Perhaps most important, managers are jugglers, building in and integrating the tensions and contradictions inherent in ambidextrous organizations and in managing for today and tomorrow. The best management teams have the competencies and behavioral flexibility to balance the diverse management skills required to lead innovation streams and organizational renewal. Obviously, organizational culture is a key factor in Winning through Innovation. Managing culture is the most neglected, and highest-leverage, tool for promoting innovation and change. It's also the most difficult to diagnose and alter.
Culture is a powerful way to motivate and focus behaviors in complex and changing settings.
But organizational culture can also hold a company hostage to its past. The key seems to be to create a clear vision with a limited set of core values, like Lew Platt at Hewlett-Packard did, that can, in turn, host diverse cultures within the organization. In contrast, managers who do not directly attend to cultural diversity and change pay a severe price in the management of innovation and change. We provide tools for both diagnosing and shaping organizational culture. Tools to shape culture include systems of participation and involvement, senior team behavior, and reward and recognition systems.