Changing Organizational Culture

A hot topic in the business world today is changing and enhancing organizational culture to maximize productivity and the bottom line. This means that companies are striving to create a work environment where people feel motivated and want to be at work. As our global economy continues to become increasingly competitive, I believe only those companies that are able to develop great cultures will succeed. So as leaders, how do we change our culture no matter the organization?

Our organizational culture is what our employees believe they must do to fit in and do a job well. In other words, it is the underlying beliefs, assumptions, and unwritten rules employees have about the places where they work. These beliefs have a tremendous impact on how the company operates and ultimately, how successful the company can be. Changing well defined unwritten rules within an organization can be a very difficult, but it not impossible—changing them is key to the success of improving the culture.

We can begin to change culture or these underlying beliefs within the organization by focusing on experiences. Experiences are crucial, because they are the reason for the type of culture any group of people has. Therefore, employees create an internal belief system about their employer based on the experiences they have at work. This belief system will in turn impact their actions at work, which will produce results. In companies with good organizational cultures, this belief system drives workers to do better, think smarter, and work harder; the opposite is true for companies with poor cultures. In good cultures, employees are engaged, and they want to contribute and be at work. They feel satisfied, involved, important, and fulfilled. As leaders, if we can create a positive underlying belief system based on positive experiences for our employees, then we will be well on our way to have a great culture and excellent results.

Now, the most critical experiences are those of a new employee. Experiences a new employee has when working within an organization will define his or her underlying belief system about the organization almost immediately. New employees are critical, because they come to work with only a few perceptions and ideas of how the company really works and operates. Thus, new employees are very impressionable as they begin work, thus it becomes extremely important for employers to create great experiences for new comers. Doing this will go a long way in enhancing the overall culture. For this same reason, a huge focus in the business world has been on effectively “onboarding” new employees so they have good experiences and are productive from day one of employment. Again, these first days are so important to the success of developing a good culture and thus bottom line results.

As we focus on developing good experiences for all employees, our culture will begin to change. The more positive experiences an employee has, the more positive beliefs the employee will have about the company--thus creating a better organizational culture. As leaders, we must focus on creating wonderful experiences for our employees in every aspect of their job to improve our culture.

So to review, an organizational culture begins with the experiences employees have at work. These experiences lead to beliefs. These beliefs turn into actions at work, and actions turn into results. If we want to change, improve, or create great cultures, we must focus on providing positive experiences for our employees. As leaders, developing our organizational culture will be critical to our success, and by focusing on experiences we can positively influence any organization we are a part of.