You can’t hope to do more than diagnose the culture and begin to work on changing some behaviors in the first 90 days. The following list sets forth five ways to begin cultural change. Whichever methods you use, aim for cultural changes that will align with your group’s strategy, structure, systems, and skills.
- Change performance measures and incentives. Change the metrics by which you judge success. Then align employees’ objectives with those new measures. For instance, consider changing the balance between individual and group incentives. Does success require people to work closely and coordinate with one another— for example, in a new-product development team? If so, then put more weight on group incentives. Do people in your group operate independently—for example, in a sales unit? If so, and if their individual contributions to the business can be measured, then place more emphasis on individual incentives.
- Set up pilot projects. Give employees opportunities to experiment with new tools and behaviors. For example, set up a task force to experiment with an innovative approach to production or to tackle problems with distribution.
- Bring in new people. Judiciously bring in people from the outside to stimulate creative thinking and discipline among group members. A new person could be a substance expert in a key area—for example, new-product development or R&D management. Alternatively, you could bring in a process consultant— someone with a strong business background, but who focuses on running the process of group dialogue and supports your efforts to implement change.
- Promote collective learning. Expose group members to new ways of operating and thinking about the business—for instance, new perspectives on customers and competitors. One idea is to engage in some benchmarking of best-in-class organizations.
- Engage in collective visioning. Find ways to bring people together in creative ways specifically to envision new approaches to doing things. For example, schedule an off-site meeting to brainstorm ideas for improving existing processes.