“Whatever you are not changing...

...you are choosing.”



Lately, we’ve written extensively about effectively leading in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) business environment. It is an environment that begs for change given the ever changing external drivers and conditions. Regardless of business type (for profit or nonprofit), industry, or size (corporate leader or SMB business owner), the current environment presents an ongoing stream of challenges leaders must tackle. The title quote by Laurie Buchanan, Coach and Author, suggests any choices made to address these challenges that does not include change still contain a level of accountability to the consequences of those decisions.

One of the key effects of these challenges is the impact they have on organizational culture. Inspired by a recent LinkedIn post on culture change by Rob Briner, we present our take on culture change based on our experiences as both an executive business leader and as leadership coach to business leaders both for profit and nonprofit, corporate and entrepreneur.

While there are many different definitions of culture, we define culture as the shared values, beliefs, attitudes and norms within the organization that govern the behavior of its members. When most leaders speak of culture change, they address it as something in and by itself to change. However, we address culture change as an output rather than an input. In other words, leaders don't change culture, they change the things that create the culture. For instance, in our executive leadership roles, the core foundational element of our culture was adaptability. In all cases, we achieved an adaptive culture, not by addressing the culture itself, but rather by addressing how we infuse adaptability into the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and norms which showed itself in the resulting behaviors. Let’s break down the five components and see how change is, or isn’t, achieved in each:

• Values ~ We define values as the broad preferences concerning appropriate course of actions or outcomes. As no one is born with values, these become the product of the influencers (parents, teachers, ministers, etc.) in one’s formative years. Ultimately, they help prioritize life decisions based on which values one holds deeply. When leaders create, socialize and model core values for the organization, they are explicitly stating that key decisions are influenced by those core values. Individual values typically do not change over time, so it is important that organizational core values truly represent the desired culture behavior. How are the core values of the organization reflective of the desired culture?
• Beliefs ~ Beliefs are those ideas and ideals that are generally believed to be true. Unlike values, beliefs can change over time given new inputs and learning. It doesn’t mean they will, it just means they can. For example, we believe that 99% of the workforce comes to work every day to do a good job. For that reason, the first conversation when a situation went sideways was always with the manager before the person who made the mistake. That belief could be changed based on new learning or experience, but for now, we believe it to be true. What beliefs are being held as true that align or misalign to the desired culture?
• Attitudes ~ We define attitudes as habits of thought that determine people do as a predisposition to respond positively or negatively to someone or something in their environment. Fundamentally, attitudes are informed by beliefs, emotions and behavioral intention (merely the intent to behave in alignment with beliefs and emotions). We established earlier beliefs can change and we also know through emotional intelligence that emotions can also change depending on the appropriate alignment between feelings and behavior. When addressing culture change, we challenge attitudes by asking simply, “What drives the way you think about...?” What attitudes are preventing the culture from thriving?
• Norms ~ Where attitudes are more of an internal force behind behavioral decisions, norms are the external forces influencing behavioral decisions. Norms are the contextual rules (written and unwritten) and expectations of the organization. Our favorite reference to norms lies in The Rocket Model created by Gordy Curphy as part of his broader work on effective high performing teams. Norms that address operating rhythm, communications, decision-making, accountability and self-adjustment can all be changed, socialized, and modeled in new ways by leaders. How are the current norms working for or against the desired culture?
• Behaviors ~ All these efforts to change core values, beliefs, attitudes, and norms must now inform new behaviors or the desired change results will never materialize. One of the bigger challenges in creating new change behaviors change is taking definitive action in the new direction. Leaders know what they need to do differently yet hesitate to take the risk. It is the knowing-doing gap in action relative to adapting the culture to meet the challenges of a VUCA business environment. Among them is the struggle to communicate the change such that it evokes the right behavioral actions. We wrote previously about that challenge several years back. What obstacles are preventing new behaviors that align to the desired culture?

One of our favorite stories around culture change occurred during the first two years as an Area Vice President for Sprint. Every six months, we announced evolutionary changes that directly addressed core values, beliefs, attitudes and the new norms for the organization (640 people strong at the time). At the beginning of year three, the senior leadership team proactively looked forward to the next six months which meant the change was now cultural!

Culture change takes time which makes understanding how to move the piece parts is fundamental to success. It also means not confusing organizational culture change with organizational climate change, especially in an emotionally charged VUCA business environment. Reacting to changing short term business climate thinking it is longer term culture change is a recipe for failure and diminished relevance in the new reality!

What is your process to lead changes in your culture? If you’re not sure, we can help.

Lead Well!