Creating the right culture is easier than you think.

It’s one thing to be able to understand what we have but surely if culture is so important we’d want a good one – so what does good look like?

Once again, you’d think that this would be well understood, and that (at least sophisticated) organisations would have some clarity on this. Again – in my experience – you’d be left wanting.

Please don’t fall into the trap left by the commonly (mis) quoted statement that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. Beyond being one of the more confusing tropes from corporate life, it just doesn’t make any sense from a practical perspective. I get the intent - however good your strategy, having a good culture will have a greater impact and it’s a sentiment I agree with. However, I just don’t see that a culture can be good if it isn’t aligned appropriately to your strategy or goals.

As a result, culture and strategy work together and whilst one does have a greater impact, if not aligned both are negated.

If you think this way, what good looks like is easy to define. If we want to successfully execute our stated strategy, the culture we want is one that will best enable the achievement of it.

In that logic is a hidden – but incredibly powerful - implication. Whatever organisation you are in and whatever your goals/ strategy , the culture you have should be deliberately managed to enable your success in the same way that other drivers of organisational performance will need to be. This means that culture should be something that we critically review and actively look to manage (rather than the norm of accepting that this big complex culture thing is just nebulous and uninfluenceable).

How then do we change our culture? Despite the challenge and complexity, there’s good news.

To an even greater extent than interpreting our culture, drivers of cultural change are unequal in their impact. There are three key things to focus on:

1.        “Leader behaviours’ - All the research shows that changed behaviours create a shift in culture but more than that, not all members of the organisation are created equal.

A change in the behaviour (consistently and over time) of those who make important decisions or influence those who make those decisions will have the biggest impact on their organisation’s culture. Without getting to a deep explanation, when those seen as important change their behaviour or focus on different aspects of organisational performance those changes will be noticed (not always consciously) and mirrored by other members of the organisation. Thus, the consistently displayed behaviours of all team members will shift (i.e. the culture will change).

2.        Systems and processes – I’m not sure if I could confidently say that changing a system or process will lead to a change in culture. But I can guarantee that not changing systems and processes that make the aspired behaviours difficult to achieve will limit the change you create. As a result, identifying and modifying systems and processes to better enable the behaviours you want to see needs to be an essential part of your change plan and will certainly accelerate the pace of change you can achieve.

For example, implementing a new CRM system won’t help you create a more customer centric organisation per se, but if it gives your people more time to focus on delivering expertly to their customers it (in combination with clear expectations on behavioural change) it will turbo charge the change. If you don’t change it and your people still need to spend most of their time working on tasks that limit their time spent on customers – then it will act as a brake on the progress to your goal.

3.        Routines and Rituals – finally something for the communications experts (who might still be reading this – if you gave up earlier you missed out).

Routines and rituals provide visual cues that indicate a change in culture - like systems and processes, they don’t in and of themselves create significant shifts in culture but they really do make change visible. By drawing attention to how they have changed you can significantly reinforce the change you want and draw attention to the change success you’ve had.

So what are they? Routines are more obvious. These are the cycles and activities by which the business is managed and which follow some repetitive and predicable cycle. Rituals may be the same but they can be highly informal – think team days, specific recognition events etc that are held very dear by the organisation and which are held in high regard for extended periods.

The most powerful rituals are often the stories that are told about the organisation, its people and their impact. Aligning these to your cultural aspirations amplifies what you are trying to achieve.

Even more valuable is recognition. Recognising the behaviours you want to see more of (i.e. your aspired culture), celebrating those who demonstrate them and encouraging others to do the same again has a significant amplification effect.

Used together, these three drivers of cultural change should be closely interconnected. So, as you think about taking action to create a shift in culture, it’s worth thinking about the organisation as an ecosystem.  A common trait of ecosystems is that changes in one part of it will – however subtly – create a change in all parts of it.

As a result, thinking about multiple, connected interventions will accelerate change and staying vigilant to unintended consequences will reduce missteps.

Hopefully now, you are suitably fired up to look at the organisations of which you are a part, understand what culture they have a start to make plans to change it – where it needs to be changed.

Before you dive in, a quick word of caution that relates to that final point.

You can’t look at culture as a project and (annoyingly for the completer finishers out there) you’ll never get to an end point in your work.

Culture, like all ecosystems, is always evolving. It will do so because the environment it is in, and the elements of the ecosystem, will change such that it is in a constant state of flux. Whilst there might be periods of relative stability, statis never happens. In an organisation, the simple act of having a new member means that the culture will – however much – change the culture.

As a result, whilst there may be dramatic shifts that necessitate a change in culture of organisations (new ownership, changed strategy and goals, disruptive competition, tighter cost controls etc), you are always far better to making incremental, evolutionary change drive your own intent and aspirations.

In turn, this means that you need to have a rolling review rather than a big project, that you need to maintain your focus and energy to keep changing and modifying the internal environment and behaviours of the organisation and – very sadly – you’ll never be able to claim “Mission Accomplished”.

In closing, culture is a huge driver of any organisation’s success. It’s easier than you might think to understand what you have, clearly establish what you might need then go about creating it.  In actively managing your organisation’s culture you face a choice, wait until you’re forced to change or opt to and make it part of your culture to look to continually improve your culture!

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