What should you do if a dangerous shadow culture exists?
The Sydney Swans have long been held up as a model of strong culture. So the conduct the club itself sanctioned after the Pullman Hotel incident sits a long way from that reputation.
It raises a question every leader should be asking: is there a gap between the culture we talk about and the one that actually exists?
The gap widens when people ‘play the game’ – saying and doing things behind the scenes that wouldn’t be tolerated out in the open.
Every organisation has a shadow culture to some degree. It might be harmless gossip, workarounds or in-jokes, but it can drift into something more corrosive – back-channel deals, influential cliques, bullying and inappropriate behaviour that everyone knows about but nobody confronts, unless a whistleblower steps forward at great personal risk.
I saw this early in my career, for example, where certain cliques would actively undermine executives and their decisions.
Left unchecked, toxic shadow cultures sew distrust and increase frictions, stifle innovation and put an organisation’s reputation at risk. If, or when, the behaviour finally does come out into the open, all hell breaks loose!
Shadow cultures thrive on off-site activities, after-hours events and in conversations leaders aren’t part of.
A strong reputation can make it worse. When you believe your culture is good, warning signs get written off as outliers. I’ve seen this happen too.
So which is it for the Swans – did the board, management and coaches know, or were they blindsided? Neither answer is comfortable to admit.
CEO Matthew Pavlich has said the club has ‘a long way to go’ and media reports suggest there were earlier concerns about players partying heavily away from Sydney. They’ve commissioned an independent culture review and it will be telling to see what it finds.
What can you do about it? Leaders must gauge if their shadow culture has crossed a line where the risk is too great.
Cultural change is hard, it takes time and it rarely goes to plan. But giving up is worse.
Start by convening honest conversations.
Ask the hard questions: Are we willing to find out how things really are? Do we have a problem? Are we, as a leadership group, prepared to rally around it and do our best?
It’s doing the hard work.
Getting people to say what they actually see in a way that leads to engagement and positive action rather than defensiveness takes a well-designed process and often an independent voice in the room.
Where have you seen shadow cultures at play? And were they brought into the open?
Phil Preston is a leading resilience and adaptability speaker with keynotes suited to individuals, teams and leaders. He can be messaged via hello@philpreston.com.au
