Can Two Rights Make a Wrong?: Insights from IBM's Tangible Culture Approach

Nowadays, nearly every business leader recognizes the crucial importance of culture. But, in many organizations, attempts to handle culture issues remain squishy, unfocused, and unlikely to bring any value or results. Now, IBM's leading experts reveal the way to make culture tangible to everyone involved-and how to effectively deal with a variety of culture challenges. Can Two Rights Make a Wrong? leverages the lessons learned during IBM's $3.5 billion acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting: insight that IBM has crystallized into a powerful methodology for transforming business culture. The authors introduce Business Practices, an actionable surrogate for culture that business people can identify with, gauge, and act upon. Then, one step at a time, you'll learn how to apply IBM's practical culture transformation techniques in your unique environment. You'll discover common patterns that lead to culture clashes so you can resolve or, better yet, prevent them. You'll learn to clarify your expectations so people really get it-and do it. You'll gain the way to measure culture change progress in terms everyone can understand and buy into. Whether you're involved with M&As, joint ventures, major transformation, internal restructuring, or any other initiative where culture is important, this book can help you take culture from a worrisome risk to a competitive advantage. Business Practices: the unseen hand that propels action Uncover what makes your organization unique Right vs. Right: What to do when good options conflict Understand and manage the source of culture clash Outcome Narratives: Get to the rightplace, the right way Clarify your desired future, clear the obstacles, measure progress, and deliver results Successful culture change requires the same discipline you bring to the rest of your business. It demands a strong methodology that helps you clarify your goals and expectations, identify and overcome obstacles, measure progress...and get results. This book delivers that methodology. IBM's powerful, proprietary Tangible Culture approach will help you make culture visible and measurable- so you can replace feel good culture work with focused, actionable plans for change. Use IBM's techniques to surface, understand, and reconcile differences among groups that must work together, so you can launch alliances more successfully...drive more value from acquisitions...enhance cross-silo and global operations...choose the right strategies...and make real transformation happen. Whatever your goals, culture is central to your success. With this book, you can finally address culture-systemically, proactively, and effectively. Leverage IBM's Breakthrough Methodology for Driving Effective Culture Change Drive real culture change, survive the effort, and reap genuine results Overcome culture challenges and risks Successfully execute on M&As, business alliances, transformation and internal restructuring Use downloadable templates to customize IBM's techniques for your environment Learn what IBM learned from its $3.5 billion acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting