organisational culture is made up of the rituals, norms, behaviours, ethos and philosophy of an organisation. However, it also reflects the needs aspirations and beliefs of the people within it. The key to a strong culture is the sweet spot where the two meet – I call this ‘culture flow.’
Wallace must try to first unpack what culture means to the CBI. She and her team must embark on an organisation-wide listening exercise, to hear exactly what people are saying about working at the CBI – their needs, aspirations, experiences, feelings and beliefs.
When an organisation is in shock, people professionals, leaders and others should serve the people first and the needs of the establishment second. The consequences of not doing this are severe – trust breaks down, levels of acrimony and animosity in teams start to build, people leave, sickness levels rise and the organisation may eventually fail to exist.
Wallace must try to first unpack what culture means to the CBI. She and her team must embark on an organisation-wide listening exercise, to hear exactly what people are saying about working at the CBI – their needs, aspirations, experiences, feelings and beliefs.
3. Frame culture change as an opportunity, not a risk
A huge red flag for me following the culture audit is Fox Williams’ recommendation to appoint a chief risk officer – something I believe would be a fatal error.
If we perceive culture as a risk we will manage it as such, by creating systems of compliance, regulatory control and management structures. The kind of risk we are discussing here is the behaviour of the people within the organisation. The message to CBI employees through this recommendation is: “you are a risk.”
Instead, I would strongly urge the CBI to appoint a chief opportunity officer. There is fantastic potential for the CBI to turn its culture from toxic to transformational. The greatest asset the CBI has are its people – when they are aligned, with a set of clear values and an unwavering sense of purpose, they become an unstoppable force. Wallace’s job, as a leader, is to unlock the brilliance of those people. Unfortunately, it is impossible to do that when a chief risk officer with a metaphorical sword and shield is standing in the way.
Recommendations to transform culture
Ultimately I would recommend that Wallace and her team be driven by an absolute commitment to purpose, people and values and a desire to develop a truly transformational culture.
I recommend that they go through the organisation’s policy framework and remove the rules and processes that are divisive and corrosive, and redesign people policies and processes so that they are aligned with the CBI’s purpose and values.
I recommend that the HR function transform itself into a people and culture function, designed to deploy organisational purpose and values through a newly established, cross-functional ‘transformational culture hub’, which Wallace would chair.
Finally, I recommend that the CBI does away with the old-style retributive justice – viewed so clearly through the prism of the discipline, performance, and procedures – and bring in a progressive model of transformative justice where accountability, inclusion, learning and fairness are baked in.
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Through adopting these recommendations, I believe that the CBI’s culture can become an asset rather than a liability. An opportunity rather than a risk.
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