Why is culture change so hard?
“Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”
A dysfunctional culture gradually kills a business. When culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do their best work, even when no one is watching. In today’s world, people are always connected, a customer’s or employee’s experience of a company can go viral in a heartbeat. While culture isn’t as tangible as profits or sales, it can make or break both.
Culture change is one of the most unexploited sources of performance improvement. Leaders that focus on the conditions to create a strong culture stand out from others. A study conducted by Deloitte concluded that;
Companies that proactively manage culture demonstrate revenue growth over a 10-year period that is, on average, 516% higher than those who do not.
Big prize when a company finds the winning formula however cultural change has a 19% success rate – the most ambitious goal for businesses. Culture change invariably fails when an organisation is primarily focused on the quick wins like hitting short term annual targets and viewing the change as a phase or a disruption of their core business rather than integrating the culture change into how business is done.
Trying to change culture, can call into question everything the organisation ‘does around here’. For leaders, it can call into question their modus operandi. Everyone has a role in shaping culture but it absolutely has to start with the senior leaders of an organisation – they set the tone for the change they expect in others.
In our work with clients, we are seeing common characteristics / approaches to culture change that are delivering positive results;
- Making culture tangible by measuring it and tracking the progress. Correlating culture metrics with other core metrics like EBITDA, NPS and employee engagement to name a few.
- Providing an inspiring reason for change that motivates.
- Creating strong alignment so that every person in the company knows where they are heading and why. The regularity of communications cannot be under estimated.
- Giving people in the company a voice and listening to them on topics like strategy, values, how we do things around here.
- Moving swiftly & responding to the feedback. Pace and responsiveness send a clear message that you mean business.
- Holding senior leaders to account. Removing people in particular leaders who are not willing to change. This is when it gets tough – it is imperative albeit hard that anyone that is unwilling to change, cannot be tolerated even if they are top performers. When all else fails, they must leave the organisation.
- Creating a positive environment enabled by people leaders so people are clear on how their day to day role fits, are supported, developed, held to account and trusted for doing their best work.
- Creating the infrastructure to embed the new way of doing things into the organisation – in particular pay attention to what is recognised and valued.
- When unexpected short-term pressures get in the way, not allowing the focus on culture to dissipate. A healthy balance between immediate and longer-term needs will ensure a healthier more vibrant business.
Culture change requires patience. If there is focus at the top table, change can start emerging after about 18 months – 2 years however it can take on average 6 years of hard work to shift the shape of culture. The prize is worthwhile – having a strong positive culture is good for business. Strong cultures attract and retain customers and talented people. For Boards looking to change culture, they need to believe that the CEO and the leadership team is serious and passionate in making culture change stick.
If you are interested in embarking on a culture journey, a good starting point is measuring your culture and then determining the priorities to create the change you want to see – drop us a note, we are hopeful we can help.
We are a boutique organisation and people change consultancy that partners with our clients to deliver sustainable positive change. Our website shares a little more https://astute.ie/