Cultural transformation often fails when we treat it as a project – with launch, milestones and strict timelines. Corporate culture follows its own rules, seizes opportunities and develops organically. Guiding it along its way requires timing, patience and finely tuned sensors.
It’s Thursday, 4.30 p.m., in a large conference hall. The entire management team has come together to completely overhaul the company’s corporate culture, just like that. A three-phase model is presented at the kickoff. And of course there have to be some playful elements too. After all, it is about culture! But what is often ignored is that one stakeholder is hardly interested at all, and that’s corporate culture itself.
And if it’s unwilling?
Corporate culture is a living organism that has developed independently over several years. It’s like an ancient jungle with its own beaten paths, tangled structures and unspoken rules. New ideas quickly run into old protests like “But this is how we’ve always done things!”, closely followed by “That’s not going to be possible!” Designing cultural change requires an understanding of how the organism works and when it allows change to happen. It’s about moving away from the idea of a green field and drilling a bit deeper.
Corporate culture speaks – quietly
The classical approach would be to use heavy analysis tools, carry out lengthy evaluation interviews or create extensive focus groups. But it’s also possible to simply let corporate culture speak quietly for itself for a few weeks. Wasn’t it just typical that the sales department didn’t want to work with the communications team anymore because there were issues between them in the past? Is Mr. Müller’s negative criticism simply nitpicking or did the restructuring process two years ago leave wounds that were too deep?
Cultural change must be well timed
Taking the time to observe like this makes it clear why Project Cultural Transformation with its strict schedule is doomed to failure: Culture responds to opportunities, not milestones. A positive example of this is the Covid lockdown, which in many companies enabled employees to work remotely for the first time. No project would have achieved this so quickly. Such occurrences create natural bridges to new ways of behaving that can become permanent fixtures – for better or for worse
Just do it
As a developer of corporate culture, do you have to wait for the next pandemic? The answer is no, you don’t. And there’s more good news: Perhaps something has already happened that you can build on. For example, highlighting an AI team that went ahead and developed guidelines for the whole company without being asked would be the perfect way to show desired behaviour like taking initiative. And a dialogue format that promotes open discussion — without the pressure of immediately delivering results or measures can really pay off in the future.
Using events to benefit corporate culture
Of course the process has to be steered to a certain extent. Initial results will emerge only with patience and time. It is crucial not to attempt to create cultural change separately from the company’s reality. Those who identify and use the small and large opportunities will create the best prerequisites for sustainable organisational development.
Eva Hinz, Associate Director
H/Advisors Deekeling Arndt