Change & Culture, for better or worse?

Have you ever encountered the concept of "insensitive change"?

While this term may not ring a bell, its underlying principles are all too familiar in the world of transformation & change.

This term emerges when I witness change initiatives adhering to the "traditional" sequence—starting from a strategic directive, through business case development and budget allocation, and finally, receiving the green light for execution while missing out on some critical key components ...

These programs often leap forward without adequately Designing the change, failing to consider crucial elements such as:

• Cultural values, norms, and the potential decay of these elements.
  
  
• Behaviour design is aimed at fostering constructive patterns.
  
  
• Capability building and enhancement to ensure all team members are equipped for new challenges.
  
  
• Capacity building to ensure that teams have the space, time, and energy to go deep enough to create sustained impact.
  
  
• Mindset shifts that encourage embracing change rather than enduring it.

Though some programs may address these aspects in isolation, they are seldom integrated in a manner that is comprehensive, profound, or recognized as success metrics.

The Impact on Culture

This newsletter delves into how insufficiently designed change and transformation programs can erode the very fabric of our organizational culture, causing it to fragment and weaken over time. Our focus today is on a critical aspect often overlooked: Capacity.

The Deadly Assumption

It begins with echoing complaints about capacity constraints—the capability of our teams to perform as they once did is now in jeopardy.

These capacity issues emerge when teams cannot maintain their previous performance levels, fostering a dangerous assumption: if a team succeeded in the past, they surely could replicate their success.

This overlooks human beings' dynamic nature; our needs, circumstances, collective mindset, and energy are always in flux. Using past successes as benchmarks for future performance may be inappropriate and misleading.

Planting the Seed for Toxicity

Persisting with "execution" without creating the necessary space to design thoughtful change programs that ensure proper adoption often becomes a breeding ground for toxicity. This unfolds as follows:

• High-performing individuals, or 'A players,' may develop resentment towards those unable to meet heightened demands, shouldering more responsibilities themselves. Over time, this resentment can lead to significant discontent and disengagement.
  
  
• Under pressure, teams might resort to cutting corners. Even when they know it's not the correct approach, the urgency forces decision-making without inclusive dialogue, further alienating team members.
  
  
• This environment discourages your 'B' and 'C' players, who see little reason to strive for improvement in a system that does not motivate or reward their growth.

What Gets Measured, Gets Done

A common pitfall in strategy execution is the reliance on measures of success that are either too long-term or too focused on absolute end goals, ignoring the journey's quality.

Organizations often emphasize outputs over outcomes, with little regard for how change is adopted across the board.

The absence of lead measures and the lack of comprehensive short and medium-term metrics that could provide early indicators of success are significant gaps.

These measures should encompass customer impact, team dynamics, cultural health, leadership effectiveness, and organizational adaptability.

Real-World Success: Leading a Customer Experience Transformation

As Chief Transformation Officer at a global brand, I led a significant customer experience transformation that prioritized the human elements over rapid technological deployment. My strategy focused on 3 key shifts:

1. Change Adoption as a Key Success Measure: Wellbeing and Capacity Building: Ensure teams wellbeing, understanding that a supported staff is crucial for delivering exceptional service. In addition, weaving those key design principles into every work we do Decision-Making Autonomy: Empowering teams with greater decision-making freedom to respond agilely to customer needs. Ensuring the right balance between autonomy and business risk. 
   
   
2. Refreshing Our Talent Pool: Hiring key positions from outside the industry to avoid stagnant industry norms and encourage innovative thinking.
   
   
3. Starting with Culture and Capability Assessment: Prioritizing emotional culture and business capabilities before designing and deciding on our delivery components and approach.

These shifts led to dramatically improved customer satisfaction (which is now used globally as an industry standard) and improved employee engagement scores, showcasing the efficacy of a human-centric approach in transforming customer experience.

This ,of course, requires

• Mastery of what an integrated and world-class transformation looks like 
  
  
• The ability to influence key C-level ad executive members to the art of what is possible and the cost of not addressing pain points 
  
  
• The articulation of a structure and clear how-to brings everyone on the same page and turn fear of the unknown into an excitement for collaboration and meaning 

Till next week

Jess Tayel

Founder of the People of Transformation membership & community.

Elevate Change & Transformation high-performing leaders to soar above the sea of sameness and achieve new heights in mastery, influence, & impact without the drag of going solo or slow progression.