Is your organization ready for culture change?

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely my own and not those of my employer or anyone else; nor are they intended for professional human resources. advice that readers should trust.

“The only thing that is constant is change.” Heraclitus

We live in a fast-paced, dynamic and constantly changing environment (political, economic, social and technological) and today’s companies need to be more agile than ever. They need to be responsive, adaptable, flexible and constantly evolving to the needs and demands of their customers. Cultural change is often an essential prerequisite for the successful implementation of any change program.

First, let’s come to a common understanding of the corporate culture. The term has been used for decades. The basic definition of corporate culture is the collective way an organization operates: ‘how do we do things around here’. However, the concept is quite complex. A culture has typically developed over time and can be one of the most difficult challenges for leaders to address and change, especially in government departments and agencies.

As the Director of Human Resources for a large cabinet-level agency, I found driving culture change extremely difficult. One of the reasons for the difficulty is that while the organization’s leaders changed due to the political transition, the employees did not. Consider the fact that at the highest levels of government, change happens every four to eight years, and in some state governments, term limitations ensure that change happens every two years. However, most government employees have been in their jobs for years, and some for decades. Many employees were punished in the way ‘always done’, and resisted any attempts to do things new or differently. Similarly, there are other corporations and nonprofits adopting the same cultural structures with employees in their 20s and 30s establishing the underlying culture and new entrants arriving with different ideas and ways of approaching the business spearheading the cultural change. .

Culture must be intentional

Corporate culture refers to the shared values, attitudes, behaviors and beliefs that characterize the members of that organization and define its purpose and nature. Corporate culture is embedded in the organization’s goals, strategies, structure, and approaches to its employees, customers, shareholders, investors, and the community at large.

Here are just a few examples of behaviors or “things we do around here” that contribute to an organization’s corporate culture:

• how information is communicated
• how feedback is given
• how performance is managed
• how projects are coordinated
• the way meetings are conducted and the structure of the organization
• hierarchy, roles, silos, matrix and/or cross-functional teams

Every organization has its own culture, whether they are aware of it or not. Culture matters as much as your organization’s brand. Zappos, the online shoe company, has built its brand around its corporate culture. Its culture is summed up in the motto, “Work hard, play hard”. The point of studying a corporate culture example like Zappo’s is not to emulate the culture, but to clearly define the culture for your organization and make sure all employees understand that the values ​​and behaviors align.

The video sums up the unique culture of Zappos.

What are the drivers of cultural change? The company needs to understand what the drivers of change are, as this will enable the preparation of a strong business case and gain buy-in from all stakeholders. There may be multiple controllers:

• an economic downturn
• challenging trading conditions
• growth or expansion plans
• a change of direction or strategy
• technological changes and advances
• increased competition
• customer pressure
• changes in government legislation or regulation
• a new electoral cycle.

Whatever your business reasons for change, you need to know or assess your starting point, where you are today (an honest assessment), where you want to be, and how you’re going to get there (a realistic but challenging set of goals).

Leadership – Shop at

Managers at all levels of the organization have a critical role to play in any change program. They should embody the organization’s corporate culture, its mission (the purpose), its vision (where we want to be), its strategy (how will we achieve this), its objectives and goals (what we need to achieve), its values ​​(guiding principles to achieve vision and goals), their behaviors (how we should behave to support the vision), and their practices and procedures.

Managers are vital to the C-Suite cascading information throughout the organization. They should be the role models for presenting and communicating the vision and mission, demonstrating and supporting the behaviors that produce the desired results and outcomes for the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.

Participation of the workers

Successful change occurs when employees are involved and committed to those changes. Managers must present a compelling story that motivates employees to accept the changes. They must also have a good perspective and recognize employees who may resist the change process to create strategies and tactics to gain support. Throughout my career, I have been responsible for change initiatives. For example, as co-head of team-based structures and systems at a large telecommunications company, I spearheaded a significant change process. The driver of the change was to help the company succeed in a competitive market. Establishing teams paved the way for success and helped make the company the first choice for its customers.

The teams reinforced the company’s values ​​of empowerment, responsibility, customer focus and diversity. Teams were a way to improve work processes and ultimately customer service. That company understood its place in the competitive marketplace and used teams as a strategy to get where it wanted to be. It could be argued that most companies are constantly in a state of change, be it growing, downsizing, restructuring or downsizing, although we need to consider how many organizations successfully go through significant change and maintain high levels of engagement, motivation and productivity.

In my current role, as Human Resources Director for an NGO, each year I take employees off-site to assess our success and opportunities for improvement. I facilitate a meeting that allows employees to set goals and objectives for the coming year. Those goals and objectives become the basis for individual performance and responsibility plans. I have found that when employees set goals for themselves, there is more commitment and employees feel responsible for a successful outcome in a more deliberate way.

These goals and objectives are always aligned with the company’s mission and core values, another critical component of culture change. Do your employees live and breathe the company mission? Are they guided by the core values ​​of the company? Having a simple, easy-to-understand mission statement (think Zappo’s) gives employees a real purpose for every task, activity, and decision they make; and understanding the values ​​provides employees with a set of guidelines for the behaviors and mindsets necessary to achieve the vision.

Communication: Employee Ambassadors

Communication is critical to the success of any change program, before (communicating a clear vision), during (managing expectations and keeping everyone informed), and after (reviewing and measuring success) implementation. Cultural change programs often involve addressing and changing behaviors and therefore organizations could consider employee forums, workshops and training sessions to work on the necessary changes.

Every change program needs business ambassadors who support and regularly communicate with stakeholders and members of the organization. Depending on the size of the organization, Change Agents may need to be supplemented to serve as a link between senior management and employees. They may work alongside the project management team and may be specifically selected to be the “voice” of employees and ensure they are informed at every stage of the change process.

As the Director of Change Management for a company, I led multiple “open space” conferences that engaged over 600 employees to brainstorm ideas for formulating a corporate diversity strategy. Those employees were a subset of an organization of more than 250,000 employees. They became the voice of their peers by formulating a powerful mission and vision for the company to support diversity goals, and after the conference, they became agents of change and ambassadors for the success of the diversity program.

Changing corporate culture is probably one of the most difficult and complex as well as exciting change programs. If you want to attract and retain top talent, create a great place for people to work. Happy employees are motivated and productive. Therefore, it is worth investing time, effort, and energy to address and cultivate your organization’s culture.