What mistakes should you avoid when starting a new job in Culture Change?

As a change agent in a new workplace, never underestimate the inertia for change for the organisation. Spend time to hear from stakeholders, gather insights and also what are obstacles to prevent the culture change from happening. Then put together a compelling case to create the urgency for the culture change to happen.

Always be open and adaptable to a culture change in a new job. Active listening, being honest and working with peers will help anyone adjust better. The fact that you have been hired, means that you are a culture & value fit.

I would argue that the initial misstep lies in assuming that your primary responsibility is culture change. In my view, comprehending the context entails recognizing that, beyond this, your role is to actively listen to people, discern various perspectives, and act as a facilitator to encourage productive conversations and foster aligned decision-making. While it may seem like a daunting task, viewing yourself as a mediator of ideas and perspectives can empower you in this role.

In my experience, a key success factor is ensuring that senior leaders understand and are aligned on the tie between the strategic goals of the organization and the desired culture. Furthermore, the desired behaviors must be rewarded appropriately. Explicitly calling out the connections between all of these pieces is fundamental to drive organizational culture change.

Be aware of the discrepancy between "official" and latent culture. The official culture (and organizational structure and process landscape, etc.) may look well thought-through, but it may not be congruent with the actual, latent culture. Listen to and observe stakeholders of all levels to find out, and address any divergence as soon as possible, if you can.

In my experience it is important to engage all levels of the organization to discuss the challenge at hand, allow for open conversation, and encourage ideas. Change cannot be achieved from the top down. When a team is part of a solution there is a much greater propensity for this new culture to “stick”. Managers should be humble and respect teammates’ company and industry knowledge. I have changed industries 3 times to be an agent of change. I have been asked many times how I’ve done it. I’ve always said that my job is simple - to create the right environment for a team to be successful. Engage in ongoing formal and informal feedback from deep into the organization. It’s hard work, and must be part of a new way of doing business

Are you an external consultant who may/ may not leave at the end of an engagement? Are you an employee who will be around for years to come? People will perceive and experience you differently based on this. Existing leaders (formally defined or not) may have personal pride - or a personal stake - in the existing culture. What about the existing culture will be critically important for them to stay engaged? What energizes them about possible changes in how the organization works? Lead with listening and curiosity. Celebrate what's working well. Do what you say you will do and when you commit to doing it. Be comfortable acknowledging what you don't know: be authentic and transparent.

To build trust and rapport, show vulnerability. Trust means predictability. It means that you can always predict that someone has your back, no matter what. Show people they can trust you and they will open up about their own problems and concerns around the transformation. This is key in order to achieve a successful transformation.

Recognise that at its heart Change is about behavioural and cultural change in alignment with the organisation’s objectives. Depending on your seniority your role is to offer support and challenge to Executive and Senior management to lead the change. Senior leadership need reminding to be consistent advocates and role models of change as they may unwittingly abdicate their responsibilities to do so, particularly when someone else has the “Change” in their job title. More generally it is about engaging the organisation in the exploration and delivery of change strategically, behaviourally and culturally. Remember, people follow behaviour rather than strategy, it’s why we tell children to do as we say not as we do!

La confianza es como un virus que se tiene que extender para que la enfermedad del cambio se propague (y ahora ya sabemos más de lo que querríamos de virus y pandemias). Veo cómo las organizaciones que ponen en común sus emociones, conocimientos, y experiencias a través de conversaciones de valor, tienen un mejor resultado y consiguen los objetivos que se proponen con el cambio. Como en las primeras etapas del ciclo de Drexler-Sibbet para la creación de equipos de alto rendimiento, hay que trabajar ?por qué estoy aquí?, ?quién eres? y ?qué estamos haciendo? antes de ponerse con ?cómo lo hacemos?

The first thing you should do is to have regular meetings with all stakeholders involved to discuss expectations and to ask for feedback. Your stakeholders need to be happy at all times. Knowing what they expect and receiving their feedback to keep them happy are crucial if you want any culture change initiative to succeed.

Talking about this amazing vision of how the culture will be, but then not making the investments and sacrifices to bring it to life. Either through lack of awareness, lack of capability, over-ambitious visions, or they're aware of the gap

Parece que cuando se han definido unas líneas de comunicación ya se puede empezar. Se suele tener una sensación de que los mensajes iniciales convencerán y servirán para todas las personas. La magia de las personas es que cada uno interpretamos ese mensaje en función de nuestro ser. Creo que además de disponer una narrativa central que sea compartida por el equipo promotor y que se traslade y adapte a los diferentes grupos de interés, es necesario disponer de un sistema de retroalimentación que nos indique si las acciones dise?adas generan los resultados previstos. La tecnología nos permite unos resultados rápidos, y los agentes del cambio nos ayudan a matizar, entender, y devolver mensajes que ayuden a alinear a las personas.

It’s important to look beyond the tools and processes that you were trained with to handle ‘culture change’ as they’re mostly western-centric and can be incredibly alienating and biased. Then remembering on a regular basis that you can’t actually change a culture, no one can. You can encourage habits and routines that support the direction you’d like a culture to go in, but that’s about it. Having this humility, and the awareness that other national cultures could have better frameworks and systems for a given business culture issue will ensure that you’re putting accessible and relevant building blocks in place rather than an approach that pleases one subset of your business’ population.

When you receive feedback according to the previous step, you should always act. People don′t trust other people that ask for feedback and then don′t put it into practice. Especially in culture change, it is important that you lead by example. If you are resistant to change, you′re not showing your stakeholders how they might deal with resistance in a more constructive way.

There's many ways to Rome as they say :) When implementing a culture change you are dealing with many moving parts that need to align. People, processes, budgets, deadlines. Not everything will always align. Stay focused on the vision. On the intention. If you cannot achieve it one way try another way. Talk to people, collect feedback, be creative. There is always a solution. You just need to find it.

To effect culture change, one must first understand the status quo, ie what does the the current culture look like? Another critical prerequisite to any transformation effort is to assure that stakeholders share a common understanding of what exactly culture is--and isn't. Let's face it, this is pretty arcane stuff--much has been written and researched regarding the structure and substance of organizational culture. Strive for simplicity, but be willing to settle for clarity. Lastly, but first in terms of priority, be convinced of the absolute commitment of senior leadership to your efforts...lip service simply won't suffice.

Culture change takes a long time before achieving a noticeable effect. It′s like going to the gym, after one week you won′t see much progress. After a month you might see a little, but after a year you′ll see a big change. To keep everyone motivated for the considerable effort they are putting into your project, it is important to keep them engaged. Therefore it is important to celebrate all small wins.

Culture change is a long process. And you might not get it right the first time around. Maybe you do one step forwards two steps back. But you're still going towards your end goal. Celebrating small wins gives hope. Helps quiet doubt. Gives people motivation to keep going. Maybe we did not win today but we for sure tried. And this deserves a celebration!

Recognizing and celebrating small wins along the way is essential for maintaining motivation and engagement within a new organization. These achievements, no matter how insignificant they may seem, demonstrate the positive impact of our culture change efforts. When I and my team are acknowledged for our accomplishments, it fosters a sense of accomplishment, encourages continued effort, and reinforces the belief that the desired culture is achievable

Probably the single biggest mistake is thinking that the job is changing the culture. In this respect, I don't think anyone will singularly be successful. When one understands what culture really is - the amalgamation of hundreds (or even thousands) of sets of experiences and beliefs, different value systems and different expectations - the idea that one person is going to change a collective culture is unrealistic. Understand what behaviors you want more of and what you want less of, and then reverse-engineering the exhibited behaviors to intentionally create the conditions and environments for people to do more of what you want and less of what you don't is ultimately what culture is all about.

Not researching the culture fundamentals about what culture is, how it is created, how it evolves, what must be true to say a culture has evolved and how to connect change efforts to solving business problems.

Not having a precise dataset on your actual culture makes the culture change less effective. Not having defined the aspired culture make the culture change less focused. Not having personal data reports make it less engaging and people less committed. Culture is datadriven, we just dont always make the data explicit!

Plenty of good advice about day 1 onwards in this article. Think its worth also considering de-risking the role before that, i.e. 'Day Minus'. It's important to check you're not a trophy or token hire before you accept the role. Warning signs: - No committed budget - Caginess around buy-in / executive unity/sponsorship - Vague imperative for needing/wanting change - A string of people/consultancies before you who have 'tried' and been hired/fired/left

When implementing a culture change be aware of own biases. People tend to jump to conclusions quickly. But especially if you're new to the organization the conclusions might not always be right. Be humble, be curious, be respectful. Also feedback is key. Not only from management. Talk to the people on the floor, get their opinions, wishes, worries. Incorporate this into the plan if possible. And make it fun! Make jokes, play games, work on teambuilding. There will be some tough moments on this journey. Bring some joy to balance that.