Almost every company, at some point in time, needs to implement a culture shift. Whether it’s to adjust to market conditions, improve existing processes, or sometimes even to save the company, most executives know and understand the concept of “adapt or die.”
But why is so difficult to change Culture? Below is a quick explanation of the relationship between Culture, Attitude and Behavior, and a real-life example:
It’s obvious a company’s Culture has a direct impact on the Attitude of employees, which will in turn drive Behavior. But how does a company change its Culture? Culture isn’t something that can be directly touched and manipulated, and as much as we may want a person to change their Attitude, simply telling them to change rarely results in the desired outcome. The only thing a company can do is force a change in Behavior, which will result in a change in Attitude, and ultimately a change in Culture.
This is an example I often use when teaching leadership courses: Decades ago, while growing up, there was no seat belt law in my state. People could choose to wear or not wear seat belts as they pleased, and there were many people who scoffed at the effectiveness of wearing seat belts, and to some degree, a bit of machismo was involved. You could be considered less brave, overly cautious, or even misguided if you wore a seat belt, and some people would even ridicule others for wearing them.
What would happen if the governor of the state went on television and said, “We, as the people of this state, should have a Culture of wearing seat belts for our safety and protection.” The answer, I think we can all agree, is most likely nothing would have changed.
What if the governor said instead, “I would like all the people in the state to feel like they must wear seat belts.” Again, nothing would likely change.
So, what actually happened? The governor enacted a law that required all drivers to wear seat belts and authorized the police to write $50 fines for all those who did not. The result? Drivers started being pulled over and given $50 traffic tickets for not wearing seat belts. More people started wearing seat belts to avoid the fine, and while they may have grumbled the first five, ten or even one hundred times they did so, eventually the action of putting on a seat belt became automatic, without a second thought. Fast forward to today, when the concept of not wearing a seat belt is so alien to my children, they actually become agitated if someone forgets to put on their seat belt, because that’s all they’ve ever known.
This, I think, is a perfect illustration of how a Culture of not valuing seat belts impacted people’s Attitudes about their necessity, which resulted in the Behavior of not wearing seat belts. In order to remedy the situation and change Culture, however, the only method is to force a change in Behavior, which led to a change in Attitude, and ultimately created a change in Culture.
Why don’t more companies actively try to change their Culture? Because it’s very difficult. Serious thought needs to be put into the specific Behaviors the company wants to foster. It takes time, leadership and consistent enforcement for this to result in a change in Attitude, but done properly and diligently, will ultimately result in a change in Culture.
How much is your company Culture worth to you? Imagine the impact on your company’s bottom line if everyone was proactively safety conscious (cost of safety incidents), or everyone treated each other with professionalism and respect (cost of attrition), or all employees were given training and advancement opportunities based on performance and merit (cost of poor employee engagement)?
The answer is we shouldn’t avoid things because they are difficult or take time, we need to start now to reap benefits in the future. Some benefits will be realized sooner, some later, but actively steering a company’s Culture should be a priority for all leaders. At Full Scope Insights, we offer Human Capital Consulting services tailored to your business, helping you to make sure all your Human Resources programs and initiatives are fully aligned with your company’s business goals. Human Capital is likely your single largest or second-to-largest cost line. Investing in your people yields real dollars that impact your bottom line. Contact us, we’re here to help.
Huei-Ren “H.R.” Pan
Partner & Head of Human Capital
Full Scope Insights