How To Change Your Organization's Culture

What about changing your organization? Can a small group of thoughtful, committed employees change the organization’s culture? The answer is yes. Here’s some helpful suggestions:

• The most important lesson of all is that change is not about technology, or systems, or procedures, or cost. Change is first and foremost about people. Even when the change is due to the introduction of new technology, it is still about people, not technology. A change initiative that does not pay attention to people will almost certainly fail. Most of the reengineering efforts of the nineties failed because they focused on the procedural aspects of work, ignoring the crucial human side.
• Make sure you have several champions of change at the leadership level and get them involved from the start.
• Get a large enough group of good, positive, and energetic employees to participate in a number of teams, focusing on the various aspects of the change initiative; process redesign, training, organizational communication, systems, measurements, ideas, etc.
• Provide only the broad highlights of the goals of the culture change effort. Let people come up with the ideas and detailed action plans themselves. Only when employees participate in the design will they be committed to the change. The more employees at all levels to participate, the more successful the change initiative will be. In fact, a significant part of the culture change takes place merely because people, through participation, feel empowered to shape their own work environment.
• Use organization-wide communication through town-meetings, publications, intranet, and other media to share information, articulate the mission, and celebrate every success. Communication is a crucial tool for supporting the change effort.
• Measure the key elements you want to change before and after. Without measurements, you will never know that you’ve succeeded.