By How do you implement culture change?
When you hear a leader say…..we are changing the culture from X to Y…does this work? Does this transform organizations? How about taking a different approach to change management? I reviewed an article by McKinsey which brought up excellent ideas for change management. (http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/build_a_change_platform_not_a_change_program)
First, it’s about empowerment. Encourage employees to tackle specific organizational challenges. These can be within and beyond their pay grade. Give them the rope to look at organizational challenges from different angles. Don’t put them into a box and assume they would not have the insight to tackle organizational challenges. How many organizations believe that culture change is top down versus top down and bottom up?
Second…generate ideas. Generate ideas throughout your organization. Don’t focus on one solution early on. Enable and empower solution generation throughout all levels of the organization. Take a few of the ideas; pilot them with a small group of employees. Evaluate, modify and re-experiment. Pilot a group of the ideas throughout the organization.
Third, encourage employees to take responsibility for implementing changes that are towards the new mission and culture. Give them the tools they need to implement changes within their individual organizations. Encourage them to share results throughout the organization.
It’s about building culture change ambassadors throughout the organization by empowering employees and experimenting with ideas.
Arena Consulting 