Culture Transformation in Organization

The transformation cycle follows a very simple yet impactful theory called Theory U. It impacts organizations, leaders, and individuals. It starts by listening deeply to the voice of the system and invites us to challenge all assumptions. For the emergence of the new transformation to happen, we have to let go of some stuff and let some new stuff come giving rise to breakthrough possibilities that finally lead to purposeful actions.

For us to transform as an organization and to help us to transform, we need to keep an open mind through inspiration and enlightening, have an open heart by engaging everyone in the process to feel they own the journey, and help them to have the open will by clarifying what is in it for them and what they need to do and how they need to do it. That is our role with the organization, helping it to go through this transformation from CEO down to all levels of the organization. But “There is no organizational transformation without a preceding transformation in the consciousness of the leadership”. Leadership have to go first.

Over the many years and many engagements, we have developed 3-key areas of a journey that starts with defining, then communicating, and then engaging and sustaining clarity that is created throughout the organization to help it transform. Across the journey, we use a digital engagement platform that helps build the collaborative community across the organization to enable this journey to be propagated quickly and effectively with a blended approach.

Each component on the journey is customized to fit the needs of the organization to achieve maximum impact. We build on what has been achieved so far and employ world-class tools, consultants, and subject matter experts to reach the desired results.

We follow ten principles that enable this culture transformation to happen. These are the guiding principles for tapping into an organization’s natural strengths.

By adopting the following principles, the organization can learn to deploy and improve its culture to increase financial and operational success.

Work with the existing Corporate Culture. Deeply embedded cultures cannot be replaced with simple upgrades or significant overhaul efforts. To work with your culture effectively, you must understand it, recognize which traits are preeminent and consistent, and discern under what types of conditions these traits are likely to be a help or a hindrance.
Change behaviors to affect mindsets. It is commonly believed that behavioral change follows mental shifts, as surely as night follows day. Changes to key behaviors that are tangible, actionable, repeatable, observable, and measurable are a good place to start.
Focus on critical few behaviors. The key is to focus on a small number of important behaviors that would have great impact if put into practice by a significant number of people. Select groups of employees who are primed for these few behaviors, those who will respond strongly to the new behaviors and who are likely to implement and spread them.
Deploy informal leaders to start a movement. Leadership is a natural attribute, exercised and displayed informally without regard to title or position in the organizational chart. These leaders can become powerful allies who can influence behavior through “showing by doing” and further the organization’s transformation efforts.
Keep formal leaders accountable and equip them. Leaders in all parts of the organization are critical in safeguarding and championing desired behaviors, energizing personal feelings, and reinforcing cultural alignment. The signaling of emotional commitment sets the tone for others to follow. The people at the top have to demonstrate the change they want to see.
Link behaviors with business objectives. Select behaviors aimed specifically at improving business performance and can be measured over time.
Demonstrate immediate impact. When people hear about new initiatives and efforts and don’t see any activity related to them for several months, they will disengage and grow cynical. It is extremely important to showcase the impact of cultural efforts on business results as quickly as possible.
Take a cross-functional approach. Ideas can spread quickly across organizational departments and functions, as well as from the top down and from the bottom up. One powerful way to spread ideas is through the identified informal leaders. People are often more receptive to changes in “the way we do things around here” when those changes are recommended or shared by friends, colleagues, and other associates.
Align programs with behaviors. Match the new cultural direction with existing ways of doing business. Informal mechanisms and cultural interventions must complement and integrate with the more common formal organization components.
Manage and maintain the Corporate Culture over time. Strategy, tactics, and technologies will evolve, and organizations need to cope with the changing external environment. Organizations that have had great success working with culture actively monitor, manage, care for, and update their cultural forces.

At the foundation of a successful business strategy is the culture, skills, and competence of the people enabled through technology. Culture is like an iceberg, how we say we get things done is what we see, but how we really get things done is hidden below the surface. The tip of the iceberg: our announced strategy, values, vision, processes are not necessarily how we really get things done, it is more about the relationships, the traditions, the beliefs, and the feelings of the people running the business every day. Culture transformation is about closing the gap between how we say we get things done and how we really do get things done.

As a summary, we create an impactful journey of self-discovery, new possibilities, and transformation to purposeful action by:

Listening to the voice of the system
Dissecting the voice
Creating the leadership clarity
Helping the management be ready
Getting the whole organization to live that new clarity and align around it and everybody gets involved

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