Different aesthetics with Tope Babayemi
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According to Wikipedia, “Organisational culture refers to culture in any type of organisation including that of schools, universities, not-for-profit groups, government agencies, or business entities. In business, terms such as corporate culture and company culture are often used to refer to a similar concept.”
It was in the late 90s when I worked with an organisation that was consulting for the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) that I had my first experience of helping to build organisational culture for a corporate entity.
NLNG at the time was the largest development project in Africa and the third largest globally. At that time, the administrative headquarters was in Lagos while operations was on Bonny Island, Rivers State and our brief was to help the NLNG evolve a strong organisational culture that will enhance productivity and foster cohesion within the workforce. The penalty for defaulting on delivery of a shipment of the LNG was so stiff that everything possible was done to prevent a default on delivery of gas already paid for by countries that bought from NLNG. Productivity was the ultimate goal. I must add that I met during this period, some of the best Nigerian professionals that I am ever likely to come by in my lifetime. I also had the privilege of working in the most professional setting I have ever worked in Nigeria.
The big challenge was how to bring divergent energies inherent in a diverse workforce together to deliver the vision, mission and goals of the organisation. Virtually all the senior managers at the time were expatriates apart from the general managers that handled services and public/external relations. They were in the main LNG specialists from around the world – Australia, Europe, America and the Middle East. For many of them, it was the first time they would be working in Africa and for quite a few, it was their last jobs as they were nearing retirement and had mortgages and children’s university fees to pay off. As such they took their work and their holidays seriously. Their focus was to work, earn their pay and get out.
The Nigerian engineers and the generality of the local workforce were stakeholders of sorts but disadvantaged at many levels. In establishing a world class organisation, not enough cognisance had been paid to the factor of culture and the role it could play in helping to build an organisational culture that will promote productivity. Many of the expatriates were condescending and some downright racist. I remember my first few days in the administrative area preparing for the programme. Built from containers and prefabricated materials, the structure had narrow corridors. Some of the senior expatriate staff had taken it for granted that all Nigerians they passed would move out of the way for them. So, when this Nigerian fellow lowered one shoulder and bumped them off the way without looking back, just like we did in similar situations on pavements in the UK, they were not pleased at all and of course reported to senior management. There, they were told that the fellow was a consultant helping to develop organizational culture and would be their trainer/facilitator for the periodical one-week communication skills/cross-cultural living training that all staff, from management to the shop floor had to attend. The training workshops took place periodically for about two years and it was a real professional pleasure working to global standards with a Nigerian such as Mutari Wada who at the time was general manager, general services and the most senior Nigerian in Bonny.
The work was also one of the most professionally fulfilling that I have ever done in Nigeria because of visible and quantifiable results achieved. For a start, the menu of food provided by management changed to include Nigerian dishes. When I got to Bonny, there were maybe four restaurants of international standard and none served Nigerian food. I picked the final day of the workshops to serve Nigerian cuisine only. Conservative expatriates either skipped lunch or got used to it. It amuses me when I remember that the first ‘pounded yam’ ever served at the NLNG was made with a spaghetti machine. It came out in strands into a large bowl and the ingenious catering manager used gloved hands to mould it into shape. The workshop participants did not know this but the effect on them of having Nigerian food on offer was incredible. A couple of them had complained to me that although they were well paid, they generally felt they were in an ‘executive prison’ because of policies that were not friendly to their reality.
One Nigerian engineer told me. “Yes, I am grateful for the training and the job but, after eating haggis in Scotland for 18 months then grains in Qatar for another 12, I get home to Nigeria to work and there is no Nigerian food available. Worse, I am allowed only two or three visitors a month. How can you prevent me from hosting parents and family who laboured to educate me from spending time with me?”
So, in reaction after work, the Nigerian engineers boycotted all facilities including the recreation centre, the lawn tennis courts the gymnasiums and swimming pools. I told them they were wrong in their reaction because they were important stakeholders. There was an understanding that by 2012, most of the expatriate engineers would have been replaced by Nigerians anyway, so, it would be tantamount to scoring an ‘own goal’ boycotting facilities built for their benefit. In showing them how to ‘free up’, I became a bit of a ‘cultural terrorist’. Every day, after work, I would get into my mountain biking gear and with a 21 speed bike borrowed from one of the Dutch participants, explore as far as Bonny Town and New Finima. I was the only black person anyone had seen mountain biking at the time in Bonny. I would then, after cycling for a couple of hours, ride to the recreation centre to shoot pool, then have dinner and ride home to my guest house. It was a delight to see when last I visited in 2000 that the situation had changed drastically and positively. The NLNG community had become a lot more inclusive.
In all, it is important to state here that the political will to make change was primary to the success of the training and consultancy. The NLNG had the will, at highest levels, to build a corporate culture that took due cognisance of her operating environment and proactively worked to bring divergent energies inherent to the organisation together to aid productivity.
