It All Starts with Thinking Differently
Gustavo Razzetti, organizational culture consultant, author, and speaker, wrote “Remote Not Distant: Design a Company Culture That Will Help You Thrive in a Hybrid Workplace”[1] to encourage leaders to think differently about their organization’s culture post the wide-spread work-from-home experiences of the covid-19 pandemic. He provides a roadmap for executives so they and their teams can leverage the best of both in-person and remote work for the best of their organizations.[2] Specifically, in his ‘how-to’ manual, Razzetti explores the challenges of the hybrid workplace, reviews top-performing remote work cultures, and shares a host of ideas and tools that can be immediately utilized for cultivating a work culture where both the team and company can thrive.
After exploring what organizational culture is and is not in his foundations chapter, Razzetti then lays out his five steps:
- Resetting culture
- Reimagining a shared future
- Reigniting belonging
- Rethinking collaboration
- Releasing agility
He supports his steps with extensive research and notes and QR codes to access practical resources.
Razzetti’s insights hit close to home for me. It felt as if he were giving a play-by-play evaluation of the culture resetting work my organization’s leadership is seeking to undertake. Six weeks or so before Christmas all staff were invited during a Zoom meeting to attend a 10-day in-person “visioning convocation” in March. A couple of weeks later it was made clear through an email that we were required to be there, and it was hoped we would “come on board with” the vision underway. Two different messages; two different tones. And still not any specifics on what a “visioning convocation” even means or is. Alongside of this, we were also informed that we now need to submit a travel approval request for all our in-country travel as well as travel outside of our country of residence. Since I work from home, this new requirement leaves me feeling micro-managed. My job description asks me to meet with partners. This is what I have been doing for nine and a half years, with needing travel approvals only when I leave Lebanon for other countries in my region of responsibility. Now I need approval for every meeting that takes me outside of my front door.
I have worked in a hybrid model for the past nine and a half years. The combination of freedom and accountability that I have experienced up until recently has been energizing and a key component of what I have enjoyed about my work. It has given me room to pay attention to the Holy Spirit in the context and relationships around me. Razzetti writes: “Company rules should enable people, not limit them. The more autonomy allowed, the more accountable people will become. Freedom doesn’t turn people into rogue employees—it makes them more responsible. If you want people to behave like adults, why treat them like children?”[3] His question echoes the questions I have been asking over the course of the past couple of months faced with these developments in my organization.
At the same time, other initiatives the leadership of my organization are taking do reflect the best practices outlined by Razzetti. For example, under his first step, he discusses five mindset shifts. The first is moving from a culture by chance to a culture by design.[4] Over the course of the fall, the deputy executive director charged with implementing change in our organization has formed a team who is working to move us from the unconscious culture that has developed over many years to a deliberate culture shaped by consciously chosen values and practices. It is a work in process, that is for sure. Amid the inconsistencies, I am realizing that I am faced with choosing where I am going to lean-in to give feedback, ask questions, and offer constructive alternatives. As our leadership tries to create or renew a sense of belonging,[5] I am faced with the task of discerning how best and when to speak truth to power[6] and how best to continue in the work, mission, and ministry to which I have been called.
[1] Razzetti, Gustavo. 2022. Remote, Not Distant: Design a Company Culture That Will Help You Thrive in a Hybrid Workplace. Highland Park, IL: Liberationist Press.
[2] Ibid., 3.
[3] Ibid., 247.
[4] Ibid., 28.
[5] Ibid., 102 ff.
[6] O’Toole, James. 2015. “Speaking Truth to Power: A White Paper – Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.” October 15, 2015. https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/business-ethics/resources/speaking-truth-to-power-a-white-paper/.
About the Author
Elmarie Parker
15 responses to “It All Starts with Thinking Differently”
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Elmarie, thanks for you personal interactions with the principles of the book. I can feel the tension you live with in your role within the bigger organization. Since Razzetti spent so much time on belonging, your description of the process of rolling out a new vision does not lend itself to a sense of belonging on the part of those, like yourself, who were not a part of the process to this point. If it was your decision to make about renewing or changing the vision of your organization, how would do it to create a sense of belonging among the stakeholders?
Hi Roy. Thank you for engaging my post and for your thoughtful question: “If it was my decision to make about renewing or changing the vision of my organization, how would do it to create a sense of belonging among the stakeholders?”
If I were using the same starting material as has been used by our executive director (which was a ministry focus on the most vulnerable grounded in the parable of the sheep and goats from Matthew 25–mandated out of a General Assembly decision), I would have taken the following steps:
1. Ask all staff, regardless of role/position, to review the General Assembly (GA) action taken on this ministry focus. I would also share the context around the decision and why I am sharing it with staff and asking the questions I’m asking.
2. Ask this question: As you read this GA action, how would you articulate its meaning and implications for your particular work/ministry?
3. Ask this question: How might this GA action inform and/or influence your day-to-day work? What would potentially change? What would stay the same?
4. Ask this set of questions: If you have been through a strategic visioning process at our organization in the past, what was most helpful about how that process was led? What was least helpful? What would you suggest as 3 important concerns for current leadership to keep in mind were we to initiate a new strategic visioning process?
5. As this set of questions: If you have been through a strategic visioning process in another organization or church in the past, what was most helpful about how that process was led? What was least helpful? What would you suggest as 3 important concerns for current leadership to keep in mind were we to initiate a new strategic visioning process?
That is an example of how I would want to start…I would then review the responses received, collate them in a meaningful way for the Board to review, and then discern next steps from there.
What feedback do you have for me as you read this?
Elmarie,
Of the five steps you covered, which do you think would be most difficult for the organization you work for? In turn, how healthy is the culture of your organization, considering most of you are spread through the globe?
Hi Andy. Thank you for your thoughtful questions.
You asked two. First, “Of the five steps I covered, which do I think would be most difficult for the organization I work for? I think resetting culture is the most challenging because it requires trust to discuss this and vocalize what has been implicit/unconscious for so long and it also impacts the other four steps. It also requires consistency in action and messaging to develop new habits around new values. To be consistent requires humble self-awareness of past implicit assumptions and their influence on actions and messaging along with a willingness to receive feedback and make on-going adjustments and/or transformations when new commitments aren’t met. It also requires a high level of self-discipline. All of this needs to start with our top leadership.
You also asked: “In turn, how healthy is the culture of my organization, considering most of us are spread through the globe?” Our overall organizational culture is not very healthy, but I think there is a commitment now in place to address that. We have six different ministry divisions within our organization and they each have their own culture and history…this is part of the immense challenge we face as we seek to work more collaboratively across ministry areas. Of those six ministry areas, only my ministry area (World Mission) has staff deployed outside of the USA. One other ministry area works with global partners (some of the same ones World Mission relates to and some who are different), but doesn’t have deployed staff. Our organization overall has 200+ employees. Only 70 of us are outside of the USA. So part of the challenge we are facing is that most of us are very US-centric in our work and thinking. It leaves those of us who are serving in non-US contexts regularly left-out. Another layer to the challenge before us–our General Assembly decided in June to merge our ecclesiastical offices (which also relate to global partners, some who are the same that my ministry area relates to and some who are different) and our ministry office (under which my ministry area is housed). So, that adds another organizational culture and history to the mix. We have a lot of work ahead of us! AND both our ecclesiastical offices and ministry offices share legal, HR, and finance and accounting services with yet another entity call the All Services Group…and they have their own organizational culture and history. It gets to be quite challenging to figure out who to relate to on which issue at which time. Currently, all three organizations have their own boards as well. There’s several other entities that are part of the national footprint of the PCUSA, but they are not involved in the current restructuring and revisioning process (for example, our Board of Pensions, the Presbyterian Foundation that oversees endowments and investments, and several other entities) but our ministry areas do relate to these other entities as well. Most days it makes my head spin. Other days I’m grateful for the diversity of our work at a national level even while a long for healthier organizational culture and practices.
Elmarie: “Culture by chance -vs- culture by design.” That phrase hit me too as critical. As more and more employees work remotely, it will be incumbent upon leaders to create culture and provide a sense of contribution and belonging for everybody. It won’t be easy but the successful leader will figure out a way to do it through zoom, email, and phone calls.
Hi Troy. Thank you for interacting with my post. You wrote in part as you reflected on more and more people working remotely, “…it will be incumbent upon leaders to create culture and provide a sense of contribution and belonging for everybody.” What from Razzetti’s book do you think best equips a leader to create such a culture where staff are valued for their contribution and have a sense of belonging?
Wow, that sounds TOUGH, Elmarie! I admire you for your steadfast, humble spirit that clearly demonstrates a team/body of Christ mindset. Well done. Who knows, perhaps the Lord is using (or will use) you as the change agent to demonstrate what and how what you have been doing the last 9.5 years can be done.
Hi Eric. Thank you for your encouragement as you interacted with my post. I do hope I can be utilized by the Lord to make some helpful contributions to my organization’s journey. We shall see. What coaching question would you ask me given your experience leading organizations committed to walking with and serving the most vulnerable?
Thank you Elmarie for being open about how you feel about the new changes in your organization that are restrictive. How easy do you think it will be to speak truth to power within the current environment in your organization?
Hi Mary. Thank you so very much for your time in reading my post and for your question. You ask, “How easy do you think it will be to speak truth to power within the current environment in your organization?” It is very challenging because our leadership regularly says to us–we are willing to hear your feedback/input, but we are not bound to do anything with it. And, over the past six years or so, of the feedback/input I have chosen to give (and other of my colleagues have given feedback/input as well), I would be hard pressed to name any visible impact it has had. Other people in our organization have the ear of our leadership. So, I just have to trust that God is at work in all of this to direct our national offices to be what God wants our national offices to be at this time and then I need to discern if the call God has on my life can be lived-out through our national offices or in another way. I am currently thinking it is most likely that we will need to part ways and that is OK…just listening for when and how in God’s time. In the meantime, I pray for wisdom to contribute the best I can to our common work through our national offices.
Elmarie: What a challenge that is to now have to have local travel approved too. Do you think that new change is due to someone not following protocols and rather than addressing it individually, new procedures are rolled out for everyone? Given your role it seems like it will work against the end goals of your role and organization.
Hi Kayli. Thank you for your time reading my post and for your question about the new travel protocols. I do think it has to do with believing the same policy needs to apply to everyone regardless of context and job description. So colleagues based in the USA who need to travel within the USA for their work have always had to submit a travel request. Therefore, we who live in other countries now have to do the same. It’s just really challenging for me to conceive of needing to go through this process in a country that takes 2 hours or less to reach the borders when colleagues living in the USA could drive that far and not leave their city (depending on where they live). I also suspect they will be using this data to determine future personnel structures. I’m just not sure what other data they will also be taking into account. I long for greater transparency and better communication from our leadership to the rest of us.
Hi Elmarie, thank you for your post. I hear the tensions you are facing in your organzation as they are trying to have everyone come on board together. In this topic of bringing everyone come on board united together in heart and mind, what are some new insights you gained from Razzetti’s discussions? What have you found helpful in bringing people together to move toward a same goal who are living in different parts of the globe?
Hi Jonathan. Thank you for interacting with my post and for your thoughtful questions. I think one of my key take-aways from Razzetti is his emphasis on trusting one’s employees–give both freedom and meaningful accountability. AND have a clear vision for your organization. The issues of control and fear by those in power positions is just deadly to innovative and committed work.
Among my colleagues who live and work in different parts of the globe, we have found that having clear principles and values bring us together. We are working in such different contexts and with such a variety of partners, that trying to have a specific strategy that applies to everyone is impossible. But we can have principles and values that we seek to embody in our work that reflect our Presbyterian identity and mission as followers of Jesus. For example, we value working ecumenically with other Christians and with interfaith partners. How that looks varies from context to context and partner to partner. But we hold that value in common. We value ministry developed with and for those who are most vulnerable and/or faced with injustice. How that looks varies, but we hold that value in common.
Elmaire. Let me just start with how impressed I am with what you are able to put out with everything else you have going on! I love your title and the vulnerability around this issue with your agency. If this were a perfect world, were there any of Razzetti’s tips that you would like to see implemented? Also, Razzetti talks a lot about empowering the worker in leadership decisions, in the organization’s reshaping have they done this well?