Make Your Company’s Culture Go
Viral
“It’s so exciting that
we’ve identified the critical few behaviors that are going to move the needle
on our organization’s performance. But — now what?!” asks pretty much every one
of my clients, ever.
One of the fundamental
tenets of evolving organizational culture
at the Katzenbach Center — the global
institute for organizational culture and leadership with Strategy&, PwC’s
strategy consulting business — is to focus on those “critical few” behaviors, or patterns of acting that are tangible,
observable, repeatable, and measurable, and will help an organization to
achieve its strategic and operational objectives. In an earlier article, I described how to identify and select the critical few behaviors
in your organization that will drive change and evolve culture. Here we answer
the inevitable next question: “Now what?”
The consultants at the Katzenbach Center have heard many
variations of this question. In fact, we usually ready a preliminary set of
ideas that will work for a client organization so that we can quickly get back
to productive planning and action. But being able to fully answer the “Now
what?” question requires an understanding of how behavior is spread.
How Behavior Spreads
In 2010, when social media
networks started to quickly gain popularity, MIT sociologist Damon Centola was conducting experiments on how online networks affected behavior. The
results consistently showed that people in “tightly clustered” networked
communities were significantly more likely to participate in a designated
behavior — in this case, signing up for a health forum — than those in more
random or distantly connected networks.
Despite the exponential rate of innovation in the technology and
algorithms governing social media, this set of experiments from eight years ago
is still widely respected. It also perfectly illustrates one of the Katzenbach
Center’s key principles of organizational culture: Use cross-organizational
methods to make the culture go viral, because people tend to do what they see
their peers doing successfully.
Think for a moment about popular online social “challenges” —
whether they exist to raise awareness or funds for a cause (such as the ALS Ice
Bucket Challenge in 2014 or the “I’m donating my birthday to [a cause]” trend
in 2017), or even for no discernible reason at all (such as the Mannequin
Challenge in 2016 or the Harlem Shake craze in 2013). The first few times you
saw these, you probably shook your head and moved on. But you kept seeing them.
And then you saw your own friends participating. And then maybe you ultimately
broke down and did one yourself.
Applying These Lessons in Organizations
The phenomenon also exists
in organizations. For example, at Pfizer Ltd. (UK), the director of sales identified and enlisted a group of about 60 “behavior
champions” to
help the organization break out of its traditional top-down communications
approach. The behavior champions worked together to define what the company
philosophy “business results come first” actually meant when applied to
workplace behaviors. They then engaged their colleagues in discussions about
these behaviors, and spread success stories throughout the organization.
Eighteen months after the pilot began, the behavior-champions network had
doubled and was working throughout the company to define, spread, and celebrate
behaviors related to other management priorities.
When faced with a challenge like spreading their critical few
behaviors, most organizations will default to familiar ways of trying to
encourage change — using a top-down communication cascade to deliver
information. They may hang HR-produced posters where employees congregate, or
send company-wide emails to introduce an initiative. But these methods are
rarely sufficient in driving real behavior change. Let’s remember the online
behavior-spreading lessons, and look to some of the more viral,
cross-organizational methods exemplified in those social challenges.
To create a truly viral
cultural movement in an organization, it is critical to choose the mechanisms
that will be most effective for your situation. The most apt mechanisms will
vary according to several factors, including the particular organization, its
current cultural strengths and challenges, its strategy, the objectives of its
culture evolution or business transformation, and the critical few behaviors it
selects. For example, storytelling may be compelling in a relationship-based
organization, but not in a firm that is heavily data-reliant. An online “idea
jam” may be relevant to drive behaviors related to innovation, but not to people
development. It’s important to figure out what works in yourorganization.
There are, however, a few formal and informal mechanisms that will
work in almost every situation:
Authentic
informal leaders (AILs).
There are
certain people in your organization who can influence
their peers or teams, not because they’ve been endowed with formal
authority, but rather, because they exhibit informal leadership strengths (such
as being an exemplar, networker, early adopter, or pride-builder). Engaging
your company’s AILs almost always works as a good mechanism to spread the
critical few behaviors because — just as with online behaviors — people tend to
do what they see respected peers doing successfully.
The AILs themselves can be mobilized to embody the
behaviors and to motivate their peers and teams to adopt them. If you’ve
selected the network of AILs carefully, they can also offer invaluable insight
into what mechanisms and actions will work best in your organization to spread
the behaviors.
For example, at a national oil and gas company, one of the
critical few behaviors is to outwardly recognize and reinforce desired
behaviors and outcomes. The company’s AILs started purposefully commenting
within their own teams when they observed people performing the other critical
behaviors (for this company, they were related to collaboration,
accountability, and doing what you say you will). Very quickly, the AILs’ team members
began to do the same in their interactions with stakeholders outside their
teams. Within only a few months, the habit of recognizing that others were
trying to live the behaviors and succeeding had spread rapidly to other teams,
stakeholders in other business units, and even external partners.
Leader signaling behaviors.
These are highly visible
actions that leaders take to demonstrate commitment and support the adoption of
behaviors. Leader signaling behaviors are usually effective in spreading the
critical few behaviors because, in an environment of constant change, where new
ideas can sometimes feel like the “trend of the week,” people look to their
leaders for cues about how important any particular initiative actually is.
When your organization’s leaders are able to demonstrate in powerful and visual
ways that the critical few behaviors matter, it can be a rapid accelerator for
adoption.
Effective leader signaling behavior has a few distinct
characteristics: It directly reinforces one of the critical few behaviors, it’s
immediately observable by large groups of people in the organization, and it
clearly illustrates that “this is different from the way things have always
been.”
For example, to encourage more external awareness at a global
technology company where employees were internally focused, the CEO made it a
practice to ask everyone with whom she interacted at work about the number one,
two, and three market leaders in their product service group. Her leader
signaling behavior was related to a critical few behavior about
competitiveness, it was easily observed, and it was an unusual and powerful
motivator for people to quickly get smart about their markets and external competitors.
Formal systems alignment.
This ensures that the
formal aspects of the organization — such as performance management, awards,
and compensation — are aligned with the critical few behaviors to provide a
coherent experience for everyone. Few things can stop the adoption of a
behavior in its tracks as fast as a policy or system that rewards the opposite.
Formal systems alignment is usually difficult for organizations
because it can mean completely revising long-standing policies and procedures.
But it can be critical for success, and it requires both a truly objective
examination of what really drives behavior in your organization and a sincere
willingness to adjust all systems that drive the wrong behavior.
One of the critical few behaviors at a healthcare payor centered
on cross-organizational collaboration, yet leaders’ bonuses were tied to
achieving individual targets. Until the company realigned the bonus structure
to reflect the critical few behaviors, it found it very difficult to spread
collaborative behaviors — no matter how important it was for the organization’s
success, few people were willing to jeopardize their personal compensation for
a behavior that went against the grain.
Moving Forward
Now that you are able to
choose the most effective formal and informal mechanisms for your particular
situation, it’s time to finish the plan and start executing it. First, add the
“necessary but not sufficient” mechanisms. These include things such as emails,
trainings, newsletters, and intranet portals — all are needed, but none will
really drive sustained behavior change on their own. Next, determine how you’ll
measure progress and success. Choose a few key metrics that will clearly
indicate whether people are adopting the critical few behaviors and help
assess the behaviors’ impact on strategic and operational goals. Then, lay out
the tactical plan for maintaining a consistent drumbeat of formal and informal
engagement that will drive the critical few behaviors. Finally, start
executing, making sure you take the time to learn and adjust as you go.
Applying lessons from online social “challenges” can accelerate
your organization’s ability to adopt and spread behaviors. By carefully
choosing and implementing the mechanisms that will spread your critical few
behaviors, you can generate the enthusiasm and movement you’ll need to drive
sustained behavior change.
Kristy Hull
https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Make-Your-Companys-Culture-Go-Viral?gko=4f7e7&utm_source=itw&utm_medium=20180724&utm_campaign=resp
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