On Culture Change: Old Theory - New Theory
Copyright Jack Mixner 2006. 714 449 1040 www.mixnerstrategy.com
The old way to accomplish a complete re-engineering of your company began with a culture change.
Kotter says that doesn't work. Culture change is his eighth step.
"Culture changes only after you have successfully altered people's actions, after the new behavior produces some group benefit for a period of time, and after people see the connection between the new actions and the performance (Kotter, page 156)."
The other stages?
- Establish a sense of urgency
- Create a guiding coalition
- Develop a vision and strategy
- Communicate the change vision
- Empower employees for broad-based action
- Generate short term wins
- Consolidate gains - produce more change
- Finally, anchor changes in the culture (Kotter, Table of Contents).
Strategic Implication
Understand how to change culture, yes. Wait to implement culture changes until your planning processes have yielded significant results.
Culture change early in a process will be a culture change that flips back to old ways when the going gets tough.
References
Kotter, John P. Leading Change. Harvard Business School Press. 1996.