All good leaders must expect change and be ready to manage it, whether from within, without or both. Simultaneously, you need to determine your company’s readiness for meeting challenges, and figuring out how to develop a mindset of anticipation, agility and resilience in the face of discouragement, inertia and resistance. There are three simple steps to follow–simple, but not easy:

1. Recognize the authentic culture of your company
2. Identify the stakeholders
3. Make the necessary changes

Start by understanding your company’s culture and the crucial role it plays in how you manage disruptive change. Dig deep to determine if it will support the changes you know are needed or if some work needs to be done to break old ways that have become obstacles to progress.

“Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”

This great quote is usually attributed to the late Peter Drucker. I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Drucker, a renowned business and management authority, a few years ago, and his work has helped me understand that if I want to lead my company’s strategy, I’d better understand its culture first.

You can have the most well thought through strategy possible, but if you don’t have a culture to support it, you’re doomed. That’s because changing culture is difficult, and many good strategies have failed because the CEO at the helm was unable to effect change at a broader cultural level.

According to Stan Phelps, when Mark King was brought in by CEO Herbert Hainer to be the new head of Adidas America, he faced significant challenges. King was quoted as saying “Great companies have great cultures,”, and he approached his task with that understanding.

Culture is multidimensional

First, you have to know what your company’s real culture is—the one reinforced by executive leadership and not just the one that gets lip service. According to Michael Mankins, it’s crucial that identity and values are aligned, with the clear goal of achieving the best possible results for everyone: employers, customers and shareholders.

Many aspects make up an organization’s culture, but two are the most critical, and you would do well to dig into both of them to see if you find room for improvement:

1. Habits and Rituals

Habits and rituals make up the pace and cadence of your organization.

How do you structure key decision-making meetings? How do you conduct interviews? How do you handle mistakes or failure? How do you reward success or achievement? What are the most common company stories that are continually shared with all new employees?

When you examine these aspects of your company, you can find clues about whether it is going to embrace change with flexibility or seize up with resistance and break apart instead of bend. Small changes to habits and rituals will help your people understand they can, indeed, do things a different way without any dire consequences. Leaders can attempt to address culture with powerful meetings and presentations, but nothing is as effective as changing the key decision-making and reward process. This idea is articulated very well in the 2002 book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Buck.

2. Ideals and Beliefs

Ideals and beliefs have to go so much deeper than the vision or mission statements. Enron’s stated mission and core values were as lofty as anyone’s, but their real culture was fatally flawed. Too often, there is an inherent culture that pushes profitability over what is best for the long term. They might talk virtuously about high-minded goals and visions, but the true belief system is this: if you hit your numbers, you get promoted. The end justifies the means.

How are your employees being incentivized? Are the policies and procedures tempting them to take shortcuts or compromise quality or ethics to reach their goals? Who gets promoted? Who gets the big bonus or stock grants?

Sadly, external and internal scrutiny eventually expose these lapses in authenticity when they exist. Inevitably, a thorough examination of the paper trails will show that decisions were made without considering long-term consequences or stated values. If you’re trying to get to the bottom of your company’s culture—especially if you’re new to the organization or have been brought in to turn things around—always look for the signs that tell a different story from the party line. If there’s a discrepancy, you’ve got work to do. The recent ouster of Les Moonves at CBS and the questions swirling around the potential size of his exit package underline this point. Employees are always watching for hard evidence of values.

The Key: Start with Identifying the Stakeholders

You’ve got to know who in your organization can help you—and who can hurt you as you forge a new direction for your company. Who has the most to lose? It will take some time to get to know your key people and find out who wields the most influence. Tip: It’s not necessarily the ones with the most authority by title.

Ironically, the biggest resistors for going in a new direction are usually the smartest individuals who fully understand the old model and have the respect and hearts of the employees. I’ve seen this up close throughout my career. Their source of power is the knowledge of the old model, so when the old model comes into question, they feel threatened by the change. Eliminating or making converts of the resistors is usually the hardest, but also the most critical first step in effecting meaningful change.

Understanding your company’s culture and identifying its key stakeholders will prepare you for the actual implementation of the changes that will be necessary for you to survive and thrive.

Article by – David Cumberbatch MPhil(Oxford), President and CEO of ECS Learning Systems

This article was taken from here.



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