What does it take to transform an organization’s culture?

How to Transform your Organizational Culture?

The organizational culture definition is basically a set of beliefs, assumptions, values and interaction ways that contribute towards developing its unique social and psychological environment.

It is also referred as the traditions in which things are performed within the organization. This includes organizational vision, values, norms, systems, symbols, language and the habits adopted by its human resource.

Why organizational culture is important?

A good organizational culture theory focuses on its employees, and their relationship towards the organization and its goals. It promotes a productive environment that also creates a positive employee experience.

The organization culture change does not occur in a day or two but a persistent approach towards reshaping and maintaining a healthy environment is the key. For instance, this can be done by:

• Defining preferred values and norms
• Aligning culture with firm’s strategy and structure
• Appreciating people fostering cultural norms
• Outlining the non-negotiables
• Invest in culture by training workforce

Transforming organizational culture is not an easy undertaking. It always undergoes certain challenges and resistance against it.

It is developed by the ‘people (management)’
for the common challenges of ‘people (employees)’

Whenever a change is introduced or organizational culture undergoes into the transition, it faces challenges such as:

• Resistance to change
• Lack of commitment and reinforcement
• Rigid organizational structures
• Improper communication of the purpose
• Lack of leader’s engagement

The transformation in organizational culture becomes an inexpensive affair when its employees stand in its support and lead from the front. A new culture faces hurdles against it but when leaders convince others through their collective experiences and better behaviors, transitions observe success.

How to achieve smooth transition in organizational culture?

‘Change acceptance’ deems to be a part of firm culture in which employees are optimistic and ready towards any kind of change rather than being reluctant to its implementation. At the initial stage, the role of leaders becomes very significant. They identify a relevant basket of necessary variations, justify and deliver them as a model for the workforce. If you are wondering about organization culture example, here are some promising steps:

1. Formulate of a clear strategic vision
2. Display top-management commitment
3. Model culture changes at the highest level
4. Engage the employees
5. Modify the organization to support organizational change
6. Select and socialize newcomers into the culture
7. Develop ethical and legal sensitivity
8. Track your progress and be patient as transformation takes time

Cultural change starts with Leaders, flourished by coaching

First, leaders need a solid plan to make change a reality. A well-conveyed plan exclusively crafted and delivered in an effective manner is vital for the corporations. This includes seeding human force with coaching solutions. According to the research on Executive Coaching as a Transfer of Training Tool (Public Personnel Management), training employees to cultivate organizational culture change yield 88% productivity while without coaching, it is only 22%.

Therefore, an appropriate coaching is preferably required to apply a new culture. The aim of coaching in such scenarios is to help people work through the consequences of the change themselves, without telling them what to do. This helps them create the change for themselves, and thus become co-creators of the change. Thus every individual perfectly aligns himself/herself with the new organizational culture. People are more likely to support what they themselves create.

Change management in cultural transformation

Brian Chesky, the Co-founder and CEO of AirBnb, once said that culture is simply a shared way of doing something with passion.

Undoubtedly, it is the people who have the real ability to make a culture great. Every individual within the organization is responsible for improving it. In the nutshell, an effective cultural transformation is occurred when organizational vision and goals continually support the “urgent call for action”.

Cherry on the top, better organizational culture positively impacts not only the workforce but also the customers. Both existing and the potential clients are served better. Resultantly, the organizational brand is enhanced.

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