By Micheal Burt and Colby Jubenville

Before you reply to this 100-pound animal question above with a quick “no” and refocus on your to-do list, bear in mind that this animal is known by a second name—culture. And understand that taming this animal is imperative because its destructive behaviors can keep your organization from doing what it was brought together to do.

Here are some telltale signs that your organization might be the animal’s home:

• Several positive change initiatives are in the works, but staff members who make up the “old guard” refuse to alter the way things have always been done. They aren’t receptive to new hires and won’t take an active role in training them. Rather than working to move the group forward, they spend most of their day making excuses for why things should stay the same.
• Employees are constantly patting themselves and each other on the back. Unfortunately, they’re often celebrating empty wins like getting a resident’s request right on the second try or passing an angry resident on to another department. These celebrations only serve as a smoke screen to hide stagnation and lack of progress
• Most people in the organization seem too comfortable. They gravitate toward and nest in the familiar. At times, it seems as if innovation, creativity, and motivation are foreign concepts, which allows poisonous cultures to take entire organizations hostage. The good news is that prepared and proactive leaders can provide clarity, unite the organization’s members, and—yes—tame that animal so that cooperation, growth, and innovation are once again in the spotlight.
• Leaders who can successfully go nose-to-nose with these animals are members of a newly evolving breed called Zebra and Cheetah (or Z&C) leaders. They are also called this because they exhibit qualities of both breeds.

Like zebras, they boast a distinctive appearance that others can easily recognize. Like cheetahs, they possess great speed and are particularly quick accelerators. And like both, they have an ability to use their senses so well that they excel in adapting to their environments. In other words, these are leaders who are able to adapt to the fast-paced, always-changing, and highly competitive world, and who are capable of leading diverse organizations within it.

Zebra and cheetah leaders recognize that 1,000-pound wild animals are sustained by individuals who, unlike themselves, have refused to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of reality.

Here are four things that Z&C leaders can do in order to stop feeding the animal and also create clarity amid the chaos of the concrete jungle:

1. Get real about the reality an organization is facing. Chances are, the path the organization once took through the jungle was wide, well marked, and free of most significant obstacles. Visible indicators, typical benchmarks, and annual performance ratings to keep everyone moving in the right direction were easily visible. And if any doubt cropped up, the organization’s fearless leader would dictate who should lead, who should follow, and what should be done.

To hear your change-averse gorilla tell it, that’s still an accurate portrayal of reality. But don’t let this fool you; the good old days are long gone. In today’s competitive, constantly changing, and global economy, organizations whose cultures expect the journey through the jungle to be easy won’t last long.

These days, the path can quickly change or disappear altogether. You might encounter rockslides or quicksand at any moment. That’s why Z&C leaders are committed to drawing a clear picture of the true, actual circumstances their organizations face, regardless of how positive or negative they may be.

2. Make sure the organization understands the complex order of the concrete jungle. In nature, jungles are incredibly complex. They contain a dizzying amount of animals and plants that are competing for resources and survival. But despite (or in some cases, because of) the occasional casualty, the ecosystem supports the many populations that call it home and enables them to thrive.

Ideally, that’s the case within your organization, too. (Think about the corporate buzzword synergy, which refers to diverse individuals accomplishing more together than they could alone.) It doesn’t matter, however, how balanced and well calibrated an organization is on paper if all of its members don’t understand where, how, and why they fit.

It’s a natural instinct for people to worry about their futures. That’s why so often new ideas, policies, and people spark pushback in the concrete jungle. Established organizational members worry that they’re being edged out or that they’re entering the endangered species list.

And that type of uncertainty feeds the beast. It will attack what it mistakenly perceives to be the competition, effectively halting growth and progress. Remember, as a Z&C leader, it’s imperative for you to not only leverage your organization’s talents but make sure all of its members understand where they fit within its ecosystem, both now and in the future.

3. Clearly define success. Once staff members understand the order of the jungle they inhabit, zebra and cheetah leaders must outline what exactly constitutes success. Left to their own devices, individuals are likely to define that outcome differently, usually in whatever way would benefit them most personally. In this scenario, you’re likely to have some employees who mistakenly believe they’ve “made it,” while others struggle, strive, and snipe their way in the wrong direction.

We refer to the force of an organization working toward success as collective passion. Why? First, collective relates to the fact that everyone is working together toward a shared, dominant aspiration or goal. The word passion has a double meaning. Its modern context involves deep affinity for something, and its Latin root passio means ‘to suffer.’

Make no mistake: The struggle to survive and succeed in the global economy won’t always be pleasant or easy. But if your group goes through the metaphorical fire together, it will emerge as a stronger and more efficient one. Stated plainly, collective passion helps create a cooperative, unified environment in which wild animals can’t survive.

4. Create new levels of professionalism. Good news: This fourth step in overcoming chaos and keeping your corner of the jungle beast-free is the easiest. You’ll find that when an organization’s members have collectively survived the crucible and reached the first level of success you’ve set for them, their relationships with each other will change.

Specifically, competition within a working group will naturally be replaced by new levels of cooperation once everyone sees what they’re all capable of accomplishing together. This will then allow the competitive focus to fall where it belongs: outside the organization.

This is the position you want to be in as a Z&C leader. That is, basing your decisions on factors within the concrete jungle instead of focusing on factors related to employees. Just be sure to keep a close eye out for any signs that the culture beast might be creeping up on you. If you so much as notice employees excusing their own inadequacies or trying to backstab those they see as more productive workers, nip those behaviors in the bud.

There will always be chaos in the world as a whole, but that doesn’t have to be the case within your specific organization. When you succeed in kicking out the wild animal and getting your organization’s members to trust their zebra and cheetah leader, your organization will enjoy increased transparency, accountability, and productivity.

Micheal Burt and Colby Jubenville are coauthors of Zebras & Cheetahs: Look Different and Stay Agile to Survive the Business Jungle (Wiley, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-1186318-0-5); www.zebrasandcheetahs.com).