Your organisation can live for a long time with deep cultural problems: broken attitudes to people, to the work, to the people you’re trying to serve.
There are things you can do to make things better, and a culture can heal, but most of the time most of the therapies – and unless you’re really lucky, almost certainly all of the comfortable therapies – are palliative at best.
At the cost of a tremendous amount of time, money, and effort, you’ll get by for a while. There might even be times when you forget the problem entirely. But put some extra pressure on the system, give it a few minor shocks, introduce a few new challenges or take away some old supports, and you’ll find yourself back on life support.
You need a deeper fix. You might remove a blockage, or add a proven valve – or go for a full transplant.
Surgery always hurts, and no-one wants to go under the knife, but sooner is better than later.
See also:
Seth Godin on Difficult Conversations
Thomas Ricks on firing generals and the two basic tools of management
Ben Horowitz on building companies: “the horror”
Brian Chesky on culture and hiring well
Resource: Marc Andreessen on talent and hiring
Friction (2): emotional friction
Fully support your thougts on this one. It is never easy making tough decisions, but to have the right team with the right attitude will take you a long way to meeting your vision