When we want to change the culture of an organization, where do we start? What new approaches can we take to tackle systemic employee angst?

1. Rethinking
Culture
Solutions
-Chris Armstrong

2. Big Picture
• Culture: “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded
collectively”
• So why isn’t there a unified collective regard for the achievements and relevance of an
organization?
• Why do organizations that develop and deliver strong products continue to struggle with
employee morale and identity?
• The answer is surprising simple: Individuals within the collective will regard something
depending on how they feel about it. It’s not objective, it’s subjective.
• It is vital then, that an organization begin to understand how their employees feel about
the organization and, MORE IMPORTANTLY, the root cause of those feelings.

3. A Step Further
• Employee engagement surveys are fairly common practices of organizations
• Do you know what else is fairly common? The survey findings and the recommended
solutions that come through from the workforce.
• Change leadership
• Communicate with us better
• Make our processes and procedures more efficient and effective
• Reorganize or restructure
• Replace our promotion and rewards systems
• So what does it tell you that these are the same findings year-after-year, regardless of:
• Who’s in what position?
• Consistently changing policies and procedures?
• Numerous organizational alignments?

4. What It Should Tell You
• Is that we’ve been trying to solve our culture challenges the same way year after year but
have not focused on the root cause of the problems.
• If leadership is and has consistently been the problem, either we’ve hired the wrong
employees or promoted the wrong employees to leadership positions. Or both!
• If policies and procedures are and have consistently been the problem, either we’ve hired
the wrong employees or promoted the wrong employees to leadership positions. Or both!
• If the structure, or technology gaps, or (insert any particular excuse) are and have always
been the problem, either we’re hired the wrong employees or promoted the wrong
employees to leadership positions. Or both!

5. As the World Turns
• Through organizational realignments
• Through process and procedure changes
• Through technology advancement
• Our employees have remained
• Albeit in different positions in the organization
• Our employees fill out the surveys that lead us to take drastic steps to address their
concerns
• But who caused the concerns?
• For as many changes (structural, policy, etc.) as we’ve gone through, the employees have
been the constant. Do they need to be fired?
• Absolutely not. But they might just need a new lens.

6. A Reality Check
• Over 18 months, we did 300+ facilitated ‘Culture Sessions’ to 5,000+ workforce
participants.
• We discovered 11 findings that get to the heart of organizational culture challenges:
• These findings are not easy to swallow, regardless of how true they are
• High Egoistic Association
• Low Emotional Intelligence
• Low Systems Thinking
• High Rumor and Gossip
• High Negative Messaging
• High Confirmation Bias
High
Storytelling
• Low Accountability
• Low Communication
Continued
Storytelling
• Institutional Distrust
• Entrenched Negativity
• ‘It Is What It Is’ Complacency

7. How Do We Frame the New Lens?
• Historical survey data
• Strong facilitation
• Employee inclusion and involvement
• Strong facilitation
• Avoiding the same approaches we’ve always taken
• Strong facilitation

8. Tying It All Together
• For the most part, the complaints don’t change.
• For the most part, the solutions don’t change.
• Meanwhile:
• The structure changes
• The policies and procedures change
• The technologies change
• The workforce doesn’t change
• Sure, we hire new employees but by and large employee turnover isn’t high
• The changes we put in place are developed and executed by the employees at all levels
through the years. This is true even as employees complain, get promoted, and become
the employee that other employees complain about.

9. Changing Culture…
• Requires getting to the heart of what employees feel and why they feel what they feel
• Helping employees develop stronger skills in the areas of Emotional Intelligence and
Systems Thinking
• Developing leaders that will help get in front of the rumor, gossip, negative messaging
and other causes of storytelling
• Promoting an environment of peer accountability
• Employees challenging the negative messaging
• Employees challenging the rumors and gossip
• Employees challenging the story telling
• Taking these steps will lessen distrust which minimizes institutional distrust and
entrenched negativity
• We can create 10,000 new communication methods to address an employee survey
complaint but if the employees have system, negative feelings about the culture, the new
methods won’t matter