One of the key culture focus areas is often the most overlooked – the leadership of change. Delivering the ability to effectively lead and manage change creates the ability to both deliver a truly competitive advantage and an improved ability to drive change throughout the organization – and therefore to change the culture.
Does the leadership and management of change present a competitive advantage? We think so because change is a constant and in fact the frequency, or pace, of business change is becoming greater. This is especially true in the reimagined, post pandemic world in which we find ourselves. Those companies that are unable to keep pace with the leadership and management of change soon start to complain of ‘change fatigue’ which, in turn, causes a drag on resources and an impairment of performance. Those that invest time in making the leadership and management of change a core competence will steal a march on those that do not manage change well.
Delivering leadership behaviours that impact the culture is a winning strategy. Delivering change leadership as a core competence and critical leadership trait takes the organization to a place where agility and an execution focus in the complexity of the changing environment delivers practical returns.
Organizational culture can be a challenging subject to understand, let alone influence. Nonetheless the principles behind it are simple:
• Culture evolves over time and takes time to shift in a new direction.
• The longer an organization has been in existence the more mature the culture will be, with more layers of cultural reinforcement which will need to be unraveled.
• Organizational size has a bearing on cultural complexity and any cultural change program will need to take account of, and plan for, the myriad of sub-cultures which exist.
• Organizational integrations bring even greater challenges requiring the consideration of various cultural heritages.
Effecting successful cultural change is possible, but it requires a considerable investment of time, resources and energy. The business leaders need to be aware of the need for consistency and tenacity to bring about the required shift and their efforts must be structured and planned. Cultural change is most likely to succeed if undertaken systematically and in bite sized chunks. Prioritizing change leadership capability is often the best place to start.
Find out how we can help by visiting https://mytakecontrol.thinkific.com/