Creating the right Culture

[Tony Brook]

Hi,
I've been involved in training proffesionals on the softer skills for some time now and it occurs to me that a vital ingredient to successfull outcomes (regardless of anything I do - although I believe that I provide a great service of course lol) is the culture of an organisation.
That could be the present cultural (I tend to describe an effective culture as one which is both productive and nuturing) Or indeed the overall goal of a company/organisation to create a culture which matches their values.
- not a new idea of course, however unless the significance of this. and indeed the details (i.e. how do the values and cultural ideals translate into the everyday interactions of employees, suppliers and customers) are clearly understood and prioritised - these initiative tend to be less successful than they otherwise would be.
So..
How can we ensure that a company undertaking cultural change understands the full commitment and responsibility of what it is undertaking?
How can we affect the culture of our own communities?
How can someone in an environment which is blaming and judging affect their own area or team successfully?
Any other thoughts on culture change?

Look forward to hearing thoughts and developing this discussion - have a great day - Tony

[Tony Brook]

Hi Daisy,
The IBM process is of a similar vein to many project management methodologies - in essence overall goals are broken down into smaller goals or (milestones) and these in turn are broken down into tasks - all these are sequenced, allocated resouces and person or persons responsible, regular daily or weekly meetings are held to monitor progress and revise plans. Its a simple enough process which can - in a large project become more complicated as you can imagine. In many instances different bits of work in different areas involving different people need to be co-ordinated to finish certain tasks so that other dependant tasks can begin - there are various software products for monitoring projects - e.g. microsoft project - they are all similar in nature.
It seems to me that a determined effort to create a certain type of culture would benifit from this kind of organised approach - as you say it could be costly though especially in a large organisation. However there are always ways to make something more efficient - thought would have to be given to - what are the goals (which may well be behavioral), how can these be measured? who is responsible etc etc/

[Daisy Varun]

What do you think about the questions that you have posed here? Wouldn't the goals differ for each organization? They will always have a different reason and would expect a different result out of any training intervention...
With my limited experience and exposure, I can only think of a 360 degree feedback to measure behavioural changes. What are the other methods to measure these changes?
Who can be held responsible other than the person in question? To be able to bring about any behavioural change in people, it needs to be complemented by the processes. So in a way processes/systems are equally responsible to bring in and then sustain that change for good.
Is there a case in question that we can talkabout to bring more clarity here?
I see myself asking more and more questions... wonder if that will account for any positive contribution to the issue here.

[Tony Brook]

Hi Daisy,
I agree the Goals will differ for each organisation - i.e. a defined cultural ideal and maybe some detail about how this will apply in different parts of an organisation to different individuals. Once these objectives have been established a process to bring about the change is required. Likely to involve training, coaching briefings etc. My thoughts then turn to the issue of how do we bring about the changes and measure them:-
Bringing about the changes - individuals must be made responsible for the cultural changes and behavioral development int their area's - I imagine that this becomes a key performance indicator and is assimilated in the companies appraisal and performance review procedures. Other tactics are probably required, champions/role model's in certain areas identified and used
Measuring the changes - one of the key success factors I think, is to find an effective way of monitoring/'policing' behaviours, complimenting/rewarding the desired behaviour and penalising/coaching the undesired behaviours. This is particularly important during the period of transition - we are by nature biased towards familiarity and so it is to be expected that people will carry on as they currently are - if they can get away with it (unless of course they have been powerfully motivated - even then though unless people are mindfull - and most of the time we aren't - we will slip into familiar automatic behaviours. It is important that there is a mechanism for consistently picking instances this up and challenging them. In fact the desired cultural goal is likely to be one in which this happens. 360 feedback is one way this can be measured, other ways would be to get people to observe whats going on around them and report back on it - you might call it behavioural sampling! after an initial transitional period of time other measures ought to be available - e.g. we would expect absence levels and staff turnover to drop, efficiency to improve, etc
Its likely that some business reengineering would be part of such a project too, eg redifinition of processes, teams & responsibilities etc.
Interesting stuff isn't it. Id like to interview someone who has speareheaded such a project in their own company - I know Leyland trucks went through a similar initiative and went from the verge of bankrupsy to being hugely successful.

[Tony Brook]

Thanks for your thoughts Keith, your approach makes a lot of sense.
Once you get to that stage what kind of process/route maps do you follow - is there a usual 'methodology' (accepting your earlier comments of course - the content can be different in each case within a similar process). I've had personal experience of a project methodology for implementing SAP in a large multisite business. We used an IBM methodology - during the time there were lots of references to change managment however it was 'task focussed', defined business processes, user groups to establish standard processes and then rollout. I'm wondering if this kind of approach could be 'flexed' to be focussed on attitudes and personal interactions, rather than task based processes - any thoughts?

[Keith A Ayres]

Hi Tony
My role in the process is not the delivery of the solution, simply the identification of the problem. Mine is the easy job. I only have to ask questions and build up as detailed picture as possible so that my network of professionals can suggest the best solution. I then sell the solution. Obviously I do have to have a good understanding of the subject matter but it is not my intention to be an expert in all the fields my services cover.

That was a roundabout way of saying "I have no idea!"

However, the one thing that I have identified is that too many solve symptoms instead of delving further to find causes.

[Tony Brook]

Hi Kieth,
I agree with you entirely that not enough attention is given to establishing the cause - for me many of the principles (if not all) of personal coaching apply to organisational coaching - the vision of a solution to a symptom can be very alluring and lead to what seems like a quick win, much back slapping and various claims of success - when in actual fact things are not fixed at all - just swept under the carpet. I've seen many claims of success which, on inspection, are simply not valid or sustainable - I'm looking to refine a service which stands up to the test of time - hence my questions.Thanks for your contribution
Tony.