How to change your organisational culture
Which aspects of your organisational culture help it to be more successful, and which aspects hold it back? And if you want to change the culture, how do you do it? There are four levers you can pull. Here they are, in order of potency.
Lever one - role model the culture you want to create. If you want more innovation, be more innovative. If you want a customer focused culture, spend more time focused on customers. The truth is, you can't not role model a culture – if you are a leader, people around you are unconsciously absorbing the cultural values you transmit by your actions. The only question is, are you transmitting the right ones?
Lever two - tell stories which illustrate the kind of culture you want to create in your organisation. If you want people to be more honest, it's pretty much a waste of time sending an email to everyone saying 'We value honesty in this company' It's even more of a waste of time printing honesty on the back of everyone's ID card along with all the other company values that no one can remember. Instead, tell stories to communicate the culture. Tell a story about the time one of your top salespeople lost a big order because they were too honest about your company's products, and how that was the right thing to do. Or tell a story about how someone in your organisation was very honest to you about your shortcomings, and how you responded to that. Most great leaders are great storytellers.
Lever three - encourage people who exemplify the kind of culture you want and discourage the people who exemplify the kind of culture you don't want. Sometimes this means taking some really tough decisions – like firing some senior managers who are consistently role modelling the wrong kind of culture.
Lever four - align your systems and procedures. Make sure all your systems and procedures support and reinforce the kind of culture you want. If you want to create a high trust culture, don't insist that people have to jump through all sorts of bureaucratic hoops in order to claim their travel expenses (unless you work in the House of Commons)
Culture change isn't easy – but it's an essential part of the leader's role.