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Step 4: Inspire connection to the cause.
The fourth critical step in the culture-driven transformation model is to really inspire a deep connection to that mission narrative. So again, like the other elements, it starts with senior leadership alignment communicating a clear and concise mission narrative throughout the ranks of the organization. But also there’s other fundamental things that leaders and managers need to do better in order to connect people emotionally. And that is defining the win and defining the purpose behind why we’re going through this transformation.
Many organizations as they’re running to their death and racing for the finish line and trying to stay competitive and do all of their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities while they’re also piling on new priorities and new responsibilities onto the team and there’s chaos ensuing, they forget that they really need to, if they want to have an engaged workforce that’s driving this transformation, they have to connect people to that mission narrative. And, to do so, it has to be clearly articulated, clearly defined, there’s got to be purposeful storytelling happening throughout the entire process, both through formal channels and informal channels, celebrating quick wins so people can understand, okay, there is tangible progress.
Step 5: Assign change evangelists and develop team networks.
The fifth step is to essentially assign change evangelists and develop team networks. So change evangelists are going to initially come from senior leadership and those actively engaged employees who believe in this vision, they’re emotionally connected, they understand the vision of what they’re trying to accomplish. And then through formal and informal channels, they will go out and get other people on board with that vision, so it’s not always being voiced from the top, coming from the CEO or senior leaders or a memo that’s put out by the board of directors. It’s through more informal channels, through highly passionate and well-respected people in the organization who are saying, “Hey guys, this is why we’re doing this. Let me tell you a story about what we just did to help push this forward.” And then other people, their light bulbs are going to go off and they’re going to start thinking, “Oh okay, now I kind of get this because Sally over here, who I love and respect and she’s so good at what she does, she believes in this vision and so I want to believe in it too.” And then those networks are your more informal channels of other influential people. And that’s the job of the change evangelists is to develop those networks so that you have an informal way to pass an aligned mission narrative throughout the organization.
Again, one area where organizations kind of get this wrong is they don’t communicate this powerful vision. They undercommunicate it. It will be at a quarterly, all-hands company meeting, a monthly newsletter, an intranet, and maybe a couple other channels, but when you add those up, it’s maybe 20 communications about a very important vision in a year. But if you can do this through formal and informal channels, but also have your change evangelists and senior leaders making a point almost every single day, two or three times a day, maybe it’s in the break room or by the water cooler or in a smaller meeting, to engage in purposeful storytelling so people are getting this informal message – as long as the communication is aligned. When misaligned communications starts going through these networks, that can be a little detrimental and you have to fix that. But then you have all these informal mechanisms to really ignite a passion behind that vision. And that’s why it’s so important to have those evangelists and that pool will grow and then develop those team and peer networks throughout an organization.
Step 6: Tell purposeful stories.
The sixth element is telling purposeful stories. Telling purposeful stories is really about finding pathways and channels and mechanisms for telling the story of the progress of the transformation vision. And what that does is it keeps people engaged. It keeps them interested. It keeps them really focused on fulfilling that vision and those people who are kind of in that wait-and-see category can eventually start to get on board because they want to be a part of that exciting storytelling mechanism. They want to be part of driving that great vision forward for the organization.
One of the key points to remember is that most organizational transformation efforts, if they succeed, take longer and have more significant hard and soft costs. And therefore fear ensues, uncertainty ensues, the engaged become disengaged, the disengaged become actively disengaged, and so it’s this snowball effect if it’s not handled correctly. Which is why so many of these transformation efforts don’t meet their ultimate objectives, because it’s a very complex thing in a much more dynamic and complex business environment that we’re a part of today.