Good day,
"The power of water comes from the source," says a Persian proverb. It sums up what I recently experienced in several conversations: Generational changes are currently an important topic in many companies. Founders, board members, HR and strategy departments are all equally concerned with this topic. In order to keep the organization flowing during the change at the top or during the "onboarding" of new generations of employees, the most important thing is the inner attitude:
In terms of clarity about what makes the company successful,
the strength to stand up for the principles of success,
and focus on not losing what makes the company special.
Founders and board members can control all these points themselves.
Why are they nevertheless little used? The reason is that many people believe that soft factors are static. The Swiss VR Monitor II/2022, published in November, confirms that while 80% of boards of directors deal with the topic of culture, only one in 20 companies also analyzes and consciously changes culture.
What steps can you take directly?
#1: Making change the order of the day
The very first step is to get management to continuously develop and implement the company culture.
"It's important to start with the leadership team because that is the foundation for the direction of the entire company. It gives us the language to work together constructively," the CEO of a family-run SME recently told me.
Getting alignment in the leadership team requires a critical thinking process that is often avoided in boardrooms. On the one hand, it's about coming up with breakthrough goals that are impossible to achieve in the current situation. The trick is then to combine this with daily routines to review the standard day by day.
Borrowed from Japanese kaizen ("good change"), this way of working is ideal for board members, HR and strategy leaders to stay in dialogue with management and secure the company's future even in difficult markets.
#2: Live a living history
Promoting the organization's adaptability in this way is not enough: the next goal is to provide orientation.
When a company grows from a handful of like-minded individuals to hundreds or thousands of employees, it can easily lose its founding ideas and values. To preserve these ideas and values and foster a sense of shared identity, founders of long-term companies never tire of reminding employees and customers of their origin story and telling, with a certain amount of humor and candor, how they grew up as organizations.
Looking back into the past to create a sense of shared identity and highlighting what makes the organization tick is one aspect. "Living stories" about what newcomers are doing and experiencing today, and providing glimpses into the future of the organization with which they hope to continue to be successful, are also part of the process.
Stories bring clarity to what is special to preserve, describe a shared understanding of strategy, and unite the entire workforce as well as customers around common themes.
#3: Implement the sense principle
Connectivity does not work without creating meaning for employees and customers.
Karl Weick refers to sensemaking as the way people continually try to deal with experiences that are surprising, complex, or confusing. In organizational terms, it is the process by which individuals project their identity into their work environment and see it confirmed (or not) there. This works through exchange and communication.
Have you - as a founder, board member or manager - always wanted to approach the topics of sense-making and culture in your team or organization in a playful and light-hearted way?
If so, I'd like you to click "Reply" and let me know if you're interested in participating in our Purpose Culture pilot in the new year.
Without any obligation, you will have the opportunity to take a look at our new cockpit, with which we intuitively identify, measure and visualize sense-making on the basis of six purpose categories (needs; effectiveness; skills; orientation; values; motivation). Already curious about it? Here you can already find some preliminary information.
Guest at the Silberball Kultur Café in Bregenz
That's all!
Thank you for reading this far. I wish you a reflective Advent and Christmas season and the necessary rest between the years to recharge your batteries for the new year.
