culturechangemadesimple

SamplerPurchase the full211-page Toolkit here

http://www.corporateculturepros.com/changing-corporate-culture/culture-builder-toolkit/

© 2013 Corporate Culture Pros. All Rights Reserved 2

IMPORTANT NOTEAbout Your

Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler

This complimentary Sampler is excerpted from the complete Culture Builder Toolkit: A 211-page do-it-yourself guidebook to help you Cash in on Culture, starting today!

Whether your organization is undertaking a new strategy, expanding to new locations, or unifying merged companies – how you manage the culture determines the profitable growth opportunity in your business.

In this complimentary Sampler, you receive ONE COMPLETE STEP for each of the 4 stages of culture building. These steps are highlighted in RED on pages 10, 12, 16, 24, 31, and 38. The remaining steps are listed so you understand what else is involved.

Please provide proper source reference for any of this material you use in your work or company.

The full Culture Builder Toolkit is available for purchase on our website.



Culture Defined: How people work together, that either helps or hinders your ability to adapt, compete, win.

Culture is

• Habits that support successful implementation of a winning strategy.

• Clear definition of success: Financially and otherwise.

• Behaviors that are expected and common across the business or a particular audience (eg, leaders, project managers, front line service providers).

• The decision process a team or organization uses to balance competing goals: Long and short-term thinking, internal v. external needs, competing resources, innovation v. cost-cutting.

• The day-to-day ways of managing priorities, working in teams, leading meetings, and recognizing and rewarding people for great results.

Culture is not

• Values and beliefs. These are very important, but are not the whole story of culture – they are often too fuzzy and intangible for people to know what they mean.

• Posters, coffee mugs, t-shirts, and concierge services. These are symbols of caring about people, not culture.

• A fixed way of doing things in every market, regardless of style, taste, and circumstances. Culture in today’s global enterprises must have common global decision processes while allowing for local spirit, style and pride.

• The executive’s view of what they think it is. Most often, senior leaders have the least accurate view of the culture.

Bottom line: Are people in your company enabled

to do their best work?

Getting Started Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler

© 2013 Corporate Culture Pros. All Rights Reserved

Culture Building Benefits

This Toolkit provides tips, tools and instructions for achieving 3 main outcomes in a team or organization:

4

Remove culture barriers to

business growth and profit

Retain greatpeople by

enabling them to do their

best work

Develop leaders who can adapt to constant change



Results You Should Expect

Culture Building must be grounded in a clear purpose. There are three outcomes our clients seek when committing to culture building:

1. Remove Culture Barriers to Business Growth & Profit

The link between culture and profit is proven. In every industry are companies who excel at innovation and exceeding customer expectations. Southwest Air. Zappos. Starbucks. They are all in competitive industries but earn higher returns than competitors . This Toolkit provides the steps that these companies have used successful drive profit and performance across the business.

2. Retain Great People, Enabling Them to do Their Best Work

Top talent want to be challenged, not frustrated by bureaucracy. If you want to keep great people, you have to rethink hierarchically driven, rule-based systems and foster electric, energized, creative teamwork. That’s when magic happens. What is it worth to you, to have the people in your company say “I LOVE working here” or “This is the best place I’ve ever worked!”

This is what the Culture Builder Toolkit can help you do.

3. Help Leaders Adapt to Constant ChangeEvery industry is facing more and faster change. The marketplace is more competitive than ever, based on technology, the internet, and globalization. Culture building can improve any effort to successfully drive continuous change.

Culture building creates great leaders AND competitive advantage.


6

Optimal Business Growth Requires Alignment

Adapted from Senn and Childress, The Secret of a Winning Culture


Strategy

Structure/Systems

Culture

Alig

nmen

t



Change Requires Re-Alignment of Strategy, Structure & Culture

OldStrategy

OldStructure/Systems

OldCulture

Alignm

ent

NewStrategy

NewStructure/Systems

NewCulture



Culture Building FrameworkA Comprehensive Approach to Implementing the Culture-Profit Connection

4 Stages of Culture Building

3 Focus Areas for the Human Element of Change



4 Stages of Culture Building, Defined

Culture Building for Profitable Growth requires navigating through 4 distinct stages:

Creating urgency (passion) for change: A shared belief among leaders that culture building is important

Answering the questions:WHY we must changeWHAT happens if we don’t changeWHERE are we going.

Getting everyone moving in a common direction, with accountability.

Widespread and shared understanding for HOW will we get from here to there.

Each person knows their role and is willing to do it.

Developing the capability to respond to ongoing changes in your industry, market.

Breaks the change process down into small changes and habits that make sense to people.

People across the organization seek and initiate change.

Objectively measure strengths & weaknesses of your current culture

How do these link to business strategies, goals?

What are highest leverage areasto improve?

Creates CLARITY about what change is needed.

Drives MOTIVATION for change

Fosters COMMITMENT, first by leaders and then more broadly.

Produces SUSTAINABILITY of ongoing change - aka, INNOVATION.



Why IS culture building So important in business today? No More Steady State: Adapting is Essential

to Innovate, Change, Compete. The Failure Rate of Change Why Change Really Fails … and the Magic

Wand

Getting started | Section One



No More Steady State;Adapting is Essential to Innovation.

As the world has flattened and become more transparent, there are new competitive forces requiring a faster rate of adaptation. Worker and customer expectations are colliding with the ability of an organization in any industry to meet complex demands and constant change.

The “spaces between change” are shorter and smaller: There is no more steady state.

Running a profitable business is harder. Annual changes in the Fortune 500 list – and profitability - demonstrate how quickly you can become extinct if you don’t adapt.

In attempts to stay competitive, change programs and processes (cultural and other) have mushroomed in popularity. Do you know the collective success rate of all efforts to lead change in business today? Multiple studies document the alarming failure rate (upwards of 75%) and billions of dollars wasted on change.

To succeed in such a challenging era of change, leaders need an ongoing process for breaking down barriers internally, engaging more people in understanding and executing strategy, and fostering high performing teamwork. This ongoing

method is about building new habits of work: The purpose of Culture Building.

Leaders must change how they lead in this era.

Today’s leaders must focus on:

• Inspiring people

• Generating passion for work

• Removing bureaucracy, random prioritization, and arbitrary decision making that plagues so many organizations.

The goal of Culture Building is to foster ongoing clarity and alignment, that creates competitive advantage that is difficult to copy.

Being adaptable is a capability, not an event. Being adaptable is the seedbed for innovation.



Defining the culture building process Culture Building is Simple

(and yet, not easy)

Culture Building is creating strong “pull to the right” toward change-friendly habits

The Iceberg Phenomenon

(what you can’t see sinks your ship)

Culture Building: The Iceberg Territory

Common Mindsets/Beliefs on Culture

(with Reframes)

The Role of Mindsets Culture Building

5 Habits of High Performing Cultures

Getting started | Section One



3 levers to strengthen “Pull to the Right”1. Foster a sense of urgency for change: Everyone knows WHY!2. Leaders role model the new habit/behavior. Those who won’t,

are replaced. 3. Crystal clear goals that allow managers to re-prioritize or stop

work that does not align with the new habits or necessary changes.

Culture Building is creating strong “pull to the right” toward change-friendly habits.

Waiting Hopeful

Improbable Committed

Cynical

-10

Will never make it Ready to lead it!

-10 +10



5 Habits of High Performing Cultures

Habit 2COMMUNICATE to Build Trust

Habit 4COLLABORATE across boundaries

Habit 1 CLARITY of Purpose & Direction

Habit 3CLEAR DECISIONS to Act

Habit 5

CUSTOMER Focused. Really.

Getting Started Culture Builder Toolkit

Habit 2


5 Culture Habits Defined

CLARITY toward a compelling purpose and direction.

When everyone in the organization understands the Vision and Strategy and believes in it, this improves business performance more than any other cultural intervention. This activity is harder than leaders think, and is rarely done well. (In Awareness)

1

COMMUNICATE to foster trust between leaders & employees.

Trust is the missing capital in business today, and is key to attract and retain great people, drive innovation, and adapt quickly. Change leaders need to understand how trust is built – and eroded. ZERO tolerance for leaders who foster mistrust if you’re serious about culture building. (In Alignment)

2

COLLABORATE across boundaires.

Complex global organizations struggle with hand-offs, coordination, role clarity. An essential culture habit in today’s organization is “Collaborative Work.” Bridge boundaries with shared goals, diverse teams, and collaborative leadership skills, to hone the ability to adapt, innovate, and execute in step with the market and customers. (In Adaptability)

4

CLEAR DECISIONS that empower your front lines.

Decision making is highly dysfunctional in most companies; both speed and process. The goal is to drive decision rights lower, embed a bias for action into day-to-Day work, and ensure meetings

3

CUSTOMER focus. Really.

Get closer to your customer. Start driving decisions based on feedback from the marketplace. Ensure the organization is obtaining the same market-focused, customer-relevant data from the front lines to the top. versus deciding priorities in a vacuum.(In Adaptability)

5

Decisions, Continued

end with a discipline of decision making. Leaders must expect problems to be solved at the level where they originate – and empower people to do so. (In Adaptability)

3

Getting Started Culture Builder Toolkit


Culture AssessmentPreparing for Change

6 Steps to Culture Assessment:

1. Assess Change Readiness

2. Assess the Organizational Culture

3. Share Results with the Senior Team

4. Share Results with Participants

5. Pinpoint Key Behaviors & Culture Habits (5 Culture Habits every company needs)

6. Frequency of Change Monitoring




Step 2. Assess the Organizational Culture

About the Culture Builder Self-Assessment: The 30 questions in the assessment were developed by Corporate Culture Pros based on 14 years of analysis and experience about management practices that most closely link to business performance measures for profitable growth and innovation.

How to conduct: Select a valid random sample of the target audience for change/growth. (10% minimally, if the target audience is under 100 people you should invite the whole group). Ensure you survey people at all levels of that target audience, not just senior leaders or employees – ideally you want a valid sample from each level. If possible, have an external or HR person collect data to determine which responses came from which level, as there are often big variances in the view of the culture between the top and the front lines.

You can similarly do the same by function if so desired.

Additional Tips: For a smaller company or effort, you can shorten the survey to 10 questions (1 per category) and still get meaningful data. Especially if you add a question to the survey “What aspects of our company culture do you most appreciate? What aspects make it difficult to do your best work?”

Open-ended comments usually tell a more complete story. The key is you MUST give people reassurance of anonymity or it is unlikely responses will be candid. Is there an external consultant, coach, or facilitator whom you can trust to receive and compile the data? This is the best way to do a cultural assessment.

An assessment of culture should be done by an outsider to ensure anonymity, if you want full honesty. Choose a trusted coach or facilitator who is not employed by the company for the best results.

Assessment | Stage One Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler


Step 2. Assess the Organizational Culture

How to interpret results:

Continued

Look at top 3 high and top 3 low scores

Especially the median (most common answer).

Look at patterns across levels Senior leadership to front-line employees

Consider which of the lowest 5 questions

Are most important hinderers to your goals/objectives

Vision, Planning and Customer Focus

Are high leverage areas for most companies. If these are low, start working on improving these scores first.

Re-survey 1-2 focus areas every 60-90 days

Which behaviors are most important to change? Continuous frequent monitoring helps drive change more quickly.

Corporate Culture Pros offers a benchmarked cultural assessment and objective external guidance if needed. The assessment compares your culture scores to a global data-base of nearly 1000 companies. The linkage between your scores and business metrics is demonstrated through research studies, spanning 25 years. This often helps establish urgency. (See description of the Assessment on our website)


http://www.corporateculturepros.com/culture-services/assess-culture/linking-culture-to-performance/


The Human Element of Change: Getting Assessment Right

More than any other survey, a culture assessment must answer WHY to people being asked to provide input. Culture assessment often brings up trust issues if they exist (people will question how the information will be used and is it really anonymous?).

The invitation should be personal from the top leader AND their manager, explaining why this is so important to the organization.

Don’t undertake a culture assessment unless you plan to debrief every participant in some way, within a few weeks (months at the most). Culture assessment raises curiosity. You need to satisfy it, or it can be seen as “just another survey managers will use to justify decisions that don’t benefit us.”

Major pitfall: Whatever you do share must be transparent in both strengths and weaknesses – don’t sugar-coat. If you hold back, it will erode trust. A mindset that helps: “No one is to blame for the current culture, and yet, we are all responsible for improving it.” When leaders publically look in the mirror

and are transparent about their weaknesses, it will foster trust. Remember, organizations don’t change. People change. People want to see their leaders go first.

Personal Resiliency Element: During the assessment phase, top leaders often take the feedback personally. One top leader, after seeing the culture assessment data, said; “It’s like telling me my baby is ugly and it smells.”

A mindset that helps during this phase is “Assume everyone’s input comes from positive intent.” People want to improve the organization as much as the leaders do. A mindset of “positive intent” is the opposite of “cynical and jaded,” and is common in individuals with a high level of personal resiliency.



Building AwarenessCreating Urgency for Change

5 Steps to Building Awareness:

1. Establish Urgency

2. Clarify Direction

3. Revisit Your Culture Habits

4. Build The Storyof Change

5. Cascade Sessions to Foster Awareness




Awareness is About

Creating urgency for change.

This Step answers the questions:

we must change

happens if we don’t change

are we going (and why should I care, how will leaders support it)

Awareness Drives MOTIVATION for change - a shared belief that culture building is important to achieve the desired direction.

WHAT

WHY

WHERE

Awareness | Stage Two Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler


Step 1. Establish Urgency

Why Urgency is the First Rule of Change- and What Happens When It’s Missing

Establish Urgency: Questionnaire Special Note: Executive Team Urgency

for Culture Building


What Happens When Urgency is Missing?It’s like the ignition is missing to start the fire …

o Without leaders’ conviction and commitment, the change effort lacks an energy source – a driving force that keeps people’s attention on the task at hand. There is a flavor-of-the-month quality to change, as the organization seeks to achieve the goal through a new method.

o Sincere efforts on the part of people trying to implement change run up against resistance from naysayers, and there is no leverage or accountability with which to fight that resistance.

o Action plans languish in constant “back burner” mode. Prioritization and decision making become fuzzy and chaotic.

o People’s morale diminishes as they continue to expend precious energy on projects and tasks that foster no results. Pressure points and bureaucracy are allowed to run unchecked, which get in the way of innovation and new ideas.

o There is no sense that leaders are tuned in and listening to their people, and thus good people begin to feel they are not cared for – when the economy improves, turnover/attrition increases.

Continued



8 Questions for Establishing Urgency

For You, the Top Leader. To determine your commitment, answer the following questions:

1. Describe the change needed in the organization. Both the business change and what new culture behaviors are needed to drive the business results. What happens if you continue with no changes?

2. How urgent are you about the change, the end result? (If you are not passionate, why should anyone else care?).

3. Describe your commitment on a scale of 1-10. What would have to be different to say “It’s a 10”?

4. Describe short-term re-allocation of resources (e.g. people, time, money, training) you will support to ensure long-term success of this change. You will not succeed without doing this! You need to send a visible signal to people “I am serious about this change.”

5. How much time are you willing to dedicate directly to communicating, educating and reinforcing the change (hours per week)? Executives who have led successful strategy/culture changes report having spent nearly 40% (yes!) of their time personally in the first 6-12 months, on

communication efforts (road shows, town halls, meeting with other leaders). Are you willing?

6. Who are the primary “make-or-break” influencers (supporters and resistors) you need to influence to increase the overall organization’s commitment to this change? (e.g. parent company, board, your boss, peers, your reports, key managers). Are you willing to spend time influencing them? The best way is 1:1 or in small groups.

7. How are you personally willing to SHOW your commitment to this change? How will you be a role model for it? If you’re asking others to make changes in their behavior, what will you visibly do to show change in your behavior?

8. Are you willing to make hard leadership and people changes? The fastest way to show you’re serious about cultural change is to let go of naysayers who are resisting change or creating problems for others. Who are these people? (We talk more about leadership courage in the Alignment section). Minimally, move naysayers out of key, visible roles. And reward the most change friendly people with key roles to help lead the change.



8 Questions: Establishing Urgency

For Your Team

1. Have your team answer the same questions you just answered.

2. Conduct a meeting to discuss everyone’s answers.

3. Focus on “What do we need, to achieve a critical level of commitment?” “How do we role model it, first?”

4. Use that commitment to start to build the story of change. (more details in Step Four in this section). Together, find a powerful visual image that represents the problem, or solution. One client took a picture of how their product was not visible on distributors shelves. A manufacturing site took a picture of a leaky roof, that represented poor processes they were trying to fix. Make it have a gut punch, make it emotional.

Continued

Whether the business change is a new technology

implementation, an acquisition, or a change in market

strategy, the Top Leader’s urgency determines the

ultimate success of the change …

and of Culture Building efforts.



Build the Story of Change: 5 Questions

Why this change?

Why now?

What happens if we don’t change?

What does this change

look like?

What’s expected of me…

What’s in itfor me?

What will leaders do to support this

change?

Using your Urgency Questionnaire, to build the Story of Change. Years of experience supporting change communications have shows, this is what people want to know during change. Whether the change is big or small, these are the questions people want to know – that help them make sense of the change. Use this template every time you are going to communication about a change to your employees. The next slide provides more detail about how to answer them.



Forging AlignmentGetting People Moving Toward a Common Direction6 Steps to Forging Alignment:

1. Sponsor Culture Building

2. Define Responsibilities in Culture Building

3. Recruit & Organize Change Leaders.

4. Implement a Communication Strategy

5. Implement Culture Habit #2 : Foster trust- based communication in all interactions

6. Working with Mindsets




6 Critical Steps to Forging Alignment

1. Sponsor Culture Building: Leaders must go first.

2. Define Responsibilities in Culture Building: Who is leading the cultural building with the CEO? What are their responsibilities?

3. Recruit & Organize Change Leaders: Change Leaders are how you achieve sustainable and critical mass during any behavioral change. More tips on how to utilize these people are provided in the Adaptability section of this Toolkit.

4. Implement a Communication Strategy: Forge alignment for the new direction, as well as the culture needed to support the strategy and vision. It’s about creating “pull to the right.”

5. Implement Culture Habit #2: Foster trust-based communication in all interactions.

6. Working with Mindsets: Surfacing and discussing mindsets can make your culture building effort more likely to take hold.

32

Alignment – Stage Three Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler


Step 3. Recruit & Organize Change Leaders

Why Change Leaders? Overview:

o What Change Leaders Do

Change Leaders’ Job: Pull to the Right: o The Tipping Point

Role of Change Leaders o (or Culture Champions)

Criteria for Choosing Change Leaders

Example: o Culture Champion

Recruitment o & Selection Process

Example: o Culture Champion

Enrollment & On-Boarding Process

How to Utilize Change Leaders


Overview: What Change Leaders Do

Great change leaders attend to all levels of change, Including mindsets, beliefs, and identity

Senior Team Alignment

• Clear direction and goals

• Consistent messages about wins

• Be role models

Communicate 100x “See-Feel-Do

Helping everyone become clear and aligned about:

• Why this change?

• What does it mean?

• How will we do it?

Engage People

• Build bridges between different company cultures or sub-cultures.

• Establish “fingerprints” on the change,

• Foster role clarity

• Effective decision process

• Visible reward and recognition

Build Trust. Restore Belief.Make Things Make Sense.



Change Leader’s job in culture building is creating strong “pull to the right” toward new habits.

Waiting Hopeful

Improbable Committed

Cynical

-10

Will never make it Ready to lead it!

-10 +10

3 levers to strengthen “Pull to the Right”

1. Foster a sense of urgency for change: Why?

2. Leaders role model the new habit/behavior

3. Crystal clear goals, with managers empowered to re-prioritize or stop work that doesn’t align with the habits or change.



Pull to the Right – Tipping PointOn-Board & Organize Change Leaders

“Pull to the right” is creating a “tipping point,” where enough people at the front end of the change curve are practicing the new habits, which gets others to adopt them more quickly.

Executive team must “go first.” But they are not enough.

You need to aggressively work the Adoption Cycle:

Key influencers can speed up pull to the right.

o Often these are NOT people with the most senior titles

o These are people whom others look to for direction

o They have big networks, often informal.

You can often identify them through a survey as simple as asking employees “Who’s the one person you most trust to seek help from around here?” These are your natural Change Leaders.

o If one person is trying to lead or role model change, it’s hard.

The key is organizing these people into a community, where they can share learning and be part of the process together. Bring them together at least quarterly. There is power in numbers, and our experience is people are highly energized when they band together and start making changes to the culture together.

o See the next slide for ideas about how to enroll and utilize change leaders in culture change projects.

Target some key naysayers: A converted naysayer is often a great ally.

Late – Middle - Key Influencers



Role of Change Leaders

How Change Leaders can be used depends on the scope and reach of the culture alignment effort. Typical roles will include:

o Be early adopters and role models for the new culture habits. Encourage others actively to follow.

o Collect stories of organizational wins and successes, and actively participate in organizational communication forums about culture building.

o Watch for mindsets and beliefs that hinder progress: “That won’t work in our area” – “It’s too hard” -- “This is how we’ve always done things” – “We have to do X, we can’t do Y.” teach Change Leaders to ask open-ended questions such as “How can we challenge this in our area?” “What are some possibilities for doing this differently.”

o Be the “voice of change” to increase energy and attention across the organization on “what’s changing” – eg, regular posting about culture progress in online Communication forums, speak up in meetings.

o Facilitate teams to solve specific business problems with the new culture behaviors or habits. It is very powerful to enroll a Change Leader to facilitate a breakthrough on a project budget or timeline, a new business strategy, or across 2-3 parts of the business that are not working well together.

o Help bridge line of sight between leaders and employees, providing insights from the “trenches” about changes – what’s working, what’s not.



Developing Adaptability:The capability for ongoing change

4 Steps to Developing Adaptability:

1. The Case for Adaptability

2. Implement Shortcut Habits 3, 4, and 5:o Faster, better decision makingo Relentlessly pursue role clarityo Improve customer focus

3. Facilitate Two Conversations using Change Leaders:o Recovering from

reorganizationo We are masters of our

destiny

4. Develop Mindsets ofLearning & Personal Resiliency


5 Culture Habits Every Company Needs

Adaptability – Stage Four Culture Builder Toolkit

Habit 1 CLARITY of purpose & direction

Habit 5CUSTOMER focus, Really.

Habit 2 COMMUNICATE to build trust.

Habit 4COLLABORATE across boundaries

Habit 3CLEAR DECISIONS that empower front lines.Decision making is highly dysfunctional in most companies; both speed and process. The goal is to drive decision rights lower, embed bias for action into day-to-day work, and ensure meetings end with a discipline of decision making. Leaders must expect problems to be solved at the level where they originate, and empower people to do so.


Culture Habit #3:5 Steps to Faster, Better Decision Making

What do you think? What

are your opinions?

I know what I’m going to

decide.

Foster a Bias for Action!

Adaptability – Stage Four Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler


Culture Habit #3: 5 Steps to Faster, Better Decision Making

1) What is the goal? Most decisions get stuck when the goal isn’t clear. Define it clearly, make it visual – Post it or write it down.

2) What is the decision? Name It. (sometimes it’s framed as a problem, sometimes as a solution) – Name it. Is this the right decision? (often a group will spin their wheels on an either/or choice between options, when they really should be exploring several ways to achieve the goal, vs. narrowing and choosing).

3) Whose decision is it? This is the decision right] Name ONE person. (It’s never a team). Is that the right person to decide, or should they be empowering someone else? Who needs to weigh in on the decision? (facts, analysis, opinions, recommendations). CRUCIAL POINT: Solicit feedback from those who will be directly impacted before you make the decision. This paves the way for buy-in later.

On the flip side, stakeholders who want input must agree to support the decision and the decision-maker once they have weighed in and been heard. This avoids endless escalation, which derails speed. It requires a great deal of trust and willingness to suspend one’s personal agenda for the good of the team or organization.

4) Decide how to decide.

What is the most appropriate decision making method. (see bottom of page). Identify the most important criteria – in priority order – to consider in making the decision. (eg: speed of implementation, lower risk, bigger impact, most buy-in, etc.)

5) Who to inform. Discuss who needs to know the following about the decision: The goal we are trying to accomplish, the factors we considered, why this decision, and how it will impact everyone.

Good Decision Making process is a critical success factor for improving

organizational adaptability



The Human Element of Change: 7 Tips for Getting Adaptability Right

1. Small change: Remember the small change principle. Don’t try to boil the ocean. Pick a few problems to solve. start where there is felt need, and small groups of people who want to lead – working on “pain points”. Find the leaders in the organization who want to help, and give them a lot of permission and room to fix existing issues and to try new things. “Place small bets quickly, learn and adapt. While the adaptability stage is the “last stage” of change, you still want to utilize the small change principle.

2. Knowing does not equal doing: a bias for action, with feedback is critical.

3. The best change leaders know that learning is the task, that mistakes happen along the way and that feedback will improve what you are trying to accomplish. If you want more adaptability, make learning one of your values. Rigorously support mistakes and feedback. Have wide-spread discussions about this.

4. Role models are crucial to changing organizational habits. If leaders (and your change leader community) don’t consistently demonstrate the new ways of working, the organization will likely slip back into old habits and patterns.

5. Seek the strongest commitment possible from the most senior leader and coach him or her to make that commitment public. Nothing is more important than getting senior leaders to learn how to be role models for the change. (If your vision is to be more adaptable, are they showing greater adaptability?)

6. Do you reward people and projects when they fail? If not start now. (there is no such thing as failure only feedback).

7. Major pitfall: Declaring success too soon, or said another way, taking your foot off the accelerator too soon. To develop true adaptability is a marathon, not a sprint.

Continued



Final Advice:If You Want the Best Fruit, Build the Best Soil

Use Turtle Wisdom: Slow and steady wins the race. Focus on small changes with targeted groups, done well.

Be patient. It takes TIME and persistence for new habits to take hold in the culture. Don’t back off and don’t declare victory too soon.

Be realistic. You will need to cycle through the 4 stages more than once. Culture building is not a linear process. We defined 4 stages to provide a set of concrete definitions and tools for the journey; but it is not as simple as “OK we’re done with that one, time to move on.”

Questions?Call us for a complimentary Culture Strategy Session to discuss:• Assessing and diagnosing

culture • Creating a strong culture-profit

link• Coaching your Do-It-Yourself

effortwww.CorporateCulturePros.com

Or call 303-898-3920

Get the complete Culture Builder Toolkit


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