The Best Tactic to Begin Culture Change

 

Let's say you are organizational leadership and want to motivate the workforce to improve work processes even though you are in a culture that is resigned to suffering obstacles and expects to work around them, as described in my previous post. What's a better tactic to start out with?

• Resolve a small number of problems quickly
• Collect data about many reported problems and let the workforce know you are doing so
• Give feedback to workers related to their actions in the undesirable culture
• Communicate your dissatisfaction with the current culture but satisfaction with the workforce

Not knowing what to do first to get momentum is a common problem in culture change. For this reason Harvard Business School professor Anita L. Tucker and Harvard School of Public Health professor Sara J. Singer studied the issue.

Their findings? In a nutshell, actions speak louder than words. But the right actions at the right time speak the loudest.

Less Effective Tactics for Leaders/Managers/PMO

• You might be tempted to try these tactics, but you would not be doing what is best.
• Start an effort to collect data related to the many problems resulting in the current culture.
• Provide feedback to workers on their actions
• Communicate to workers the full extent of the problems that need to be solved

The problems with these tactics are that they tend to de-motivate for one reason or another. They may make managers appear to be simply talking the talk before their attention inevitably shifts to something else. Communications from leaders describing the a large extent of problems tends to cause workforce anxiety. When leaders "give feedback" to the workforce related to an undesirable culture they are just going to look like a mean Dad complaining ("You know what your problem is?").

Better Tactic for Leaders/Managers/PMO

• Resolve a small number of problems.

Even though it looks like a small move, it motivates workers because it is action-oriented, showing that leaders are supporting actual improvements.  It does not deal with the entire scope of the problem before the organization, so the workers  do not become concerned for what is ahead. The actions taken, though, must be "substantive and intense" according to the researchers.
 
So now if you have a culture where defined processes are being subverted by workers who are avoiding problems rather than working to solve them, you know how to get traction. In case you're wondering, this "quick hits" tactic should be very useful other times when you are trying to effect culture change.