…you:
- Are continually frustrated with missing the mark.
- Know you are not accomplishing what you know you can accomplish.
- Repeatedly make the same avoidable mistakes.
- Need to implement a program so as to gain new business.
- Have high employee turonover.
- Have low employee morale.
These are all indicators that something isn’t working. Often, companies will attempt to address these problems by bringing in new people – this could be new leadership, new teams, consultants, etc. But this approach doesn’t solve the root cause of the issue. In fact, it usually exacerbates the problem. I had a colleague who changed jobs and was fired within three weeks because he came into a situation where he was firefighting all the time – and the management of the company didn’t understand that the company needed a shift. It was too much for one person to “fix” within three weeks.
Your company has unlimited potential to meet customer need. You have a host of talented individuals who, if they were all pulling for the same goal, could change the world. You have a product or a service that has the power to literally change the lives of your customers.
We’ll define culture as a set of behaviors and beliefs held by a group of people. An example of culture displayed this way would be a food manufacturer certified in making a safe product: this group believes its work impacts people and so adheres to all the GMPs (Good Manufacturing Principles) like handwashing, changing smocks when necessary, and appropriate material handling that keep the product from contamination.
The reality is that culture shift is happening in business all the time. Depending on external impetus, internal impetus, leadership, new employees, anything can cause a slight shift in culture. This is often how startups have a close-knit “family” when they begin but as the company grows and things happen, they look up one day and don’t recognize the company they work for. The complaint is often, “We used to be really close. We were all friends and it was fun. But now it’s just really stressful and I don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
The key is to have your finger on the pulse of your culture as the change is happening. As a savvy business owner or leader, you will benefit from seeing these slight shifts as they happen, and that is what will allow you to capitalize on them and direct them so that they benefit the company. The payout? When you have withstood multiple obstacles, unforeseen growth, and difficult scenarios and people in your organization still feel that they work for the company they started working for years ago.
For an example of a harnessed culture shift, we’ll return to our food manufacturer. In order to become certified, this company had to adopt a series of rigorous standards that weren’t present when the company first started. To do this, they had to learn and then implement the standards throughout the production staff. How did they get the staff to believe that the inconvenience of washing their hands every time they came onto the floor or threw away a piece of trash found on the floor was worth it? They changed the beliefs of the group and thus changed the behaviors. The groups believes that failing to wash one’s hands will yield contamination in the product that could cause harm to a customer. This shift in belief – culture – is critical to the manufacturer becoming certified so that it can service a bigger customer base. Without this shift, the company cannot be a reliable supplier and will thus lose business.
Another example is a solopreneur who knows she wants to scale her business in the next year. But her current modus operandi for managing contractors and clients leaves her overworked and burnt out. She needs to shift the culture of her organization so that her contractors don’t need micromanagement and her clients can be held responsible through effective process rather than her presence.
These examples may seem overly simplistic, but what I want to highlight is that culture shift is something we can use for our benefit. It’s something to use to our advantage rather than fear. In addition, while it may require diligent effort, it will always result in strengthening the company and improving the engagement of the people who work therein.
Activity: Consider your business culture. Where have you seen a program implemented successfully that resulted in a shift of a team’s beliefs and behaviors? Where have you seen the opposite? What could have been done differently to harness the culture so it would have been successful?