The Greek fiscal crisis shows how hard it is to change a country’s culture. A recent New York Times article had some great tidbits that illustrate the point:

For nearly two years, as the debt crisis worsened, Diomidis Spinellis led a team that devised innovative software to help Greece crack down on tax cheats. He sent daily reports to his superiors showing which regional tax offices lagged in closing cases and collecting tax revenue. But last September, Mr. Spinellis, who interrupted a brilliant career as a computer science professor in 2009 to work for the Greek Finance Ministry, resigned, frustrated that officials did little or nothing with the data he generated. “I cannot remember getting an enthusiastic response.”  http://nyti.ms/zNv0kZ

There is a common assumption that a new manager, a new org structure or a takeover by a foreign company will change the culture of the organization.  But it’s never that easy. Culture represents long held beliefs and systems that change at a glacial speed, if at all. They also represent powerful forces resisting change.

“In Greece, the government of the technocratic prime minister, Lucas Papademos, is proving powerless to transform an inefficient public administration that has long served as a power base for the same political leaders — including most of the current government’s ministers — who are now being asked to dismantle it.  It is a formula for gridlock that virtually guarantees, political and financial experts say, that the Greek government will never carry out the kind of basic changes that are being demanded of it.

It is possible to create a new culture within an organization. The first step is an awareness of their existing culture and how it operates. The critical second step is getting input and buy in from the targets for change. French carmaker Renault is a great example of getting it right. Renault head Carlos Ghosn’s meetings with acquired Japanese carmaker Nissan were all focused on a new third culture: ‘how do we make the world’s greatest car company’.