The culture conquerors …
Everyone loves to talk digital transformation these days, but what you should be focused on is cultural transformation. So often, people are the killer to any successful change initiative. So before you start going agile or experience mapping your entire operation, you need to get a real handle on your current state of corporate culture. While digital transformation is neither linear nor easy, without starting with culture change, it simply doesn’t work.
- Be realistic
If you work for a long-standing organization, chances are the culture wasn’t built in a day, so you won’t change it in a day. Being a change agent takes time. You might be the catalyst for change but never actually get the opportunity to see it all the way through. This is particularly daunting when you are with an organization that has been fairly successful with its existing culture. Often times with these sorts of organizations you are not only fighting against the change, but you are also fighting against complacency.
- What’s in it for me
Critical to any change initiative is to get those who you need to influence to see what’s in it for them personally. Try getting a teller to agree to promote mobile banking if they believe that mobile banking is going to cost them their jobs, nearly impossible. However, get them to focus on the fact that studies show mobile customers are retained longer, are more profitable, and have higher rates of cross-sell thus earning them more money in the long term and you have the tellers sold.
- Allow others to influence the change
No man (or woman) is an island and there has never been a cultural change initiative that was successfully implemented by one person Like the TV show Survivor, forming alliances when promoting cultural change is critical. One of the easiest ways to get others to help you influence cultural change is to enlist their help in defining the change. Particularly in the corporate world too often people keep their ideas to themselves for fear of not receiving just credit. This is absolutely the wrong approach; even CEO’s who are change agents need the right alignments to generate change. The best leader’s, take pieces of recommendations from others that they then use to drive the change required to conquer culture.
- Evaluate your talent
This is a critical step in any change initiative. If you want to change culture, do you have the right people to not only lead the change but to sustain the model? This is a critical question for organizations to ask themselves. What is the talent like at all levels? Can we retrain our people or do we need to bring in external resources. If external how much and how fast? There is a delicate balance between strategic turnover of talent and all out talent mutiny.
People, not process, not investments, nor technology are the make or break variable in the cultural change equation. When you do the right thing and ensure realistic goals, involve others, showcase benefits and ensure the right talent mix you are off to a good start with cultural transformation.
Share your thoughts or push back if you disagree – lamont@digitalsince99.com , @digitalSince99