We expect that organizations within our enterprise will have their own way of working. Sales, engineering, and operations teams are informed by their objectives, experiences, and biases, good and bad. As we write in Intentional Tension, the “reticence to think outside one’s four walls can become so ingrained into an organization that it takes on a life of its own.” We refer to these as microcultures—they lurk everywhere, they may be well-meaning, or even unconsciously cultivated, and as such, can be hard to identify. But more often than not, they create interorganizational tensions that undermine your strategic objectives and pathways to growth.

How do you know if you have microcultures operating at scale in your enterprise? One way to isolate that problem is to look for the symptoms that undermine your vision. Microcultures create organizational “antibodies” to change. An acquisition or new business model may leave people feeling like the strategic rug was pulled out from under them, or worse, they may actually wish for a plan to fail!

Here are some common signs that you may have trouble lurking within your org chart:

1. Disappointing post-merger integration results, including declining revenue growth and missed synergy savings
2. Reorganizations that failed to achieve the desired change in performance
3. New product launches or new market entry where timelines stretch inexplicably
4. Rigid key business processes that seem immune to strategic change or adaptation to dynamic market expectations
5. The whiteboards in your conference rooms are noticeably clean

Clean whiteboards and quiet break rooms likely mean that the interorganizational tensions have risen to the point of apathy. As in physics, every action has a reaction and consequence, and so too, the lack of action. From Intentional Tension: “As leaders, we must always be mindful of the tensions in our company and organizations. The goal is not only to be mindful but also to be intentional. To be intentional implies that we understand the way work gets done, the process of the business, and the people dynamics that are in play.”

Our framework to address microcultures? Have a plan and execute; know how work is done; operate in the open; tune your organizational “racket”; rinse and repeat.