Bill Bliss

Rather than boundaries, I would call them operating principles. For example, "how will we handle a conflict when it comes up?" or "what criteria will we use when we only have enough funds to pay for one invoice, not the three that are in the system?" Boundaries can be misunderstood and stretched but operating principles are commitments that people will follow because they helped to create them.

When establishing partnerships, I've found the very first step is to ensure the values of the partners are aligned. It is extremely difficult to have a successful partnership, measured by the achievement of something greater than could have been done without the partnership, if the people aren't completely aligned on the values. This is the "how" they will get things done as well as the "why" or purpose of the partnership.

Depending on the extent of the culture change and the size/geographic dispersion of the employee population, this step can take many, many months to be fully realized. Be patient, committed and don't allow other organizational priorities impact the momentum. Once momentum slows or stops, it is extremely difficult to get it back again.

The objective is simply to have employees model behavior consistent with the desired culture. It doesn't have to be any more complex than that. It helps to identify and contrast those behavior that DO model the intended value vs. those behaviors that DON'T.

An organization's culture is simply the behaviors it tolerates, not the words on the wall it preaches. Many years ago, I was working with a highly entrepreneurial organization who "preached" honesty as one of its values. Yet, the Accounts Payable people were instructed to tell vendors who called inquiring about payments that "your check is in the mail" when the invoice hadn't even been processed yet. This was the tolerated (even encouraged) behavior, so therefore it was the culture to not be honest.

Delegation is key - when deciding who to delegate to, consider both their competency and their level of motivation or interest in the assignment. When the assignment is delegated to someone with high competency for the assignment and high interest, the time spent on oversight by the executive is minimized. Also, be very clear on the level of authority you delegate to the staff member so they know what they can do.