People, Like Organizations, Sometimes Need a Lifestyle Change

No organization wants to die.

Yet the spike in organizational mortality rates as our digital environment expands plants fear in the heart of many established organizations. Their fear is warranted. Only half of the organizations listed on the S&P 500 are predicted to remain by 2026, according to Innosight’s 2016 report, Corporate Longevity: Turbulence Ahead for Large Organizations. For many, it’s as if they’ve been diagnosed with a terrible illness that no pill can cure. The health they need to compete with digitally able organizations who rapidly sense and respond to volatile, uncertain, complex, and agile environments can only be gained by a complete lifestyle change.

Lifestyle changes are the sustainable version of diets. To be successful, behaviors must change for good. Changing a person’s behavior in a sustainable way requires them to change what they believe to be possible for themselves and their environment. Diets fail when people can no longer sustain behaviors that don’t align with their beliefs.

What’s required for organizations to survive the digital future is a culture transformation. Beliefs held by individuals, groups, and people across the hierarchy about their purpose at the organization, their daily priorities, their status and opportunities, and how they interact with and influence others must be changed. To realize this organizational lifestyle change—and not just embark on another failed diet—each leader and employee must be inspired to believe in a new vision of their future.

That future in a digital world will hold very different opportunities for each part of an established organization. Some—such as those with a focus on innovation or customer experience—will gain new priority and esteem. Others—like those steeped in manual processes—will recognize their diminishing ability to add value. But even as the status of some work shifts, emphasizing the connectedness among all the enterprise work becomes a top priority so that the entire culture, not just some groups of people, transforms as a whole. The trick to lifestyle changes for entire organizations is getting everyone involved.

As an organizational change management consultant, I’ve been the metaphorical trainer helping my clients try to maintain their own lifestyle changes. Those who failed never never changed their belief systems, acting as if reading the talking points and performing the activities that I created for them would be enough. Those who succeeded believed in their future and used my support to internalize a complete lifestyle change by following these five principles:

1)    They envisioned a compelling story about their future, using their vision as inspiration for testing ideas and adapting to new opportunities.

2)    They talked about how they were internalizing the disruption, sharing with their superiors, peers, and direct reports they intended to act differently.

3)    They formed new collaborative relationships, joining forces with those they’d never worked with before to put everyone’s expertise together in new ways.  

4)    They celebrated people, recognizing individuals and teams whose behaviors demonstrated the promise of the future.

5)    They identified how and when they would measure to check whether they were headed in the right direction, or if circumstances had changed, using qualitative and quantitative data to inform decisions.

What I’m excited about right now is that I am about to make a lifestyle change. I'm joining a vibrant new team at Premera to be a part of transforming the way healthcare works. I can’t wait to realize Premera’s awesome vision of the future.