Culture Transformation in the Workplace

Workplace leaders have a stronger awareness of the importance of getting their culture right than ever before. HR roles are now People Culture roles, there is a greater expectation that our people are supported in more then just their work, that we are able to respond and support effectively to all types of personal challenges and build a workplace environment that is conducive to promoting mental wellbeing. So how to we actually achieve all of that? Especially when we are responding to all types of people related challenges - constantly.

Culture sits behind many of the challenges?most?workplaces have such as staff turnover, mental health challenges and poor productivity/work outcomes. For many workplaces in either some or all of their teams, the?existing culture?can be one of negativity, people lacking focus/drive for doing their best and splitting/blaming.

Yet, transforming culture can seem like an impossible task. Where do you begin? Typically when it comes to culture improvement, organisations/workplaces will focus on leadership development, employee engagement, values and purpose. These focus areas are all 'parts' of 'the people system'.

Let's consider this idea of a 'people system' for a moment. Recognising it as a 'whole' system, enables us to see that 1) in order to get a whole there are going to be specific 'parts' and 2) in order to transform culture we need to consider what these parts are, how these interact, support each other and work together.

Most workplaces struggling to achieve their culture improvement priorities because they are not aware of how the 'part' of the system they are focussing on, relates to the other parts of the system. So doing a great job in providing outstanding leadership development for example, doesn't then translate into the culture improvement outcomes. When they upskill their leaders, the focus often is on how leaders can personally improve their performance and develop soft skills to lead and inspire their team members - as individuals - not as a group as a team, let alone how they ensure their team functions as 'part' of the 'whole' workplace/organisation.

'Systems thinking' allows us to look at our people system like a car motor, so we are intentional about each of the parts which are needing to be invested in and aware of the role they play in the overall engine working well and driving our workplace forward in achieving our purpose/mission. Thinking of culture transformation from this 'systems lens', allows us to reflect on how we are actually doing in our culture improvement and refine our approach, rather than engaging in isolated culture improvement activities that don't translate into the outcomes we are after.

Sticking with our car analogy for a moment, there is a difference in an engine that makes a car move from A to B adequately, to a car that has a high performing engine that is not only able to perform with speed, but also makes it a enjoyable, smooth and thrilling ride. The manufactures of really high performing cars, spend a huge effort 'engineering' their engine, this is a continual improvement priority for them.

One of the key 'parts' that drive our people system is Team & Culture. Yet many workplaces struggle with even understanding exactly what culture is, let alone having the expertise to then design and hone that engine!

Culture is reflected in the?identity?of a group. In workplaces with multiple teams, this involves the identity as individual teams, as well as all the teams together as a whole. What is important to us a team as a group (what we value), our normal ways of doing things, how we speak to each other, the language we use and ultimately how we behave as a group, can be very different from team to team.

For more information, including the 6 SIMPLE. steps to transforming culture visit our website: