Company culture is an “interesting animal” to deal with which needs to be aligned with change and leadership to efficiently pursue the company’s objectives.
There is a balance between these three dimensions that must be found at all costs:
- On leadership side, where the magic of change happens:
- What are the manager’s skills, strengths and experiences in driving change? What is the manager’s commitment to change? In order for a leader to be able to implement change, he must be aware of his ability to guide within the reference organisational context. Being successful in another organisation does not automatically mean having success in your current one.
- The manager must demonstrate change leadership skills which include:
- Integrity of the organisation goes first: results and relationships are the obvious points of this attribute. As leaders achieve results, create meaningful relationships, or leave a trail of “corpses” behind. Results that ignore people lead to long-term failure and more difficult changes in the future.
- Change the model and the perspective: to be a leader there must be people who follow us. And to have those who follow him, a leader must build trust, communicate effectively, inspire others to support change and be a role model for change. Being an example of change leads to integrity. When words and actions do not match consistently the leader will lose confidence. Without trust, change takes longer, costs more and makes a damaging impression on the organisation’s cultural memory.
- Consider complexity: we face an abundance of information, activities and things every day. The best leaders simplify when possible, do not overcomplicate in any case.
- Organisational strategy, where you set the rules (old and new):
- What needs to change? Why is the change necessary? As a result of change, what does succeeding in it look like? When assessing the context of a change, a few topics need to be considered at minimum: What are the impacts of change on people? What is the goal to be achieved? Can change be described with absolute clarity or is still in the “shadows of thought”?
- Change does not occur in a vacuum. An organisation has a maximum capacity to absorb change; it is possible for people within an organisation to become saturated with it. When saturation of change occurs, dysfunction begins and change slows down or eventually fails to achieve its intended benefits. Here your role as a leader is critical by assessing the cumulative impact of changes within your organisation and enabling the leadership team to make informed decisions on how to implement the plans. What is important is that changes are managed in a way that allows for successful implementation.
- Culture, the not so hidden playground: What are the basic beliefs and behaviours that shape the performance and potential of your organisation? Culture is the shared model of beliefs and behaviours that create an outcome.When results are collective they become performance. When it’s time to change the outcome, it’s time to change culture but before starting the path of change, leaders need to understand the cultural context.
