Culture is your greatest asset. Companies that proactively manage their culture demonstrate revenue growth that is 516% higher than those who don’t, over a ten-year period (Deloitte).
But culture can also be your greatest liability: Businesses with poor cultures experience 48% lower shareholder returns over a five-year period (HBR).
Its importance and connection to business performance and growth is clear – anyone can make that point. What businesses often lack is an understanding of how it can be embedded throughout the organization. Beyond the models, theory, and diagrams, how can leaders shape, build, and sustain the culture needed to drive business success?
We start by challenging today’s approach to culture change.
Most people have a change horror story, whether it’s trying to get a programme off the ground or keeping one on track. The harsh reality is that 70% of change programmes fail to deliver their anticipated value (McKinsey). And most – 75% according to IBM – take twice as long and cost twice as much as initially thought. Put simply, culture change is broken.
Experience has shown us that this happens for the same reasons. Culture is too overwhelming in scope and often has loosely defined goals, too many stakeholders involved, and is too slow moving, too academic, or too expensive. But perhaps the biggest barrier is where these initiatives start from: A flawed perspective that you can change culture, as if it’s static, from one form to another.
As Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, says, “Culture change isn’t a project with a start and finish date; it’s an on-going commitment to evolve and adapt to meet new challenges”.
This is the lightbulb moment
What if we stopped thinking of culture as a typical change programme and instead embraced the same mindset evident in every other part of business – from products and services, to business models and partnerships. And that is a mindset of perpetual innovation.
Why not culture innovation? Here are four ways to think differently when shaping the culture that will drive your business ambition:
1. From changing an entire system to targeted action
It’s easy to become paralyzed by the thought of culture change – it can be completely overwhelming. The key is to just start somewhere. If you’ve defined a desired behavioural shift or a cultural challenge, identify a pilot area to trial with a specific audience. Your chances of driving change (and getting noticed) are much greater. Then move on to the next area. And the next area.
2. From communications to cultural interventions
Culture change often ends up as an internal communications campaign – values on meeting room walls, posters in kitchens – but fundamentally, nothing changes. Having identified a pilot area, focus on developing interventions that will influence desired behaviour.
higher revenue growth in companies that proactively manage their culture (Deloitte).
of change management programmes fail to deliver their anticipated value (McKinsey).
It’s easy to become paralyzed by the thought of culture change – it can be completely overwhelming. The key is to just start somewhere.
We recently ran a programme with the goal to build a culture where employees found it easier to get things done. One of the simplest interventions we implemented was reducing the number of CCs employees could include on an email – saving inboxes from unnecessary noise. This small change, made alongside other small interventions, created a big impact.
With the success of these small interventions, we were able to focus on creating something much bigger. We posed an organizational-wide challenge to employees to save 1,000,000 hours. From the momentum created by involving people in the co-creation of solutions, the challenge was exceeded and 2 million hours were unlocked – time that was able to be repurposed on what really matters.
3. From risk aversion to experimentation
To truly embrace a mindset of innovation means accepting that some experiments and interventions will work, and others won’t. And that’s ok. Culture doesn’t stand still – it’s continually evolving and adapting. Embracing an experimental mindset means leveraging this and designing the interventions that are right for your business in the moment. After all, culture doesn’t have a ‘finish date’.
To truly embrace a mindset of innovation means accepting that some experiments and interventions will work, and others won’t. And that’s ok.
4. From slow adoption to rapid scaling
For too long, we have just accepted that culture change is a lengthy process – but it doesn’t need to be. By focusing on a pilot area and developing innovative cultural interventions, you’ll learn quickly about what works, and what doesn’t. Monitor the interventions that are resulting in real change and scale these in other areas of the business.
This way of approaching culture is fast and gets noticed by people in your business who feel emboldened and empowered to drive the shifts you need. It removes the impossible responsibility of one business function (which always seems to be HR) changing culture, and instead, builds a movement of people on the ground driving real, lasting change.
These are the new rules. And for those who embrace them and the spirit of cultural innovation, the business rewards are immense.
Get in touch
Chris leads the Culture Innovation practice at Brandpie. With over 15 years of experience, he works with business leaders to develop effective strategies and practical solutions that ensure an organisation’s purpose is meaningful and relevant for employees.
