When you think of the need for change and achieving the needed change, what goes on in your mind? Before you answer, remember if the change is easy to reach, shouldn’t our society, business, or team have done better? Every transformation project is always colored with setbacks, resistance, and failures. If you think it is easy to implement change, think of the COVID 19 measures, including the ongoing vaccinations in some countries. Although there are over 102mllion confirmed cases with over a 2.2million death, it has been challenging to get people to embrace a safety culture. I had a recent encounter with the CEO of one of our clients, a large Fintech company. After the extensive discussion, I immediately felt his pain. He was extremely frustrated. All change initiatives at his company seem to have met with a brick wall. All initiatives appear to be right on paper only. At the end of the discussion, he asked that we should develop a human-centric solution to achieve culture transformation that will put his organization on a path of exceptional performance.
This experience is common in all human enterprises. How often are you frustrated knowing that certain things are not right in your organization, and yet it appears daunting and insurmountable, while the solution seems far away from sight?
The encounter with this CEO buttresses the fact that changing an organization’s culture is one of the most challenging tasks that leaders face. If your culture change project is not working, then you must have been doing it wrongly. The need for cultural transformation is now more pronounced given the nature of disruptions caused by COVID-19. Do you think the pre-covid 19 culture can take you through the current COVID world experience?
The advent of COVID-19 ushered in new behavior and engagement. Transforming our beliefs, practices, and attitudes becomes a must-do. While the McKinsey report shows that 70 percent of change programs fail to achieve set goals because of employee resistance and lack of support from management, the report shows that when people genuinely invest in change, there is a 30 percent likelihood that it will stick.
Transforming organizational culture is problematic because it is intertwined with different factors such as, vision, system, process, belief, style, values, and practices. To convert an organization’s culture, a leader must first understand that the culture transformation is about people. To succeed, the user of the proposed culture change must be at the center of the solution.
Design Thinking for Culture Change
Design thinking empowers people to embrace divergent thinking, the success of an organizational change initiative using design thinking must be such that it encourages people to think differently.
Culture is not about one person, and it is a shared set of behavior, values, and practices; leaders will be making a mistake if the burden of a sound culture is unevenly placed.
Culture must permeate all organization levels if it is to be sustainable.
Transforming organizational culture is a marathon and not a print. Many leaders are in a hurry to transform how things are done in their organization; they fall victim to silo solutions using some of the management tools of Total Quality Management, JIT, Six-sigma, Agile, Scrum, Knowledge management, However, at the same time, it may appear to work for a singular purpose, and over a short period, the reality is that employees quickly return to the status quo. They are thus making the initiative to turn out to be efforts, resources, and frustrates management.
Why does the transformation project fail? In my discussion with this CEO, I mentioned that most of this efforts fail because the attempt to transform an organization’s culture is usually met with resistance. After all, the individuals involved naturally associate change with a loss, with a requirement to compel them to give up something in exchange for something less valuable. Culture transformation is a fuzzy problem, and except users are placed at the center, the likelihood of success is remote. The traditional approach to culture transformation is laden with voice or a disposition that convey coercion, threat, discipline and emphasis on organization’s interest with only lip service paid to employees value.
Design Thinking for Culture Transformation
Design Thinking is a human-centric methodology which can be used for culture transformation. Yes, in the affirmative, to incorporate design thinking in transforming organizational culture, there is a need for the identification and itemization of the organization’s existing culture. Some of the cultural practices that should be the subject of focus revolve around shared patterns in practices, structures, and systems. What are the view of the management on divergent thinking, the culture of experimentation, and iteration? Answers to the question will reveal the lack of alignment with core principles of design thinking: empathizing with users, defining and reframing problems, ideation, prototyping, and iteration. Culture transformation effort using design thinking will fail if the organization’s values are at variance with that of Design Thinking.
When appropriately applied, Design Thinking will not only help to transform organizational culture but also help to foster a culture of creativity and innovation. At the same time, improve employee engagement.
The following points are essential factors to be considered in using Design Thinking to transform organizational culture.
Make it human-centric: an effort towards change should begin by making it human-centric. The initiator of the difference should only assume the position of an enabler for the facilitator; the employees should do the real work of vision alignment and achieve the objective of the transformation project. It is only through this that their buying is secured. When they lead the process, the level of acceptability and success becomes much higher.
Vision casting and Storytelling:
Organizations thrive on the platform of a shared vision. Storytelling is an effective way to communicate the vision, break down the emotional barrier, facilitate new ways of thinking, and give a deep insight into the lives of the people who might be impacted by the new initiatives while improving the proposed retention rate. To take people from known to the unknown, Storytelling is embraced to make the experience sweet, unambiguous, and inspiring. If you intend to change the way your organization behaves, adopt a tale by the moonlight approach. Are there any kids who don’t like tales by the moonlight?
Adopt marathoner Mentality:
Culture change takes time, and it is also not a linear process; leaders must develop a robust mental capability to see successful implantation. A marathoner mentality must change the system, remove barriers, draw a clear roadmap and transform the belief system. What do marathoners have in common? Endurance, stamina and perseverance. Adopting a marathoner mentality for culture transformation means you will not abandon the project halfway, that you will think long term.
Conclusion
Culture transformation is a tough call; it will fail if the boss feels that culture is forced down people’s throats. A shared vision and understanding are required to transform the mind.
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Olukunle A. Iyanda PhD, FCA, SNFLI.
Founder/CEO, BROOT Consulting Nigeria Limited.
Human-Centric Design Led Innovation Consultant.
