CREATE A CULTURE CHANGE
Blog: Colin Crofts - Business Process Improvement
Driving cultural change
The hardest part of a business transformation is changing the organizational culture – the mindset and instincts of the people in the company. Organizational culture is like an iceberg, with most of its weight and bulk below the surface.
An existing culture is based on shared philosophies, ideologies, values, assumptions, beliefs and attitudes. Transforming, sustaining and allowing for evolution of a culture is a complex process requiring a clearly articulated strategic aim, underpinning objectives and long term programme coordination and mobilization of resources.
So, what are the keys to CREATE a cultural change?
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- Clarify values and organizational culture code
- Reinforce the vision and purpose – Ensure that everyone in the organization is clear on vision, values, culture code and how those elements lead to success
- Empower behaviors aligned with values, culture code and vision
- Align conversations up and down the organization
- Target effort on high impacts areas
- Emphasize success, plan for wins, celebrate change
Don’t shortcut the process of cultural change
Organizations may try to shortcut the process of cultural change by:
- Changing practices without changing values – Leaders often create new programs or policies without attempting to change the underlying beliefs that guide individual choices. Employees and supervisors who don’t believe in the change will at best not support it, and at worst undermine it.
- Confusing “espoused” values with underlying values – Leaders often develop and publish new values, but forget to work on changing employees’ beliefs about how the world works. Ignoring what’s below the surface is what will ultimately undermine organizational transformation.
Patience and persistence is required
Any cultural change involves changing the mindset and instincts of each person in the company. This does not happen overnight. So, patience and persistence is required to continue down the path for the one to three years it will often take to realize a full and complete cultural change in your organization.
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