The publishing industry is at a wonderful crossroads, depending on how you choose to look at this challenge. Change and evolution are occurring all around us. Certain industries need to change, innovate, reinvent themselves or they will simply go the way of the steam ship and die out. A few industries in need of innovation are:

• Publishing
• Insurance
• Real Estate
• Automobiles Sales
• Community Colleges

Information and news will still be disseminated, people will still purchase insurance and automobiles, and our society will still educate those who have a burning desire to learn. However, the process in which the organizations within these industries choose to conduct business must change dramatically. They must accept reality, innovate, and implement the innovative ideas and plans which will secure their futures.

The first step in any change process, whether we are discussing an individual that needs to quit smoking, a company who is hemorrhaging money, or an industry that is in the late stages of their life cycle is to accept reality and admit that course corrections must be made in order to survive. Beliefs, behaviors, processes and cultures must change. Paradigm shifts must happen. This is akin to a doctor telling a patient who has been smoking for thirty years that “you must stop now and change your behaviors or go home and make your final arrangements.” It’s serious! The good news is that there are options.

These options will be difficult for some people within these industries and there will be attrition for those people and organizations that choose not to respond quickly and with a clear, effective and innovative plan. Some individuals and organizations don’t respond well to change and they will be heard saying, “But this is how we have always done it,” or “I have seen these ups and downs before in my thirty years in this business. Don’t worry, this is just a fad and will blow over.” This kind of thinking is, “stick your head in the sand” blind justification. Never underestimate the power of denial.

The people and organizations that are profitable in the years to come will be those who are thinking of the future with excitement and innovative ideas, not remembering the good old days. History and evolution has clearly shown us that the animals, people or organizations that avoid extinction have always been those who are able to adapt to the changing conditions.

The next step to survival is innovation. So the question isn’t whether or not newspapers should advertise on search engines or not, but rather about how to satisfy the customers’ thirst for news in a format that is efficient, convenient, dependable and enjoyable. In other words, the publishing industry must figure out how to provide the service of delivering news in a format that people want given today’s technology and consequently will be profitable for the organization that delivers this service.

Obviously this is a major undertaking for the leaders in this and other industries. Those who approach this with an innovative, solution oriented, and behavioral mindset will likely prosper and those who approach it using a problem solving formula will die out. There is a subtle difference between the two methods and the choice will ultimately lead to success or disaster.

For a project to end successfully, it must begin successfully and this statement could not be more true and the stakes higher then when it comes to any kind of merger or restructure. Long before the CEO’s are finished signing the final documents, the employees of each department or company have already started the process. In essence, the merger has already begun to take shape and for better or worse, sides are being drawn. Therefore, before engaging in any kind of merger or restructure, try to get a good sense of the cultures involved. Train yourself in being culturally sensitive by visiting other organizations and figuring out how their “cultural assumptions” differ from yours.

If you are the facilitator or are in any way responsible for the success of a department or company merger, acquisition, or joint venture, try to visit the other department or organization and experience, as much as you can, how things are done there. Create dialogue groups across any cultural boundary that becomes apparent to you. Do not expect normal communication, goodwill and experience to produce mutual understanding. Both cultural units need to learn to be reflective and to get in touch with their own and each other’s cultural assumptions; this can only be successfully accomplished with the dialogue format.

If you are trying to gain mutual understanding between two or more cultures, you must create a dialogue form of conversation. This is best achieved by an outside and objective facilitator who can choreograph the conversation as well as ensure the focus and flow remains consistent with the original objectives. Below is a general outline of what should take place for an initial meeting.

1.  Select ten to twenty people who represent the two cultures equally.
2. Seat everyone in a circle, or as near as possible. Don’t use tables as these will create boundaries and distance the people and impede honest dialogue.
3.  Lay out the purpose of the dialogue meeting: For example, “to get a sense of the similarities and differences in our cultures and from this learn to listen more reflectively to ourselves and each other.”
4. Start the conversation by having the members in turn check-in by introducing who they are and what goals they have for the meeting.
5. After everyone has checked in, the facilitator should launch a very general question, such as, what is it like to be in this company, what is known about this merger? what would indicate success for our departments or organizations as we move collectively through this merger?” Everyone in the circle should, in turn, answer the question from his or her company and perspective and with the ground rule that there be no interruptions or questions until everyone has given an answer.
6. The facilitator should be observing the group dynamics and encourage an open conversation on what everyone has just heard without the constraints of proceeding in order or having to withhold questions and comments.
7. If the topic runs dry or the group loses energy, the facilitator should introduce another question. Such as, “how are decisions made in this organization” (in my experience, body language, people communicating through eye contact etc will tell a lot about who may want to speak up but be unwilling or unable to due to ‘unspoken cultural demands.’ Comment about confidentiality or the undercurrent the group may be feeling. Key point—discuss the alligator in the corner. There will always be one and everyone knows it is there. Therefore, as the facilitator you must help them acknowledge the OBVIOUS). Again have everyone in turn give an answer before general conversation begins. This will encourage input from everyone and will detract from the more vocal members commanding the group dynamics.
8. Let the differences emerge naturally; don’t make general statements, because the purpose at this stage is to uncover mutual understanding, not necessarily clear description.
9. After a couple of hours, ask the group to pole itself by asking each person in turn to share one or two insights about his or her own culture or the other one; Another question that may encourage productive dialogue is; “what is one idea, concept, insight, or statement you received during this meeting that made our time together valuable for you?” I will always have a non participant writing all of these notes on flip chart paper taped to the walls. This way people can think and speak freely and a detailed description is available to be distributed later or for follow-up meetings.
10. The answers gleaned from these last set of questions will in turn spark new insight for both the members and the facilitator. These should be kept and used as follow-up information.

 Clarification About What Culture Is

Culture is the shared tactic assumptions of a group that it has learned in coping with external tasks and dealing with internal relationships. Although culture manifests itself in overt behavior, rituals, artifacts, climate, and espoused value, its essence is the shared tactic assumptions. As a responsible leader, you must be aware of these assumptions and manage them, or they will manage you.

Unless your organization is a brand new conglomerate of people from other organizations, it has formed a culture that influences all of your thinking and behavior. If your organization is a new mix, without prior shared experience, then all members bring their prior culture experience to the new situation and seek to impose it on that situation.  The quickest way to create a new culture in such a situation is to give the people a compelling, common task so that together they can build a new set of assumptions.

The strength and depth of an organization’s culture reflects (1) the strength and clarity of the founder or the organization, (2) the amount and intensity of shared experiences that organization members have had together, and (3) the degree of success the organization has had.

Culture is, therefore, the product of social learning. Ways of thinking and behavior that are shared and that work become elements of culture.

You cannot, therefore, “create” a new culture. You can demand or stimulate a new way of working and thinking; you can monitor it to make sure that it is done; but members of the organization do not internalize it and make it part of the new culture unless, over time, it actually works better.

A given organization’s culture is right so long as the organization succeeds in its primary task. If the organization begins to fail, this implies that elements of the culture have become dysfunctional and must change. But the criterion of the right culture is the pragmatic one of what enables the organization to succeed in its primary task.

As the external and internal conditions of an organization change, so does the functionality, or rightness, of a given culture assumptions change. Culture evolves with the fluid circumstances of the organization.

The essential elements of culture are invisible. They are taken for granted and have dropped out of awareness. But they can be brought back into awareness. Failure to understand culture and take it seriously can have disastrous consequences for an organization.

Superficial understanding of culture can be as dangerous as no understanding at all. Theory and concepts gained from Edgar Schein.

During difficult times, why do some firms grow and prosper while others decline and die out? I believe the answer lays in the ability to manage change. Some people see threats and change as what they have to give up. Others see them as opportunities. These “opportunists” see change as a time when things are stirred up causing an abundance of possibilities. These opportunists take proactive steps, push past the fear of the unknown, calculate the prudent risks and take action instead of bemoaning the pressures or trying to avoid them.

One important consideration in this opportunity-focused process is to “take off your blinders” and clearly define your desired end-results despite current conditions. With those refined goals clarified in your mind, imagine all possibilities that might lead to that outcome. What do your internal and external customers need from you in order to achieve this goal? Suspend disbelief and don’t limit your thinking.

A great example of this kind of courage and innovation can be seen in the work of Malcolm P. McLean of North Carolina during the depression of the 1930s. McLean, a truck driver with a vision, saw a need in the shipping industry and consequently invented containerized shipping boxes. Still used today, he created a technology that modernized the shipping industry. Before those big shipping containers were standard, it would take up to two weeks to unload a ship. With shipping containers, the time to unload was reduced to 24 hours! McLean focused on filling a need through innovation despite horrendous economic conditions.

Another important consideration is this: stop trying to solve problems. Yes, you read that correctly—don’t try to solve problems. Problem solving is reactionary. Moreover, problem solvers tend to search for problems. In this way, they tend to focus on what does not work, which leads to blame, finger-pointing and scapegoating. Look instead toward innovations and successes. Given a clearly defined long-term goal and an awareness of how best to succeed at each step of the way, work backward from the desired end-result. In this way you will frame each necessary step needed to achieve your goals by way of successes, not problems. Yes, this will require a paradigm shift and change to the status quo and, as you know, some people may not necessarily like that. But, change, whether good or bad, at some point will be inevitable. You might as well embrace it and use it to your advantage.

Excerpts taken from Alan Weiss PhD in 2004 about innovation and how a leader can help turn a challenge into a gift. These exercises take energy, time and dedication, but the riches gained from the work will greatly benefit leaders and organizations facing economic challenges:

1. Explore your unexpected past successes. What happened? Find out how and why that experience became a success. Then, refocus on what worked.

2. Explore your unexpected failures. If you have the guts and fortitude to look past the pain, the lessons that come from failures will be great gifts.

3. Analyze unexpected events in your professional life. As leaders it is your job to take the time to look at unexpected events in the world and in your industry and glean from them the nuggets that lay just under the surface.

4. Process through what you perceive as weakness. Find the weak link or missing link in your process, your skills or your organization.

5. Stay up with changes in industry and/or notice changes in market structure. Vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors and then by micro chips. Those companies who didn’t look at and invest in the new technology were left behind. CEO’s who kept their noses to the grindstone and just redoubled their efforts to improve on the vacuum tube were also left behind. Stay ahead of the curve. Embrace and learn to leverage the changes that are coming. “Familiar” or “tried and true” aren’t always the best indicators of success.

6. Stay alert of high-growth business areas. This one seems obvious, but most people jump on the bandwagon too late because they were working hard instead of working smart. Great business people are often 180 degrees off from what everyone else is doing. When most people were buying real estate a few years ago, the smart people were selling off their inventories. Now their coffers are full and these wise individuals are waiting to buy back many of those same properties for 40 and 60 cents on the dollar. Is that luck or just anticipating change and leveraging it?

7. Converge complementary technologies. Individual technologies may not represent opportunity by themselves, but when taken together they may represent substantial opportunity for those willing to look for it. Computers were cool toys for a select few until the right software came along to make them a mainstay of our world.

8. Be aware of demographic changes. This can mean people moving into an area or industry or out of an area or industry. This can refer to age, education, race, income distribution, buying habits, etc. For an example, think of the recent increase in the piercing or tattoo industries.

9. Give unbiased consideration to changes in perception. Changes in perception are not changes in the facts themselves but rather are changes in the way people choose to interpret the facts. Perception is reality.

10. Gather new knowledge. What trends and information are out there regarding your industry, specific business, departments and processes within your business? Look out to the world as well as inside your business for these answers.