When everyone and everything at an organization is in sync, projects would move ahead smoothly and team members are more likely to effectively collaborate to deliver wins for clients. As Richard Ghilarducci mentions, cultural alignment is important to business success. This process involves aligning the culture of a company with its values, goals and people.
Richard Ghilarducci marks a few steps involved in shaping organizational culture
Organizational culture has a vital role to play in the identity and values of a company. A positive and strong culture can drive employee engagement and enhance productivity. It can be instrumental to the overall success of a company. A business leader must strive to cultivate a healthy organizational culture that aligns with the vision and values of the company. Here are a few steps they can follow to achieve this goal:
- Understand the current organizational culture: Prior to starting any cultural change journey, it shall be vital to have a good understanding of the current culture of the company. One can conduct interviews and surveys to identify the prevailing norms, values and behaviors within the company. This data shall serve as a baseline and offer insights into the aspects that require improvement.
- Define the desired culture: After understanding the current culture of a company, business leaders need to define the desired culture that aligns with the values, mission and vision of the business. This vision must be communicated to the employees. Articulating the desired culture can serve as a good guidepost for driving innovation and change, while aligning behaviors toward the desired outcomes.
- Lead by example: Leadership has a vital role to play in shaping the culture of an organization. A leader needs to embody the behaviors and values they would want to see in their team, and the company at large. Leaders need to demonstrate the desired culture consistently through their interactions, decisions and actions. Their behavior shall serve as a powerful model for the employees to follow.
- Foster cross-cultural awareness: In the contemporary diverse work environments, cross cultural awareness has become increasingly important. Employees must be encouraged to embrace and appreciate varied perspectives, backgrounds and cultures. Cross cultural training programs can also be conducted at a company to promote empathy, understanding, as well as effective cross-culture communication.
- Align policies and practices: Aligning processes, practices and policies with the desired culture is important to drive cultural change. Business leaders need to review and revise performance evaluation systems, recruitment processes, and rewards and recognition programs to make sure that they reinforce the desired values and behaviors. To create a culture of credibility and trust, consistency has to be maintained between what is communicated and what is practiced.
Richard Ghilarducci underlines that effective communication is key to driving cultural change. Hence, business leaders have to be proactive about communicating the desired culture regularly through team huddles, internal newsletters and meetings. They should also provide continuous feedback and recognize employees who exemplify the desired behaviors. The employees also must be provided with adequate opportunities for growth, learning, and professional development.
