Driving change is a complex and challenging undertaking for any business. Company culture, as with all human behaviors, influences the behavior of its employees at every level. Consistency, patience, commitment, and time are needed to successfully achieve cultural change while smoothly transitioning into new objectives.
- Evaluate the Current Company Culture
The first step to driving cultural change is evaluating your current company culture. Your company’s culture defines the broad behaviors and values that standardize how you operate on a day-to-day basis.
Addressing this requires a company-wide understanding of what your current culture is, how it develops, and whether the culture aligns with your vision and objectives.
- Create New Company Vision and Strategic Direction
If you’re planning a cultural change, you should start with your company’s vision and ideal state. Address the following questions:
- What are we doing to move the organization toward its vision?
- What are we doing to recruit and retain the right person?
- What strategies or changes do we need to make to achieve our vision?
Group discussions are a good way of exploring elaborate decision-making process. Look at your current culture and put the concept of the organization’s future inside it. This way, you can ensure that every employee knows what they are doing to advance their company and why it is important.
- Implement New Change in the Organization
The final step to driving cultural change is implementing the vision that you’ve developed. While this will vary from business to business, there are a few steps that are typical across the industry:
First, the executive team introduces and adopts the new policy. This will ensure that every employee knows that change is coming, when it’ll take effect, and what the outcomes will be if they meet or miss the objectives.
The second step is to narrate the story about the new company culture. It’s essential to have the right person tell this story and add some emotion into it.
The third step is to reveal the values of the organization in order for every employee to understand how they align with the company’s vision and future.