Leaders Don’t Know How to Shift Culture
Everyone knows successful transformation requires cultural change. Almost all of the leaders at the 150+ enterprise-level companies we’ve talked with tout the importance of culture in their transformations. But when we asked leaders how they were planning on aligning culture with their digital strategy, most of them agreed they needed to change, but had no clear way to make it happen. One large survey found that even though 90 percent of executives said culture is important, only 15 percent said their culture is exactly where it needs to be to be successful.
If we define culture simply as “the way we work to get things done,” or take a more complex swing at it and say it’s “a system comprising values, beliefs, mindsets, and behaviors,” it’s easy to see how tricky it can be to influence something so complex and seemingly intangible.
Where to Start?
Most leaders start by declaring a new set of values in hopes that doing so will shift the rest of the cultural system. Leaders inscribe these values on the boardroom walls and send a note encouraging everyone to fall in line. “Innovation” or “We’re a Customer Company” become the new mantras in all-hands meetings. Come Monday morning, however, when these leaders excitedly show up to work to watch the shift in how people get work done, they are almost always disappointed when nothing has changed. Merely issuing directives, even around inspiring values, rarely yields sustainable shifts in the day-to-day way people work to get things done.
Shifting Culture Through Behaviors
The best leaders know a better entrance point into cultural characteristics. These know the key to unlocking this transformational potential lies in a strategic focus on behavior. They work with their teams to define clear, observable behaviors that will help their organization excel in the new world they are building together.
Because behaviors can be clearly understood, taught, observed, and rewarded, fostering adoption of these new ways of working is a tangible and practical process. Furthermore, behaviors are socially driven and reinforced. When individuals witness their leaders and influential peers adopting and living these clearly stated behaviors authentically, a ripple effect occurs. People quickly understand that the way to succeed in their organization is to adopt those very same behaviors. When these behaviors are tied to a new organizational value people understand that the value is real, and those that live the new value will thrive. The culture begins to shift.
In Real Life:
The business and IT teams at a large company we worked with had a very rocky relationship which was causing their performance to suffer. They were stuck in patterns of siloed working, hoarding, and disrespectful treatment of each other. Trust had completely eroded and their shared value of “Collaboration” was rendered lifeless.
We brought leaders from both sides to listen and empathize with the concerns of one another. We read stories submitted by their teams to increase visibility into the deep-seeded problems. Once each party felt understood, we crafted the following few behaviors and agreed that if adopted by all would mend relations between teams and get their work back on track:
Leaders left the session with agreements in place between teams to live these behaviors, hold each accountable for doing so, cascade the behaviors to their respective teams, and ultimately breathe life back into their organizational values.
Take Action:
Is your culture aligned with your transformation objectives? Gather perspectives from your leadership team and front-line team members to understand the cultural challenges that are preventing your transformation from succeeding. Work with them to craft a few clear behaviors that everyone can agree to live in order to ensure your culture powers your transformation success.