Changing Company Culture Requires a Keen Persuasive Power

Enacting change in any organization is tough. As Shama Hyder writes at Forbes, there are several reasons for this. I’ve highlighted a pair of important ones below:

“1) Status quo behavior is held in place by a series of ‘behavioral bullies’ that, if change is desired, will require an ensemble strategy to overcome;
2) Our current environment is perfectly synchronized to proliferate the very behaviors that we are currently attempting to change.”

Organizational inertia is as immovable a force as you’ll ever encounter. Whether it’s the age-old “this is how we’ve always done things” or some other similar platitude, unseen forces throughout a company are in place to maintain the status quo. What’s frustrating is when it’s clear to multiple people that the status quo doesn’t work or is unsustainable. Hyder’s piece, which includes an interview with President of Allegiance Capital John Bourke, who heralds the following strategies:

“1) Providing ways to connect the need for change to the individual’s sense of purpose and meaning;
2) Offering opportunities to educate, inform or train individuals with needed skills and knowledge;
3) Suggesting conscious approaches to engaging opinion leaders to model or reinforce the desired change;
4) Harnessing the help of key stakeholders whose collective skills or positional powers are needed to enable change;
5) Aligning rewards to encourage the desired new vital behaviors;
6) Cleaning up bureaucratic snarls, red tape and structural inefficiencies that inhibit progress toward the preferred state.”

Take a look at Hyder’s full piece, linked below, and let us know what you think.