Culture Change

 

Changing the culture of an organisation is experienced by many as trying to manipulate a stubborn, unwilling material: culture change as a slow, painful process that meets with intractable resistance from employees...

Without underestimating the complexity of such change processes, HumanDimensions believes that many culture change processes go wrong because they are initiated on the basis of incorrect assumptions about what culture is and how you can change a culture. Often, too much attention is devoted to the systems and processes, while the real change is about behavioural change.

 

Culture change: sustainable change in behaviour

An effective culture change needs a clear strategy, translated into behaviour. The patterns of behaviour are central to our approach, from the analysis right up to implementation: who does what, why and how does the system maintain this behaviour. Resulting in a sustainable change in behaviour that serves the goals of the organisation.

How is it done?

Following a thorough culture survey in the form of an anthropological culture scan, we invite the management / strategy group to translate the desired change into concrete behaviour. Alongside the formulation of how the collective thought should be (e.g. more customer-oriented, a more pro-active attitude), we look at what collective action the organisation wishes to achieve (e.g. every employee calls a potential customer once a week).

Once this concrete desired behaviour has been identified, we will compare and contrast this with the forces that maintain the current behaviour. It may turn out that particular structures or processes need to be adjusted, or that people do not have particular skills or knowledge with which to apply the desired behaviour. These points are tackled through the implementation of essential structural changes and offering pit-stop workshops in which the essential skills can be honed.

In many change processes, this is where the project stops. And this is exactly why they often fail. The interventions described above only create the right conditions! They alone will not lead to a sustainable change in behaviour. To achieve this, it is necessary to call on the strength of the informal social networks and to make use of the psychological principles of how people actually change.

HumanDimensions leads culture change in a structured, measurable way by making use of the ViralChange™ method. Click here for further information on ViralChange™.

Curious to learn how HumanDimensions can support you in achieving lasting change? Click here for a free consultation.