During the Vietnam War, U.S. Col. David Hackworth made a courageous – and dangerous – attempt to change the culture of the soldiers under his command.

He took over a dispirited battalion in January 1969, and some of his soldiers didn’t welcome his attempts to make the group combat-ready.

So they put a bounty on his head.

Hackworth, now retired, was warned that there was money in a pot – the reward for the first soldier to roll a grenade into his tent.

Gene Mage uses battlefield story to make point.

Ultimately Hackworth’s tough love won over the troops in the U.S. Army’s 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry.

The story, told in his book Steel My Soldiers’ Hearts, is a favourite of Gene Mage, an organizational consultant, author and speaker.

“They put up the bounty because he was setting boundaries,” Mage says.

“They needed to get their act together. He loved them, and he knew if they didn’t they were going to die.

“He was willing to stick it out and they became one of the most dedicated units in the war in Vietnam.”

Based in New York, Mage raised the story about Hackworth in a recent telephone interview with Business Edge. Mage had written an interesting paper on strategies that leaders could take to create better cultures in the workplace.

In the paper he referred to the often-overworked noun “courage.” If leaders wanted to change the culture of their organizations, or even just within their own departments, they needed courage, he wrote.

I asked him why.

“There is personal risk involved,” he says. “It takes guts to buck the trend.

People don’t like things to change. So the person who leads is vulnerable.”

Most leaders and managers will never have to worry about having a grenade tossed under their desk, but Mage says he often encounters organizations – as in Col. Hackworth’s experience – where the troops fight against leadership.

In a recent paper written for the American Society of Association Executives, Mage outlines a leadership strategy to deal with what he calls “organizational elephants,” weighty issues that block an organization’s progress.

Those elephants include toxic gossip, entrenched mediocrity and negative politics.

“Left unchecked, these elephants disrupt even the best organizations. They undermine our ability to implement change and drain the joy from our workday.”

The overall point Mage makes is that leaders have more power than they think to alter cultures. Leaders tend to disempower themselves by saying, “We can’t fight this, this is just the way people are.”

But most people will happily buy into more positive workplace behaviours. They just need to be shown how. Many have grown up never learning how to resolve conflict, Mage says, and that carries into the workplace.

“People aren’t bad,” he adds. “They just don’t know any different.”

Gossip is a good example, he notes. Gossips waste time and energy. When in conflict, people will often try to enhance their stature by tearing others down.

To combat such behaviour, leaders must send a message that they won’t condemn, judge or shoot employees down if they discuss what’s bothering them, Mage says.

He describes one colleague’s approach of pulling gossips aside privately and asking: “What’s the problem?” and “How can we solve it?”

By modelling openness and a tone of consideration, and giving gossips the benefit of the doubt, the issues are depersonalized, Mage explains. Sometimes the issues are legitimate, but the person needs a more constructive way to raise it.

By beginning the exchange with an employee in a diplomatic, non-judgmental manner, the gossip is less likely to become defensive or sabotage the conversation.

It also can give the employee a sense that they have control in solving the problem. And once such a culture is established, it’s just a matter of bringing people together to agree on how they will work together – so work is a fun place to come to each day.

“Describe it (the culture you want), agree on it and hold each other accountable,” Mage says.

“What we’ve found is that, if given the chance, most people really like acting responsibly. They prefer it.”

Mage also acknowledges that many organizations turn a blind eye to the ‘elephants’ and the mess they make. Many managers have told him they are keenly aware of issues such as gossiping and mediocrity.

However, to raise these issues with top leadership would be perceived as being critical and negative, so managers are loathe to raise the issue.

“A weak senior manager will have fears and will sugar-coat what’s happening,” Mage says. “Instead of saying this is wrong, they’ll say, ‘this is the culture here.’ They excuse it.”

But Mage believes that managers and leaders can do much to set the cultural tone, even if it’s just within their work group.

“You can’t fix the other guy’s work group, but you can definitely fix your own,” he says. “You can create islands of excellence in a sea of mediocrity. The (entire) system doesn’t have to change in order for you to create success. It’s very empowering.”

As part of his consulting, Mage offers specific strategies to remove ‘elephants’ from the workplace and to keep them from muscling their way back in.

Much of the work focuses on open communication and creating shared values, and involving people in decision-making. Leaders must model and teach effective approaches to working with others, he says.

“People tend to rise to the standards that are set for them. They interpret what those standards are by observing the behaviour of the leader.”

Mage concludes that creating lasting changes takes tenacity, skill and yes, even courage.

“Exercising integrity at work naturally involves taking risk,” he says. “Doing the right thing often has a price.”

Fortunately for most, unlike Col. David Hackwork, it doesn’t mean having a bounty on your head.

* Note: The full text of Evict the Elephants can be found at www.makingitwork.com

(Mike Dempster can be reached at miked@businessedge.ca)