How can you measure the success of a culture change in your team?

One thing I’ve found helpful that I learnt with culture change is ‘Design for the culture you want or you get what you already have’. So if you want a more collaborative, inclusive culture start my collaborating and including people from the start of your culture change, don’t do all the work and then say ‘ we now want a more collaborative, inclusive culture’ you’ve missed your opportunity to demonstrate the new culture! Thank you Mark LaScola you taught me well.

Be really clear on what you are wanting to achieve, get clear on metrics ‘how you might measure the impact’ before you step into the change. Also, loose all the HR terminology and wank. Keep it real. Make change mean something to your people. And finally, keep your focus people centric. Your people are your competitive advantage!

Incorporating a 360-degree feedback process also helps in culture change initiatives. When gathering feedback of employees from various sources, it gets comparatively easy to assess their strengths along with areas of improvement concerning the desired culture.

Culture is what people do when you are not there. How better to harness the values and ideas of your team than to have them come up with a vision. Facilitate the vision ...... you have to see the goal and direction but don't give them the answer. If they come up with the verbiage and the phrases, as long as it aligns to your long term goals then they will live and breath it. Of course revisit it regularly as there are changes in team dynamics amiss as well as the corporate environment but this is a good start to have them love and breath a culture you want to cultivate.

You need to start with data and ensure you are going deep by gathering more insights from the team. The additional texture is important so there is clarity around what was behind the numbers. Transparency on the insights is also key and ensuring action items and follow up takes place. You don't have to tackle everything but tackle the ones that count. Often we want to address the low hanging fruit because it's easy - is the impact there? Sometimes you need to take a hard look at the leaders too. Not easy and should be a last resort if entropy on the team still exists and there is no change over time.

Today’s culture is a result of (often) years of behaviour and performance norms having been reinforced through leadership behaviour (deliberate or ignorant). If you do this work well, you will almost always uncover ugly situations that have never been addressed, yet which continue to poison relationships and work behaviours. If you aren’t able (or willing) to do the work to uncover and address these root causes, you’re wasting your time and money. My advice is to go beyond surveys. Interviews or small group conversations where people feel safe having honest discussions are the key to uncovering what’s really driving your culture. If you don’t want to go there, then please don’t promise culture change. It can’t happen without real work.

For me, qualitative data is by far the most robust. Listening groups led by someone people instinctively trust with a certainty that something will happen as result. People are weary of survey mania and they often believe the focus group is just another talking shop. There is a real skill to building quick psychological safety and asking insightful questions. Only then will you get the true state of play and can start the important work around gap analysis. If you ask the right questions though, your people - those that work at the coal face everyday - will give you the answers!

Don’t build an internal questionnaire to measure current engagement score. It does come at a cost, but partner with an expert organisation who have the expertise to run such surveys with Culture change as their primary delivery and focus. They can help you do some Benchmarking within the industry and maybe with your competitors too.

An honest, evidence-based description of the organisation’s current state is the foundation of a successful culture change initiative. And there’s no room for selectivity, pretence, or excuses. This requires courage and real introspection from the organisation’s leaders. And everyone at all levels of the organisation must have the opportunity to participate and contribute to the current state description. Johnson and Scholes’ ‘Cultural Web’ is one excellent tool to consider for this process.

Measure and listen, Intervene then repeat. What I love about Barrett Analytics is that it allows you in a very cost-efficient way to scan the culture and identify gaps. Like taking an MRI snapshot of the culture. It allows you to have multiple analyses and unlimited data cuts across different parts of the organization, such as locations, levels, genders, generations, divisions, seniority, etc. The first stage is for the people to understand the data, the gaps (the entropy of the organization) and take ownership of the the situation. The next stage is to design the right intervention to fix and clean up. Then work on upgrading the culture. Remeasure every year and intervene with the new data.

Progress on the culture change journey must be a constant priority of the organisation’s leadership. It has to be right up there with product / service quality, customer satisfaction, business development / growth, and financial performance. If it isn’t at the top of the Agenda at Board, ELT, and divisional SLT meetings it’s simply not credible to describe the culture change initiative as strategically important. And the most potent form of communication and reinforcement of its importance is leadership behaviour that’s evident to the workforce, where managers consistently role-model the desired culture, and those that can’t or won’t are removed.

Culture change is slow. Leaders need to remain ‘on message’ otherwise people return to the old way of doing things very quickly. Data is a great way of measuring the change. For example, if 100% of staff have received an annual appraisal but only 5% found it useful, it’s likely that appraisal is just a ‘tick box exercise’. Implementing a genuinely appraisee centred approach and supporting managers to have coaching conversations may remedy this over the period of a few years. By reviewing feedback data and staying on message, this tick box culture will start to shift. The larger the organisation, the slower the change is likely to be.

Measuring can be challenging because culture is intangible and subjective. But is also ongoing process. Regularly measuring: - employee engagement levels: employee morale, motivation, and commitment to the team and organization. Increased engagement is an indication of a positive culture change. - the level of collaboration and communication within the team. - team performance and productivity metrics. - employee turnover and retention. A decrease in turnover and higher employee satisfaction levels indicate that the culture change has created a more positive and engaging work environment. - the behavior of team leaders and managers. If leaders are modeling the desired culture change, it is likely to have a positive influence on the team.

Examples of these are: ???????????????? ????????????????: Regularly monitor the implementation of your cultural goals. Use tools like surveys, feedback sessions, and observation to assess the adoption of new behaviours and practices. For example, “Conduct monthly team surveys to measure the level of collaboration.” ???????????? ????????????????????: Evaluate the effect of the culture change on team performance and morale. Look for improvements in key metrics like productivity, employee engagement, and innovation. For example, “Track the number of new ideas generated since the culture change.”

It's important here to find a good balance between quantitative measures of progress, such as engagement and assessment instruments, and qualitative measures, such as focused small group discussions. In my experience, there's enormous value in making an explicit connection between these two. That is, gather quantitative information against your key cultural components, then conduct small group discussions with your employees based on that analysis to gather additional context and insights on areas of strength or pain points

Teams with good cultures that are based on values of being person-centred, psychological safety, evidence informed approaches and change gor good will be constantly adapting to changing contexts and what matters to people -leaders are facilitators of this

This part is essential. The management team needs to be prepped that adjustments and changes will be needed along the way so understand their pressure points upfront. It is difficult to look in the mirror and objectively assess what is working and what is not. It requires going deeper to understand what works, what needs adjusting, what might be failing. In all instances get to the “why”. Utilize both quantitative and qualitative methods to get data. Review and make the proposals back to management: continue, modify, change and bring the hard discussions to management. It can frustrate them, yet will have a positive impact on the change program. Niklas Nordling outlined it very well in step 1. I am fortunate to have learned from him.

People struggle with change, so at this stage, you must be clear about why if you’re implementing new policies, strategies and plans. It’s at this point things often fall as we don’t take into consideration the stages people go through during a change process.

To successfully change a team's culture, continuously assess the situation with surveys and feedback, and adjust your strategies accordingly. Set clear goals, communicate openly about changes, and involve the team in the process. Provide training and development to support the transition, and positively reinforce behaviors aligned with the new culture. Leadership must be committed and exemplary, adapting plans based on feedback for a sustainable and effective change.

The point of measurement is not just to provide data on progress, but to actually do something as a result of that data. As with any complex change, capturing and applying learning throughout the course of the engagement will be critical to it's success. This also communicates to your employees that you're not just asking what they think, but incorporating their feedback (when applicable and appropriate) into the program design and execution.

Yes this is key but needs to happen from the beginning of the journey with leaders as facilitators of this journey modelling shared values in everything they do and team members as collective leaders

In previous organisations, I've found that formalising what 'good' looks like within the business, crystallises the over-arching strategy on culture change, without forcing it to become something it's not. The culture of any organisation should be relevant to its own values, beliefs, objectives, and strategic vision, and involving key stakeholders, before, during, and after, will support with effective progress monitoring and evaluation.

Examples of these are: ???????? ??????????????????????: Engage your team in the culture change process. Encourage them to contribute ideas, voice concerns, and participate in decision-making. This fosters ownership and commitment. For example, “Hold regular brainstorming sessions to gather team input on cultural improvements.” ?????????????????????? ????????????????????: Involve key stakeholders such as management, clients, and partners. Their support can be crucial in driving culture change. Keep them informed about your progress and seek their feedback. For example, “Present quarterly updates to stakeholders highlighting the impact of the culture change.”

En mi experiencia acompa?ando equipos, los mejores indicadores de cambio cultural refieren a la consistencia en la aparición de aquellos comportamientos que asociamos con una cultura deseada, en cuya visualización y dise?o haya participado previamente el equipo

Incorporating your team and stakeholders into change strategies is crucial for the success of culture transformation. When teams are actively involved, they not only feel heard but also recognize their role in driving the change. Effective communication of the vision is paramount. Once the vision is clearly conveyed and understood, teams can make substantial contributions, fostering empowerment and instilling a sense of ownership within the team.

Culture is a way of doing things and culture is not immune to change management. A successful Culture in a business is measured when employees are satisfied and are performing well .

In my experience, change is a continuous process. You keep improving and benchmarking and gleaning on best practices to achieve goals. The change management process is continuum and not static to be on the cutting edge.

The use of change management in a typical project/program management setting is a new concept that needs to be tested more. It is a new and innovative way to achieve results.

In addition, create a robust communication plan to elevate visibility of the vision for constant reminder; communicate changes that are actual examples of the desired explained change; If a change was not successful, explain the Why too. Publicly recognize people for demonstrating change in culture or implementing changes as expected or above expectations. Adjust communications on change as decisions are made as well, always with a Why?. Measure understanding of communications to improve on next ones, and ask what needs clarification and prioritization through short and direct pulse surveys right after communications. Share results on next communications and adjustments made as a result of their feedback.

When you’re conducting a culture change review ensure you look at through an inclusive lens. When you address things that impact a minority, the majority will always benefit.

We can't view culture change as some mutually exclusive project, bound by your typical project parameters and timeline. It's woven into every major initiative, whether explicit or implicit. As such, leadership needs to demonstrate the desired cultural values and behaviors during highly visible initiatives, changes that have broad impact across the organization. These changes create unique opportunities to put culture into practice.

A way to know is by changes in behaviour; have people changed what they do or how they react instinctively. What becomes a natural response becomes a sign of permanent change

Culture change is progressive, culture itself is an evolving group of consistent behaviour. When measuring change, it has to start with an agreed definition, description and depiction of that new behaviour, which must not just include the behaviour observed, but also the feeling it invokes in others. Overall, effective change is felt first, before it can be quantified.