I read a lot of articles here and see even more videos about culture change and how important this is these days and yes, it IS probably the most important task for any business or even group of people that want to achieve something.
Many are struggling with understanding what needs to be done, but in fact it is super easy, if you start it right... and that is where most of the companies fail.
You might ask now "How can you say that?". Very simple, I went through it already and with success. What kind of success? My job was to change the culture in a huge corporation by training them, what was quite a workload because we had 8,000 people to cover and I trained half of them. The result was, that numbers went up, quality improved significantly and people worked more safe according to the LTC numbers.
An additional result was, that I earned a very good reputation, not only through the feedback of my training work, but also through the level of trust my colleagues all over the world granted me. Through this I was very often addressed with "issues" that not necessarily were related to the company’s business, but important for the individual. So, with my continuous improvement mindset I tried to solve these problems best I can.
The result was, that Management got attention of my actions and I more and more heard the sentence "That's not your responsibility or business!".
Do you recognize the defect? I was facing a lot of envy, prejudice and resistance because I appeared like someone who wants to slime himself to the top. This by the way was and is never my intention, but it tells me a lot about the mindset of those acting against the culture change. There is also another positive outcome of this experience. Looking back, it was a kindergarten thing to get people behind my way of changing the culture and implementing the boards vision.
So here is how to change the culture in a way that works:
Imagine you have pain in your body, what do you do?
You go to the doctor for an examination and I bet it is a doctor you trust. So first of all there must be TRUST, at least on a standard level. It doesn't matter what kind of doctor you consult, it could be a surgeon, Indian medicine man, healer or even a priest. Just chose the one YOU trust.
Next very important step is the examination and I can promise you one thing: It will HURT! ...because an examination is meant that way. It is indispensable that someone from the outside finds out where the pain comes from and therefore he needs to press everywhere until you cry, so that the root cause can be found. Before I start a culture change program, I do this as well with those managers, who called me in for this task, trying to figure out if they really know what a culture change means. I asked questions like "Do your people love you?", "Would they catch a bullet for you if we would go to war and would you do it for them?", "Who are the ones in your team that have private problems at home?", "What is the favourite dish of your secretary?" and things like that.
Next step is the cure plan and scheduling the treatments. Imagine that I have to put a CEO on a sickbed pushing him into the operating room. How do you think does that feel for the CEO? ...and for you? Yes, helpless! Here lies one of the key roadblocks of changing a culture, because those who have the highest level of responsibility have to give it away totally, even when they know in details what will happen next. This is an uncomfortable feeling for every one of us and no one is searching situations like that. But they are necessary. Translated from this metaphor into the reality it means, that I question almost everything that is the foundation of a company. Vision, Mission, Strategies, Structures, simply everything that might have an effect on everyone involved in this company.
If these definitions are not corrected right, it is like the surgery has failed and the patient might die or needs another surgery.
If the surgery is done correct, the third step is to start the recovery and healing plan, what is in reality all kinds of actions like communication campaigns, awareness trainings, employee and customer events (by the way very cool when both groups come together, because customers are also just human beings), ambassador programs and so on.
The result is heartiness. When you are in perfect health, you feel good and you enjoy life. When you enjoy life, you want to fly to the stars what accelerates innovation, commitment and the joy of work. This in total gives you a raise of output up to 270% compared to people who do a 9 to 5 job.
Very often I can read that it is hard these days to attract AAA high potentials for the company. This is also pretty easy to achieve. First, AAA candidates are looking for AAA companies. Second, you have already enough AAA colleagues in your company, you just need to unchain and develop them. Get rid of definitions what exactly a AAA candidate is for you, because you will fail. Define yourself as a AAA candidate first and then ask yourself what is needed to unleash this high potential animal... and then imagine that every single person on this planet think the same way like you do. This attitude makes modern companies successful because they are working WITH the people they get instead of searching the best candidate and after trying to tell them what exactly they HAVE to do.
Most companies that struggle all make the same initial mistake. They ask WHAT they have to do and WHAT people have to deliver, then they define HOW things need to be done, hoping that at the end of the journey they finally understand WHY they did all of this.
Just try the opposite!
By the way... doing things the opposite way is a strong hint for innovation (lat.: Innovare = to re-new).
Supporting others to become a AAA candidate is CARE that creates TRUST that makes you a LEADER.
Do you see how easy it can be to change the culture in your company? Go and find the right doctor that has the knowledge to find out where your cancer is, because no one wants you to die! ...and no one wants to deal with you when you behave bad only because you feel pain.
GET HELP! ...and don't be too monkey to ask for it.
