The most common theme that I see when I am called into organisations is the unspoken conflict between business partners. Often others can feel the unacknowledged tension between them. At times senior executives want to say something but are unsure. If someone has the courage to talk about the ‘pink elephant sitting in the middle of the room’ the strong need to avoid dominates and people withhold and continue as usual.

This type of leadership behaviour sets the scene for an avoidance clear culture. Senior executives learn how to avoid problems, conflicts, differences of opinion and often group-think can set in. Group think is a type of dysfunction in an organisation that encourages like-minded people and prohibits differences. A good example of a leader who inadvertently encourages group-think is one that recruits clones of himself. Even when this tendency is pointed out to the leader, he recruits what he thinks is the opposite of himself only to realise years later that the senior executive who was chosen for his difference actually had the same pattern of ‘avoidance’ even though it looked different on the outside.

Avoidance culture has many forms and is very complex to resolve. This type of culture is difficult to identify because on the surface it looks as if everything is fine. People are ‘nice’ and friendly and it often feels safe. However, below the surface, things are not as they seem. Even when a facilitator goes looking there is so much denial, cover up, and we can do it by ourselves attitude that anyone who wants to make a difference is sabotaged.

The way forward through this maze is by working with the owners, senior decision makers or the Board on vision, purpose, strategy and business objectives. This intervention must be facilitated by a competent professional outside the organisation who has both the credentials and the strength to do the hard yards all the way through to resolution.

Examples of the kinds of organisational issues a company with an avoidance culture face are:

• Gossip is rife in the company;
• “He said / she said” style of communication;
• Employees and Senior Managers justifying poor performance;
• Declining Gross Profit Margin;
• Track record of missing key performance targets;
• Visible symptoms of organisational decline, such as, reducing sales, declining margins, cash flow restrictions.

You can read more about culture change at out Clear Culture page.