In this  series we’re using the Culture Partners’ model, the Results Pyramid, to examine workplace culture generally and coaching cultures in particular.

In the previous article we looked at how organisational design can impact and support coaching culture.

Now, we’ll consider control systems.

What are control systems?

Many of you will be familiar with the idea of external interference and that many of the things people cite as barriers to their potential coming through are often elements of organisation control. 

In fact, the very word ‘organisation’ implies control and working life would be pretty chaotic without it. 

Unfortunately, control is now a word with negative connotations seen by many as the way senior leaders suppress freedom at work.

Control isn’t necessarily a bad word

In truth, control systems are a necessary part of working life and a way of measuring results and alignment with organisation plans. 

It is common to find organisations using both systems of output control and behavioural control.

Output control systems are concerned with ensuring the necessary quality and quantity of work produced whereas behavioural control systems seek to establish ways or working conducive to the organisation’s values and beliefs. 

Control is now a word with negative connotations seen by many as the way senior leaders suppress freedom at work

Behavioural control systems are covert not overt

I have never seen a staff handbook with a section entitled Behavioural Control Systems, but reward policies, performance management systems, competency frameworks and discipline and grievance procedures are all examples of behavioural control systems, and they may or may not contribute to establishing a coaching culture.

Control systems are a powerful indicator of organisation culture and close examination can be quite revealing. 

I would firstly look at exactly how many control systems there are. 

Control systems are a necessary part of working life and a way of measuring results and alignment with organisation plans

What is the right number of control systems?

There would be no right or wrong number and much would depend on the nature of the organisation. 

A chemical plant would need many and an artist’s studio few. 

Generally speaking, though, we might conclude that an organisation with many controls and checks in place is one with a largely cynical view of the nature of people at work. 

A coaching culture would be one featuring the coaching principles of responsibility and trust

Delving deeper

It is usually telling to find out what activities are most closely monitored, whether the systems are based on what’s happened or what’s coming and whether the emphasis is on punishment or reward.

A coaching culture would be one featuring the coaching principles of responsibility and trust. 

Individuals would be responsible for the full completion of a task rather than an isolated part of a procedure. 

We might conclude that an organisation with many controls and checks in place is one with a largely cynical view of the nature of people at work

Work requirements would be expressed more in terms of targets and standards than detailed task breakdowns. 

Decision making would be pushed down the hierarchy to those nearest the client or customer but supported with the necessary training to make sound decisions. 

There would be generally fewer formal controls. 

Many formal control systems are a substitute for a lack of accountability

Coaching culture as business necessity

At Lexus GB, with whom we worked a while back, we found a small team of customer relations advisers who were fully empowered to decide on goodwill and other remedial actions in the event of customer complaints or dissatisfaction. 

Their job was to ‘keep the customer in the brand’ and they were given the resources to do so. 

This element of a coaching culture allowed them to respond appropriately to a customer base unlikely to have the patience to endure delays while actions were checked, countersigned, reviewed or endorsed. 

Lexus is a luxury marque, and the customers are often high-powered, assertive, strong-willed people. 

In other words, this was coaching culture as business necessity.

Coaching people to feel accountable is better than any control system

Many formal control systems are a substitute for a lack of accountability. 

They’re an attempt at finding an antidote for people’s tendency to require someone or something to blame (when they’re in a culture that makes them feel unsafe).

Culture Partners have a deceptively simple model designed to lift people out of this tendency and encourage them to rise above their circumstances and See It, Own It, Solve It and Do It (SOSD).

This lends itself to some highly effective coaching questions:

• What is the reality you most need to acknowledge (See It)
• What part do you play in the problem or solution? (Own It)
• What else could you do? (Solve It)
• What are you going to do, by when? (Do It)

Using these questions and making such conversations a habit will lessen the need for formal control systems and increase the feeling of working in a coaching culture.

Interested in this topic? Read: The content series: How to build a coaching culture.