How can you use consulting to drive Culture Change?

The language spoken in the organization creates the culture. What language and behaviors are promoted, tolerated in the boardroom, in the organization across all levels creates the culture. If we need to change it, it needs to starts from the words, symbols and behavior not only from the top but also from the bottom.

Cultural change is a sexy but also challenging topic. As Drucker said, culture eats strategy at breakfast, it is a subject on everybody's tongue, but owned by few. In my experience, changing from within sometimes can be complicated, especially if you don't have a burning platform under your feet. A consultant can bring different perspectives, change gear when needed and .. is a third party, that can pass the testimony when necessary

Being a consultant.you can only identify the Gap.and provide the assistant to real understanding of what the actual culture prevailing in organization and how much it has been translated in to policies and practices.culture transformation is only possible with cascade approach and it must be the reflection of your real practices.

Culture change has to be driven by The CEO and the leadership team. ( consultants should not be used to define culture!!) Moreover line management is critical in delivering process change and they must be on board a priori Culture is about Purpose, Values and how employees are treated and valued within an organization. Culture shift takes time and done through experiences that employees can feel and live. consistently. Any failures in the process can lead to a step back. Great organizations have great Culture and Purpose!

In my experience, leveraging consulting to drive culture change is an effective strategic approach that combines expertise with a human touch. External consultants bring objectivity and specialised insights to assess your organisation's culture. They collaborate closely with your team, gathering data and crafting tailored recommendations to foster cultural improvements. These trusted professionals guide organisations through the implementation of change strategies, communication plans, and training programmes. Their objective perspective, along with a warm and collaborative approach, can help secure leadership and employee support, expediting the positive transformation of your organisational culture.

Don′t overcomplicate this part. Start with an ideation phase to define anything that the teams wants to see in the future in terms of values, behaviours, beliefs in the company. Use a structure that′s easy to communicate, and put the ideas in the right category, for example mission, values, behaviours. Then, what actions need to be taken to get a little bit closer towards this future vision.

Don't boil the ocean. Focus on the ~3 cultural shifts needed to enable your strategy. Also, be sure to reinforce the best parts of what makes the culture unique today. It's about evolution, not revolution.

In my experience, the change strategy for culture change needs to be simple. Once the future state is designed, creating a compelling visionary statement about what the "new" culture looks / feels like and why its important to get there is the highest priority. That has to be cascaded horizontally and vertically across the enterprise people/ work leaders, so that they can consistently share it with their teams. Next the leaders need to model the behaviors and processes they expect others to follow as part of the future state culture. Finally they need to reinforce expectations - recognize progress and address barriers.

For culture change to take place, not only must the leaders execute new behaviors but each employee must also take ownership to drive the change and act in new ways. This is more difficult than just having a plan. The hearts and minds of each employee have to want to implement new behaviors, which in turn will lead to a new culture. Once the desire is there, they have to know what actions of a new culture look like. They should then create the interventions themselves… when a consultant helps to facilitate this, that’s when culture starts to shift.

Ensuring your systems reinforce the desired cultural shift is crucial. While leaders model behaviors and recognize exemplifying conduct, they change over time. Culture's key elements must be visible from day one and consistently reinforced through Systems, Symbols, and Behaviors. When shifting culture, scrutinize and modify organizational structure, facilities, authority, autonomy, decision-making, and remuneration policies to avoid hindering efforts. Depending on the level of experience and capability within your business, consultants may be of assistance in this regard. It is of course imperative that leaders are front and centre of all change efforts.

When successful (notice, I did not say done) there should be celebration and a heavy appreciation that change is always a team sport! Your change agents/champions and sponsors are always the key to success. Encouraging associates and acknowledging the work that remains (when is it really all done?) helps to sustain the momentum of the change. These public events can also serve as delivery benchmarks and ceremonies for handoffs/to kickoff support of future initiatives. Please do not underestimate the power of celebration!

Benchmarking and ongoing measurement are key to ensuring that change remains effective over time. A well-structured, consistent survey approach allows organizations to track progress, pinpoint specific areas needing support, and understand why. By benchmarking change efforts, you establish a baseline to compare against, highlighting successes and areas for improvement. Rigorous measurement helps identify whether the implemented changes are producing the desired results or if further adjustments are needed. Moreover, ongoing measurement fosters a culture of continuous improvement and learning. It provides valuable insights into what's working and what's not, empowering organizations to respond and adapt in days and weeks not months.

I have found it helpful to be clear on the outcomes up front. Spend the time in the planning stage to define the outcome and how you will measure it. It will be a focusing point as the culture team dives deeper and begins brainstorming all the tactics that could be pursued. Keeping the main thing the main thing is important to achieving and maintaining success.

No way! A consultant is the last person to be delivering cultural change. Cultural change must be driven by leaders walking the talk and leading the workforce collaboratively.

A consultant, shares the framework, roadmap, milestones and previous best practices and examples. The real work must be done by the leaders of the organization in an authentic way, involving the organization, getting the pulse, listening what is needed, creating ambition, vision in line with the strategy. Then create the language gluing all these which creates the culture

These are great steps on the journey, but it needs to be led by leaders, scaled by HR and other organizational business leaders, and owned by everyone.

Consultants and People Teams can only ever act as high-level architects and facilitators of culture change. Culture change is never as simple as a current state, or future state design. Culture is a living entity. Consultants and HR can help create the foundation for the 6 key cultural elements; Rituals and Routines, Symbols, Stories & Myths, Organizational Structures, Power Structures, and Control Systems, as outlined in Scholes, Whittington, and Johnson's Culture Web model. Ultimately, the prevailing culture is a collaborative effort, co-designed by leaders, HR professionals, and perhaps consultants, but most significantly, the employees. It's the everyday actions and interactions of employees that give life to culture change.

Generic overview of an organisational change process. Mentions Kotter, who noted that culture is the outcome of collective behaviours over time. I noticed the article picked up Kotter's summary of embedding change. However, its lacks any content & nuance about the dynamics of culture. This article, presumably drawn from Kotter, because it presents a linear approach to change. In my experience, change is systemic and dynamic. Take care with AI folks!