HR Can’t Change Company Culture by Itself

A strong culture is vital for organizational success – as evidenced by the relationship between
culture and leadership, employee commitment, customer satisfaction, and innovation. But "strong"
doesn't mean fixed. As the organizational goals and strategy change over time, so too should culture
intentionally be changed. The best leaders ask, "Who do we need to be (culture) in order to achieve
what we're trying to do (strategic goals)?" But there's one barrier that holds many organizations
back from genuine and successful culture change: ownership. The first question to ask when culture
change is on the horizon should not be, "How do we go about this?" but rather, "Who owns this?"
The answer is, too often, HR. Recently, I spent time with one of the world's largest financial
institutions, in the process of changing their culture. They have a significant call to change, an
official remit to do it, yet one major challenge of ownership. And as with most medium-to-large
organizations, official responsibility for shifting organizational culture lies in the hands of senior HR
executives and their team.
While culture change can be an important and exciting project for HR, making it HR's sole
responsibility doesn't work out as anyone had hoped. Too often, it devolves into a
transactional "box-ticking" exercise. In this financial institution, for instance, it is often
unjustly regarded as "just more to do from HR." This isn't through bad intention or lack of
belief that the culture change matters. It's usually because of competing priorities. So
unless it's the official responsibility of business unit leaders, it's hard to move culture
change to the top of their agenda when there are so many other formal responsibilities.
Particularly when they know that HR, who tend to have greater skills and expertise in this
area, is supposed to be leading the charge.
True culture change means altering the way the organization lives and breathes. It shapes
the way people make decisions, get their work done, what they prioritize, and how they
interact with colleagues, clients, and customers. It is really only successful and powerful
when business leaders see it as their responsibility, and see HR as a resource for helping
them achieve it. Consider a recently published longitudinal study by Anthony Boyce and
colleagues that found culture "comes first" in predicting sales, as mediated by customer
satisfaction. Surely creating that culture is just as much of a sales concern as an HR priority.
That's why culture change has to be a collaborative project. HR leaders can help business
executives successfully execute culture change by doing four things:
 Facilitate the research phase. To move from A (existing culture) to B (desired,
future culture) we often spend a lot of time and facilitate conversation and
consultation deciding on B, but not enough time having a tangible, meaningful
understanding of A. What do we look like now, at all levels — values, behaviors,
processes, policies, artifacts? The larger the organization, the more variety we'll get
in what A really looks like across the firm. Business leaders need to know, and HR
can be a huge resource in facilitating this process.
  Convince leaders culture can change… So many senior leaders I meet are, in
reality, very skeptical that culture really can change. And rightly so. Most have only
seen culture change when drastic internal or market circumstances have forced it
upon the organization. This skepticism is justified, as there are many examples of
culture change not transpiring despite all the "talk" or of the change not turning out
well. HR can help by sharing examples of how organizations have, in line with their
long-term strategic objectives, proactively and positively driven culture change.
 …Then teach them how to change it. We can't assume business leaders will know
what to do to influence culture. Some may have the expertise already, while others
may find that it comes somewhat instinctively. But for others, even the most senior
leaders, it can be a new and uncertain path. Few will have been involved in leading
culture change before. It is not enough to engage business unit leaders to get their
input on what needs to change and their buy-in to the initiatives. Only when we
equip business leaders with the skills to drive culture change can we then give them
ownership and hold them accountable for its success.
 Have a formal "handoff" where the project is handed over to the business. As
soon as the time comes to shift from A to B and start making changes to facilitate the
new culture, the message to business leaders should be clear from the very, very
top: "This is not an HR project, it's yours." HR is there to support, help, and facilitate
the change — much as an outside firm of experts would be. But ownership of
making these changes does not lie with them; it lies with the business unit leaders
themselves.

We need to be clear that in the life cycle of an organization, culture can and should change.
And this change is best led from the very top, driven through equipped, accountable
business unit leaders, working collaboratively alongside HR.

Rebecca Newton is a business psychologist, leadership advisor, and Visiting Fellow in the
Department of Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Follow
Rebecca on Twitter at @DrRebeccaNewton.