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There is a famous Peter Drucker quote that says that "culture eats strategy for breakfast". This implies that the culture of your company always determines success regardless of how effective your strategy may be. When he said that culture eats strategy for breakfast, Drucker pointed out the importance of the human factor in any company. No matter how detailed and solid your strategy is, if the people executing it don't nurture the appropriate culture, your projects will fail.
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In addition to the above, it is essential in a successful strategic business transformation that a cultural environment is created with the help of skillful communication. For communication to work, there must be a cognitive element in which employees understand what is being proposed and what it means to them. However, there must also be an emotional aspect to the communication to ensure that the message regarding the change is understood and then the commitment to it can be fulfilled.
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It is an important task of the communication principle that fertile, cultural soil is created. Employees need to feel that the organization has a purpose and that the change contributes to their sense of what the organization stands for and is consistent with its core values.
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To make this connection seamless, the following three elements are required:
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- the right people,
- leadership example, and
- socialization.
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Socialization involves employees understanding the values and goals of the transformation and thus internalizing those goals and values (see Schein, 1995). The focus of this is to instill a sense of belonging, coupled with a casual approach to transformation that grants autonomy to the employee. Essentially, the journey occurs between axes and (see Figure) moves between control and commitment (see Walton, 1985).
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Control encourages cooperative employee behavior through appropriate incentives and sanctions. Commitment on an affective level, on the other hand, involves a sense of identification with the business transformation and a belief in the overall process goals (see the following figure). These both aspects must be integrated without inhibiting each other.
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In this following figure, the two main aspects are combined: Communication Principles and Intrinsic Basic Needs. The former includes partnership or relationship-based approaches that include the aspects of appreciation, empathy, and openness. Employees whose engagement is valued during the change process will show it more and with purely positive intent. Empathy from the business transformation manager is important to understand what people feel when business transformation impacts their work life and relationships. Openness is critical to bring constructive voices to the table or to initiate and resolve conflicts.
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Second, basic intrinsic needs highlight the need to focus on motivation in the transformation process rather than pure rewards and sanctions. Again, there are three basic elements. First, change must be driven by autonomy - people must be given the responsibility and freedom to put theory into action. The alternative is to get someone to do something using extrinsic motivations such as rewards or sanctions, but it is not possible to force people to like something. Second, the need for competence underscores the importance of employees stepping outside their comfort zone to adopt new practices and learn skills.
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Third, sense of belonging identifies that individuals want to belong to an attractive group or company that has a clear identity, so its transformation is solid and compelling. By addressing both communication principles and intrinsic needs, internalization will reinforce business transformation goals, leading to greater change effectiveness.
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However, it is also possible to internalize new behaviors, although this requires voluntariness, social integration, and a sense of doing the right thing.
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CHALLENGES TO THE PRINCIPLES OF CORPORATE CULTURE
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- define values and thus facilitate the implementation of internalization.
- create a cultural environment through skillful communication.
CHALLENGES OF THE META-MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
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- overcome organizational inertia.
- develop a shared understanding of the effort (meta-communication).
- Find qualified leaders who provide context and perspective for new proposals and plans.
- clear working language.
- Skillful use of communication.
- communicating and exemplifying principles such as appreciation, empathy and openness.
- motivating basic intrinsic needs such as autonomy, competence needs, and sense of belonging.
- by addressing both the communication principles and the intrinsic needs, the internalization of the transformation increases, leading to a greater probability of its effectiveness.
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SEViX - The entrepreneurial service provider
What makes SEViX unique?
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The passionate SEViX Business Coaches and SEViX Interim Managers - with practical experience on the first and second line - help in the most diverse business situations. They are characterized by "entrepreneurial spirit & drive". Only they have access to the Corporate Scan developed by SEViX and proven in practice. A first-class back-support helps them to successfully implement the agreed tasks at our customers.
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We come to help in ways that lead to success.
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