We invite you to take 3 minutes to reflect on your team's and your development and read this month's Leading Thought from Dr. Gee.
Creating and Sustaining Culture Change
By: Sheryl Gee, Psy.D.Think of one thing you would like to see more of in your world—whether that’s your home, workplace, community, and/or country.
What would happen if, rather than sitting back and waiting for that change, you acted on the famous words of Mahatma Gandhi, “You must be the change you wish to see.”
Culture consists of all those things that people have learned to do, believe, value, and endure in their history.1 Culture becomes the sum of what is being modeled, supported, and rewarded. To initiate, implement, and sustain a culture shift within any world—including your organization—it is imperative that you model, support, and reward the change you wish to see.
Walk the Talk: Modeling Change
Examine the culture around you. Seek and consider input from others about what an improved workplace would look like. Envision the improved future organization. As Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “A genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus, but a molder of consensus.” Thus, encourage others to share your vision by communicating your vision in compelling ways that inform others about why they should care. Explain what is in it for them and others they care about.
Determine what is important to say, and what is important to demonstrate through actions and say and do it! Inspire others to join you in modeling the way: talking and walking the desired change.
Teach, Fund, and Provide Resources: Supporting Change
As the saying goes, “Put your money where your mouth is.” Just as it is important to say and do that which you desire to become a greater part of the culture, it is also important to support desired changes with sufficient investment of energy, time, and resources. Employees or others may need tools, training, practice and/or coaching to develop the competence, confidence, and motivation needed to perform required tasks. Goals and performance evaluations may need to be updated to include clearly delineated and aligned expectations of desired changes.
Coupling modeling with sufficient alignment of performance goals and investment of energy, time, and resources will create excellent momentum for bringing your desired culture shift to fruition.
Acknowledge and Give Benefit: Rewarding Change
People are intentional beings. They do what they do to receive what they want. This aspect of who people are is referred to as our psyche. When psyches come together, they create intentional worlds (cultures). Psyches impact culture and culture impacts psyches; the two are interdependent.2
If you model and make the necessary investments to support desired changes, but others cannot see how they will benefit from the changes you are advocating for, it is not likely that the critical mass necessary to bring about a culture shift will join in on performing the desired behaviors. Thus, creating positive value and benefit for desired behaviors by expressing appreciation, acknowledging and/or in other ways rewarding desired behaviors is essential to solidifying a culture shift. Find out what would be perceived as a benefit to those you want to inspire and enroll in your culture change effort. Use that information to develop and implement a plan to reward behaviors that reflect your desired norms, values, and actions.
In a Nutshell
If you want to initiate and sustain new norms, values, and/or behaviors in a culture—model, support, and reward the change you wish to see.
2. Refer to Thinking Through Cultures: Expeditions in cultural psychology by Richard A. Shweder, published by Harvard University Press in 1996.
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