How can collaboration drive successful Culture Change?

Distinguons deux fa?ons de considérer la manière dont j’accorde ma confiance à l’autre. La fa?on “romantique” : la confiance est quelque chose qui se développe lentement, qui prend du temps. Un peu à la manière de l’amour. Laissons la confiance se développer, et un jour, on verra quand je t’accorderai naturellement ma confiance. L’autre fa?on : la confiance par “décret”. Je décide de t’accorder ma confiance ici et maintenant parce que nous sommes en collaboration sur ce projet. Et nous prendrons régulièrement un moment pour en parler et la vérifier. Bien entendu celles et ceux qui font ce deuxième choix développent des collaborations particulièrement efficientes.

I believe that true collaboration will only happen when there is trust. New and different ideas are generally difficult to share, especially in a culture that has become an echo chamber of agreement around a single source. Culture can begin to change when trust allows open communication and differing views can be reviewed and even welcomed as potential improvement.

Articulating the behaviours underpinning communication and trust is critical. What this means differs from one organization to the next, and I believe that defining these behaviours in a tangible and observable way creates clear expectations for people. Combined with daily reinforcement, the result is improvements in individual communication and enhanced trust which positively impacts the overall the culture of the organization.

Transparency is critical component while flattening of hierarchies can help and promote speak up culture, leading to promotion of trust.

Collaboration plays a vital role in driving successful culture change by improving communication and trust within the team. This leads to better problem-solving, strategic approaches, and reduced risk. Collaborating fosters smooth communication, encourages diversity, and develops trust among all team members. As a result, it leads to increased engagement, motivation, and commitment to the change process.

Gaining diverse perspectives is critical in a collaborative environment. If you believe you're collaborating, but are really stuck in an "echo chamber" with those who are fully likeminded, your creativity will absolutely be stifled. Seeking different perspectives will help you both approach the culture change more holistically and effectively, and also improve buy-in across the organization. Part of diversity is ensuring the collaboration goes beyond the executive levels - involve employees more generally if you want this to stick.

Collaboration brings together individuals from different backgrounds, experiences, and expertise. This diversity of perspectives allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the existing culture and the desired change. It helps in identifying blind spots, challenging assumptions, and developing innovative solutions.

Embracing the diversity of your team in collaboration is a game-changer, and it goes beyond just mixing backgrounds. Every individual brings a treasure trove of perspectives and insights, sparking creativity and innovation. It’s not just about having diverse voices at the table; it’s about truly listening and valuing them, which leads to more robust problem-solving and decision-making. Studies back this up, showing that diverse teams excel in performance, productivity, customer loyalty and employee retention. Imagine being part of a team where everyone, regardless of their background, feels valued, heard, and engaged. This is the heart of inclusion!

Collaboration means more than just looking for people to agree with you. Collaboration includes looking at things from a different perspective to your own. Therefore to collaborate you have to actively seek out 'creative conflict' -that challenge that expects people to disagree, or to build on your ideas and make them better.

?????????????? ??????????????????: Encourage diversity for varied perspectives and better decisions. ?????????????????? ??????????????????????: Foster inclusivity for employees to share unique ideas. ????????????????: Provide diversity and inclusion training for mutual understanding. ???????? ??????????????: Implement platforms for creative idea sharing. ???????????? ????????????????????: Recognise creative contributions to motivate innovative thinking. ?????????????????????????? ????????????????: Promote diverse team projects for unique solutions.

By pooling resources and sharing responsibilities, teams reduce stress and enhance well-being. This collective strength enables quick, effective responses to change, boosting confidence and performance. Embracing collaboration not only fortifies individuals but also empowers the entire organisation to navigate complexity and drive meaningful change. I remember a great quote by Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Collaboration builds resilience and agility, key to thriving amidst uncertainty.

Cultural change is product of collective effort. Change can be disorienting and uncomfortable. Collaboration helps to build communities that enables individuals cope up with change quickly and collectively identify opportunities to navigate change positively. Collaborative communities also innovate and build performances that rides the wave of change.

Collaboration with team members, particularly in a cultural change project, ensures that everyone understands the greater "Why" for the adoption of the change and that the team members become ambassadors for the change throughout the organization. It also ensures the no one person becomes too stressed with bearing the brunt of the activities, but that there is a truly shared ownership of the project. This way, the team is able to quickly recover if any single team member is unable to perform, due to illness, competing priorities, or other possibilities.

When you really dig into culture conversations, it is important that you keep an open mind in regards to the things you may not see really happening. I always remove what I think is happening and lean in on knowing what’s really happening. You can only KNOW by asking the right questions to the people. By definition: Work culture is a collection of attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that make up the regular atmosphere in a work environment. With this being said, you have to consistently check in on the pulse of what you desire vs. reality. There lies the magic to enlighten the culture and atmosphere in a respectful and sustainable fashion.

This is a cornerstone in creating a genuinely viable cultural shift. Mutual bonds and commitments to the process are formed through collaboration. Regular pulse checks and sanctioned adjustments along the way strengthen resilience and agility.

I think that aligning values and goals should be first on the list. If there isn't this alignment upfront, success is not guaranteed.

True collaboration reveals participants’ values and goals. When teams REALLY collaborate, they challenge one another to better understand their “why”, which in turn uncovers individual values and goals. Consequently, in order to arrive at a collaborative solution, those values and goals have to align and/or merge to arrive at a solution/product.

Recognizing distinct goal categories—company and personal—we understand that priorities vary by employee rank. While company goals drive overall success, personal goals hold individual significance. Alignment isn’t always seamless. To harmonize, we emphasize individual goals, acknowledge shared priorities, and encourage intrinsic values. This fosters positive attitudes, motivating purpose-driven ambition.

Creo que antes que la colaboración también hay que conocer los valores y objetivos de los demás. Si estamos hablando a nivel personal, aún colaborando, no se tiene por qué estar completamente de acuerdo, pero se pueden entender. A nivel grupal u organizacional, y más en un proceso de cambio cultural, si es imprescindible que al menos los objetivos estén alineados para poder avanzar si resistencia. Desde mi experiencia y con las empresas que he trabajado, el alineamiento de los valores del equipo con los del líder se encuentra de media en un 67%. Todo lo que se mejore, redundará en un cambio cultural más eficiente.

collaboration facilitates aligning values and goals among those involved in cultural change. It underlines the need for clarity in roles and shared ownership, stressing that a lack of collaboration can hinder alignment with organizational goals. Furthermore, it emphasizes the profound impact of leadership behaviors on aligning organizational culture with values and goals. Consistent demonstration of such behaviors can enhance employee engagement, productivity, and a sense of purpose, while a lack thereof can lead to misalignment and diminished organizational success.

People do not resist change, per se. Contrary to popular belief, resistance to change is not a default reaction. People resist the loss that change entails. Most of the losses are emotional: loss of control, loss of power, or loss of narrative. The new reality creates a gap between how things used to be and how they are now – which shakes up individual and collective identity. Who are we now? Other losses are more functional. The loss of competence happens when employees feel their skills are no longer aligned with the organization’s needs.

Without collaboration successful culture change simply won’t happen. Culture is made up of the collective values, mindsets and behaviors of all individuals in a group, and the only way to achieve long-lasting changes in a culture is to have everyone (or at least the majority) agree and commit to making those changes happen.

This section is the closest to the most direct route for culture-related change. - Start with the problem you are trying to solve in terms of the targeted outcomes/results you need to improve for the organization - Connect: Have a subgroup formed across teams or work with the senior leadership team to build relationships and confirm those targeted results. - Explore: explore what’s helping and hurting progress. Go beyond climate (systems/structures/leadership approaches) and understand both behaviors & beliefs. - Improve: prioritize improvements needed and follow-up plans. Engage broadly to refine plans. - Learn: track with consistency and have team members collaborate to define what worked, what didn’t and why as input to refining plans.

Collaboration allows us to measure and celebrate progress effectively. This quote has stuck with me since, “Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.” By working together, we establish clear indicators and metrics, ensuring accountability and transparency. Celebrating achievements boosts morale and loyalty, reinforcing desired behaviours. This shared journey not only evaluates impact but also fosters a culture of recognition and continuous improvement, driving sustained success.

Success in the corporate landscape finds its roots in the fertile ground of trust and collaboration, where teams not only drive innovation but also utilize a quantifiable framework to measure and collectively celebrate milestones.

Without collaboration there would be no culture change….by definition. The more all colleagues are involved, meaningfully, the faster culture will evolve. For example, meaningful involvement for us saw colleagues co-design the replacement for what was the performance mgt process. And design our refreshed values. Where you can work together to get to better outcomes, then do exactly that, re-setting culture as you go….

Culture change through collaboration will work when it has the tone from the top. The top leadership must first exercise healthy collaboration across multiple discipline with tangible results, and so the rest of the organization will replicate the behaviours. Practice will become habits, and these habits will create a culture. As simple as that.

Why do people collaborate? So they can form meaningful (working) relationships to co-create value. What is a successful culture? One which is self-sustainable, healthy, and facilitates growth. Collaborative relationships influence information flow, social influence, and the dynamics of the organization. It creates bridges between individuals who might not have interacted otherwise, and they can play a role in the diffusion of information or behaviors that identifies a 'culture'. A healthy organic culture is where information and nutrition flow freely through the system, wherever needed, fostered by long collaborative pathways.

Culture is an emergent property of the collective actions of individuals. To change culture, you have to change the collective actions of individuals and that requires them to collaborate. Most often, the existing culture incentivizes (psychologically, emotionally or financially) the actions people are currently taking. The first step is to understand what incentives will keep the culture the same, and then identify how to remove, or dis-incentivize the wrong behavior. Bob Sutton's latest book about "friction", talks about how to make the "wrong" things hard (increase friction), and the "right" things frictionless. We all generally do what we are incentivized to do, even if that isn't obvious at first sight.

Some of the areas not included in the article are: ???????????????? ????????-??????????: Prioritise health resources and work-life balance. ???????????????? ????????????????????: Use feedback to understand and address employee needs. ???????????????????? ??????????????????????: Invest in programs to develop effective leaders. ???????????? ????????????????????: Have a process for implementing culture change smoothly. ???????????????? ?????? ??????????????????????: Culture change requires time, consistency, and effort.