Become a Culture Shifter

By Brian Mark

Give your culture your time and become a culture shifter.

?What is a "Culture Shifter"?

Some people might call it a change agent but I believe it's more than that.??

Changing a culture requires a movement.??Credit to my boss, Deanna Brocker, who lives and breathes this statement.??It requires that those trying to lead culture change, think and behave in a non-linear way.?

The challenge is most cultural movements are thought about, and planned for, in a linear way.??

An initiative is started, people are assigned to the initiative, there are strategies, goals, objectives, and then actions.??And maybe sometimes there is a system of measurement in place to track progress.??This isn’t a knock on organizations that don’t have a system of measurement in place or approach culture change in a linear way.??It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to do it correctly so it doesn’t just become a pencil whipping activity.

In order for culture change to become a movement it eventually needs to live and breath on it’s own.??Linear thinking and planning won’t get you there.??You need culture shifters.

A culture shifter is someone that contributes to the culture movement in a way that helps prove the value of the movement in everyday moments.??They realize that culture change is an all-day every day extension of effort.??Behaviors, modeling, accepting, discussing.??It all matters.??

What we live and breath is the culture that we show up to every day.??It’s a give and take process that contributes to an organization, and the relationships within, either growing together or growing apart.??

Below are three factors that will help your people become culture shifters who grow together, towards a movement, versus apart, and towards an ending.

Factor 1:??Give your culture your time

What are you investing your time in???Is it clear???Does everyone know why it’s important???Do your behaviors, what you model, what you accept, and what you discuss reinforce or contradict that which you are saying is important for your culture to thrive????The answers to these questions should be clear for everyone involved in your culture change.

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Factor 2:??Differentiate between Change Management and Change Readiness

Change management is for projects.??Change readiness is for culture.??Your systems (e.g., onboarding, training, leadership development, communications, team development, performance, etc.) all require a daily discipline of reflection and evaluation to be at the ready at any given time.??The biggest killer to a cultural movement is an organization that isn’t prepared, which will then ultimately fall back on old habits.

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Factor 3:??Get to the point

When you see someone who is actively working to behave, model, discuss, and invest in efforts to work against your cultural movement, get to the point.??Lean in and address it as soon as possible.??How long have they been doing this???Why have they been enabled to do so???What’s their “why” for doing it???Respond with empathy and grow together. If you don’t get to the point, they can influence in a way that they become a culture shifter in reverse.

Give your culture your time.?

Have a great week!

-Brian

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