Culture Change for Successful Teams

Every organization has a culture. The only real question is whether it’s the culture leadership intentionally built or the one that quietly assembled itself while everyone was focused on other things. Here’s what makes that question uncomfortable: culture change consistently ranks among the top priorities for leadership teams, and just as consistently among the most failed initiatives in business. The reason isn’t usually a bad vision. It’s that most organizations treat culture change as a communication exercise — a new values poster, a leadership offsite, a company-wide email — rather than a structural one. They announce the change and then wait for it to happen. Read on to learn what culture change actually is, what triggers it, why it so often stalls, and what leaders can do to build the conditions for real, lasting transformation. What is culture change? Culture change is the process by which an organization’s shared values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors shift, either through a deliberate initiative or in response to external pressure. That last part matters: culture change isn’t always chosen. Sometimes it’s imposed by circumstance, which is exactly why understanding it gives leaders an advantage. Organizational psychologist Edgar Schein’s model of culture describes three layers:…