Kate Price - Taming the Culture Tiger: The Art and Science of Transforming Organizations and Accelerating Innovation

Industry researchers and consultants have declared that most efforts to fundamentally change the trajectory of an organization fail. More than three decades of working in and leading large life science corporations brings me to support that contention. This is a vexing condition plaguing the corporate world and most certainly the life science industry. There is no shortage of observations for why this is true or proposed tactics to remedy the issue. Its frustrating to witness how progress for the products and services that could benefit the world are missed or delayed due to companies failed efforts to realize their visions for change. This book brings a much-needed perspective and approach to equip leaders to overcome the failure modes that seem all too common.

It has been my pleasure and privilege to know and work with Dr. Kate Price for the better part of five years. Early on, I learned that Kate was quite different from many consultants one encounters in the corporate world when pursuing change initiatives. As a professional psychologist, Kate was focused on culture in a unique but practical way. She holds the view that to transform a company, you need to transform the culture, and to transform the culture, you need to transform the peopleand transform them in a way that does not create resistance, leading to failed attempts to change.

Many organizations operate assuming the leaders have the skills, vision, and direction-setting ability to drive a transformation. However, as I discovered through Kates coaching, I had to learn and change things about myself and my ways of leading in parallel with driving organizational change. The aha moment for me came when I made explicit in my own mind the notion that for an organization to transform, the leader must transform as well.

This person-centered approach requires specific knowledge, insights, and tools that relate to how people think and feel, beyond where they sit and what they do each day. This is where Kates approach, chronicled in the book you are about to read, is unique. Kate describes an approach for doing the careful work of considering the complexity of emotions and thinking that reside in the heads of leaders, teams, and individuals, and she outlines how this applies to cultural change and the hurdles you might face.

While these concepts apply to any organization, herein Kate demonstrates, through the use of anecdotes and stories inspired and adapted from her work, a more specialized application for organizations that require highly educated, highly technical leaders and employeesroutinely found in the life sciences.

These highly motivated and intelligent scientists and engineers are often used to being the smartest person in the room and are deeply motivated to make a difference by designing solutions that improve lives and health and create change in the world. Life science innovation usually requires long lead times and faces a high likelihood of failure. When these features combine, the resulting organizational dynamics are anything but ordinary, underscoring the need for cultures that support innovation and the approach to developing them, which this book offers.

Kate is an insightful scientist in her own right, and she has practiced in complex and challenging environments. This has allowed her to grow and refine her theory and application, and the result of that journey is codified here. Kate is simultaneously a tremendous executive coach and cultural consultant. I have benefited from her challenges, encouragement, and guidance in my own development and transformation, and I am honored to introduce you to this work and to her, both of which I believe can help you become a more successful leader and person.

Aaron Schacht

CEO, BiomEdit

Formerly Executive Vice President for Innovation, Regulatory
and Business Development at Elanco Animal Health