Organisations, like people, carry echoes of their past. An organisational ghost is a character, behaviour or way of doing things that transcends its original intention.
These ‘ghosts’ can leave long-lasting – if not institutionalised – behaviour and opinions. Their values, decisions, and personalities continue to shape not only the here and now, but an organisation’s future.
Family run businesses tend to be rich with deep rooted relationships. Different generations often work there simultaneously, whether as owners, leaders or staff members. In more established family businesses, you also have long-serving employees where tenure stretches into decades. Loyalty is usually prevalent, as is a strong set of values which typically stem from the owner.
This heritage – experiences, skills and cultural traditions – is often core to the organisation’s entire story, and continues to shape how people think and act today.
If the ghost was a ‘hero’, present-day leadership teams and colleagues typically – rightfully – take steps to preserve that legacy. They recognise customers may also have an emotional loyalty to the business – likely because the heritage is a brand differentiator – so they respect the past and want to keep the ghost alive.
In multi-generational businesses, senior teams often understand the power of consistency and not tinkering with the core idea. But of course this brings challenges. The best leaders learn from the past while creating for the future, otherwise legacy stifles onward innovation. A business can be traditional and cutting-edge at the same time, but it takes work.
If the ghost was a ‘villain’, this overhang of former times risks being limiting.
Take any organisation with a long history, or even younger businesses with outspoken founders. If there was at least one big ‘character’, they likely had a demonstrable effect on how the business evolved.
One of our tech clients found that the bold opinions and behaviour of exited founders was damaging brand reputation and most colleagues were extremely disenchanted. Investors shaped a new C-suite who recognised the need to rebuild the culture and give employees an identity they could be proud of, before it was too late. This wasn’t about PR spin or papering over cracks – it was recognising which ghosts needed to be respectfully left in the past, and using a creative brand strategy to move the business forward.
We could be talking long-standing family businesses, colleges with a former prolific principal, organisations undergoing leadership transitions, or multinational firms now employing tens of thousands of employees. If you catch the team saying “we’ve always done it this way”, or “we didn’t get to where we are now by doing things differently”, you have ghosts. Sometimes these ghosts act as protective barriers against risky decisions. But times move on, markets evolve and people change, so brands need to adapt too.
Ask yourself, do organisational ghosts support our current leaders and the resilience of our business, or do they undermine not only our present team, but the organisation we want to be.
Then you can start to explore the role of your past in your next-step ambition, what you need to leverage, and where some deep-rooted values, habits, or even excuses, must be challenged.
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