Cultural transformation and behaviour change are notoriously challenging endeavours in the corporate world. Countless organisations struggle to achieve their culture transformation goals, as research consistently reveals. However, at the recent CultureScope Club Q3 Event, we delved deep into the heart of successful organisational culture transformations. Through a series of compelling case studies shared by fellow members, we explored diverse goals, measurement approaches, intervention strategies, challenges, and most importantly, the insights gained.
Case Study 1: Banking on Culture Transformation
A major UK-based bank embarked on an ambitious culture transformation journey. Their initial focus was on living up to the company’s values and enhancing risk management and consumer duty. Their approach leveraged CultureScope’s predictive analytics to uncover the behaviours aligned with the bank’s values and risk management objectives. They identified development areas to do with empowering teams and fostering collective innovation, which led to multiple company-wide actions and interventions.
The team articulated that they faced challenges with responding to the dynamic nature of culture, emphasizing the need for continuous measurement and agility. Shortly after implementing interventions around communication, prioritization, and leadership development, the bank experienced dramatic shifts in targeted behaviours as well as positive changes in 100% of the outcomes measured. The team emphasised that their culture transformation is still a work in progress at the bank but are pleased to see the significant progress made on their journey toward embedding their desired culture.
Case Study 2: A Journey of Values and Engagement
A Middle Eastern telecommunications company shared their culture transformation journey. Their objectives included evaluating their current values and their impact on company engagement and well-being outcomes. Their approach involved deploying CultureScope to identify the necessary behaviours to drive desired engagement outcomes. They implemented an extensive range of interventions, from new companywide artefacts, innovation portals, and leadership development initiatives to new communication channels. The team were relentless in ensuring that employee capability building, and organisational systems were strongly aligned with the target behaviours.
The team faced challenges around adapting to new leadership and ensuring openness to culture change. However, the culture transformation actions enabled a profound culture shift, with employees reporting strong alignment to the organisation’s values, and the key behaviours underpinning these values.
Case Study 3: Proactive Culture Shaping in a Diverse Environment
A prominent energy company took the stage to discuss a series of culture change initiatives that they have undertaken across various segments of their business. Their primary aim was to proactively drive the culture they needed rather than leaving it to chance. They emphasized the importance of diagnostics upfront. Their approach included (1) Mapping CultureScope dimensions against World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) Leadership Attributes, (2) Deploying CultureScope consistently across different business areas, (3) Identifying culture gaps and leading indicators of desired outcomes to inform interventions.
The outcome? They witnessed significant culture shifts and are now gearing up for remeasurement. Notably, they highlighted the challenge of dealing with “micro-cultures” within their large organisation and the need for tailored measurement strategies. Leader buy-in was crucial, and CultureScope helped them synthesize an abundance of data and focus on behaviour-driven outcomes. Metrics rooted in behavioural science proved invaluable for shaping leadership and organisational development strategies.
Key Takeaways and Closing Thoughts
The event was a testament to the power of sharing insights and experiences within the CultureScope Club community. Attendees learned lessons about the intricacies of culture transformation and the critical role of behavioural insights, evidence-based intervention planning, senior leader sponsorship and an agile approach to strategy and planning. The consensus was clear: culture is an ever-evolving work in progress that requires a holistic approach, top-down and bottom-up input, and a commitment to continuous improvement.
In the face of the challenges that come with cultural transformation, one thing became evident at the CultureScope Club Q3 Event: the effort put into strategically measuring and designing culture is not only worth it but essential for organisations looking to thrive in a constantly evolving business landscape.
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Our recent Q2 session on “Cultivating a Culture of Recognition” run by Lloyds Banking Group served as an excellent platform for clients from various organisations to collaborate, share insights and learn from each other’s journeys in getting recognition right.
Aligning Recognition with Culture
An organisation’s culture is the lifeline of its operations, and recognition can be a powerful tool to reinforce or supress certain behaviours that drive an organisation’s desired culture. We had the privilege of learning about the significant strides various organisations have made in this area. As discussed in the session, it’s imperative to align both formal rewards and informal recognition with an organisation’s cultural values. We heard about a variety of creative ways companies are doing this from sharing stories of “culture champions”, to framing peer to peer recognition nominations in the desired cultural values.
Building Purposeful Recognition Programmes
The essence of any good recognition programme lies in its purposefulness. Recognition should not be a one-size-fits-all process, but rather, a bespoke experience tailored to the individual. We learned that many organisations have the same challenges around ensuring recognition is meaningful and adequately tailored to the audience. It became clear that meaningful storytelling is a powerful driver of successful recognition and reward programmes.
The Changing Dynamics of Trust
Hybrid working has been a topic of much discussion and debate since the COVID-19 pandemic forced many organisations to adopt remote work policies. It is important to reflect on the lessons learned over the past few years and look forward to what the future holds for our businesses and our people. And that formed the theme for the latest CultureScope club event on the 20th March, which was attended by a variety of global businesses all grappling with this same challenge of building trust and maximising performance in the new world of work.
One key takeaway from the conversation is that organisations are dispersed along a continuum of ways of working, from fully remote to office-based. This dispersion has a significant impact on the ways in which we build and maintain trust. Line managers, in particular, have a key responsibility in this area and are often looked to as a weathervane for the attitudes of the wider organisation.
It is important to note that there is no single “right answer” when it comes to culture. Every organisation needs to settle on a way of working that is right for them. However, the way we implement culture is crucial. Trust, as demonstrated through looking at the issue of where people work, will become a key differentiator for employment in the future.
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, leaders are being asked to both grow and transform their businesses. Whether it’s responding to new market opportunities, changing customer demands, or disruptive start-ups; the reasons to evolve are numerous. Exactly how you achieve growth and transformation at the same time, is a challenge that many struggle with.
Innovation is key, but not every company can (or even should) be an Apple or a Google. With so many flavours of innovation to choose from it can be challenging to know which will work best for your company and how to enable it.
Cultural barriers
Research from McKinsey shows that just 26% of transformations meet their objectives, while 70% fail due to resistance or low employee engagement. Such resistance is often due to cultural barriers like lack of trust, fear of failure, resistance to new ideas, and reluctance to challenge the status quo. This underscores the significance of culture in successful transformation.
In fact, a survey by the Katzenbach Center found that 84% of executives and analysts believed that culture was critical but only 30% said that their organizations managed culture effectively. This suggests that while many businesses are aware of the importance of culture, they are struggling to put in place the necessary strategies and processes to manage it effectively.
2023 finally sees the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Duty requirement come into force. It brings with it a simple principle – to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. This is underpinned by cross-cutting rules that bring clarity to the relationship firms must develop with their customers.
“Our rules require firms to consider the needs, characteristics and objectives of their customers – including those with characteristics of vulnerability – and how they behave, at every stage of the customer journey. As well as acting to deliver good customer outcomes, firms will need to understand and evidence whether those outcomes are being met.” (FCA)
As well as promising to end ‘rip-off charges and fees’, the aim is to make it easier for customers to cancel or switch products and access customer support.
But this is about much more than improving service and removing sludge. It is fundamentally about creating an impetus to ensure the cultures of FS firms embrace a customer-first approach.
