Be encouraged if we’ve made it this far in the change process. We are almost there! It’s important to stay vigilant at this juncture because if you let up before the change is fully in place, critical momentum can be lost and regression can follow. Today we are going to look at how other influences impact your change and how your culture will win the day in the end.
The impact of interdependencies
Small wins are great for building momentum for larger changes, but interdependencies can sometimes feel insurmountable for large organizations. I heard it described as a room full of furniture where everything is connected by ropes and chains. You may be able to nudge the couch over, but if you move it more than an inch the table runner will be pulled off the table and then that creates a chain reaction that pulls some books off the shelf and breaks a glass on the table.
Working in a 100,000+ employee population that mental illustration hits home. We recently worked to introduce our Network Resource Groups to a new large population that works differently than those historically at the company. They are extremely fast-paced and always on the go. We wanted to introduce them to the program by both email and physical promotion assets like posters and physical media that required:
- Connecting with the communications team
- The communications team had to then connect with IT because of access challenges
- It had to access security access and change how it approached the population
- That change had to go to approval and be prioritized
- Once complete, that connection went back to the comms team
- The comms team got back to our team about the solution
- We then reached out to the resource group leaders on how to do the process
- The resource groups could now send out communications
That may seem like an overcomplicated process but in a massive, publically traded company with additional compounding issues like acquisitions, it can be hard to change things. When you are in a place that is highly interdependent, slow down to first ensure that everyone has the right sense of urgency in the change that is needed. If not, start there, otherwise, any further change will be slowed or stopped altogether.
Protection from a false sense of victory
While it is nearly impossible to celebrate people too much, it is quite possible to celebrate too much as an organization. Think about a company-wide meeting that happens after some of those short-term wins start to materialize. The lobby is blasting upbeat and high-energy music, the leaders come out like they just won a national championship and the accolades are flying. On the surface, this seems like a great thing. We are celebrating our success! The tone that it actually sets is quite different. It says, “We did it. We made it to the goal and now it’s time to relax.”
It has been said that you can lose 20 years of trust in one bad conversation. Momentum and sense of urgency can be lost just as easily and it’s also just as hard to regain it once it’s gone. Here are some ways to keep that momentum going as you build on the successful start to change.
- Keep the cadence of change – The building coalition should use the momentum and victories from the short-term wins to tackle larger issues and projects.
- Leverage the stars and promoters – Bring in additional people to help with the change. Promote and develop people to help with the additional changes.
- Focus from leadership – The leadership team should double down on focus and clarity so that the team does not get complacent and maintains a high level of urgency.
- Reduce independencies – Make future change easier by evaluating and eliminating unnecessary interdependencies and eliminate them.
Culture at the end
Even harder than implementing a change is transforming the culture in an organization. Some might think starting with culture transformation would make it easier to implement change. I would say that the opposite is true. The changes that you make are what ultimately transform the culture.
Unlike a directive, an order, or a change in process, your culture isn’t tangible. It’s not something that you can simply say, “You have been doing this. Now do this instead.” Culture change occurs after people’s behaviors have changed over a period of time and those behaviors change because of a change initiative. That’s why the cultural impact happens at the end and not the beginning.
Culture: The power battery of long-term change
Even if the culture change comes last in the process, it’s the most important thing to get right in order to anchor the change for sustainability in the future. You should protect this new culture like your life depends on it and it will likely alter the way that you think about the talent on your team.
Two camps of people often form at this stage – those who are in it and want to see the new culture thrive and those who simply cannot let go of the ways things used to be. Be very mindful to promote those who are aligned with the new culture and advocate for the new way of life. That doesn’t mean eliminating diversity, far from it actually. The more diverse views, backgrounds, and cultural groups you have supporting the new culture the better. If you don’t change and adapt your promotion process to the new practices, the old culture will squeeze its way back in and pop up like weeds in a well-managed lawn.
Keeping the new culture going requires a lot of talk too. Without continual reinforcement, support, and instruction people may be reluctant to hold on to the new way of working and divert back to old habits. If your leader says something about culture or change once and never mentions it again, you might brush it off as not very important. If they speak about it every time that they see you, you quickly understand just how important it is.
Fundamental change is not an easy or quick process to pull off and the challenge only increases as the complexity of the organization grows. Establish a sense of urgency to rally the cause, and build a coalition of both leaders and managers to guide the process. Communicate well, often, and in diverse ways and you work to empower your team into action. Find those data-driven small wins and take a moment to celebrate; just make sure it’s not too long. Use that momentum to continue to create change and anchor into your new culture as the team thrives in the future.
Make a better tomorrow.
-ZH
