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How to Avoid Culture Change Pitfalls (Plus Tips!)
Employer
The culture of your company is arguably the most important aspect of your business. However,
when an organization experiences great success, change is almost always
inevitable, and the culture is the one thing that can suffer. It’s easy
to maintain culture of a small group of people. But what happens when
you double, triple, quadruple in size? After rapid growth your day-one
employees soon find themselves surrounded by new faces, some of them
even placed in executive roles. The influx of new people changes the
culture. Every new person comes with a unique background, all while, the
company is under more pressure than ever to deliver on loftier goals.
In
any situation, change can either become a positive or a negative thing.
For your culture to move in the upwards direction, leaders need to
understand how business needs and the human experience of changes can
work together for the better.
3 Pitfalls You Should Avoid
Failing to use stories
People
relate to real stories. They empathize with the human emotion that’s
behind them. If you’re making a decision that will result in change,
it’s likely you’ve had many conversations and given it lots of careful
consideration. Over time, the change becomes rational to you. But to
someone hearing it for the first time, it can feel abrupt. To avoid this
pitfall, use stories to help employees connect with the decision for
change.
Leveraging a big event
Announcing
a change for the first time at a company event will most certainly
cause employees to roll their eyes, and worse, lead them to expect a
series of announcements that will cause more chaos than clarity.
Instead, enlist your managers to champion the change alongside with you.
Choose moments in smaller settings to involve the manager’s peers and
spend time talking about the need for change together. In smaller
settings, employees will feel more comfortable bringing up their
concerns and you can address them head-on. It’s always better not to
assume you know how your employees feel and it’s better to tackle any
issues right away.
Failure to address the informal organization
Whether
you choose to believe it or not, your organization is made up of many
informal micro-cultures. This includes networks of employees that
doesn’t necessarily play out on a formal organizational chart. Don’t
ignore the informal organization. When you begin to introduce change in
smaller settings, include those part of these mini-networks. Groups can
become influential, and when you get a group involved together it will
help with positive momentum and progress.
Tips for Positive Change
Have strong organizational values. You can always lean on them throughout communicating the decision process for change. Hire for attitude, not for skillsets. You can always teach skills, but the right attitude will do wonders for your culture. Give employees a say.
The more you grow, the harder it is for employees to have a voice. Make
sure you have outlets for them to give a suggestion or opinion.