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If you are looking for ways to increase performance, you may know already that engaged staff outperform those without by up to 202% (Gallup). And that Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) are higher by up to 60% amongst people who are engaged, they are 54% more likely to stay in the organisation, 50% more likely to exceed expectations and can generate up to 4.5 times more profit than the person who is not engaged (Hay Group).

The number one obstacle to any successful culture change is resistance from employees. Therefore you have to build an approach that engages with the top and coaches leaders to lead the change, directly cascading down to the middle managers to break-down barriers and mobilise the front-line to create ownership of the change.  

Creating Sustainable Culture Change   

© 2018 The Change Corporation

Step 1 – Define what ‘good’ looks like in terms of the desired culture

Normally the CEO and top management have hypotheses about what can be improved and where the pain points are. Before you start changing things, you need to build a road map of where you’re going and to build the road map you need to know where you are and what the gap is to get to where you want to be. What does good look like? What is your vision? What do you not want to see in the work culture?

Step 2 – Undertake a review to assess where the organisation is now

This can easily be done through a survey or by measuring the pulse of the organisation. Agree with the client what is the best way to assess.

Step 3 – Develop an Action Plan

Recommendations and actions that come out of the survey are under-pinned by a core outcome.  What do you want as an outcome of this process? Engage with people to turn the culture around.  

Step 4 – Behaviours Workshops

Run workshops with employees from all departments and teams and on all levels. Design the workshops to be inter-active and engaging.  Ask the employees to identify ‘new’ behaviours that they feel will deliver the desired culture as well as the behaviours they no longer want to experience. This way you get their buy in without having to convince them. They design the solution for themselves.

Step 5 – Provide Development and Support to Drive the Culture Change

At the same time as you do behaviours workshops, work with the leadership team to help them understand that you are all working towards the same outcome and that you have the means to support them make the behavioural shifts they urgently need to make.

This 6 step process will have a major impact. Some of the key learning points are:

1. Developing a shared language
2. Having the time and space to think and reflect
3. Building a stronger rapport and understanding in the team
4. Improved communication and engagement
5. Greater focus on people rather than task

Step 6 – Measure and Evaluate Success

Repeat step 2 and measure results towards core outcome.

Culture change requires constant reinforcement to be sustained and we strongly recommend that the new behaviours are reinforced through HR policies and procedures.  It is a priority for the case organisation to conduct a review of strategic HR to include a policy review, develop people plans and a training and development programme.

This post was co-authored by Lindsey Agness and her business partner Tonje Aaroe