Culture By Design
Organisations spend hours discussing culture. They launch initiatives, run surveys, hold workshops. Yet somehow the culture challenges and frustrations keep shifting or else nothing ever changes.
Some then try to fix it with operating model changes, some with restructures, some with transformation programmes. None of which generally address the root causes.
So then the narrative shifts; ‘culture change is hard’; ‘culture change takes years’ or ‘you can't measure culture change effectively, anyway.’ However, these statements are false.
The reason these challenges keep shifting isn't because the elements of culture are unknown or unpredictable. It's that most organisations approach change backwards.
Culture change isn't ‘hard’ when you design it intentionally from the start. It's only hard when you're trying to retrofit meaning onto systems that were built without it. It's like trying to tune an instrument while the orchestra is already playing.
The truly great organisation cultures recognise this truth - you get the culture that you choose to build. The best places to work every single year have access to the same information, talent, and advice that you do, yet every year they are regarded as the best places to work. What is it that they do?
The answer lies in something I have discovered during a decade of research and work.
Download my new white paper by clicking the image above.
It’s a discovery that applies to every organisation, in every sector, in every country around the world. I should know I’ve been helping organisations to successfully implement it for the last 10 years! To date, I’ve worked in 20+ countries with 120+ teams.
The organisations that succeed in not only creating a great place to work, but also ensuring it stays that way, all have three principles in common.
They are as follows:
Leaders commit - Great leadership teams don't just talk about culture, they commit to it. Together. They recognise that culture is the mechanism through which results are achieved and they set the example for others to follow.
Managers build - Senior leaders are role models for the culture, but it’s middle managers who actively build it. When managers are provided with the skills to build, uphold and evolve culture it changes everything.
Employees own - Leaders commit and managers build but without employee agency, it will always feel like culture is being ‘done to them’. After all, you can’t preach culture and hope for ownership.
When you have all three of these principles in play, you have the recipe for continual success. It’s then important to ensure that this isn’t a one-off ‘tick-box’ culture. For performance to be sustained then not only do existing employees need to remain aligned to the approach, but the people you hire need to support it too.
Never forget that you get the culture that you choose to build. If you’re not intentionally designing the way that work gets done, then achieving high-performance will only ever be fleeting.
You already have a culture, why not make a great one?
-----
To help you fully understand how to apply these three principles, I have written a new white paper which you can download for free (with no marketing obligations) from here.
