How To Change Your Organizational Culture

Organizational culture change is the first change that has to occur in an Agile
transformation. Learn the steps you need to grow here.

You will learn How to Change Your Organizational Culture. Yes. How to Change Your
Culture. It requires effort and focus. And it is possible. I have done it and
leaders around the globe have applied this same information to change their
culture. What follows below is an outline of the proven steps. I have also included
pointers to supporting resources.

1. Desire for Growth

The starting place for culture change is desire � a powerful urge to create change.
Nothing less than this will result in success, so that is the starting place.
Anyone interested in shifting culture needs to look inside to see what is driving
them and make sure they have the motivation to do the work needed.

I used to subscribe to Kotter's "Sense of Urgency" and even advocated this. I no

longer do. It turns out that urgency is linked to fear and a lower level of
psychological safety. This inhibits personal and organizational growth. For this
key reason, "Desire" is a better choice.

Strong Desire for Growth is Essential

Organizations that have sustained organizational growth over decades see improving
as part of everyday work. They invest in growth because it is important. Not
because of urgency, but because it's the right thing to do.

2. Understand the Existing Culture

The next step is to understand your existing culture. But what is Culture? We can
define it as what is commonly known as,"How we do things around here." I have
experimented with a lot of culture models and recommend the two that are proven in
terms of simplicity and power. You can use them together to diagnose and your
culture and orient for growth.

The Sahota Culture Model provides a clear understanding of culture through

identification of the interconnected elements that shape culture. It also
highlights the need to focus not just on Structures, but also on the Consciousness
(or Mindset) of a system. We often fall into the trap of focusing on structures
(especially process) rather than focus on the people and how they are working
together. This mode reminds us that it's really about the consciousness (or
mindset), the people, not about the structures or process.

The other model that is very powerful is a modified version of the Laloux Culture
Model. It may be used to assess where the organization is right now. It also has
the tendency to help spark a desire for shifting to a higher performance way of
working such as Green or Teal. One key reason to use this model is that it has
heaps of case studies and research to support the claims of high performance. It
also lines up with many other models and theories of culture and behavior such as
McGregor's Theory X � Theory Y.

3. Create a Star on the Horizon

The next step is to look at case studies and examples of the kind of company that
you want to become. There are lots of great resources such as the book, Reinventing
Organizations, or "Diverse Paths to High-Performance Organizational Culture."

It is a good idea to use these for inspiration. The goal is to create a "star on
the horizon" that is aligned with the desire for change. Don't try and copy
structures. Copying simply gives you the structures without the shift in culture.

The secret here is to find your own path. Selecting a path is primarily a function
of two things: 1. The existing situation in your organization. We can only grow and
evolve from the place we are at. 2. The shared desire of people to create a new
future. The desire could just be top leadership or they may co-create this with
people throughout the organization.

4. Culture Grows Locally

A common misconception is that culture change is for the whole organization. It is
important to understand that in most organizations culture varies by team,
department, and location. It is as unique as each individual manager. So keep in
mind this key point:

Since it is a local phenomenon, it means that it is possible to make changes

locally within your part of the organization. The most common way for culture to
grow is Culture Bubbles. Of course, when we do this, there will be culture gaps
that create tension and challenges.

The key idea for reducing the tension is to Build Culture Adapters. There will be
different ways of working and different values inside the bubble and outside the
bubble. The adapter idea is to reduce conflict with the rest of the organization by
building adapters between the ways of working. It's a key pattern for creating
sustainable culture bubbles.

5. Leaders Go First
Culture is primarily a reflection of Leadership. What happens at the bottom of the
organization is a fractal of what happens at the top of the organization (thanks to
Glenda Eoyang for this wisdom). It is well-known that the performance of a team is
a direct reflection of their manager � this was proven through validated real-world
research almost 20 years ago through the Gallup 12 "Engagement" Questions.

The way to change culture is for leaders to change how they interact with people
and the organizational system. A key concept here is that Organizational Behavior
Follows Leadership Behaviour. A new kind of organizational behavior way of working
requires that leaders behave in a new way of working. So successful transformation
requires that Leaders Go First!

6. Leadership Growth is Required

A key lesson in my career is that the Leader is the Limit for Growth. I notice that
to create high-performance organizational systems, leaders needed to develop
themselves as human beings. They needed to grow into the kind of leaders we see in
high-performance environments. This means inner work to cultivate trust, safety,
and connection. As leaders, we need to get our egos under control so we can develop
leaders around us.

This is not for the faint of heart. We are talking about developing ourselves not
just as leaders but as human beings. Like you, I am on this journey, too. I created
the 4A's Conscious Leadership Model to capture the step-by-step approach I have
been using to grow myself. It's a powerful tool to help rewire our unconscious
behaviors that are preventing us from showing up as the leaders we desire to be. We
are so deeply conditioned by society to have behaviors that are contradictory to
high-performance. Dedicated focus and effort is required to shift our habits and
unconscious behaviors.

A learning organization is a place where everyone grows.

Remember the desire for organizational growth in step 1? This is where you need it.
Personal growth requires a strong drive to keep up the effort.

This is the secret of changing the culture: all we need to do is change our
behavior and culture will follow.
It's a Journey
The above steps are sufficient and necessary for culture change in an organization.
What is shared here are the key starting elements for culture change. Of course,
there are a lot more details on how to do the steps outlined here and even more on
supporting the journey.

You Can Do This Regardless of Your Role

Executives, managers, and coaches that I have trained have successfully applied
what I am sharing here. We are all leaders. We may be a leader because people
report to us or we have more seniority or expertise. And we can also be a leader
because of how we choose to show up.

You Can Implement This Immediately

Regardless of your role, you can chose to show up NOW the way a leader of the
future organization would. You have full control over your behavior.

You Don't Need Permission, Budget or Authority

You don't need permission, budget or authority to start acting in ways that model
high-performance behavior. All of us can shift our local culture immediately. The
only limit here is your desire and your investment in developing yourself.

It's a big shift for us as leaders. Sure, we still need to support the development
of people around us so that we have leaders at all levels. But this is secondary to
growing ourselves to fully model the kind of organizational leader needed for the
future organizational culture/organization we wish to create.

Summary
So here are the six key steps to change your culture:

Desire for Growth

Understand Existing Culture
Create a Star on the Horizon
Grow Culture Locally
Leaders Go First
Leadership Growth is Required
And here are the important tips to keep in mind:

It's a journey
You can do this regardless of your role
You can implement this immediately
You do not need permission, budget or authority