Embracing a new era of culture innovation

Culture has become the business imperative of our time. Oftentimes, it’s culture that can accelerate organizations towards their vision; or derail them.

The business case for focusing on culture has never been clearer. Organizations with a strong culture are 32% more likely to exceed financial targets (Deloitte), and those without experience 48% lower shareholder returns over a five-year period (HBR).

There is, however, an inconvenient truth about culture change today: it’s broken.

As Forbes recently confirmed, only 25% of change management initiatives are successful over the long-term. IBM too stated that culture change takes twice as long and costs twice as much as initially anticipated in 75% of cases.

This means that businesses see poor returns, poor success, and poor value.

Rethinking culture change

Businesses need a mindset shift when it comes to how we think about culture.

Let’s dispense with the idea we can change culture from one static thing to another static thing. Culture is continually evolving and adapting – shaped by internal and external forces, some of which you can manage, and others you can’t. It’s not a project with a start and finish date; by its very nature, it’s an on-going process of adaptation and flex.

And if we embrace a more agile approach, we can challenge the methodology of culture change itself. Those programs often feel incredibly rigid, with lots of theory, and a focus on defining what your culture ‘is’. Whilst there is a place for theory, it shouldn’t result in months of painstaking discovery, followed by an equally lengthy time to define a set of values that remain as words on a page. And anyway, by the time those values are agreed and stakeholders are aligned, everything has moved on again.

Business operates in a volatile, disruptive environment. To thrive, they embrace innovation, continuous learning, and experimentation. Organizations are built on this iterative and innovative approach – we see it when improving products and services, technology, supply chains, partnerships, business models, and customer experience.

So, why not culture innovation?

Why don’t we embrace rapid experimentation with culture and treat it as we do products? Encouraging smart risk with sprint-style creative interventions that meet the challenges businesses face, seeing what works and then scaling fast – and if it doesn’t work, learning fast.

Employees are the ones who live and breathe culture on the ground, so why don’t we invite them to co-create it? We’ve got the tools to listen, to involve them from the start and then empower them to drive change over the long-term. Change should be driven through experience. Communication absolutely has a place but it’s what people feel that drives the real shift.

2024 – the year for action

Culture, now, is taken seriously by business and it’s clear that leaders understand its power. But today’s approaches are too slow, too rigid, and too theoretical.

My hope for 2024 is that we see more organizations embracing a new way of looking at it with a focus on action. It’s time to shake things-up, get hands-on, embrace cultural experiments, and see a real shift.

The best advice we’d provide? Just start somewhere. Culture is huge, it’s daunting, and it can be overwhelming. But once you get going, it’s amazing how momentum builds and how quickly change can happen.

We know it works. Embracing a mindset of culture innovation enabled us to unlock 2,000,000 hours of employee time at AstraZeneca. Time that was repurposed to focus on what really mattered: improving the lives of four million patients and completing more trials to develop life-changing medicine.

Are you ready to think differently about culture?

We’d love to share more, including our VYTALS tool that helps pinpoint where to start on your cultural innovation journey. And in the spirit of fast, agile working, it will take no longer than 15 minutes.

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