147. Do boards have any impact on organizational culture

Is it *really* possible for boards to impact organizational culture?

 

SCRIPT

A lot has been said and written about the impact that boards have, or at least might have, over organizational culture. A lot of what’s been written and said happens in the wake of some culture-related meltdown like at Wells Fargo, or Boeing, for example. Where was the board? How could they have been so blind? If only the board had spent more time actually wandering around the organization, they would have seen the signs, right? I mean, yeah, of course it makes sense for boards to have a clue that their organization’s culture is going down the toilet, obvi. But anyone who’s spent time in and around large and/or complex organizations will tell you that there’s often no one monolithic “organizational culture.” There might be doctrines and norms, values and visions, leadership styles and cults of personality. But in an organization with high diversity of roles or geographies, for example, there’s no way for *anyone* to fully understand culture, or to have visibility into every little nook and cranny where a crisis might be festering. Of course we want our boards to be sufficiently aware and curious to notice systemic cultural issues and toxicity, and to have the guts to get rid of the leaders who allow or enable those problems. At the same time, part of a board’s superpower is in what they *don’t* know. They don’t eat, sleep, and breathe the organization. They don’t obsess every minute of every day and night about its tiniest successes and failures. They come into their roles with the benefit of independence. So does an effective board have impact on organizational culture? Sure, I guess. But are they the architects of culture? That one gets a “no” from me.