How to Change a Culture Quickly

I was talking to a senior executive who told me, “It takes 7 years to change a culture and I don’t even intend to be here that long.” His statement reflected the culture of the company – short-term fixes, no commitment and focus on numbers over people. What I told him blew him away. “I can change the culture within 6 months.” I said. “Not only that, I have the instrument to prove it.” I told him about the Tetrahedron Culture Instrument and how it measured culture from a number of angles. “Okay,” he smirked, “then how can you change the culture in such a short time.” Here is how.

1. Start at the top
What are the values of the organization? What are your goals and the strategy to get there? The first place is a strategic planning session that aligns with the values and ethics (and yes, they are different but more on that later) of the organization.

2. Look at the rewards
The fastest way to change a culture is to change the rewards structure of the organization. People respond to how they are punished or rewarded. Do rewards, including compensation, recognition and promotion, aligned to both the values of the organization and the goal/metrics? If you reward people who “hit their numbers” even in conflict of the organization’s values, you may do well in the short term but the long term sustainability and values of the organization will be undermined. Recognition for good things is more motivating than punishments for bad. People who are rewarded are engaged to achieve. People who are punished are disengaged and hide.

3. Communicate and train
Coaching and mentoring are very important. Great leaders create more leaders. They help their people develop the skills they need to succeed and recognize their strengths. Often intuitively they use the Appreciate Inquiry model and focus on strengths and solutions rather than weaknesses and problems.

When it is all done, you measure the before and after and, within a short period, you will start to see a significant shift in the culture.

Tags: communication, culture, ethics. leadership, recognition, rewards, strategic planning, values

Practical Innovation

Why is it that some businesses last only a few years while others last centuries? The answer lies in their ability to continuously innovate. The issue is that most people don’t want ‘creativity’ or ‘innovation’. “That is the way we have always done things around here.” they might say.

Innovation means thinking differently. It means thinking differently about your products, your processes, your employees. In other words it involves CHANGE. Change is like a wave. Either you can ignore it, in which case the change will overtake you and you will drown or you can get a surfboard and ride the wave. It may not take you where you thought you would be, but it will be a whole lot better than drowning (and you may enjoy the ride itself). Organizations that are innovative are change ready.

Another reason that people don’t like creativity and innovation is that they see it as impractical. It is ‘pie-in-the-sky’ stuff that does not really directly the business like project management. Yet there is what I call practical innovation.

What is practical innovation?

It starts with thinking differently. The same old thinking will always lead to the same old conclusions.

Next, the new thinking is focused into a direction and strategy. Here is where we take all of the ideas and create a strategic plan or direction.

The third step is to breakdown the strategy into a series of projects that are implemented in the organization. These projects are broken down into 3 categories – short-term (less than 6 months), medium-term (6 months to less than 2 years) and long-term (greater than 2 years).

The final part (before we start again) is to assess and measure the results. What has been learned? How has what done affected the organization, both from a bottom line and a competitive perspective?

The thing to remember is that this is a continuous process. It isn’t something you do once, say ‘glad that is over’ and then go back to normal. It is about continually creating a new normal because the world changes constantly and rapidly.

Tags: competitive advantage, creativity, measurement, practical innovation, project management, strategic planning