How Do You Reboot Your Organizational Culture?

BY MYB
In Manage & Grow
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You know that change is important to remain relevant. If you had to change your organization’s culture, what would you do? Typically you would replace the managers, or reorganize goals/roles of your people. If you’ve tried either of these approaches, you probably found little success at implementing any change.

Culture is like the invisible constitution of the organization. Any attempt to change it brings about a reaction similar to how the human immune system responds to invading pathogens! That’s why changing culture can be very tough. Also, there is no clear ‘culture change guide’ to follow. But below are a few points that can give you a head start in the right direction:

Understand the existing culture of the organization helps to form a clear vision of what should stay, what should go, and what is missing in the organizational culture
Envision the new culture and imagine what the organization should be in future. Just knowing what to change isn’t important. It’s equally important to have a clear understanding of what the change should be replaced with
Share the vision with your team as change can’t be brought about by a single person. This won’t just be about persuasion and getting agreement, but will also involve transparent communication, an open mind and room for feedbacks
Use the available resources and tap into the existing talent pool of the organization to bring about the required change. It’s generally a time consuming and futile exercise to build new teams or go for major restructuring at the start of the change process
Keep communication channels open and transparent for free exchange of information, doubts and fears. Instead of top-down commands, try more horizontal communication in a storytelling and comradery way
Introduce new systems and processes that focus, support and reinforce the vision. Appropriate management systems will ensure sustained success for change