This blog is part of a series about the operations pain points that many organizations face as they tackle digital transformation and change management. Our experts provide insights and recommendations based on their decades of hands-on experience and tackle some of the most pressing business and technology pain points.
Change is never done. In business, “transformations” typically refer to the evolution of technology and manufacturing platforms, processes, roles, and environments. However, the backbone to accept and enable this type of change is the cultural transformation that must take place throughout an organization’s leadership, staff, and teams.
A cultural transformation is the shift of individual mindsets and behaviors to help achieve the goals of a business transformation. Without cultural transformation and a real belief from the majority of employees and leaders that the business transformation steps and changes are necessary to reach business goals, digital transformations run the risk of limited or delayed success and cost increases.
How can an organization achieve cultural transformation?
The following are six actionable steps that an organization can take to enable a cultural transformation that can positively impact the overall outcome and future state of a company’s business objectives.
- Define the desired culture: Establish the desired future culture state of the business by determining shared core values and vision. What do you want others to think it’s like to work at this organization? What are the key attributes you want people who work there to emulate?
- Assess and understand the existing culture: Background information on current behaviors and norms within an organization will help support and drive activities. Find measurable methods and tools for identifying strengths and areas for improvement. This data will help determine how the current culture aligns or conflicts with the desired transformation goals.
- Develop and document a strategy and roadmap: A culture transformation strategy should include a plan for communication tactics, employee engagement initiatives, and leadership alignment and goals. Document a strategy with a bias towards transparency and open dialogue to help build trust between teams and across levels. In addition, create a roadmap with key milestones, activities, and timelines that includes steps and activities, dependencies, and expected outcomes. Doing this will help provide a sense of direction and purpose.
- Introduce innovation methodologies: Innovation is a vital driver of organizational growth and transformation. Foster innovation by creating avenues to easily communicate and share new ideas, processes, products, and business models. Encourage cross-team and cross-regional collaborations to create value and ultimately help your organization get ahead of your competition. Formal innovation methodologies include Design Thinking, Six Sigma, and Lean Startup, but innovation can occur with methodologies as simple as open-door policies, dedicated time to problem-solving ideas, idea management systems, and brainstorms.
- Maintain leadership alignment: Leaders must be on board with the proposed culture shifts so that they can foster transformation across their teams. Provide avenues for training and coaching of leaders so that they can model the behaviors expected from all employees. Teach leaders the benefits and relevance to the business for every change to gain their support, engagement, and collaboration.
- Define decision-making processes: Articulate clear and definitive decision-making processes, authority levels, and exact approval channels to avoid confusion and bottlenecks. Provide escalation guidelines and a final decision hierarchy for each cultural transformation area.
Is the same approach applicable to all organizations?
No. Organizations need to consider location, local cultural norms, and what different groups in different places consider to be valuable and empowering for success. It’s important to elicit feedback and input from multiple sources to be able to understand the factors that motivate each population and to pinpoint the aspirational targets for success for each group. Each group also needs a clear understanding of who their leaders and champions are that facilitate transparency and maintain institutional knowledge.
What is the one big thing an organization can implement to enable a successful cultural transformation?
As part of the strategy and roadmap planning for culture shifts, it’s important to incorporate as many communication channels as possible. One set of emails or one training program isn’t enough to fully enable transformative change. An organization needs a consistent and regular mix of town hall meetings, training programs, role exchanges, upskilling, email updates, and information accessibility.
What are some practical tips to promote collaboration and break down silos?
Breaking down silos requires consistent effort and fostering an environment in which people can share ideas, ask for help, and collaborate without fear of judgement or negative repercussions. Some of the ways to do this include:
- Recognizing and rewarding collaborative behavior such as celebrating examples of successful collaboration and instituting an awards or appreciation program for both formal and informal recognition of new collaborations and sharing of best practices
- Implementing knowledge-sharing tools and promoting those tools and input for them to all employees, developing regular idea-sharing workshops and training sessions, and sharing lessons learned within internal knowledge repositories
- Seeking out diverse perspectives from people in other teams, groups, or regions to help brainstorm problem-solving ideas
- Encouraging cross-team and cross-functional projects to understand others’ roles, expertise, and contributions and gain different perspectives
- Breaking down physical barriers such as cubicle walls and reorganizing physical workspaces to enable collaboration and new relationships within in-person environments
The increased efficiency and productivity from breaking down silos can result in fewer duplicated efforts, redundancies, and wasted resources. A more collaborative culture and environment will help encourage adaptability and creativity so that an organization will be better able to evolve and grow to address market conditions. This type of environment also leads to greater employee satisfaction, improving retention and attracting top talent to your business.
Want to learn more?
The “Operations Pain Points Solved” series highlights common issues faced by organizations everywhere. Read the other blogs in this series to learn about establishing a target operating model, optimizing the customer experience, transformation planning, managing people, and more.
