The Best Way to Change a Corporate Culture - Peter Bregman - HarvardBusiness.org
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/06/the-best-way-to-change-a-corpo.html

Changing Corporate Culture

d culture, instead of making the

"You change a culture with stories

# Do dramatic story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then let other people tell stories about it. # Find other people who do story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then tell stories about them.

"Here's what I realized: 1. My perfect is not their perfect. 2. They don't have a perfect. In fact, there is no they. There are 2000 individuals, each of whom wants something a little different. 3. The more perfect I think it is, the less willing I'll be to let anyone change it. 4. The only way to make it useful to everyone is to allow each person to change it to suit him or herself. 5. The only way people will use it is if they do change it in some way. 6. The only way I will encourage them to change it and make it their own is if I make it imperfect.

Unfinished, Half-finished, half-baked is sometimes best.

"Why won't this work for you?" -- a powerful question to ask, at the right moment. Really thought-provoking article exploring why perfection is so hard, and hinting at why projects fail.