¿Cuáles son los errores comunes que pueden acabar con el impulso del cambio cultural?

In my experience, when leaders lead heartfully and empathetically, their teams achieve so much more. Forming heartful communications is the key to business success. And the lack of this, is the biggest killer of corporate culture.

In my experience a few of the most common mistakes that can kill culture momentum are: 1)Failure to communicate with stakeholders- the organizational leaders are changing or restructuring and fail to communicate timely. 2)Lack of transparency- you’re not creating an us vs. them culture! 3 Failure to create a sense of belonging with new hires or after an acquisition 4)Lack of communication with your managers- associates want to feel like they are inclusive and belong at an organization. Onboarding and managers set the expectations. 5) Disengaged associates & leaders- this is a big part of building culture.

Communication is the change wheel that is most frequently under estimated for its criticality in transforming a culture or successfully driving a change initiative. In my experience, many senior leaders tend to under communicate key messages or follow up with updates to involve the organization and reinforce the importance of initiatives. Lack of communication can cause speculation and/or send a mixed message about what the organization is trying to achieve.

As per me the biggest mistake is when Diversity and Inclusion is not followed in spirit. When we only do it as a tick mark activity.

Communication is a two-way street - you're not here to tell, you're here to invite an open dialogue with your employees and colleagues. This helps you to understand what they actually want to know so you can adjust what you communicate and co-create a better culture change plan that they feel part of and hence, more investment in making it happen. You might think you know what they want, but until you engage in real communication with them, it's all assumptions. Plus, it'll make your life easier too. Rather than feeling it's all on you to create and execute the change, you now have a team around you who are equally as invested in you in making it happen. It's a win-win-win for all!

A common mistake is not aligning incentives with the new desired behaviours. If rewards, recognition, and other incentives are not encouraging the new behaviours, you risk people maintaining the status quo!

Throwing too many actions, activities, and "busyness" at the problem without consideration and intention will impact your culture change absorption. I've found that we so often jump to action because we place so much importance on it but we miss the steps of thoughtful reflection and intention. Then you wonder why your team has change fatigue, or are demotivated because you creating so much activity around it. Sometimes, slowing down in order to speed up has a better outcome because the intentional change has time to embed.

Re-define what “good” looks like. Goals should include quantitative (what we do) AND qualitative (how we interact) measures. There are 4 domains to measure: A) Delivery (how much of what, by when, at what quality) B) Innovation and Growth (efficiency, continuous improvement, personal development, brand building etc) C) Relationships (360 degree feedback from customers, colleagues, team members, managers) D) Culture & Values / Corporate Citizenship (feedback on living company values & guiding principles). HR Tech like Teamphoria & Hi5 are fantastic tools to enable this shift. L&D and coaching efforts can be personalized, depending on results of 360 degree feedback. This means that everyone is constantly improving in all 4 domains.

A big challenge in the alignment stage of culture change is executive self-leadership. Ideally, leaders show fidelity to the strategy, values, and desired behaviors. When this happens, it helps to get the early adopter flywheel turning. People observe changes in their leaders and begin to trust the desired future state. Leaders who practice self-leadership play a critical role as early adopters. As the number of early adopters expand, this group begins to ignite the early majority. As the early majority expands, the culture change reaches a tipping point. At this stage, there are more driving forces than restraining forces. The change at this stage is now the norm. Changes have stuck, but still need continued reinforcement from leaders.

I am always disturbed by this notion of "alignment". It feels like we are taking a ruler to force everything to be perfectly on the same line... But more important here... if you are doing it this way, aligning to your culture, you are doing things upside down... Your business strategy is the start. Simple. Any changes initiative that does not support your business strategy has no place... in your strategy. Common sense. And the three easy questions to start with becomes - "What is our business strategy?" "What culture do we need to support this strategy?" "Do we have it or not?" and to this last question, two answers, two actions. Yes, strengthen it. No, get moving quick! Companies have died for running on obsolete culture.

Don't wait too long: the earlier you involve others the more buy-in you'll have. If you first craft your plan and then involve others there'll be resistance already. The best way to execute culture change is by involving as many people as possible from the start.

As my Grand-Mother used to say, it doesn't matter how thin you pour your pancake, there's always 2 sides. Involving people in culture change can be just as damaging as not involving them, its a question of information overload or killing via overcommunicating. Today, a New York Times weekly edition contains more information than the average person consumed within a lifetime in the 17th Century. In 2012 we were consuming 3 times as much information as we were in 1960. Today, we find ourselves giving people information they don't really need. Lack of involvement is not an outcome of culture killing, it can be the avalanch of involvement that is. BE SIMPLE in our comms. Find the core of the message we want to share

I would make this a lot stronger. Having the assignment from top management is often crucial - unless the culture change is more like a revolution. But having said that, the very next step is to work with the people who will (or won't) adopt new norms. I call this a "top-supported bottom-up process." I don't say "involve" the front-line employees because it is much more than that. Such people must find their own motivations (which are usually plentiful, and strong) to really commit themselves to designing, testing, then leading the creation of the changes to their culture. In that process the goals of top management often need to be modified - Usually for the better.

Getting people involved in culture change needs some basic change of thinking direction if we want to succeed. Why do we contantly gather around the flagpole of "feedback"? Don't get me wrong, feedback is a great place to start, but just think fo a second, feed-back is reflecting everything on the "past"...... My secret recipe of success has been to build positive culture change involvement based upon communities of practice based on 360 degrees "FEEDFORWARDS" thinling from the future state and working it back to the present..... We each play 2 roles: 1. feedforward providers 2. feedforward recipients

The only way to know if you're progressing and show others about success is through measurement. Every objective should have its own metrics which should be reviewed often with the appropriate stakeholders to ensure progress.

Wanting to measure everything in numbers. Stop it. You don't need an engagement survey to tell you people 'feel more at ease' after a reorganisation, for example. Use the best data-collection tool we have for assessing how other humans feel: ourselves. Talk to people. Look around. Lean in to qualitative data in addition to the quant.

WHAT ARE WE MEASURING? - Tell me how you will measure me, and I will tell you how I will behave!!! Transformation teams moving toward Agile tend to: - force old metrics on new ways of thinking/working; - misuse new metrics to fit old ways of thinking; - use the common Agile metrics out of context: BAD METRICS = BAD DATA = BAD DECISIONS I recommend: - rethink what success really looks like within your new way of thinking; - be open to letting go of traditional or common measures - align every metric to the 12 principles of Agile

Companies can become very entrenched in what originally made them successful. Adapting and changing habits and behaviours associated with a culture is incredibly difficult, especially when they are habits and behaviours that have previously driven success. The process of letting go and adapting, especially for a company that is going through growth or a pivot, requires a deep level of trust and commitment to make that shift. To another point in this list, it requires a high level of alignment and understanding of ‘why’ this needs to happen.

'Look a distraction' - adaptation in culture change doesn't see new topics, trends or themes as a pivot but instead focusses on incorporating them into your plan. Flexibility to incorporate new ideas and new themes is vital to culture change. It doesn't happen overnight, so you need to be able to engage with change that is external to your company too whilst change is happening internally.

In my experience, assuming that anyone will be comfortable with change - they might say they are, they might want to be but essentially change feels uncertain and our brains can interpret that as a threat and individuals, teams and organisations can have a fight or flight response. Understand this and help people to feel more comfortable with uncomfortable.

The myth that culture change takes years. A company's culture changes continuously. Some changes happen immediately (e.g. you get a new Manager with a very different style), and some can take years (e.g. deeply engrained habits that people are still incentivised to keep). Culture never stops changing!

Culture is often misunderstood as simply about socializing, but it's the foundation of how we work together. While team-building events and office perks are valuable, they're just the tip of the iceberg. To shape a positive and productive culture, we must focus on the core elements driving collaboration, productivity, and wellbeing. Key strategies for change: 🌟 Invest in leaders 🌐 Asynchronous work 🤝 Intentional connections ⚙️ Frictionless collaboration 🍎 Prioritize wellbeing 📏 Measure progress Culture isn't just a buzzword; it's the DNA of our organizations. Investing in these core elements can create a workplace where employees feel valued, motivated, and empowered. It's a place where everyone thrives and feels like they belong.

Culture is the personality of an organization. It’s created by managers & supervisors - their preferences, behaviours & actions. There are only really 4 main culture archetypes. Most company values speak to being driven by ‘people’ or ‘pioneering’, yet the personality profiles of managers, as well as org design, communication & decision making, is more aligned with ‘profits’ and ‘process’. Expecting an introverted, data driven manager to create and enable a culture of innovation and agility? Or want a type A exec who has difficulty delegating, to listen to their team and coach instead of command? It’s not in their nature! So we have to hyper-personalize leadership development & coaching, based on personality profiles of managers.

A culture change, when you want it to be persistent and robust, is something which emerges. For this you need a strong drive from the top and a huge momentum from the bottom (assuming a hierarchical structure here). And there in the middle, the culture change will emerge, based on values and more important on demonstrated behaviors. Values are nice. However they can become just words on paper. Demonstrated behaviors are truly the reflection of your culture.