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innovations gained through new projects can be shared with later projects, while at
[2]
the same time sharing knowledge about potential pitfalls.
Organizational culture is the workplace environment formulated from the
interaction of the employees in the workplace. Organizational culture is defined by all

of the life experiences, strengths, weaknesses, education, upbringing, and other
attributes of the employees. While executive leaders play a large role in defining
organizational culture by their actions and leadership, all employees contribute to the
organizational culture.
As you might imagine, achieving alignment between mission and vision and
organizational culture can be very powerful, but culture is also difficult to change.
This means that if you are seeking to change your vision or mission, your ability to
change the organization’s culture to support those new directions may be difficult, or,
at least, slow to achieve.
For instance, in 2000, Procter & Gamble (P&G) sought to change a
fundamental part of its vision in a way that asked the organization to source more of
its innovations from external partners. Historically, P&G had invested heavily in
research and development and internal sources of innovation—so much so that “not
invented here” (known informally as NIH) was the dominant cultural mind-
[3]
set. NIH describes a sociological, corporate, or institutional culture that avoids
using products, research, or knowledge that originated anywhere other than inside the
organization. It is normally used in a pejorative sense. As a sociological phenomenon,
the “not invented here” syndrome is manifested as an unwillingness to adopt an idea
or product because it originates from another culture. P&G has been able to combat
this NIH bias and gradually change its culture toward one that is more open to
external contributions, and hence in much better alignment with its current mission
and vision.
Social networks are often referred to as the “invisible organization.” They
consist of individuals or organizations connected by one or more specific types of
interdependency. You are probably already active in social networks through such
Web communities as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. However, these sites are
really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the emerging body of knowledge
surrounding social networks. Networks deliver three unique advantages: access to
“private” information (i.e., information that companies do not want competitors to
have), access to diverse skill sets, and power. You may be surprised to learn that
many big companies have breakdowns in communications even in divisions where
the work on one project should be related to work on another. Going back to our
Pixar example, for instance, Disney is fostering a network among members of its
Pixar division in a way that they are more likely to share information and learn from
others. The open internal network also means that a cartoon designer might have
easier access to a computer programmer and together they can figure out a more
innovative solution. Finally, since Pixar promotes communication across hierarchical
levels and gives creatives decision-making authority, the typical power plays that
might impede sharing innovation and individual creativity are prevented. Managers
see these three network advantages at work every day but might not pause to consider
how their networks regulate them.

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