Time for a Culture Tune-up

Constant maintenance will keep your organization running for many years to come It’s human nature to spend time fixing the things that are easy to mend and ignoring what appears difficult, what’s heavy and what feels arduous. By way of example, it’s interesting to note that our cars often get better treatment than our organization’s culture. We take our cars into the shop for an oil change, a brake test, a tire change and even scheduled preventative maintenance. Why do we prioritize care for our cars more routinely than we care for our organization’s culture? I believe we do this for two (very human) reasons: 1. We don’t know where to start. While a select few of us know how to fix cars, most of us outsource. Changing culture feels hard, and it’s unclear how to begin. 2. We have false hope. We just assume our work culture will take care of itself and eventually right-size weak spots. While we know this won’t happen with an engine, we have blind hope this will happen with our culture. Culture is not static. Culture is fundamentally dynamic, forever changing; it requires time and attention or it will deteriorate. And, let’s be honest — people don’t like change. This is something HR professionals have long understood. COVID-19 has guaranteed that change has been a constant for nearly a year. All of our communications and interactions have been upended, and very little of what we once relied on remains today. These changes have radically impacted every aspect of business, and it happened quickly. Overnight, companies went from highly centralized operating models to a distributed workforce. The pandemic has recast many work cultures permanently. With this in mind, I argue there are three times when culture should be re-designed: When something isn’t right in the behaviours of our peopleWhen the company is underperforming When a significant change event has happened inside or outside the company It’s not a debate that now is the time for a workplace culture tune-up. A healthy workplace culture is vital. In a 2017 study, McKinsey & Co. evaluated organizational health and found companies with strong cultures performed better in customer experience, quality, market share, earnings, return on invested capital and total shareholder return. Added to the data is our current reality. We’re in a near-end-pandemic state while also addressing meta-workplace issues like equity, diversity and inclusion, environmental and sustainability practices, competition for talent, and an uncertain economy. There has never been a more pressing need for culture-by-design than now. Placing false hope in self-evolving cultural rejuvenation is not a plan. Your business will run the risk of increasing disengagement, burnout, absenteeism and a decline in organizational performance if matters are not addressed. Steps to leading a cultural tune-up: 1. Map out the dimensions of your organizational culture through three lenses: past, present, future Use your own analysis or partner with a culture measurement firm. Compare and contrast legacy culture to your future-state aspirational culture. 2. Validate your findings with leaders and write a future culture aspiration statement This needs to be hyper-specific for everyone to understand and should include chain of decision-making power, management structure, key work processes, philosophy on employee relations, and performance and reward systems, as examples. 3. Refine and validate the findings with employees Get their insights about what has and has not been working in the legacy and current state cultures. Remember that employees basic needs must be considered, and some requirements, like mental health supports, will likely need to be bolstered. 4. Build on the trust that has increased between leaders and staff throughout the pandemic Leaders must now embody empathetic, flexible and transparent leadership styles. Build new interaction models and norms between leaders, colleagues, teams and individuals in order to unlearn past behaviours and establish new ones. 5. Create a corporate purpose narrative The organization’s purpose — why the company exists — may have changed, and it needs to be articulated and boiled down to a coherent statement. Then, go further, to define how functions/teams will support and achieve the purpose. 6. Link culture to business goals This is a great way to test for alignment. Once you have begun rolling out your new cultural aspirations, monitor it, adapt it as needed and commit to measuring again. If you do not perform preventative maintenance on your culture (in the same way you must pay attention to your car), you may end up with exactly what you don’t want.

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Time for a Culture Tune-up

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Louise Taylor Green

Constant maintenance will keep your organization running for many years to come

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Louise Taylor Green

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