Discovering the Power of Your Culture…
Culture is the elephant in the room. It’s big, hard to overlook, powerful, difficult to shift and always in the room….
Yet people continue to ignore it. Too many leaders are often not prepared to face it, deal with it or even consider its potential.
It is easy to recognise when a workplace has a great culture; there is a sense of purpose, a rhythm to the way work gets done, energy to go the extra mile and positive conversations about how good the organisation is to work for. We also know when a culture is weak or toxic; there is constant blame, lack of accountability, disengagement, dysfunctional politics, hidden conflict and distrust.
Organisational culture refers to a phenomenon that is largely below the surface, is powerful in its impact, but often invisible. To a considerable degree, culture is unconscious. Culture in this sense is the organisational equivalent of what personality is to an individual. We can see the behaviour that results from a culture, but often we cannot see the forces underneath that cause certain kinds of behaviour.
The result – too often leaders tend to hope the culture will look after itself, or worse, ignore it, in the belief culture will only have a limited impact on the performance of their organisation and teams.
And yet, even after numerous research papers, project reviews and even Royal Commissions, where poor culture transformations are consistently identified as critical to the success or failure of the change within a business, leaders and Boards still don’t understand or leverage the power of their culture. Too often millions of dollars are wasted in processes that focus on symptoms rather than at a deeper level where the real causes of poor cultures are identified and acted upon.
Therefore, culture can be your biggest asset or greatest threat depending on how it is approached.
For those who have been involved in successful culture transformations, there is a critical moment when the people in your organisation finally ‘get it’. It’s when the leaders are genuinely committed to the cause, demonstrated by their willingness to invest time, effort, resources and money to activate a real and sustainable change and their willingness to personal change and behave in a different way. It’s during these breakthrough stages that people discover how to truly cultivate the culture of an organisation.
To change a culture, you have to pin-point the sources of the messages people receive about what is valued, and systematically go about changing these messages so ‘what is expected around here’ is changed forever. Change the messages and you change the culture.
This task is a logical and systematic process but not necessarily an easy one. The key is to simultaneously get as many of the existing messages as possible lined up with the new message. Experience tells us that it is rare to change all of them at once, it takes time. However, the aim is to consistently communicate the new messages so people can register that different expectations are now in place, and recognise a new normal has been built.
Think of a time when the pressure was on. People feel the gravity of getting it right and the weight of getting it wrong. How leaders act, how teammates collaborate, how individuals deliver accountabilities are all on show. We have all had both positive and negative experiences during these times. The most notable recent time when the pressure was on show was when COVID-19 hit the world in a significant and sustained way.
Under this pressure, how would people describe the culture? What behaviours would they see? Are these behaviours helping or hindering the ability of the group to perform at its best? The true extent to which certain behaviours are embedded in your culture is evident under pressure. When pressure is at its greatest and expectations are high, the ‘real culture’ manifests itself. These moments will not only provide insights to how the group performs under pressure but will shape the history and methodologies that people will reference in the future.
There is a way to reliably shape, shift and strengthen the culture of your organisation
Whether you want to unleash greater creativity and innovation, safeguard your reputation, or attract and retain top talent by becoming an award-winning workplace, unlocking the power of your culture will help ensure you fulfil your vision with less stress, greater composure, better outcomes and more enjoyment. The Composure Culture Roadmap provides some of the critical signposts that need to be explored if you are to truly transform your culture.
Culture can be taught and it can be learned. Assessing, diagnosing, designing and transforming your culture is a core leadership capability that can be consciously practiced and measurably improved.
An effective culture development plan involves figuring out how to cause enough people to behave counter-culturally for long enough to establish a new norm and establish the right systems, structures and disciplines so people don’t regress. Once people begin to adopt the new way of working, then real momentum in the cultural shift occurs.
Find the natural leaders at different levels of your organisation who can drive the cultural change and empower them to lead it. These culture leaders will need to role model the desired behaviours whilst ‘calling out’ behaviours that will no longer be tolerated. It is also important to routinely celebrate those who display and adopt the expected behaviours and use these interim-wins to create and sustain momentum. Remember, clear and consistent messages over time will change behaviour.
For those organisations that remain committed, there comes a moment in time when they get enough people to truly believe in the change; a tipping point where enough people have picked up the same message and their behaviours begin to consistently reinforce the new way. This is when you know your culture transformation efforts are worth it.
It is now clear precisely how culture impacts an organisation's performance. Great culture creates success. The real question now centres around: how can you best implement a culture transformation to get the benefits that come with it? How do you stand out in the crowd, gain an edge over competitors, build greater customer loyalty and advocacy, get more of the right people wanting to work for you and boost your overall performance in customer, people and financial metrics? These all result from meticulous planning and execution as well as a deep understanding of your people and what drives their behaviour.
Three Practical Steps
So where do you start?
A bit like your physical state, your organisation’s cultural state can be assessed. Culture-based problems can be diagnosed and treatments put in place. Cultures are created from the messages people receive about what behaviours are important in order to ‘fit in’, and ultimately become the stated and unstated norms. What many people don’t realise is there are multiple factors providing messages to people and influencing the way they behave in the organisation. You need to know your starting point and why you have arrived at this point. Ask yourself why you are considering a culture change. What are you dissatisfied with? Where is your organisation suffering most? Be prepared to ask the uncomfortable questions and make sure your leaders know why you are undertaking this culture change. Our Composure Compass is an exceptional survey tool that helps you understand the impact of culture through the eyes of your employees.
Define the three to four ‘critical few’ culture qualities that will have the biggest impact, and clearly describe the behaviours you expect and the ones you will not accept. Determine a clear, consistent and compelling picture of the future and ensure the critical leaders are behind the change and are willing to endure the ups and downs of any change process.
Get help from those who have experienced these changes before, leverage their knowledge and expertise and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Culture change involves people and all their complexities. Couple this with bringing a bunch of individuals together as a team and ultimately co-ordinating them all as one organisation and it is no wonder culture change is difficult.
No culture transformation is the same. Be prepared to take these key signposts and define your specific pathway. Culture transformation is not linear. Nor are we all aiming for the same culture or sharing the same starting point.
At times the journey will appear complex, confusing and confronting, and the reward will not always be readily apparent. During these cloudy moments, remember that some organisations have been able to succeed where others haven’t. Those who are now celebrated for their exceptional culture also had cloudy moments. Emulate those who have been successful and learn from those who haven’t. Above all, enjoy the journey. The satisfaction that comes from making a real difference can be extraordinary.
If you believe culture change will make a difference to your organisation and you need an expert guide to help you navigate the journey successfully, reduce the risk of making costly mistakes and build a legacy of internal cultural leaders, then contact Jeremy Nichols, Founder and Managing Director of Composure on jeremy.nichols@composure.com.au