EXPO 2020: Can Dubai Fill The Skills Gap?
The development programme attempted to influence results by changing activities, which was linked to the overall strategy of Performance Management in the organisation.
Culture, on the other hand, follows a different path:
The issue with implementing development for a new strategy is that the development will attempt to influence the activities linked to the strategy. When individuals then attempt to implement these new activities, the behaviours generated by an overriding culture will revert activities back to the ones they undertook before the development took place.
In essence Culture will eat Strategy for breakfast, lunch etc…
So what is the solution?
At the heart of any strategic change lies a need for cultural and behaviour change. Any development or activity change will be overridden by the behaviours already in place.
For developers then, when undertaking development needs analysis discussions, questions should be asked to determine the impact of any cultural influence on the proposed development.
Changing any aspect of culture is not easy. Changing one person’s behaviours is hard – changing many people’s is an even more difficult prospect. People will not change unless they perceive there to be a real need for it. That is magnified at organisational level.
When looking to change a culture Forbes recommends beginning “with leadership tools, including a vision or story of the future, cement the change in place with management tools, such as role definitions, measurement and control systems, and use the pure power tools of coercion and punishments as a last resort, when all else fails.”
When undertaking the development needs discussion it’s worthwhile considering the 8 step process to changing culture:
• Step 1 – Evaluate the current culture and performance
• Step 2 – Clarify the vision and values
• Step 3 – Clarify expected behaviors
• Step 4 – Clarify strategic priorities
• Step 5 – Engage the team in defining goals
• Step 6 – Clarify and track key measures
• Step 7 – Manage communication
• Step 8 – Build motivation and momentum
With the right messages communicated from the top and consistently managed throughout the organisation, culture can be effectively changed and development made to stick more readily.
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