Dr Marie Puybaraud and I co-facilitate an informal learning network on the changing workplace, the Global Mobility Network, for IT, HR and Facilities Management people.

We were recently very fortunate to have Alistair Moffat from Nokia speak to the group about his experience and involvement with a set of interventions intended to create the conditions for a new culture to emerge within NSN, a new entity with a 60,000 strong globally distributed workforce and formed from the merger between Nokia’s Networks Business Group and the carrier‐related businesses of Siemens Communications.

Mergers are fraught with emotional turmoil and uncertainty, and are usually accompanied by redundancies; this merger was no different. Research consistently indicates that a majority of mergers fail and that inadequate efforts to recognise and deal with cultural mismatch significantly contributes to post‐merger power struggles and conflict. Given this particularly challenging context, how did he and the team go about creating the conditions for a new culture to emerge?

Culture At NSN

The view taken of culture at NSN is that it is socially constructed and emerges in time from the struggle for shared meaning via participation and dialogue throughout the entire workforce. Alistair described the steps and activities involved in supporting a company‐wide conversation throughout the 60,000‐strong workforce of NSN against the backdrop of the merger.

The intention from the outset at NSN was to create the conditions for the emergence of a new culture, rather than merely merging existing legacy cultures from Nokia and Siemens. Underpinning the process of cultural emergence is a long‐term commitment, realistically five to seven years, to giving all employees the opportunity to participate in culture formation as confident, self-determined adults capable of constructive conflict and disagreement while remaining mutually respectful. A further challenge for NSN was how to facilitate participation among so many people spread throughout different geographical regions.

The process started with exploratory conversations with groups of ex-Nokia and ex-Siemens people, using visual images, story, metaphor and dialogue, around how they perceived the corporate cultures they had come from. Further details are available in an article published on the Ashridge Business School website. Visual outputs from initial exploratory meetings were the presented to the Top 300 senior executives. Conversations among senior teams led to engagement and commitment to the cultural process, plus the emergence of an embryonic set of cultural indicators.

The next crucial step was to engage the rest of the global workforce, the majority, in dialogue about the tentative cultural indicators. Social networking technologies provided the opportunity to create an online place, The Culture Square, where company‐wide conversations could take place and where people were encouraged to talk freely and anonymously about what the Top 300 had said and issues arising that concerned them. There was initial suspicion and worries about being monitored. When the Chief Executive said that no‐one would get fired for what they believed in, people began to realise that he was as good as his word and participation began to build. These conversations were often difficult and angry as people voiced their feelings about the merger.

Shadow Conversations

I have long been a fan of Ralph Stacey and his promotion of the concept of shadow and legitimate systems in organisations. Shadow systems are the informal, unofficial and self‐organised networks that co‐exist and are interlinked with legitimate systems. This is what Stacey says about shadow systems:

“I am arguing, then, that it is primarily the state of the shadow system that determines whether or not an organisation operates in the space for creativity … (the shadow system) lies at the edge of disintegration or anarchy.”

And of course shadow systems can also be destructive, characterised by skulduggery, sabotage and resistance.

Honouring Shadow Conversations

It was not easy for senior management to listen to a deluge of criticism, even if it was considered legitimate. Despite the difficulties, it was felt that these conversations would be taking place privately anyway. The Culture Square provided a safe outlet for people to let off steam. Alistair spoke about “honouring the shadow side of the process”.

Now I don’t know about you but that thought stopped me in my tracks. Honouring shadow conversations. Isn’t that great? And the resilience that must have taken. Senior management are after all people with emotions and sensitivities just like the rest of us.

There were calls from some senior executives to pull the plug on Culture Square conversations, retreating to parent-child relationships when the going got tough. This was resisted and the CEO’s commitment to parent-to-parent relationships paid off. Communities within the workforce effectively and collectively imposed their own code of conduct to online behaviour, allowing negative comments but drawing the line when comments against senior people became personal.

Providing a public forum for surfacing fears became a symbol of management commitment to listening and caring. The Culture Square came to represent trust and inclusion, and became a powerful tool since equality of participation was guaranteed regardless of position in the company. It revealed issues that were bothering people and allowed management to engage in dialogue, participate and try to understand.

In time, exchanges and contributions moved more in the direction of possibilities for the future. A key indicator of moving forward came when some people chose to reveal their identities rather than remain anonymous. Next came requests from The Culture Square participants to meet face-to‐ face, followed by responsibility for facilitation passing from the culture creation team to one of the active site participants.

There is a paper about creating the conditions for emergent cultural processes at NSN in publication at the moment. I will let you know as soon as I have details of the journal and issue number.