Culture Change and Change Culture

The Bottom Line

Developing a healthy culture is much more than having defined values and a vision. At Reluctantly Brave, our business advisory services are backed by years of experience helping companies define and implement an adequate culture that leads to long-term success. Culture eats strategy unless it's aligned with the right values.

The culture challenge.

The challenge is how to first describe the culture, and then challenge two is how to change it. There have been, over the years, a number of models developed to help map culture. Harrison and Handy, for example, have developed similar models based around the idea of four frameworks or Greek gods..

?One of the most powerful and effective models that we use, however, is the one developed by two UK academics Johnson and Scholes. This model is called the cultural web.

?The cultural web

Johnson and Scholes identified a number of linked elements that make up culture. Importantly, they didn’t try and specify any one best culture. Instead they argue that by analysing each element you can decide if the current approach helps to deliver your vision and mission or hinder it.

?The six elements they defined are:

• Stories and myths: covers events and people discussed inside and outside the organisation. So who are the heroes and heroines – and who are the villains? This categorisation guides on what is seen as success.

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• Rituals and routines:?covers the patterns of systematic behaviour that are seen as normal. Usually this determines what’s supposed to happen in a particular situation. These rituals can be?positive?– supporting colleagues, responding to customer queries in 24 hrs. But they can be?negative?– bullying, sexism, etc.
• Symbols?– every office has symbols: from who has a corner or separate office to the daily dress code or who can fly business class. Symbols can extend to the branding – fun or serious – and the ways the organisation portrays itself through what it sponsors.

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• Organisational structure: the organogram is one formal representation of structure – who reports to who. But there are other power structures in an organisation – around what Malcolm Gladwell calls social power.

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• Control systems:?every organisation has ‘controls.’ These include systems for setting and maintaining standards for finance and quality. They may also include reward and promotion systems.

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• Power structures: some people or groups have significant decision-making powers within an organisation. These structures can be formal – the CEO, the CFO or the Board. Or they can be informal – perhaps a strong trades union able to derail or sanction decisions.

At the centre of the web sits the summary of these – the culture paradigm. (Johnston and Scholes call this ‘the paradigm’ or ‘the recipe’ – the summary of how these elements interconnect.

We add an important element to all of this and that is Imagination, for us it is the fuel for bravery and the space in which real Culture change happens?

?What to do? Five Brave steps to change and align culture

Understanding?culture is not enough. The point is to?change it. And to do this you should follow some of these five steps.

1. Analyse culture as it is now (and be honest!)

Job one is to sit down and work out accurately what the culture is now. This is where we bring our unique Brave Culture Scans and analysis. There are a number of (other) ways to do this. Focus groups, especially externally facilitated ones, can be a great way to get a real handle on this. It’s essential that this is a candid ‘warts and all’ approach. This requires added Bravery from leaders, teams and individuals.

2. Imagine the culture as you want it to be

With the picture of your current cultural web complete, think next about how you would like things to be – ideally. (It will never be perfect in action.). We call this Imagineering (borrowed the word from Disney but with our unique business approach)

Starting from your organisation’s strategy, think about how you want your culture to work, if everything was correctly aligned. To make it concrete we often then list the key stakeholders and describe how things will be better for them in the new culture. These stakeholders could include: staff, beneficiaries, service users, donors and others.

3. Map the differences between the two

Now compare your two cultural web diagrams, and identify the differences between them. Considering your vision, mission and values:

• What strengths are clear from your analysis?
• What factors work – and you just need to encourage and reinforce them?
• What weaknesses are hindering your vision and mission, or are misaligned?
• Which factors do you need to change – and what are the?key?few?
• Who needs to agree, be informed about, or sign off any changes?
• What new beliefs and behaviours do you need to promote at different levels?

4. Make a (Brave) action plan

You need an action plan to make sure that the culture change actually takes place. This plan should establish:

• The key?issues?to address – both to reinforce and change
• Who?should take action – senior commitment to action is essential
• How you will track and?measure?changes (we have a unique play based data capture tool)
• Explain exactly how this will help deliver strategy and beneficiary payoffs (we have a unique Brave roadmap structure and expert)

This plan should ideally be published and available to everyone. (we assist in ensuring transparency is a part of your culture!)

5. Measure differences over time

You need track that your approach was actually implemented?and?that it has had the desired effect. (So what you do may not have had the impact you hoped for.)

This should be supplemented and augmented through pastoral support through workshops, coaching and seminars. We also ensure that learning and new approaches to learning are included and developed in the culture changes.

• Put in place a timeline to measure changes in beliefs and associated behaviour over an appropriate period – a week, a month, and a year. (How long depends on the scale and scope of the change.). We embed this through our coaching programmes for both individuals and teams.
• Where’s the data to say this produced the results you wanted? Are the key beneficiaries – the donors, the service users, the staff members – experiencing the payoffs that the change was meant to deliver? This is where our Brave metrics that capture the movement from Surviving to Thriving are so important.

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Contact us today to learn more about the ways you can implement a culture that nourishes your business.