Why Permission Culture kills positive change. And 7 warning signs to look out for.

We know what we need to do to succeed, we have a great opportunity, and we now have the backing. But this feels like wading through treacle.  Why can’t we GET GOING?’   

This was the frustration I heard from a senior business leader last week. She is confused by lack of urgency, lack of action and ‘hanging back’ she sees in her teams.  And she is not alone. Everywhere we go in UK and North American big companies, we hear the same: Business leaders who’ve ‘broken the big rocks’ by creating the strategy, securing the funding and setting up the Change Plans, and are now frustrated by the lack of pace they witness from their people as they move into implementation.  

These changes are positive, they are blessed with resources, investment and opportunities.  This represents good news, something positive to focus and work with – for workforces characterised by people wanting to make a difference.  

Why do these well laid plans get stuck in treacle, despite the turbo-charged communications and leadership launches? 

Business thought leader Peter Drucker famously said: 

‘Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast’ 

We see that breakfast being eaten every day in large organisations with ambitious plans for change. 

Every team and every business has a culture.  Whether that team are aware of it or not. 

And it’s the culture determines the ability to perform, to grow, to innovate and to change. Culture determines the behaviours of the people on that team and in that business and how they think and feel about their work and careers. 

So what's the most common type of culture we are seeing in big companies – especially those with long history, high structure and high regulation?  

Passive, permission-based culture.  

If you’re a Head of Culture or People, you’re probably familiar with the concept.  But you may not see the connection between this type of culture and commercial risk.   

It matters because it blocks speaking up and therefore true collaboration and innovation.  It freezes potential and limits organisation’s abilities to grow and change.  

Good fortune and the right market conditions can enable companies to succeed commercially in spite of permission culture. In the short term. But it’s a risky game.   

The spectacular demise of the Royal Bank of Scotland under Fred Goodwin’s leadership was directly related to a culture where the words “Fred said” were used to squash dissent, ideas and opinion.  Similarly, malpractice and low integrity thrived in the permission-based cultures of Enron and Arthur Anderson.  Volkswagen, a formerly respected brand, may never fully recover from the emissions scandal.  All that took was a small number of dishonest engineers, and a workforce of thousands who may not have been dishonest but were locked in permission culture.   

The risks of permission culture aren’t just seen in these high-profile cases. 

Much more common is the way it stifles pace and innovation.  There are numerous examples of businesses that failed or lost out because they couldn’t innovate and change at the required pace. Market leaders, with powerful brands, incredible people and huge budgets, who couldn’t adapt fast enough to a changing world.  Why did Sony fail to invent an iPod equivalent?  Why was Nokia not the first to invent the smart phone? And how did Blockbuster Video get eaten alive by Netflix?  All of these case studies demonstrate the threats of permission culture. 

So, how can you spot permission culture?   

Here are the 7 most common signs we’re currently seeing in large organisations: 

1.People sit back, stay quiet and don’t want to ‘get involved’ 

Passive, permission-based behaviour is a sure sign that people lack the energy, enthusiasm or confidence to speak up and don’t feel it’s ‘their place’ to surface challenge or pursue opportunity.    

2. People don’t ask ‘why?’ 

In permission cultures people don’t challenge, they don’t seek to really understand, they wait for instruction or direction and then follow it. Sometimes blindly.  If people in your organisation aren’t asking curious, uncomfortable questions, you have a problem.  They probably don’t feel safe enough or empowered enough to raise their head above the parapet in search of better understanding. 

3. People hoard information in search of power 

People usually get most of their information about the business from their Line Managers. Sadly, too many managers like keeping employees dependent on them in this way, because it makes them feel superior, more ‘in control’ or valuable.  If you see a lack of transparency or people using a ‘need to know’ basis for sharing and collaborating, it can be a sign that people are responding like this because they feel disempowered in other ways. 

4. Line Managers think leadership means knowing all the answers 

In permission cultures we see lots of paternalistic behavior among first and second line managers, who feel responsible for having all the answers and for supervising and protecting their people.   They feel they ‘should’ have the answers, and this stops them opening, asking for help and inviting others around the table for opinions and ideas.  This in turn squashes the life force out of the people in their team, who feel their role is ‘do as instructed’ and only speak up if directly asked. 

5. Bad news gets hidden  

Permission culture leadership isn’t always about unsympathetic power-based behavior, instead it can feel like (over) caring parenting. In this situation we see leaders withholding bad news from their team, or offering unrealistic reassurance to deflect the reality they find themselves in.  This in turn means the culture is built around fake optimism, which holds people back from speaking up, from owning failures and surfacing challenges. 

6. Performance management is confused with micro-management 

Good performance management is all about clarity of goals and behaviour (the what and the how), kind candour in terms of regular, specific and constructive feedback, and effective accountability in terms of owning outcomes and learning from setbacks.  For skilled leaders in an adult-adult culture, none of these rely on people physically being in the same place.  And in parent-child relationships, line managers confuse performance management with micro- management and resort to supervising, counting and overseeing.  This challenge has come into the spotlight with the brutal move to remote and now hybrid working, with parent-child leadership demanding a full ‘return to proper work’ where they can ‘keep an eye on’ their team members. 

7. Change is resisted, ignored or delayed 

This is the big one.  If the people on your team are uncomfortable with change they probably don’t engage well around uncertainty and ambiguity.  Change usually brings uncertainty and ambiguity, especially in large organisations where things are rarely simple, with many complexities that need to be worked through on change programmes.  For change to be successful it needs buy in, it calls for people to embrace the uncertainty of the journey of change and it relies on them knowing what ‘their part is’ and being accountable.  In parent-child cultures people hang back, they wait for absolute clarity (which is rarely available) and in the face of uncertainty they deny, delay or, ignore so they stay in their comfort zone of ‘how we get things done around here’ today.   

This final sign, along with the first around passivity leads to teams and people getting well and truly STUCK – stuck in the same old ways of working, the same beliefs and the same entrenched behaviours that often don’t serve the people or the business they work within. 

Why do we fall into the permission culture trap so readily? 

When we realise what permission culture looks like, we see it everywhere.  So why is this culture so common, especially amongst the giants of business? 

The ‘factory’ era may be over, but the mentality of supervision persists.   

 The workplace has undergone a huge and complex evolution since the industrial era. Almost everything has changed, with the advent of technology freeing us from the chains of what was possible just a few decades ago.  But the legacy of ‘supervision’ lives on in many large, well-established organisations that relied on the rigid structure of command-and-control leadership to get things done and to produce a reliable and predictable output. 

This hierarchical, command-and-control approach has served a purpose in the past and continues to deliver (to a point) in some situations that demand a high sensitivity to risk and a low requirement for innovation and collaboration. 

Therefore, we see a high degree of permission culture in businesses operating in a highly regulated environment, like financial services, and also in workplaces where cost-cutting and downsizing have been the norm for some time.   

Permission culture is common - even ‘normal’ - but it’s also damaging. 

The benefits of breaking free from permission culture     

There are many studies that show the damaging impact of stifling innovation in the workplace.  Permission cultures create an institutionalised workforce, who lack the confidence and ability to have rigorous debate and to take the joined up, proactive action necessary to stay competitive. 

Conversely, people who work within an adult-to-adult dynamic are more open and excited for change. They don't fear uncertainty and can deal with ambiguity, because they're not afraid to ask questions.  As a result, they're more likely to trust each other and to offer challenge and support in equal measure - to team members and their leaders. 

It's not surprising that today’s top-performing businesses are working to leave permission leadership behind, replacing it with a new model of leadership that treats employees like adults who have powerful potential and deserve the opportunity to take control of their work and life.  

Establishing an adult-to-adult dynamic encourages everyone to become self-leading and self-sufficient and results in a more motivated, fulfilled and energised workforce. Employees are more interested and aligned with the business vision and more committed to playing their part in achieving it. 

If you’re a head of people, business or culture in a large organisation and recognize the challenges of permission culture in your business, you don’t need to be stuck on how to tackle this challenge.  

You have a huge opportunity to unleash a new adult-to-adult culture which becomes the enabler for positive innovation, change and ultimately growth.  

 At Nkuzi Change we unlock a shift in culture in large organisations – away from permission and towards adult-to-adult.  We have a lot of evidence to support the power of this shift and expertise in making it happen. 

 If you’re interested in how we do this, we’d love to hear from you. 

 You may also like this article, which includes practical tips on how to help middle leaders get unstuck from permission-based leadership: https://www.nkuzichange.com/blog/why-your-middle-leaders-are-locked-into-command-control -