“We have plenty of time to fight fires,” Jonas complained, “but never any time to make a plan of attack and everyone pull their weight. We are a bunch of individuals doing our own thing without the total picture perspective. We are the managers in the business. But we don’t manage, we fight the next fire, sometimes of our own creation. When other managers are not concerned with how their tactics affect the next process in line, the culture will not change. It’s a culture of, now that my part is done, I wash my hands of the problem and pass it along to the next manager to deal with. No ownership of the problem, so, no solution that benefits everyone. How can the culture change when the people in the culture don’t want to change?”

“That’s quite an analysis,” I replied. “And, probably accurate. As you watch this going on, what do you think is going through the minds of your management team? What do they believe? What are they trying to protect?”

“That’s easy,” Jonas said. Here is a list.

• The most important thing around here is not to get blamed for anything.
• The most important thing around here is to make sure, if you make a mistake, it does not get connected back to you, that someone else can be blamed.
• The most important thing around here is that if you make a mistake, make sure it cannot be discovered in your work area, or your part of the process.

“So, are you surprised?” I asked. “If that is what they believe, why would they behave any differently? You cannot change the behavior until you change the belief.”
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Premeditated Culture is now available at Amazon.