In order to transform your company culture into one that is challenging, rewarding and positive, you must look at: What does cultural transformation mean within the workplace?

Your company’s culture needs to be transformed on an ongoing basis based on the values and organization of your company. How will this be rewarded? By developing a culture that is values-driven and drives long-term success.

In order to change your company’s culture, you must reflect its values and beliefs in every policy, commitment, process, and behavior.

When your organization undergoes a successful cultural transformation, you will have employees who know what it represents, what defines it, and what makes it different from other organizations.

Cultural transformation has many benefits.

Taking a closer look at the importance of a company’s cultural transformation is vital to understanding its benefits.

When employees see that a successful cultural transformation will benefit people and the organization, they are more motivated to contribute their best. Providing employees with a comprehensive understanding of the benefits of cultural transformation is key to getting them to adopt the necessary changes.

Companies can benefit from cultural transformation in the following ways:

• Workplace culture plays a significant role in issues such as employee retention, productivity, and efficiency. A positive work culture is essential to achieving a culture transformation.
• Enhancing employee satisfaction: By changing the company’s culture, you can make your workplace more inclusive. Therefore, your employees will feel more connected to the success of the company and will view themselves as assets rather than liabilities.
• Enhancing productivity and efficiency at the company: Happy employees are productive employees. There is no doubt about it. A cultural transformation will motivate your staff and motivate them to work harder.

Long-term goals, teamwork, a shared vision, and employee happiness will be driving factors for a workplace’s culture. It develops from one fueled by competition, short-term thinking, and caution.

Organizational Culture: How To Transform It

Decide where to begin. For this to be accomplished, the leadership team of your organization needs to examine its performance and consider how its employees would feel if it were performing at its best.

Here are some questions that you might want your leadership team to answer:

• What behaviors would our company have to adopt in order to achieve the cultural transformation we desire?
• What new behaviors may emerge?
• Is there a way to eliminate certain behaviors?

You must identify and compare current behaviors with desired ones in order to envision the kind of culture you want your company and your employees to cultivate.

Create an effective strategy and action plan aligned with your business objectives

In the next step, you will develop a strategy that will reflect the culture you wish to have in your organization.

So, you should focus on improving a few major aspects and enhancing the strengths of your existing culture. It is imperative that you set realistic and achievable objectives after you determine what you wish to accomplish.

• Leadership: Organizations need individuals who can model new behaviors and norms, and can manage people effectively, in order to manage the various aspects of change.
• Structure and Processes: In order to promote cultural change, the accountability and authority must be aligned with the desired behavior and norms.
• Retaining the Right Staff: It is vital that the right people are hired in those roles to implement the changes necessary.
• Dependable and Competent Hires: During times of change within an organization, it is often necessary to develop new competency development strategies for employees and managers.
• Exceptional and Experienced Management: Employers can guide their employees towards “right” behavior through performance management, goal setting, regular appraisals, and coaching.
• Clear Communication at All Times: A systematic communication system tailored to the needs of employees in different departments will be helpful for promoting and sustaining behavior changes within an organization.

The key to success is tracking your progress. To assess the success of your cultural transformation, you must track your progress.

In order to see where the transformation is succeeding and where it needs improvement, you should rigorously measure each part of it as you would when you implement a new strategy or campaign.

Four elements should be measured as part of the transformation process:

• Team Members’ Behavior That Affects Performance: What behavior changes have team members exhibited while responding to the transformation? In the process of improving customer service standards and aligning them with the brand, do managers engage with team members involved in the transformation?
• Monitor performance: Which Key Performance Indicators did well in the first quarter? Have growth targets been met? Are there any reasons for missed targets?
• Establish realistic milestones and timelines: When you set realistic expectations during the strategy phase, the milestones will reflect your expectations. How far have you come in implementing your new policy on diversity hiring, for example? What steps have the stakeholders taken to enact the policy?
• Cultural attitudes: Have they improved? Are employee surveys indicating a change in culture?

You cannot evaluate the success of cultural transformation without assessing your efforts.

Change Takes Time

Changes to the trajectory of a company’s business can be made by other means, but only long-term change can be achieved through cultural transformation. Time is needed.

Over time, cultures change. Instead, develop a plan for getting that change implemented within a reasonable timeframe. It is imperative that everyone on your team plays a role in making your cultural shift successful, from your CEO to your newest employee.

It is also imperative that you track progress in order to know if it has been successful or if you need to rethink your strategy for securing cultural change.

John Mattone can help you and your organization identify the best program to successfully transition your workplace culture. Reach out to him today for more information.

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