Culture

Culture has many definitions and been the subject of countless analyses and theories, but most would agree that it is the personality of an organisation – it is the subjective, invisible side that determines the ways in which the company goes about its business. It provides the meaning, direction, and clarity that mobilises and directs people towards goals and accomplishments. Where there is a mismatch or misalignment then performance can become fragmented and dissipated, when they are fully aligned then it can be a powerful force for success – look at the extreme example of how the culture at The News of the World failed to match the expectations of its customers and the consequences it has suffered since, or the culture of engagement at John Lewis that has enabled it to grow and succeed even as much of the rest of the economy is struggling.

Most organisations become aware that their culture needs to change when they find they cannot do things in a way that they need to, they are not growing, they are losing customers or clients or find that new products, systems etc. are just not working as they should be.

Defining a culture is a culture statement in itself – the language, how success is recognised, the internal relationships, the teamwork

My framework for delivering culture change is built upon many years of experience working with organisations and applying theories (e.g. Kotter, Lewin, Prochaska and others) in a practical and accessible way.

Key stages for successful cultural change

1. Integrate and link what you are about and where you are heading:

Be consistent in your messaging, reinforce words and symbols as they provide the common language.

Resist the temptation to change and create new words and symbols too soon as they cause confusion and a in some cases a get-out for people who don’t want to do things as you need them to be.

Make sure you “People” or “HR” Policies support the way you want to do things – if you want a creative and innovative culture then too may rules and procedures (bearing in mind legal requirements of course!) can defeat your object.

2. Create a sense of energy and urgency and continually reinforce the need for everybody to behave in an aligned and appropriate way:

The need to behave or do things in a certain way needs to go beyond rational and practical reasoning to emotional engagement.

Any change, and cultural change is no different, needs to have a sense of momentum and a real focus – culture is extremely deep-rooted and “highly resistant to manipulation or change”.

The continual reinforcement is important as behaviour change could be cosmetic and revert if you take your eye off the ball.

Reinforcing the need to change and not taking the foot off the accelerator will bring dissenters to the fore where you can tackle them.

3. Ensure that you and your senior team demonstrate the behaviours you are looking for. The power of what is sometimes called the “shadow of the leader” is immense in helping your people see that you mean it:

The power of a united leadership team is important both for driving the change forward (it gives the change credibility) and providing no room for people to opt out.

People align themselves with like minded people, therefore if there are people who pay lip service or even actually disagree with the required cultural change then they need to be turned or removed or they will create blockers or, even worse, insurgents within the organisation.

This does not mean that a diversity of styles and approaches cannot co-exist, but after the debate and sharing of views there needs to be an alignment.

4. Have a clear vision of the change you want to create:

It sounds simple to say, but the change needs to be the right one!

It is the vision that is important – how we get there may well flex and develop depending on the position of the organisation and progress.

Can you describe the culture you want in simple language?

5. Share the vision – engaging ALL (that is everybody in your business):

People need to be clear about what the vision is so that they can absorb it and make it relevant to them and their own values and preferences.

Everybody is different and they will make sense of the change in the way that makes sense to them and the way they see their work and what is important to them.

Respect those differences and give people time – but don’t give them an option if they want to be part of your organisation.

6. Remove organisational obstacles to change:

As culture change is effectively stopping doing things as they were done before and doing things differently, then it is likely that many of your existing processes and procedures will be counter-culture.

Policies and procedures are powerful symbols of your culture and may well need to be changed.

Beware – this aspect may be the area that is most difficult for your leaders as it could go to the heart of the way they manage and control what goes on in your business!

7. Secure short term wins:

Break the “elephant” down into manageable chunks; monitor and recognise achievement of each of the chunks.

Celebrate successes. Be clear on the end goal and have a clear roadmap to check success along the way.

8. Consolidate and keep moving:

Keep Going!!

It is easy to lose energy if change is not happening fast enough, culture change takes a while to permeate through the organisation and it can be fragile as deep rooted behaviours and ways of doing things take a long while to change.

We also need to remember that the leadership have often already “got it” by the time they come to communicate and share the vision with their teams and will have made any change that needs to be made (and indeed often they are making a change to fit their own values anyway so it is not really a change) for their personal activity.

9. Anchor (‘freeze’) the change:

It could be argued by some that this stage is never reached as culture is continually developing and changing – particularly when you need to adapt to the changing world

However as changes are consolidated they become the new “norm” and need to stay there.