Understand your legends, and you will understand your organization.
“Sometimes legends make reality, and become more useful than the facts.”
—Salman Rushdie
Everyone told me stories about him. He was the top salesperson, but his methods were…well, let’s say unorthodox.
I heard how he overcame price objections by forming a gun with his left hand, placing it against the prospect’s temple, and saying, “If I held a .45 to your head like this, could you come up with the money?” I was told that he would ask if he could see the prospect’s Visa card, “Just to see if it has the same magnetic strip as mine.”, then refuse to return it until the prospect agreed to buy. People reported that he arrived at a Hawaiian-themed prospect party wearing only a lei. And I heard how he would head to San Francisco on Saturday night and return with a fistful of signed contracts…origins unknown.
Most of these stories ended the same way: “Well, they had to let him go, but boy, could he close sales!”
Were the stories true? Did they actually happen? Did this person actually exist? Who knows? But they had become a legend of the company, and as such, spoke volumes about the culture of “anything goes” when it came to closing sales.
A legend is defined as “a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated,” and every organization has them. Some are long-standing lore that a new hire hears within days of starting work. Some are told in various forms but with a consistent belief. And some legends are even true.
Many times, a legend grows from a small grain of fact. An employee does something that is slightly out of the norm in the company cafeteria, and by the time the legend takes hold, he was standing naked in the lunch line.
Another example came during a cultural audit for a construction company. This legend involved a superintendent who was at odds with the importance of safety espoused by the organization. Several people shared the story of how this Superintendent put people at risk. Some versions resulted in injuries; others had fatalities. Some versions had the Superintendent fired but later rehired, others had no consequences at all. Interestingly, I could never find an eyewitness or even anyone who had first-hand knowledge of this legend. But the message this legend was conveying was that the organization says it cares about safety, but really doesn’t.
What fascinates me about these artifacts is how much they reveal about the underlying norms of the culture: what’s okay, what’s not okay, what’s really important. Their origins and whether they are factual are less interesting to me than how they live on.
Legends contain truths that people won’t—or can’t—express directly. The meanings within can illuminate an organization’s inner workings, and as a result, can be important guideposts in understanding the true operational culture.
What are the legends in your organization? What do they say about your values? How do they speak to what people love and fear about their company?
“It may have happened, it may not have happened, but it could have happened.”
— Mark Twain
Contact Success Authorities for more information on understanding the Operational Culture in your organization.
Ronn Lehmann advises organizations and leaders on the human factors that determine their culture. Lehmann developed the Cultural Audit Process, which is designed to provide an outside perspective of an organization’s culture: what’s important, what’s rewarded and punished, what the rules are, and how people “show up.”