Recipe for a Strong Organizational Culture: Fixing the Mix
By Ivana Milojkovic
Organizational culture is to a change management consultant what quality ingredients are to a chef. However, like any seasoned chef knows, sometimes the perfect recipe can unexpectedly go awry.
Rockwood Perspectives has covered the topic of organizational culture many times, including over a two-part series (How to Strengthen Your Organization’s Culture and Attracting and Retaining Top Talent During “The Great Resignation”), but here is a quick recap: Organizational culture is a set of norms, behaviors, assumptions, and beliefs under which an organization’s leadership and community operates. Signs of a dysfunctional organizational culture include low morale, lack of trust, high turnover rates, and poor performance.
If your organization is experiencing any of these symptoms, fear not. It is possible to “fix the mix” and save the recipe. You can transform your culture with a mix of masterful messaging and communications, an agile approach to implementing, and a commitment to cross-organization support.
Ingredients & Directions
Roll out changes strategically. Ensure everyone involved understands the goals and expectations of the culture change. This is where you will highlight the impetus, or the ‘why’, for the culture shift. Instead of harping on the negative here, look to the future and focus the conversation on the positive aspects of the change.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Communication is crucial in this process and will require consistent messaging through multiple channels to keep everyone informed and aligned. You wouldn’t do one push up and expect to be in shape, so don’t assume that one piece of communication via email will do the job. Change takes active participation and disciplined consistency!
Involve all personnel in the process. Involve all levels of personnel during the change process because, ultimately, they are the ones who will transform the culture from idea to lived reality. Encouraging participation and ownership inherently fosters commitment and can help mitigate resistance to the change.
Continuously monitor. Keeping a pulse on the change in the early stages is key to identifying any major hurdles or obstacles, and gauge effectiveness.
Collect feedback. Employee feedback on the change process provides invaluable insight into on-the-ground experiences. Be sure to acknowledge the feedback with a follow-up conversation or note to communicate to the employee that their opinion matters.
Make iterative improvements. Moving from an unhealthy culture to a healthy one is not a one and done process. Agility is the essence of change – and failing to pivot along the way can leave an organization woefully deficient.
Recipe adjustment #1:
Create a formal mentorship program to strengthen relationships.
One option for adjusting the recipe to your liking would be to create a mentorship program. Mentorship is key to a healthy organizational culture because it can foster professional growth despite unpredictable career winds. With a thoughtful build and strategic execution, mentorship programs have the potential to support and enhance collaboration, enable continuous learning, and catalyze employee success, among other things. For recommendations on how to establish a mentorship program in your organization, refer to this Perspectives article.
Recipe adjustment #2:
Stand up communities of practice to strengthen and share knowledge across the company.
Another option to make the recipe your own: create communities of practice (CoPs). CoPs are expert-driven, peer-supported resources for fostering understanding and application of an organization’ methodologies. CoP platforms allow employees to:
Ask questions. Have a question related to a particular methodology? Ask it directly to the corresponding CoP to gain input from the subject matter experts and other peers within the organization.
Share knowledge. All personnel can share articles, podcasts, and other materials and respond to questions posted to the CoP to nurture a culture of innovation and continuous learning.
Get subject matter expert (SME) support. Tap into the expertise of technical SMEs to support project teams. SMEs are available to provide specialized training, deliverable input, or engage in collaborative problem-solving.
Rockwood launched a pilot CoP program earlier this year, beginning with a strategy implementation CoP, and has since added three more CoPs. These CoPs now serves as a hub for posting any questions about deliverables and approaches and allows for easily accessible cross-company interaction.
Refining the Recipe
Just as with any recipe, organizational culture is never a perfect science. Devoting attention and resources to creating a healthy organizational culture enables a sturdy foundation that will stand the test of time. Remember to communicate the importance of the change, involve people every step of the way, and create opportunities for connection, such as a formal mentorship program or communities of practice.