An Uphill Battle to Culture Change
Everyone wants to be a part of a successful organization. Every leader wants to be seen as playing a pivotal role in driving that success forward. Every organization creates a plan of attack on how they will accomplish the mission to be able to reach this end goal by streamlining efficiency or dissecting the X’s and O’s. But if you’ve ever read Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why, then you can already tell what’s missing. What’s the why behind it all? What is the why for the organization and their mission? What’s their purpose? What’s the leader’s why for getting out of bed and being a leader? What are the team member’s why for showing up every day? Having a strong understanding of your own purpose is part of the equation (and if you’re wondering what that formula is, check out our blog on purpose) but it is only A PART. The other part is much larger and deeper and it is the culture of the organization.
Culture is a topic I hear brought up and discussed but when it comes time to follow through on the discussion and implement the discussion into action, it often falls flat. Changing a culture is a very hard thing to do because of a few reasons. One, we are humans and creatures of habit, and in order to change our habits we must first accept to change ourselves and not everyone is ready, willing, and able to do that. Second, change is a long process. There are several stages to change and many members of the organization are at different stages of the change process at any given moment.
While changing a culture can be an uphill battle, it is not impossible. If the change is something you believe strongly in, then let's figure out what you can do to make it stick.
The first thing to look at is the current behaviors you are seeing from the different groups or individuals in the organization: senior leaders, formal leaders, informal leaders, top performers, so-so performers, bottom of the barrel workers. What are the day-to-day interactions like between the groups? What’s the morale and motivation like for the groups? It is important to gain a baseline understanding of the different groups, the individuals,, and their behaviors to fully understand where a change in culture will be seen and felt the most.
The second thing to do is to explore the history of the organization to discover the legacy. What has the organization accomplished in the past? How did it come into existence? What storms has it weathered? Who were some of the key members of the organization? What lessons did they teach to the team? During this step, it is also important to identify the current written and unwritten rules and expectations for the organization. What is deemed as acceptable and not acceptable behaviors? What are the current cultural norms present in the organization?
Once you have a better understanding of where the organization is currently, you can start to look at where simple micro changes can be made. These micro culture changes at the beginning should be happening with you, the leader. Leaders set the tone and the example. In order to change a culture, you have to get the team to buy into the plan. But people don’t buy into plans, they buy into the people who set and follow through with the plans. These micro changes could be how you address team members or what you choose to talk with them about. These changes could be how you structure meetings or how you direct your subordinate leaders to address certain issues. Team members will take notice. Especially if you’ve only ever talked to them about work related things but now you are asking them about how their family is doing and how their kid is doing in math. This is the spark that can ignite the fire of change. Once they take notice, it’s time to have conversations with your team about what you’ve observed, what you’ve learned, and what you’re doing to change. Then invite them to discuss what they think they can do to change the culture. You can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day or you can teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. You can tell someone to change and they will do it until you walk away or you can inspire someone to change and it will allow them to buy into their own growth and own the process. Be the leader that is willing to take a look in the mirror and say I’m not perfect and the culture change needs to start with me. Others will notice the work and effort and be inspired to listen and hopefully inspired to make the required changes as well.
I hope you all have a great week! Remember that you’re not alone on this journey of being Always in Pursuit. The Always in Pursuit Team is rooting for you and are here to support you on this journey! Sometimes it takes a village to live life on the offense!
Daren