5. Rapid Change Process

An organization's culture is seldom consciously established. Typically, it takes shape on its own over a period of many years, reflecting the history, values, and behaviors of a succession of leaders. This subtle but extensive history results in tremendous cultural inertia.

To many people, the concepts of customer focus, entrepreneurship, integrity, empowerment, teamwork, etc., will seem foreign and confusing. Faced with high-level visions, aphorisms, or vague directions, people may not know what to do, and they often revert to familiar patterns of behavior.

Shifting an established culture takes more than slogans and vague assertions about teamwork and customer focus. The new culture must be consistent and comprehensive. This requires a framework that defines the full scope of culture, as in the thirteen themes described in Chapter 4.

Within that framework, the new culture must be absolutely clear to everyone. The themes must be translated into a set of specific, actionable cultural principles that describe exactly what people are expected to do.

Once planned, the new culture must be implemented and become so ingrained that behaving in the new ways is automatic for everyone in the organization. Effective implementation requires a well-orchestrated, participative planning process, and a rollout process that engages all staff in studying and adopting the new behaviors.

Involving everyone is challenging, but the rewards are worth the effort. Without participation, the hard work done by the initial designers could be wasted because of resistance to change or lack of understanding and buy-in from the rest of the staff.

The more participation in the design of the new culture, the better. But it's generally impossible to gather everyone in the whole organization together. Aside from the time required, getting large groups to agree on the wording of cultural principles is difficult at best, and often impossible.

Therefore, a two- or three-step "cascade" process is recommended:

1. An initial design team is limited to approximately thirty people, based on the practicalities of gaining consensus in group meetings. They develop a first draft of behavioral principles.

   It is important that participants are selected fairly, so that the executive is not accused of favoritism. A clear "rule of entry" that can be applied uniformly is needed.

   First, the design team selects the themes they'd like to address. Many organizations work on all thirteen themes. Some skip ethics because the corporation already has a detailed ethics statement. Others may select only those themes they consider most pressing.

   Next, the initial design team is trained in how to write actionable cultural principles. They divide themselves into small sub-teams, and each sub-team is assigned one or two themes. They brainstorm behaviors that address the organization's concerns within their assigned themes.

   Then, the entire design team reconvenes to discuss each principle, reword it if necessary, and come to consensus on each. They may use principles developed by other organization (best practices) to help them clearly word their ideas.

   Finally, they consider the principles that other companies have adopted (best practices) to see if any additional statements should be added.

   Note the careful use of best practices. Instead of imitating others, the work of others is used to enhance the ideas of the team. Considering their ideas first builds the team's ownership of the principles, and ensures that the principles address the issues of most concern to participants.

2. A broader design team of up to one hundred people is then engaged in refining the draft. This expands the team of leaders available to teach the new culture during the rollout phase, and builds commitment among a broad cross-section of those who manage others.

   (Smaller organizations, where the initial design team of thirty people represents a significant percentage of the managers, may skip this step.)

   In this workshop, the initial design team presents their draft, theme by theme. As they do so, the new participants note their questions and concerns on cards.

   Then, the participants are divided into sub-team, with a theme or two assigned to each. The cards are sorted among the sub-teams so that each collects all the issues related to their assigned theme. They address the questions and concerns by proposing changes to existing principles or entirely new principles.

   Finally, the entire design team reconvenes to consider the proposed changes and come to consensus on each.

   "Nothing beats sweat equity!"

   anonymous

3. All participants in the expanded design team subsequently act as teachers and champions for the new culture in the rollout to all members of the organization. Rolling out the new culture includes teaching the rest of the staff, providing opportunities for them to further refine the cultural principles, and reinforcing the new behaviors.

   This is generally accomplished through an all-staff meeting to announce the rollout, followed by a series of small-group discussions of each theme. If a theme is taught every three weeks, each manager is expected to review the principles in that theme with his or her staff in detail. In addition to education, managers encourage feedback on the content and the wording.

   At the end of the rollout process, the initial design team reviews the feedback. They may modify principles based on staff's issues and recommendations, and then announce the changes. This is very positive, making the final culture a combined product of everybody's efforts.

4. After a few months, a survey is conducted to assess which areas of culture need additional reinforcement. Follow-up reinforcement may take the form of additional education, incentives, or clear performance objectives.

This process (summarized in Figure 3) has evolved over the years, with contributions from each organization that utilized it. It's now a reliable process, with predictable timing and remarkable results.

In all, from the start to announcement day (the design phase) requires two to three months, depending on the size of the organization.

Rollout requires approximately nine months, less if the team decides to roll out a theme every two weeks rather than one every three weeks. Note that results will become apparent early in the rollout process, with greater and greater impact as each new theme is taught.

The reinforcement survey generally occurs six to nine months after the rollout is complete.

Figure 3: Steps In the Culture-In-Action Process

1. Assemble initial design team.

2. Select themes.

3. Sub-teams brainstorm principles.

4. In the entire initial design team, decide each principle by consensus; use best practices to help with clear wording.

5. Check best practices for additional principles.

6. Teach expanded design team all themes and principles.

7. Refine and add principles to address issues raised by expanded design team.

8. Plan rollout process, prepare materials.

9. Announcement meeting to explain process to all staff.

10. Small-group discussions of one theme every two to three weeks.

11. Adjust principles based on staff feedback.

12. Survey adoption and reinforce as needed.