You know … there is a story … In 1962, President John F. Kennedy visited NASA for the first time. During his tour of the facility, he met an environmental service aid who was carrying a broom down the hallway. The President casually asked the aid what he did for NASA, and without hesitation, he replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
You might ask how does this story relate to running your IT business? Maybe your business has a few employees, or perhaps your organization has hundreds of associates. No matter the organization’s size, the story above demonstrates how NASA’s culture aligned with its mission and vision, leading to the fulfillment of landing a man on the moon. So, why is it essential to culturally transform and align your organization? How does leadership drive and achieve cultural transformation? Are you struggling to align your culture, and can an executive coach assist you in culturally transforming your organization?
Let’s explore these questions further.
Cultural transformation can be defined as “the process of aligning an organization’s values, norms, behaviors, and processes with its strategic direction and purpose.” It starts with leadership taking time to understand the current culture, modeling a set of core values, setting expectations, walking the talk, and then cultivating a healthy and vibrant culture. In other words, it ensures that everyone in the organization is rowing in the same direction.
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There are a few key components to focus on while culturally transforming an organization: assuring that your mission & vision are up-to-date and aligned with your organization’s purpose, maintaining a set of defined core values, leadership commitment to modeling the expected behaviors, simplifying your processes, and defining the strategy to drive cultural change.
Let’s start with core values. Every organization has a set of values and cultural norms, whether written or not. It is essential to understand the current norms and update or establish a set of values that form the foundation of how the organization conducts itself. What does that mean? For example, if you commit to the value of ‘service,’ but your processes make it difficult for customers to connect with a live person, there is a misalignment between your value and your process. In this case, you should either adjust your approach to meeting your customer’s needs or commit to a different value.
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Related: How to Inculcate Business Culture to Create a Successful Business
Behaviors are the next critical component to work on to align with your culture. Are the behaviors of your leaders and staff aligned with the values and goals of the organization? If not, why not? This is where a coach can be a valuable resource. A coach helps leaders and individuals to identify how their behaviors are or are not aligned with the core values. They also assist others in seeing how ineffective behaviors negatively impact the organization’s culture. Coaches partner with leaders and teams to help them to think and behave more effectively on their journey to fulfill their organization’s purpose.
Finally, your processes need to be simple, easy to follow, and support the organization’s goals. If your processes are cumbersome and difficult to navigate, staff will be challenged to take ownership of them and create a high-performing organization. As your staff is closest to the work, seeking their input on how to redesign your processes to be efficient is the most effective way to assure that they will meet the established goals. Continually reevaluating your processes and reengineering them after engaging your staff will lead to greater effectiveness and success.
Achieving cultural transformation is not an easy task, but it is critical for leaders and businesses to strive to create healthy and vibrant cultures. Aligning an organization’s values, behaviors, and processes with its mission, vision, and goals, will help to create a healthy culture, leading to the organizations long-term success.
If you are interested in learning more about cultural transformation or how to achieve it within your organization, consider partnering with an executive coach who can facilitate and guide you and your leadership team through the process.
Carm Moceri, Principal of Healthcare Alignment Solutions, is a certified executive coach with more than 30 years of experience as an executive leader, coach, and transformation expert in multiple industries. You can contact Healthcare Alignment Solutions at healthcarealignmentsolutions.com to set up a free initial success strategy session and to learn how your organization could benefit from transforming your culture into a vibrant and healthy environment and take your team to the moon!
It’s so difficult to achieve cultural transformation but it is needed in a lot of businesses!
Corinne x
Hey Corinne, thanks for dropping by!
Absolutely powerful concept here John. Few know that success business-wise is always a team effort, even if you seem to be a one man or one woman show. One needs friends, trusted entrepreneurs in their niche, to teach, inspire, uplift and to spread the word. I am realizing how important serving, networking and building bonds really is as far as blogging. Keep up the good blogging work.
Hi Ryan, thanks very much for your insightful feedback!
A shift in business is so overdue, great read John!
Thanks for dropping by!
I think these days, all businesses should go through some sort of culture shift or at least consider what they’re doing and how they can change.
True, thanks for commenting.
Very well mentioned! Cultural development is a long-term commitment, but the rewards are worthwhile and warrant the expense. Therefore, when your culture is failing, cultural revolution shouldn’t be your final choice. Instead, concentrate on continuously maintaining and strengthening your organization’s culture to help it reach its strategic goals.
Hi Jason, I totally concur with your sentiments. Thanks for the feedback.
Great blog! Good to see a post that is out of the box. I have a startup and I was looking for some interesting blogs to add to my strategies. This blog was really helpful in terms of that. Thank you so much for sharing the ideas. Keep sharing.
Hi Jackson, am glad you found this helpful. Welcome.
This was a really interesting blog post and it makes you think about culture shift within a business. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Lauren.
Hi, I appreciate your feedback.
Very interesting! I think a lot of businesses could take note here. Lots of good information!
Hi, thanks for reading.
As someone who is cultural geek, definitely can comfirm that it can
transform your values. Great post..
Hi, I appreciate your feedback.
A very interesting tale, and absolutely illustrative of a really great company culture. Everyone contributes, from the ground floor up, and they know it.
Hi Lisa, I totally concur with you. Thanks for reading.
More companies could do with committing themselves to service, because I sick of how hard its become to talk to an actual person
I totally agree. Thanks for the feedback.
Interesting article, not just for IT companies but for most businesses.
Hi, thanks for reading.
Wow so interesting! What a concept. Never thought of this before.
Hi, I appreciate your feedback.
An informative article, i have learnt a lot on cultural transformation. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for your feedback.
Great info! Cultural transformation can help organizations attract and retain top talent, create a more positive work environment, and foster innovation.
Hi, thanks for dropping by.
This is such great info! I learned a lot reading this post, thanks so much for sharing!
You are welcome Charity!
Awesome tips and very relevant to the IT space! Thank you for sharing your knowledge
I appreciate your feedback Hailee!
Transformations in this way can be so important for many businesses; it’s good you pointed out that leaders need to fully understand, visualize and embody that culture shift — very interesting!
Hi Molly, I really appreciate your insightful feedback!