How can you use scenario-based learning to communicate your Culture Change vision and goals?

Scenario based learning need to be used as content for Experiential Learning Case studies Success Stories and/or lessons learned. Learning solutions for culture advancement and/or talent development need to cater to organisation context, business priorities and different learning styles. Culture change and advancement is an ongoing process in every organisation. It is critical to ensure Leadership and HR partner on developing business and people focused solutions that advance the culture whilst driving business results.

Scenario work is excellent for exercising possible futures and checking how a system or organisation could (or could not) adapt for the future. It is indeed great learning, but its applications are limited if we are talking about complex matters that continuously change. Stories of the future should work together with stories of the present to figure out the direction and boundaries for change. And done systematically so the perception evolves to be coherent with current reality.

Ownership. It is key to generating engagement and commitment. My approach for 30 years is to use an image like a cultural Rorschach and let the participants engage with it, generate individual and team collective perspectives, and then ask them to generate ideas about what needs to be improved. The approach generates cognitive dissonance, the drive to gain closure between how things are perceived to be working and what they want to see as an end result. From the ideas, you let them guide the group into what needs to be done to generate alignment to the desired end-result culture change. Pull, rather than push. This approach works great in in-person as well as remote discussions with small adaptation. I'll expand below.

Scenarios can clearly demonstrate the impact of change and also the impact of no change. They can be great motivators and supporters of change because you can build real time tracking by linking your own business metrics to them. This supports a broader change management plan and allows for multi level scenario options to be presented, kind of like a choose your own adventure story to see who or how many people choose which pathway. This also makes it easy for a change management and comms team to work with learning teams for guidance in the change journey using validated real time data.

"Nobody ever washes a rental car." THAT is a simple basic reality. People do not take care of things they do not own (sure, with exceptions, but it IS a metaphor, right?). Scenario frameworks allow them to project their ideas into the situation in a natural way, minus most of the dogma. People resist change, especially when they feel it is being done TO them. But if they are involved and they can suggest their own ideas and frameworks, you can facilitate the discussions, share your ideas and themes and issues, and reach some consensus WITH their active involvement. You decrease resistance and you increases ownership involvement, AND you can generate some peer pressure that will support the new frameworks.

The downside of this approach? Well, YOU don't get to TELL them. You can provide the overall framework, let's say through a Visioning exercise: "It is 2026 and (our group) has been recovnized for being (whatever). What did we do to achieve all this?" Some engagement like this can help them to mentally remove all the roadblocks and focus on actions that need to be accomplished to reach (the desired outcome). You set this up by sharing "the View from The Front" with them, noting that it will be quite different from "the View at The Back." You set that up by having them discuss their houghts on the actual current reality of the culture, the goals, the missions, and the expectations. Note that there will be BIG gaps that will need closure.

"Change is good. You go first." That is Dilbert's, and it does reflect the norm in most organization. Change and culture can be improved when you address: - The attractiveness of the mission and vision - The current level of discomfort with the way things are - The individual or team's previous success with implementing change - The peer or workgroup support for the shift Select some scenario where your people can generate some ownership and involvement in framing up the reality of the desired outcomes. You can make things very complex or look to keep things simple and focused. Know where you want to go and devise some simple approaches that involve and engage the people in suggesting ideas for alignment and progress.

I've used this methodology for many years and it always created terrific conversations and, on occasion led to transformation. However, it isn't possible or helpful to be definitive on this. I strongly advocate experimentation. I realise that this is difficult in the organisational context but we operate complex systems and adopting this scientific principle could bear fruit. I'm very encouraged by LLM's progress with pattern recognition and I hope this type of challenge may become easier in time.

Scenarios are best when pulled from actual experiences rather than feeling fabricated. Ask people to think about a time they had a situation in the old/current culture that did not match up to the desired culture. Then ask them to imagine what would be different in the revised culture. How would the situation look or sound that would create a better outcome?

I've been facilitating innovation and engagement for 30 years using a simple image of a wagon being pulled by a leader (with a view from the front) and being pushed by a small team (with a view called, "boards and hands.) The wagon is rolling on wooden Square Wheels. The cargo of the wagon is round rubber tires. Square wheel work, but they do not work smoothly, and the round wheels are already in the wagon. And the scenario is about continuous continuous improvement since the Round Wheels of Today will be the Square Wheel of tomorrow. Don't Just DO Something, Stand There! Ask for ideas as you frame an attractive vision of the future. Generate active ownership involvement / engagement by doing thing WITH them. Have FUN out There!

I will start by challenging the underlying assumption in the text: that cultural change “requires clear vision, shared goals, and effective communication”. Good enough to define priorities for complicated tasks (like: what do we need to develop to land on the moon?), but does not work in a complex and emergent process like culture: A clear vision is an illusion. Details on destination will become outdated quickly, and abstractions will mean different things as the world turns. Instead, define a direction of travel and establish boundary conditions. Shared goals and effective communication would derive from the above. Also, having it declared top down will constraint possibilities and constructive dissent. Let people travel and report.