In the workplace, patterns of behaviour become subconscious, and your current established behaviours may not be useful in relation to your wider company vision. Culture transformation is the process of creating the company culture that will help you achieve your strategic business goals. We can help you plan and execute the transformation you need to foster engagement, customer-centricity and more.
Culture transformation describes the process of strategically changing the values and behaviours of your company, with the focus of aligning with new goals and objectives. Essentially, culture is about what you do, rather than what you say. When the ‘walk’ and the ‘talk’ do not line up, it is the ‘walk’ that shapes the culture.
To lead change, you will need to be able to observe both the underlying value set driving what is occurring, and how others are interpreting it. This will then allow you to create a hierarchy of values that will inform future decisions and ensure that your employees are on the same page, at every level.
Ultimately, successful transformation heavily relies on the belief, alignment, and commitment of your employees in changing their behaviour.
Your culture is the patterns of behaviour that establish what is required to fit in; these patterns reveal what is valued by your team. A hierarchy of values in your company is created by messages people receive. These are received in the form of behaviours, symbols, and systems.
Essentially, the purpose of culture transformation is to maximise the people, time, and money that you have to streamline your business processes. It is about looking at the current values at play, and how they drive behaviours. This will allow you to align your team behind a set of values. For example, which items get taken off the meeting agenda when time is short? This is a values-based decision. When costs are tight, what gets cut? This is also values-based.
There are a number of factors to consider in the process of culture transformation, including how you allocate monetary resources. However, there is also an emphasis on people, and how your employees align with the culture you want to see. Ultimately, unless there is a comprehensive and integrated approach to reworking your culture as a whole, everything is likely to return to how it was before.
Transformation does not just happen overnight. There are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to successful, sustainable change, such as:
Establishing new behaviours begins with the employee’s mindset. If they do not understand or believe in the new values, they are less likely to follow suit. You should involve your employees as much as possible, and provide all the necessary training and information. They should be left feeling clear about their individual purpose and responsibilities, and how this contributes to the company as a whole.
In order to be successful, culture transformation must be driven by leaders. Consultants such as ours can help equip middle-managers with any tools and training they need to help align themselves and other employees with the company goals.
Once you have put the new values in place, it should not stop there. You should regularly discuss the change with your team and give them clear responsibilities. This will allow them to give regular feedback that will ensure that your culture will continue to grow and evolve for the better.
These should not just be done on the team level, but also the wider level, so that all aspects of the company involved in the change are updated.
In the same way that team members are held accountable for not upholding new behaviours and values, leaders should also do the same. This will help ingrain the new behaviours as habits, as well as emphasising their importance.
The types of cultural transformation relate to your company’s focus areas, i.e. what you want to include, such as:
This places an emphasis on flexibility and fast decision-making, as well as the ability to adapt quickly to trends and market changes. It is important that your leaders act as role models of agility, to help drive the change across the company.
This change process focuses on putting the customer first in all of your decisions, matching your operating methods to their needs. It will help your employees become more naturally in tune to who the customer is, as well as their needs.
This relates to addressing any internal biases or discrimination, as well as encouraging more diverse hiring to open up the company to unique ideas and perspectives.
This kind of transformation centres around maximising your hiring process to encourage desired behaviours and bring in new ideas.
This is in relation to adopting more digital tools to tend towards data-driven decision-making, to modernise and streamline your business processes. Our aim is to make the transition less overwhelming, so your leaders and employees see the change as an opportunity, as opposed to a threat.
Assessing the existing culture of each organisation going through the merger is vital in ensuring that all employees are on the same page going forward. We can help you design a target culture roadmap to clearly drive your new culture in the merged entity.
This is when a culture transformation is prompted by a negative PR incident, or it can be used to avoid one before it happens. Generally, reputational issues are to do with a spike in a pattern of existing behaviour, leading to the need for change.
This kind of change is needed when your leadership team is not walking their talk, i.e. not acting as role models for your desired culture. A clear strategy and defined values will help your leaders to not only be more cohesive, but also higher performing.
Culture helps you to drive your strategy. It is vital that you create a plan to change team mindsets, as well as giving them everything they need to adopt behaviours that align with your strategy.
If you have noticed a significant drop in company and team performance, it is important to identify and address the blockers. These can be solved through careful implementation of systemic, behavioural and symbolic initiatives, as well as an increase in accountability and personal responsibility. Ultimately, this will help you avoid justifications for not performing appropriately.
Every large-scale company transformation requires strong leadership behind it. We can help you define your current culture, and create a bespoke action plan to help you achieve your goals. We can even provide the necessary training to help your leadership team execute the strategy, and motivate others to do the same.
Although it can be a lengthy process, the benefits are immeasurable; it can be difficult to know where to start. We can help you transform your workplace into one that values its employees and always looks towards innovation. Get in touch to get started and shape your bespoke values:
A cultural transformation is one that changes your business to align with specific values or organisational goals. For example, Walking The Talk worked with an insurance company who was seeking to embed patterns of behaviour that encouraged innovation. To do this, they secured Board approval for a $10m programme to celebrate success. This scheme rewarded the behaviours they considered most important, encouraging employees to demonstrate them, as mentioned in our leadership eBook.
The ongoing success of any culture changes can be tracked using factors such as:
Do you have a question on culture? Get in touch with us to learn more about our organisational culture consultancy services and how you can re-shape your company dynamic for the better.
Head Office / Europe:
+31 (0) 20 240 2233
North America:
+1 (0) 212 417 0221
UK: +44 (0) 207 100 6999
Asia Pacific: +61 (2) 8310 5285
Brazil & Latin America: +55 (11) 932 500 683
(WhatsApp available)