Culture is having a cultural moment. News stories highlight workplace culture as both a business accelerator (Target) and a toxic impediment (McDonald’s). Every organization seems to be considering a cultural initiative or is in the midst of one. Companies are imploring employees to move faster! Innovate! Be agile! Break the mold! Collaborate! Take more risks!
Despite the bold proclamations and exclamation points, few companies are achieving true cultural change—only 9%, according to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends report. However, culture is a critical enabler and predictor of long-term business results. MIT research shows that companies with a top employee experience are twice as innovative, score twice as high on customer satisfaction, and are 25% more profitable than those with bottom-quartile cultures.
There are countless reasons why companies miss the mark and give up on maintaining the strategic value of culture, but the most common problem we see is that cultural initiatives are too grandiose, inflexible, and theoretical. They place a heavy emphasis on lofty, lightweight ideals over the behavioral changes necessary to achieve those ambitions.
The result? Employees ask, “But what should I do?”
We helped answer that question in a recent workshop we provided to the Chicago Executives’ Club. Edelman helps clients change culture in part through targeted interventions that are rooted in behavioral science and explicitly linked to business strategy. Designing an intervention—a pilot with measurable tactics to change a specific mindset or behavior—requires being very clear about the problematic behavior. For example: “We are not innovating because people are playing it safe, remain silent in meetings, and do not share their ideas.”
We introduced principles of behavioral science—such as choice architecture, default effect, social norms, and salience—that organizations can use as “nudges” to encourage new behaviors. Using Edelman’s proprietary behavior change map, participants created their own solutions to a variety of cultural challenges, from apathy among long-time employees to entitlement after a string of wins and lack of collaboration across organizational silos.
A single workshop or conversation will not transform culture, but here are four questions to get you started as you address cultural change in your organization:
What is the scope of the change required?
Is the task to transform the entire organization, or to holistically define or reshape its beliefs and behaviors, as is often the case in post-merger integrations? Or is the goal to target specific behaviors and mindsets that need to change, perhaps in the wake of a crisis or in support of a new strategy? Where the culture change falls along this continuum helps inform how broad or targeted your approach should be.
What will the future state look like?
Clarify which routines and habits need to change and how they should be different in the future to drive the strategy forward.
What are the causes behind the behaviors you need to change?
To change how people act, it helps to understand the underlying beliefs, barriers, and motivations at play.
What behavioral science-based nudges can you use to help employees and leaders break old habits and form new ones?
These can include communications; policy/process changes; or modifications to the physical work environment. For example, a company that needs to reduce unnecessary time spent in meetings could encourage employees and leaders to set aside two meeting-free hours at midday for work; automatically block off the hours on calendars; or remove chairs from meeting rooms to encourage faster stand-up meetings.
Every organization has a culture, whether carefully cultivated according to strategy or randomly shaped by personalities and arbitrary norms. Whatever the case, successful and sustained cultural change begins with asking the right questions and taking the right approach.
EDC is Edelman’s Affiliate Partner in Portugal. See the original Edelman news item here.
