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Series edition 3/6
Top down culture change is hard and often ineffective. This means to create lasting change in an organisation we need to find a different way of engaging our workforce and create excitement. Our Strategy& colleagues have identified how a sharp focus on the critical few behaviours reduces complexity and creates positive, informal and lasting cultural impact.
The number-one priority is finding and prioritising behaviours that make the most positive impact on performance. A Strategy& publication, Getting to the Critical Few Behaviors That Can Drive Cultural Change, makes the observation that these behaviours, sometimes called keystone behaviours, are patterns of acting that are tangible, repeatable, observable, and measurable, and contribute to achieving an organisation’s strategic and operational objectives. The behaviours are critical because they have a significant impact on business performance when exhibited by large numbers of people; they are few because people can really only remember and change three-to-five key behaviours at one time.
As business leaders we then need to challenge ourselves to truly understand the critical few behaviours we need to cultivate in the organisations we lead. What are the actions we believe our staff should be taking which will lead to growth and higher impact. This takes time to understand and we cannot simply want the outcome of higher sales of product X or higher retention of staff or clients. We have to understand the actions that will lead to the results we desire.
As I have discussed in previous articles, we must move to measuring Return On Experience and the customer value that is being created. As we digitise organisations we migrate from measuring pure cost/efficiency to focusing on speed and adaptability. What we, at PwC, have seen as we help our clients on large Customer Experience and Digital Transformation projects is that this requires a significant culture change. What we also know is that it’s easier to act your way into new mindsets than to think your way into new behaviors (culture evolution vs. change management) and this is how we recommend our clients approach this.
Find the critical few behaviors that will allow you to compete in a fast paced, always changing and uncertain world that is being disrupted by digital and technology advancement and then act your way into the future. Change by doing to reinforce new behaviors, drive speed and multidisciplinary teaming to succeed in this uncertain business world.
I believe that some of the behaviours that may not be inherent in some organisations today, but that are vital, include:
- Curiosity. Organisations need their people to be curious about the future, how disruption, technology and market factors will affect them and how they can work more effectively and efficiently in the future. They need to be comfortable to work in the unknown and ask lots of questions.
- Collaboration. People need to work within teams and also work with new teams and skills all the time. Effective teaming to work well with others and encourage ideas from a wide variety of diverse people is vital.
We should focus on identifying the critical few behaviors or actions that lead to a successful result and seek to understand the right way to nurture and grow the behaviors, like using influencers to enrol others and drive initiatives that reinforce the behaviours within the organisation.
Use the Return on Experience framework to build metrics throughout the journey, both of engagement and to measure impact and encourage story-telling to amplify the message, communicate the good news and spread the new behaviours throughout the organisation.
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