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Having clearly outlined why change is needed and the opportunity that change could generate, too many culture change programmes then leave people to make the changes themselves without very much more explanation. This is the right time for exploration: for people to talk things through, in terms of the broad and personal implications of building purposeful culture change.

So often, staff are handed new values and a new purpose, there’s some motivational meetings and perhaps a video and gift, and then the business just expects them to get on with it. The thinking seems to be that this gives people personal empowerment; that it brings the change alive for them.

It does nothing of the sort because as Leo Tolstoy so rightly observed, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” Such an approach shortchanges the opportunity because it leaves unanswered, “What do I need to know – and change?”

How exactly is this going to happen?

The best hope is that people will make a viable stab at interpreting what they perceive to be the new expectations and attempt to adjust. The more likely scenario is that they will add the headline words from what they were told to their corporate lexicon and continue doing what they are used to doing and comfortable with on the grounds that the onus for change falls on others in the organisation. The most cynical will dismiss the entire initiative as another “warm handshake” that will disappear if they ignore it.

Getting this right in my view is about linking the dream that you have asked people to make with the reality that they currently find themselves in. It’s about laying out a programme of systematic change that transits people from the comfortable to the exciting.

Four I’s of culture change

This Four I’s model from Stanford captures the complexities of effectively changing a culture. It encompasses four categories that help people map their current culture and identify tensions and mismatches:

1. Ideas – these are the defining elements for the culture. They define why things are done, what we value and what we are committed to
2. Institutional – these are the everyday policies and practices that people have come to see, in Hazel Rose Markus’ words, as “the natural order of things”
3. Interactions – these are the exchanges and relationships that define how people engage with each other and with those beyond the culture (suppliers, investors, customers, regulators, the media)
4. Individual – these are the attitudes, feelings and actions of people within the culture.

Purposeful exploration

In Step 1: Agitation, we talked about building a case for cultural change that people understand. In our model, Agitation helps get leaders onboard by setting out why they need to lead change from the front in order to maximise the impacts of the strategy they are charged with delivering.

The first part of our second stage Activation – Inspiration – focused on portraying in clear terms what tomorrow looks like – both in terms of how the culture must change to align with the strategy; and in terms of what people aspire to be part of.

The next part of Activation is Exploration – an opportunity to see how the four I’s will come together and work together.

Four questions that move cultures forward

As a whole

1. What are we going to do to help ourselves? – How is the organisation as a whole going to change? Where and when are people going to see that change happening around them? By starting with collective change, championed and driven by leaders, a culture signals its intention to commit. These changes are the strategic responses required to reset the course of the whole ship. They provide people with a context within which to see what is being asked of them. They answer “Why?” and “Where?”

2. What are we going to do to help you? – How is the organisation going to back and support change for individuals? This about clearly spelling out what people are going to receive by way of training/support. How will they they learn/relearn the skills and behaviours that will be expected of them? Stating this reinforces the wider commitment and provides people with clear actions they can take.

But don’t stop there. Also spell out: How are we going to listen to you? How will we review your work and your progress from now on? What are we asking you to add to your workload? What are we going to remove from your workload so that you will have the time and energy to do this? This shows commitment and recognition.

Individually

3. What are you going to do to help you? – Challenge each person to articulate the changes that they believe they will need to make to how they think and work in order to help realise the new goal. This asks people to identify in specific terms the shortfalls they would like to correct and the potential they would like to develop. It puts people in charge of their own change. It resolves “Who?”, “When?” and “What?”

4. Finally – what are you going to do to help us? – This asks people to quantify the contribution they believe they can make to the big change. Pitched properly, this question empowers people to articulate the possibilities they see for the organisation within the work they do. Personal ownership is the key to encouraging and realising continuous improvement because it promotes a “suggestion culture” where people are encouraged to initiate rather than simply follow.

Making change human

The People & Culture team are a critical ally and enabler for all of this. They know the people and the processes and policies that govern how they work better than anyone. It’s important to refresh their mandate to operate by redefining how the P&C team can see themselves in your new Principled Culture. Same goes for the Learning and Development team. What does the next generation of L&D look like?

Shifting these mandates is a powerful way to invite questions from these teams around the style of leadership required going forward, changes and amendments to policies and processes, whether the current structure aligns with the new culture, and so much more.

Waterfalls and ladders

This is a familiar phrase to organisations that work with us on culture change. It’s how we describe the need for discussion, debate and direction to move up and down the structure – so that teams are receiving broader views and direction from decision makers (waterfalls) and, at the same time, are feeding up their reactions and inputs via workshops with their peers (ladders).

The goal is to ensure that strategy and culture are aligned, and that the future is discussed openly and broadly, but also decisively.

Four actions x three levels of relevance

Done properly, the Exploration phase should conclude with everyone understanding four things:

• Keep – what will we continue doing, believing and saying that reflects our culture to this point?
• Stop – what will we no longer do because it doesn’t align with our intended future?
• Add – what will we start doing that we have never done before?
• Change – what will we amend that we are currently doing to ensure it better aligns with our Principled Culture going forward?

Each of these understandings should be present at three levels: self; team; and whole culture.

Here’s how to explore building purposeful culture

A rigorous Exploration phase is about much more than just providing selling points. It’s an opportunity for those charged with changing the culture to involve people in meaningful conversations and to stress-test what they are proposing. Many leaders worry that consulting the culture may undermine their authority. They are also concerned it may lead to a “committee culture” cobbled together to appease everyone’s opinion. But meaningful and well-facilitated discussion is a chance to see unexpected implications. It’s also a way to test the practicality of what individuals are being asked to do.

Culture to Thrive is our strategically focused approach to big picture brand culture change for leaders wanting to align their people, strategy and core principles. You can read more about the range of brand culture services we offer here.

Culture To Thrive helps you find and define what you are striving for as a business. It helps you shape the culture you specifically need as a brand. Together, we’ll build out why you should be one type of culture rather than another. We’ll also work through what you intend to accomplish and how every person can contribute to that.

Please contact us if you’re ready to change up why you compete.

Acknowledgements
Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash
Graphics designed by Fuller Studio.

Further reading
Agitation: Step 1 in building a purposeful culture
Inspiration: Step 2 in activating purposeful culture