Responsibility to Change
I often tell my clients - "Your culture will form itself whether they attend to it or not. You might as well be intentional about it because you might not like the result if you don't."
After a quick bristle, the question I often get back is - "We already have one and some things need to change. How do we change it?"
The simple answer is: you define how you want it to be different, then you act accordingly.
The reality is a bit more complex, largely because:
Culture is pervasive. It's a part of everything.
It can be difficult to identify what to change and where to start.
It takes time. A lot of time.
I could dedicate an entire article (and likely will) on breaking down each of these three items. But, for now, here's the best advice I can give leaders that want to change culture:
Lead by example.
Because culture is part of everything we do, we often outsource the responsibility for changing culture to others. Corporate Comms. A Change Team. Special Projects. While developing communications and spreading the message across your work force is important, the largest impact we each can make is directly living and acting, every day, according to the new cultural values. All fancy assessments and diagnostics aside, culture changes because we each commit to living, acting, working in a new way.
Said otherwise, stop waiting for others to change and starting changing yourself. You'll be surprised how quickly the culture transformation momentum builds.
