Organizational Culture & the Kanban Maturity Model

Read this article to find out how the Kanban Maturity model can help you hack the organizational culture. Find out what Kanban consepts and materials can help you along the process. 

Author: David Anderson, pioneer of the Kanban Method, co-author of the Kanban Maturity Model, CEO of Mauvius Group Inc.

The KMM is build on the belief that desirable outcomes follow practice adoption. That practice adoption can only ever follow culture, and that culture adapts to practiced values. Therefore, all change must be driven first and foremost through adoption of values.

We released our Organizational Culture poster as a companion for the Kanban Maturity Model release 1.2. In particular, the poster visualizes many of the concepts and guidance in the 2nd edition of the book Kanban Maturity Model, Section 2 of the book: Culture. There are 4 chapters altogether, and in total, 19,250 words.

Kanban Method and organizational culture

Our approach to organizational culture is as follows:

• The culture is the way it is because of the decisions and actions of the leaders. And the behavior of the workforce as a consequence of those decisions and actions.
• To more easily drive change you desire a liberal, tightly cohesive, high trust culture, and the reality is that you probably don’t have one.
• Culture is elastic, it can be molded, and stretched.
• Culture can be viewed as the collection of values and norms that define the identity of the organization, and the behaviors that result from attempting to align decisions and actions with espoused values and norms
• We can also view culture through a 3-dimension sociological model with social innovation, social cohesion and social capital representing the 3-dimensional space. You can map every organizational culture this space.
• We believe that you can hack the organizational culture through the actions of the leaders: introducing new values; changing the sociology through a combination of values and practice adoption.

The KMM is build on the belief that desirable outcomes follow practice adoption, that practice adoption can only ever follow culture, and that culture adapts to practiced values. Therefore, all change must be driven first and foremost through adoption of values.

The role of the decision filters

We use simple mnemonic structures, we call decision filters to encourage appropriate behavior aligned to values. Decision filters are a coaching tool, to enable changes in normative  behavior from leaders. In particular, alignment of decisions and actions signals a change in culture to the workforce. Hence, proper use of decision filters is a means to hack the culture and mold it into a better, more desirable state.

We’ve also provided guidance on practices that hack the sociology of the organization: practices that increase trust; and practices that either strengthen or weaken the social cohesion.

Create a culture where innovation can thrive

Perhaps, the most remarkable aspect of the model is the guidance on social innovation. We often hear from senior leaders that “we are not innovative enough.” In reality we see plenty of companies pursuing the adoption of frameworks and methodologies for innovation.

We do not believe that you improve the innovation in your organization through process adoption, rather we believe that you create a culture where innovation can thrive. So we’ve identified  and codified some of the institutional elements that need to be present to enable an innovative, socially liberal culture. This short extract from chapter 8 of the new book explains our thinking,

Liberal  culture naturally maps to the deeper levels of organizational maturity, specifically ML5 and ML6. It would be really challenging to achieve the outcomes expected at ML5 and ML6 without a strongly liberal, innovative  culture. In this respect, the KMM encapsulates the historical period of  the Enlightenment  in its architecture. A built-for-survival,  resilient, robust, antifragile organizational culture resembles a  mature, liberal democracy as envisaged by 17th and 18th Century  philosophers.

We believe that the new KMM is a game-changing architecture for organization growth, development, and change. Therefore, by recognizing that leading organizations and leading change is primarily a sociological challenge, we have codified extensive existing literature in sociology, political science and social psychology, into a coaching  playbook, that enables pragmatic, actionable, and evidence-based guidance for leaders in organizations of all sizes.

We’ve been teaching this material in our advanced classes for over a decade. It is exciting to make the material much more accessible through the new book and the new poster. Download it, print it at A1 size, display it boldly. Encourage the mantra…

Outcomes follow Practices
Practices follow Culture
Culture follows Values

Lead with Values!

Selected posters are available for free download on Kanban+. 

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