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How to Create Culture Change

11/3/2018

The phrase “The culture has to change” – is almost a daily occurrence in the media the but is anybody listening? In recent history you have to ask are the cultures that exist in many of today’s organisations actually fit for purpose. We have heard it in the context of the uncontrolled demise of Carillion, BHS, RBS, and Worldwide Banking with austerity effects that’s ongoing. In the UK, the British MP expenses scandal is still simmering and not fixed.

In the auto industry the disclosure of Volkswagen worldwide emission irregularities is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of unacceptable behaviour in the sector. Sport is also a casualty. The Sky cycling team are under investigation for the use of the apparently non-regulated and documented of use of TUEs (Therapeutic Use Exceptions of certain drugs) in the Giro de Italia and the Tour de France in 2017.

The culture of organisations such as Football is still in the lime-light as is International Athletics. FIFA’s culture is under a cloud and investigation for corrupt practises around vote rigging associated with the hosting of the upcoming World Cup. Pressure on the IAAF for ‘inconsistency’ and failing to maintain ‘standards on drug use’ resulting in the disclosure on widespread doping by Russian Athletes has led to withdrawals in the Olympics, Paralympics and 2018 Winter Olympics. Investigation into the ‘bullying culture’ of Police and failing NHS Trusts and Local Authorities is almost a monthly occurrence, as well as poor performance in our wider educational system. It seems that the cultures that operate in many of our institutions and business organizations are just not fit for purpose.

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Coaching – The Lazy Way to Outsource Your Organisation’s Thinking and Capability

8/3/2018

Is Coaching just a lazy way to outsource the thinking that your key managers should be committing to personally. It’s an interesting idea, and not one that makes me popular amongst my Coaching buddies – but true in many circumstances. I mean, ask yourself…..

Can you name and identify specific Coaching or L&D activities that develop your peoples’ abilities to directly and positively impact their results?
Do you invest solely in L&D or Coaching activities that demonstrate a clear and positive ROI to the performance of managers and their teams – or do your people adopt a sheep dip approach where some stuff works and sticks, and other stuff does not - but you are not sure which works?
Do you persist in L&D activity that has no known relationship to improved performance of your people in your business?

If Output does not exceed Input, why do it?

Much of what I do falls within my unorthodox way to facilitate tangible, measured organisational and personal learning that generates results. – that is, supporting managers and their teams to take 100% ownership and commit to practising and perfecting new behaviours by ‘doing’ things (rather than just knowing more) that cause significant improvement?

What is important is that improvement should be a ‘continuous’ and measured journey of 'practising' and 'doing' things which pitch organisational performance beyond the competition and provide value for money to stakeholders and shareholders alike.

The Knowing – Doing Gap

My belief is that the average organisation does not activate, energise and motivate their people to start ‘doing’ more and raising their profile and performance. My experience is that far too much ‘run of the mill’ traditional L&D Coaching resides in people ‘knowing more’ – but not actually actively experimenting and performing at the higher level.

I take a strong point from change guru and acclaimed author Robert Quinn, that much deeper learning comes from ‘doing’ and ‘actively experimenting and being held to account’ than the common orthodoxy from passive reflection and group discussion.

Stretch beyond Your Comfort Zone

From personal interventions, I am also led to believe that people learn much more by stretching beyond their current comfort zones and actively and fearlessly ‘going for it’. If I had a large company I would want my staff to stretch and challenge more than offered by the orthodox route of attending routine, non-challenging training seminars and lacklustre and safe 1:1 or group coaching.

ROI on traditional Coaching and L&D

This next few bullet points may interest people who actually care and are responsible for performance…….

If you cannot prove a direct relationship between L&D activity and Coaching and relate this to bottom-line results, - you may have a big problem.
If you cannot trace the ‘golden thread’ connections between strategic vision, Coaching and L&D to actual behaviour change, you might want to explore new opportunities.
If you want to reject the ‘lazy route’ of choosing the 'easy option' of traditional coaching for real organisational learning through personal transformation, you will soon yield the results you need to take you to the higher level of performance
If you want to know which behaviours enhance learning and performance, email me to discuss things further or request my published article on the ROI of Coaching

And know that Nothing Changes until behaviour Changes. This simple truth has always guided my business advisory work. Stop doing what does not work and start doing what does. It’s as simple as that. And I am a great believer that we do learn more from failure than from great success.

I would be interested in your views and hope this short piece enlivens the debate over what works in organisational change work as opposed to that which consumes resource and time, but contributes little.

Email Philip Atkinson

How to Create Culture Change

Coaching – The Lazy Way to Outsource Your Organisation’s Thinking and Capability

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