Why Simply Talking About Accountability and Integrity Isn’t Enough
Imagine a typical workplace scene: a manager stands before their team, passionately discussing accountability, transparency, integrity, and commitment. A motivational poster hangs in the background, echoing these virtues. Heads nod in agreement, yet nothing changes. This all-too-familiar scenario highlights a stark reality: insisting on such values does not transform behavior even with unanimous agreement. This is a tale about culture – an elusive, powerful force that shapes how teams act, interact, and succeed.
Understanding Culture in the Workplace
- Culture within a team is evident through three observable outcomes: behavior, results, and narrative.
- Behavior is visible; it’s the actions of team members. When meetings consistently start late because people arrive tardy, that’s a behavior.
- Results are the tangible outcomes, such as sales revenues or project completion times – they reflect the “what is.”
- Narrative is the storytelling part. It’s how team members interpret their behaviors and results – the stories they tell themselves and each other about what’s happening.
- But how can we shift this culture if direct approaches, like impassioned speeches or emails, fall flat?
The focus will be drawn to what is measured and where funds are allocated.
Engineering a Cultural Shift with Four Levers
Risk Up Front (RUF) suggests that to alter a team’s culture, we must manipulate four primary levers: language, metrics, structures, and practices.
- Language frames our understanding and communication. Introducing precise language can change how a team identifies and acts on risks and aligns with core values like integrity.
- Metrics guide focus. You don’t get what you wish for or demand; you get what you measure. Measure customer satisfaction, and you nudge the team towards enhancing it.
- Structures, both physical and organizational, dictate resource allocation. They show what the company values through where it invests its capital.
Practices are the habitual actions of a team. Regular meetings, design reviews, or code assessments instill a rhythm of accountability and progress.
Here’s how these levers can bring about change:
- Adopting new language can lead teams to question how naming behaviors can promote desired actions, like reducing warranty risks by implementing ‘Design for Reliability.’
- Emphasizing metrics can shift focus, leading teams to stop when a goal is reached rather than over-optimizing needlessly.
- Adjusting structures can ensure resources are available for critical risk mitigation, fostering a culture of commitment.
- Establishing practices can create a dependable cadence for project urgency and completion.
Real-World Applications: Better Meetings and Customer Satisfaction
Consider the challenge of ineffective meetings, an issue faced by many organizations. One company achieved significant improvements by defining a desired cultural shift in terms of behavior, results, and narrative and then using the four levers. They defined “meeting integrity,” measured punctuality, attached clear goals to invites, and provided training. As a result, they spent less time in meetings, and projects finished sooner.
In another instance, a company grappling with customer dissatisfaction identified specific behaviors (like swift call returns) aimed for better results (improved customer satisfaction scores). It sought to transform the narrative around customer support. Through language changes, measuring new metrics, and implementing new practices, they improved their customer service experience.
Creating a Culture of Risk Identification
The ultimate goal in shifting culture is to turn teams into “risk-identifying machines.” By introducing specific terms into their vocabulary and adjusting the four levers of language, metrics, structures, and practices, teams become proactive in identifying and mitigating risks, ensuring that their weekly goals are met, and fundamentally changing their narrative around their capabilities and achievements.
In essence, cultural change isn’t about making one grand gesture but consistently tweaking various aspects of a team’s operation. It’s a multifaceted, ongoing process that requires creativity, commitment, and the willingness to use the tools.
In transforming team culture, the adage “actions speak louder than words” couldn’t be more relevant. It’s not the words on the motivational poster that count, but the behaviors, results, and narratives that are lived out daily in the workplace.
