Common Business Imperatives
This selection of business imperatives represents the most common scenarios
that clients are experiencing when they start to use the Walking the Talk
culture methodology.
Aligning Culture with Strategy
When your organisation has defined strategies that represent a
change from the past, it is a good time to focus on culture. If your
organisation is aspiring to one of the following goals, it is time to
include culture planning as a part of your business planning:
| Strategy | Cultural attribute required |
|---|---|
| Become a global player | Collaboration, one-team |
| Winning through customer experience/retention | Listening, service-orientation, low arrogance |
| Grow by acquisitions | Openness, respect |
| Be employer of choice | Coaching, developing people |
| Lowest cost producer | Discipline, accountability |
| Win through best partnerships/alliances | Win-win, low one-upmanship |
| Best products | Innovation, excellence, experimentation |
Managing Culture in a Merger
Studies show that in 50-70% of cases where mergers dilute value, the cause is a failure to successfully
manage the cultural dimension. Walking the Talk and our consulting partners provide support to define
the culture strategy and build a culture plan. Leading in a Merger training will help those involved in
planning the integration process so that value can be accelerated as quickly as possible.
The Rapidly Growing Business
Some organisations already consider their culture to be a source of competitive advantage and tightly
aligned to their brand. Yours may be one of these. Both customers and employees love the culture and
are loyal to the company as a result. If the founders are still active, the culture will be strongly driven
by the style and values of those individuals.
As you grow, people are hired with skill sets associated with managing a larger organisation. Sometimes
you hire critical skills from competitors whose cultures employees may not respect. A challenge arises.
How do you preserve the culture during rapid growth with the influence of many new leaders and
increasing geographic dispersion?
Our Culture Management System makes conscious what has previously been instinctive and unconscious,
so that the team can actively plan for its future and ensure that value is not diluted as the company grows.
Reputation Repair
When an incident hits the press, it is rarely an isolated incident but rather a spike in a pattern of behaviour
which exists in the culture. Sexual harassment, failure to meet promises to customers, employee fatalities,
unethical behaviour are examples. If these are occurring in your business, you are sitting on a cultural time
bomb, which could explode and cause severe damage. Our approach can help you move from defining values
and standards to building a culture where they are truly lived. You need the assurance that the behaviours that
are being encouraged or condoned in your organisation are the ones that will make you proud. You need a process
of culture management that will deliver that confidence to you.
Culture Challenges for a New Leader
If your organisation already has a culture process underway, the new leader will want to put his or her
own stamp on it. A new leader should consider the momentum of the process, and its success to date.
There are risks to giving the impression that things are starting over, unless the process is stalled and
deemed totally ineffective. It is usually more powerful to build on what has begun, to help avoid cynicism.
Our Culture Management System can help you think through these issues and engage others in the
process. In planning for the arrival of a new leader, our Culture Management System helps those
supporting the transition to assess the cultural implications of this change. The Culture Management
System also helps the new leader accelerate the culture that he or she wants. Here are common
implications that we have come across in our work with organisations:
-
The leader is the culture: The retiring leader has built a culture which is at the core of the
organisation’s success. -
A leader is asked to leave: The retiring leader has been asked to leave, and/or his/her management
style has built a culture of fear, avoidance, over-competitiveness or other value diluters. -
Leaving with change in progress: The retiring leader has led a culture change process which is
underway, but there is a risk that people will feel ‘this too will pass’ when the new leader arrives.
Aligning Senior Team
The senior team casts a long shadow. They set the culture by their behaviour, decisions, and priorities.
If you have defined performance outcomes that depend on certain behaviours for their achievement,
the senior team must “walk the talk” and align their behaviours, values, and beliefs to the culture they
require in order to implement their business strategy.
Our methodology defines the benefits that culture can deliver, so that senior team members can
convince themselves of the return on investment. They learn the roles that they personally will
need to play in order to achieve the target culture. Changing personal behaviour is always difficult,
especially for those whose careers have rewarded them for being the way they are. The culture
journey offers a challenging opportunity for senior leaders to grow personally and expand their range
of leadership capability. Coaching and programmes to help them achieve this goal are advisable
throughout a change process.
