Making Culture Change Easier
Lessons
Use our biologically ingrained social dynamics to ease your culture change efforts
Those with Formal Authority will either create or prevent roadblocks in your cultural change efforts
Those with Informal Authority will either create or prevent momentum and participation in your cultural change efforts
Change is hard, but the hardest change of all is changing your view of the world, particularly the world you spend most of your waking ours in: your work world. Why? Because we are emotionally and moreover financially invested in the way we do our jobs and interact with coworkers, i.e. that worlds culture. Regardless of how healthy or unhealthy our work culture is, we usually settle into a status quo. The problem with a status quo is that it’s hard to see past its comfort and familiarity and onto greener more rewarding cultural pastures. This is why many issues arise when a company, department, or team endeavors on a cultural transformation, it’s just plain difficult to get people to change. Entire textbooks have been written on this very topic, but I hope to offer a quick and digestible strategy to help ease your efforts to change your world’s culture as a leader by tapping into our biologically engrained social dynamics.
Identify authority figures
Start by identifying a member from each of the following groups. You'll want buy-in from both.
Formal Authority: Someone in a formal position of authority (manager, director, Chief [insert] Officer)
Informal Authority: Someone that doesn’t necessary have organizational or formal authority but who is seen as a leader by her peers.
Formal Authority figures are the people with the organizational approval to make dictatorial decisions, such as managers, directors, VPs, C-levels, etc. In most companies beyond ~100 people, these higher positions may be too far removed from the front lines to have a truly measurable impact on culture change. They may direct that there be a culture change, and it’s often necessary for them to provide proper messaging around the initiative, but there's more bang for your buck in focusing on managers that are closer to the front lines - in fact, get as low as you can. At a minimum you will need buy-in from those with Formal Authority to prevent road blocks and ensure a smooth flow of information and messaging through the whole org.
Informal Authority figures are the people whom everyone respects, looks up to, and goes to for advice. Generally, there's one on each team or a couple in each department. Regardless of years of experience these people are seen as the ones with wisdom and as natural leaders. They tend to be fairly easy to spot if you spend even a small amount of time in a room with their team. They will be the ones that dictate the direction and flow of conversation, even if they aren’t the loudest in the room. Like it or not, they are the people who actually manage your culture. They have the social influence to dictate what decisions other employees do and do not support just by virtue of their own opinions.
If you want to streamline your implementation, you'll need advocacy from both Formal and Informal Authority figures. You might be able to do it without, but I’ve never seen it happen successfully and at best it will be a long and arduous process, and the check-writers will likely give up on it before the change has the chance to prove its value.
But why is it valuable to have both?
Formal Authority value
The value of having a Formal Authority advocate is to prevent impediments and distractions. If you don't have buy-in from one of the managers, directors, VPs, or C-level personnel, then they will ignore your efforts and continue to operate under the traditional culture. Say for example you are trying to move from a culture of silos and individualism to a culture of collaboration and team orientation. A manager that is not bought in will continue to bring work to individuals they see best fit to accomplish it, instead of bringing it to the team and letting them self-organize and determine who would best to pick it up. This seemingly simple behavior is the fastest way to undermine your strategy.
Like it or not, and regardless of how flat your org is, humans respect hierarchy, so support is mandatory from the highest level of management to the lowest. Whichever level doesn’t support the change, will most likely prevent support from every person below them. If you’re trying to change the entire companies culture, and the VP of Engineering doesn’t buy in, you might be able to change the culture of Marketing, Operations, and HR, but chances are your efforts will fall flat throughout the entire engineering department.
Keep in mind that when starting from scratch, you will inevitably have pushback from some level of the organization that doesn't immediately buy in. This is where informal authority comes in, as it is level agnostic. The faster you're able to gain advocates among the non-supporter’s peers, the easier it will be to get their support and to prevent a measurable setback.
Informal Authority value
If you don't have an advocate with Informal Authority, you run the risk of perpetuating the misconception that the change is "just another new corporate initiative." They won't be motivated, they won't be organized, and they will be less productive than before. This is especially true if the person with Informal Authority is an active critic of the change. If the 'cool kid' doesn't like it, no one is going to take it seriously.
However, if you do earn buy-in from this person, you will quickly obtain buy-in from the rest of their peers. They will be motivated and excited to adhere to the new culture. You will convince each goose that it is good for the gander. Motivation and buy-in are great, but the value that both of these deliver is participation. Culture change lives and dies in participation. People can nod their heads in agreement, but if they don’t participate then nothing will actually change. Having the support of an Informal Authority is the easiest and fastest way to achieving participation.
Conclusion
Identify the holders of Formal and Informal Authority within your organization. Buy-in from Formal Authority will prevent roadblocks. Buy-in from Informal Authority will create momentum and earn participation. Get both of their support and make them advocates - or risk a long and arduous process that likely ends with a failed implementation and a worse culture than before.
How you get that buy-in is up to you, but soliciting their advice is a good place to start. Giving them some responsibility during the implementation is another tactic, but they need to actually want the extra work.
For now, knowing whose help you need is half the battle in obtaining their support.