fasttime® cardinal rule - align culture with strategy

1

FastTime® Cardinal Rule #3 | © 2000-2016 Leland Russell

Align Culture with StrategyFastTime Cardinal Rule®

2


Culture & Strategy – Why Change Our Culture?

74 of 75 highly regarded industry analysts reported that culture is a critical success factor in long-term performance. Studies in over 100 organizations found that performance improvement depended upon culture change.

What is an organizational “culture”? Mental norms (mindsets, values and assumptions)

about how to behave and how to run our organization.

Why should we change our culture? Some aspects of our current culture undermine our

ability to improve performance and achieve our mission.

A culture aligned with strategy is a leading indicator that there will be sustainable performance improvement.

3


Culture change always begins at the top. Without real adjustments in the way a critical mass

thinks, feels and behaves, culture change will not occur. The real adjustments must begin with the top leaders

because people tend to follow the leadership example.

Culture & Strategy – Where does change begin?

Starting culture change definitely requires strong leadership to get the change going and into high gear. Sustaining culture change requires sharply focused, sustained efforts to embed new behaviors into a critical mass.

How do you know when the culture has changed? Culture change is achieved when the desired behavior

patterns are stable without strong leaders personally pushing them.

4


A high-performance culture is ‘change adaptive’. Two Harvard Business School professors, John Kotter

and James Heskett, studied the impact of culture on performance in more than 200 organizations.

Kotter/Heskett found that cultures that see long-term performance improvement are ‘change adaptive’.

Culture & Strategy – The Change Adaptive Culture

Characteristics of a ‘change adaptive’ culture: Proactive versus defensive Encourages risk-taking versus being risk adverse Allows creativity rather than being overly

bureaucratic Has high level of trust, rather than high level of

control

5


Culture & Strategy – Why is High Trust important? TR

UST

High

Low

Behavior

Cautious

Conscious Sabotage

CompliantPassive-Aggressive

High-Velocity Results

Creativity

Aligned ExecutionCollaboration

6


Working it through Are people struggling with the realities of cultural change? Are they looking for ways to

implement the culture change?

People have adopted new personal motivations and are

doing the difficult, intense work of accepting and internalizing

the change at a personal level.

Making It StickAre people developing and

sharing best practices? Are they looking for ways to sustain the

change for the long-term?

The organization has baked the changes into operational and

management practices and the organization’s behavioral norms

have visibly changed.

Change Stage Key Questions Success Measures

Culture & Strategy – Culture Change STAGES

2

3

Coming to grips with the change

Are people truly uncomfortable with the status quo? Is there a visible sense of urgency about the need for culture change?

People have recognized the need for culture change and have a understanding of how

individuals as well as the organization must respond.

1

7


Change Planning

New Norms Embedded

Coming to

Grips with Change

1

Working It Through

2

Making It Stick

3

Change Decision

Culture & Strategy – Culture Change CYCLE

8


Build a network of Change Champions who are:• Results oriented • Creative and flexible • Generous with others

Show everyone what change means to them. • Use real examples to illustrate the cost of NOT changing• Emphasize immediate and future benefits of change

Involve everyone at all levels in creating the change.• Help everyone understand The Big Picture• Give everyone an opportunity to make a contribution

Define and continuously reinforce the new norms.

Culture & Strategy – Culture Change ‘HOW TOs’

4 Interpersonal Techniques

9


Mission + Values Reinforcement

Internal & External Action Learning

Personal Growth Plans / Coaching

Communications & Real-Time Feedback

Policy, Process, & Structure Changes

5 Organizational Tools

Culture & Strategy – Culture Change ‘HOW TOs’

fasttime® cardinal rule - align culture with strategy

Leadership & Management