CultureChangeMadeSimple

Purchase the full
211-page Toolkit here

IMPORTANT NOTE
About Your
Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler
This complimentary Sampler is excerpted from the
complete Culture Builder Toolkit: A 211-page do-it-yourself
guidebook to help you Cash in on Culture, starting
today!
Whether your organization is undertaking a new strategy,
expanding to new locations, or unifying merged
companies – how you manage the culture determines
the profitable growth opportunity in your business.
In this complimentary Sampler, you receive ONE
COMPLETE STEP for each of the 4 stages of culture
building. These steps are highlighted in RED on pages 10,
12, 16, 24, 31, and 38. The remaining steps are listed so
you understand what else is involved.
Please provide proper source reference for any of this
material you use in your work or company.
The full Culture Builder Toolkit is available for purchase on
our website.
© 2013 Corporate Culture Pros. All Rights Reserved 2

Getting Started Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler
Culture Defined:
How people work together, that either helps or hinders
your ability to adapt, compete, win.
Culture is
• Habits that support
successful implementation
of a winning strategy.
• Clear definition of success:
Financially and otherwise.
• Behaviors that are
expected and common
across the business or a
particular audience (eg,
leaders, project managers,
front line service providers).
• The decision process a
team or organization uses
to balance competing
goals: Long and short-term
thinking, internal v. external
needs, competing
resources, innovation v.
cost-cutting.
• The day-to-day ways of
managing priorities,
working in teams, leading
meetings, and recognizing
and rewarding people for
great results.
Culture is not
• Values and beliefs. These
are very important, but are
not the whole story of culture
– they are often too fuzzy
and intangible for people to
know what they mean.
• Posters, coffee mugs, t-shirts,
and concierge
services. These are symbols
of caring about people, not
culture.
• A fixed way of doing things
in every market, regardless
of style, taste, and
circumstances. Culture in
today’s global enterprises
must have common global
decision processes while
allowing for local spirit, style
and pride.
• The executive’s view of what
they think it is. Most often,
senior leaders have the least
accurate view of the culture.
Bottom line:
Are people in your company enabled
to do their best work?

Culture Building Benefits
This Toolkit provides tips, tools and instructions for achieving 3 main
outcomes in a team or organization:
Remove culture
barriers to
business growth
and profit
Retain great
people by
enabling them to
do their
best work
Develop leaders
who can adapt to
constant change

Results You Should Expect
Culture Building must be grounded
in a clear purpose. There are three
outcomes our clients seek when
committing to culture building:
1. Remove Culture Barriers to
Business Growth & Profit
The link between culture and profit
is proven. In every industry are
companies who excel at innovation
and exceeding customer
expectations. Southwest Air.
Zappos. Starbucks. They are all in
competitive industries but earn
higher returns than competitors .
This Toolkit provides the steps that
these companies have used
successful drive profit and
performance across the business.
2. Retain Great People, Enabling
Them to do Their Best Work
Top talent want to be challenged,
not frustrated by bureaucracy. If
you want to keep great people, you
have to rethink hierarchically
driven, rule-based systems and
foster electric, energized, creative
teamwork. That’s when magic
happens. What is it worth to you, to
have the people in your company
say “I LOVE working here” or “This
is the best place I’ve ever worked!”
This is what the Culture Builder
Toolkit can help you do.
3. Help Leaders Adapt to
Constant Change
Every industry is facing more and
faster change. The marketplace is
more competitive than ever, based
on technology, the internet, and
globalization. Culture building can
improve any effort to successfully
drive continuous change.
Culture building creates
great leaders AND
competitive advantage.

Optimal Business Growth Requires Alignment
Strategy
Structure/
Systems
Culture
Adapted from Senn and Childress, The Secret of a Winning Culture
Alignment

Change Requires Re-Alignment of Strategy,
Structure & Culture
Old
Strategy
Old
Structure/
Systems
Old
Culture
Alignment
New
Strategy
New
Structure/
Systems
New
Culture

Culture Building Framework
A Comprehensive Approach to Implementing
the Culture-Profit Connection
4 Stages of Culture Building
3 Focus Areas for the Human Element of Change

4 Stages of Culture Building, Defined
Culture Building for Profitable Growth requires navigating through 4 distinct
stages:
Creating
urgency
(passion) for
change: A shared
belief among
leaders that
culture building is
important
Answering the
questions:
WHY we must
change
WHAT happens if
we don’t change
WHERE are we
going.
Getting
everyone
moving in a
common
direction, with
accountability.
Widespread and
shared
understanding
for HOW will we
get from here to
there.
Each person
knows their role
and is willing to
do it.
Developing the
capability to
respond to
ongoing
changes in your
industry, market.
Breaks the
change process
down into small
changes and
habits that make
sense to people.
People across
the organization
seek and
initiate change.
Objectively
measure
strengths &
weaknesses of
your current
culture
How do these
link to business
strategies, goals?
What are highest
leverage areas
to improve?
Creates
CLARITY about
what change is
needed.
Drives
MOTIVATION for
change
Fosters
COMMITMENT,
first by leaders
and then more
broadly.
Produces
SUSTAINABILITY
of ongoing
change - aka,
INNOVATION.

Why IS culture building So
important in business today?
 No More Steady State: Adapting is Essential
to Innovate, Change, Compete.
 The Failure Rate of Change
 Why Change Really Fails … and the Magic
Wand
Getting started | Section One

No More Steady State;
Adapting is Essential to Innovation.
As the world has flattened and
become more transparent, there
are new competitive forces requiring
a faster rate of adaptation. Worker
and customer expectations are
colliding with the ability of an
organization in any industry to meet
complex demands and constant
change.
The “spaces between change” are
shorter and smaller: There is no
more steady state.
Running a profitable business is
harder. Annual changes in the
Fortune 500 list – and profitability -
demonstrate how quickly you can
become extinct if you don’t adapt.
In attempts to stay competitive,
change programs and processes
(cultural and other) have
mushroomed in popularity. Do you
know the collective success rate
of all efforts to lead change in
business today? Multiple studies
document the alarming failure rate
(upwards of 75%) and billions of
dollars wasted on change.
To succeed in such a challenging
era of change, leaders need an
ongoing process for breaking down
barriers internally, engaging more
people in understanding and
executing strategy, and fostering
high performing teamwork. This
ongoing method is about building
new habits of work: The purpose of
Culture Building.
Leaders must change how
they lead in this era.
Today’s leaders must focus
on:
• Inspiring people
• Generating passion for
work
• Removing bureaucracy,
random prioritization, and
arbitrary decision making
that plagues so many
organizations.
The goal of Culture Building is to
foster ongoing clarity and alignment,
that creates competitive advantage
that is difficult to copy.
Being adaptable is a capability,
not an event. Being adaptable is
the seedbed for innovation.

Getting started | Section One
Defining the culture
building process
 Culture Building is Simple
(and yet, not easy)
 Culture Building
is creating strong “pull to the
right” toward change-friendly habits
 The Iceberg Phenomenon
(what you can’t see sinks your ship)
 Culture Building:
The Iceberg Territory
 Common Mindsets/Beliefs
on Culture
(with Reframes)
 The Role of Mindsets
Culture Building
 5 Habits of High Performing Cultures

Culture Building is creating strong “pull
to the right” toward change-friendly habits.
-10 +10
Waiting Hopeful
Cynical
Improbable Committed
3 levers to strengthen “Pull to the Right”
1. Foster a sense of urgency for change: Everyone knows WHY!
2. Leaders role model the new habit/behavior. Those who won’t,
are replaced.
3. Crystal clear goals that allow managers to re-prioritize or stop
work that does not align with the new habits or necessary
changes.
-10
Will never make it Ready to lead it!

Getting Started Culture Builder Toolkit
5 Habits of High Performing Cultures
Habit 2
Habit 2
Habit 1
CLARITY of Purpose & Direction
COMMUNICATE to Build Trust
Habit 4
Habit 3
CLEAR DECISIONS to Act
COLLABORATE across boundaries
Habit 5
CUSTOMER Focused. Really.

Getting Started Culture Builder Toolkit
5 Culture Habits Defined
CLARITY toward a compelling purpose
and direction.
When everyone in the organization
understands the Vision and
Strategy and believes in it, this
improves business performance
more than any other cultural
intervention. This activity is harder
than leaders think, and is rarely
done well.
(In Awareness)
1
COMMUNICATE to foster trust
between leaders & employees.
Trust is the missing capital in
business today, and is key to attract
and retain great people, drive
innovation, and adapt quickly.
Change leaders need to
understand how trust is built – and
eroded. ZERO tolerance for leaders
who foster mistrust if you’re serious
about culture building.
(In Alignment)
2
COLLABORATE across boundaires.
Complex global organizations
struggle with hand-offs,
coordination, role clarity. An
essential culture habit in today’s
organization is “Collaborative
Work.” Bridge boundaries with
shared goals, diverse teams, and
collaborative leadership skills, to
hone the ability to adapt, innovate,
and execute in step with the market
and customers.
(In Adaptability)
4
CLEAR DECISIONS that empower
your front lines.
Decision making is highly
dysfunctional in most companies;
both speed and process. The goal
is to drive decision rights lower,
embed a bias for action into day-to-
Day work, and ensure meetings
3
CUSTOMER focus. Really.
Get closer to your customer. Start
driving decisions based on
feedback from the marketplace.
Ensure the organization is obtaining
the same market-focused,
customer-relevant data from the
front lines to the top. versus
deciding priorities in a vacuum.
(In Adaptability)
5
Decisions, Continued
end with a discipline of decision
making. Leaders must expect
problems to be solved at the level
where they originate – and
empower people to do so. (In
Adaptability)
3

Culture Assessment
Preparing for Change
6 Steps to Culture Assessment:
1. Assess Change Readiness
2. Assess the Organizational Culture
3. Share Results with the Senior Team
4. Share Results with Participants
5. Pinpoint Key Behaviors & Culture Habits
(5 Culture Habits every company needs)
6. Frequency of Change Monitoring
The full Culture Builder Toolkit is available for
purchase on our website.

Assessment | Stage One Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler
Step 2. Assess the Organizational Culture
About the Culture Builder Self-
Assessment: The 30 questions in
the assessment were developed by
Corporate Culture Pros based on
14 years of analysis and
experience about management
practices that most closely link to
business performance measures
for profitable growth and innovation.
How to conduct: Select a valid
random sample of the target
audience for change/growth. (10%
minimally, if the target audience is
under 100 people you should invite
the whole group). Ensure you
survey people at all levels of that
target audience, not just senior
leaders or employees – ideally you
want a valid sample from each
level. If possible, have an external
or HR person collect data to
determine which responses came
from which level, as there are often
big variances in the view of the
culture between the top and the
front lines.
You can similarly do the same by
function if so desired.
Additional Tips: For a smaller
company or effort, you can shorten
the survey to 10 questions (1 per
category) and still get meaningful
data. Especially if you add a
question to the survey “What
aspects of our company culture do
you most appreciate? What
aspects make it difficult to do your
best work?”
Open-ended comments usually
tell a more complete story. The key
is you MUST give people
reassurance of anonymity or it is
unlikely responses will be candid. Is
there an external consultant, coach,
or facilitator whom you can trust to
receive and compile the data? This
is the best way to do a cultural
assessment.
An assessment of culture
should be done by an outsider
to ensure anonymity, if you
want full honesty. Choose a
trusted coach or facilitator who
is not employed by the
company for the best results.

Step 2. Assess the Organizational Culture
How to interpret results:
Continued
Look at top 3 high
and top 3 low scores
Especially the median (most common
answer).
Look at patterns
across levels Senior leadership to front-line employees
Consider which of the
lowest 5 questions
Are most important hinderers to your
goals/objectives
Vision, Planning and
Customer Focus
Are high leverage areas for most
companies. If these are low, start working
on improving these scores first.
Re-survey 1-2 focus
areas every 60-90
days
Which behaviors are most important to
change? Continuous frequent monitoring
helps drive change more quickly.
Corporate Culture Pros offers a benchmarked cultural assessment and
objective external guidance if needed. The assessment compares your
culture scores to a global data-base of nearly 1000 companies. The linkage
between your scores and business metrics is demonstrated through
research studies, spanning 25 years. This often helps establish urgency.
(See description of the Assessment on our website)

The Human Element of Change:
Getting Assessment Right
More than any other survey, a
culture assessment must answer
WHY to people being asked to
provide input. Culture assessment
often brings up trust issues if they
exist (people will question how the
information will be used and is it
really anonymous?).
The invitation should be personal
from the top leader AND their
manager, explaining why this is so
important to the organization.
Don’t undertake a culture
assessment unless you plan to
debrief every participant in some
way, within a few weeks (months at
the most). Culture assessment
raises curiosity. You need to satisfy
it, or it can be seen as “just another
survey managers will use to justify
decisions that don’t benefit us.”
Major pitfall: Whatever you do
share must be transparent in both
strengths and weaknesses – don’t
sugar-coat. If you hold back, it will
erode trust. A mindset that helps:
“No one is to blame for the current
culture, and yet, we are all
responsible for improving it.” When
leaders publically look in the mirror
and are transparent about their
weaknesses, it will foster trust.
Remember, organizations don’t
change. People change. People
want to see their leaders go first.
Personal Resiliency Element:
During the assessment phase, top
leaders often take the feedback
personally. One top leader, after
seeing the culture assessment
data, said; “It’s like telling me my
baby is ugly and it smells.”
A mindset that helps during this
phase is “Assume everyone’s input
comes from positive intent.” People
want to improve the organization as
much as the leaders do. A mindset
of “positive intent” is the opposite of
“cynical and jaded,” and is common
in individuals with a high level of
personal resiliency.

Building Awareness
Creating Urgency for Change
5 Steps to Building Awareness:
1. Establish Urgency
2. Clarify Direction
3. Revisit Your Culture Habits
4. Build The Story
of Change
5. Cascade Sessions
to Foster Awareness

Awareness | Stage Two Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler
Awareness is About
Creating urgency for change.
This Step answers the questions:
we must change
happens if we don’t change
are we going
(and why should I care, how will leaders
support it)
WHY
WHAT
WHERE
Awareness Drives MOTIVATION for change - a shared
belief that culture building is important to achieve the
desired direction.

Step 1. Establish Urgency
 Why Urgency is the First Rule
of Change- and What Happens
When It’s Missing
 Establish Urgency: Questionnaire
 Special Note: Executive Team Urgency
for Culture Building

What Happens When Urgency is Missing?
It’s like the ignition is missing to start the fire …
o Without leaders’ conviction
and commitment, the change
effort lacks an energy source –
a driving force that keeps
people’s attention on the task
at hand. There is a flavor-of-the-
month quality to change, as
the organization seeks to
achieve the goal through a new
method.
o Sincere efforts on the part of
people trying to implement
change run up against
resistance from naysayers, and
there is no leverage or
accountability with which to
fight that resistance.
o Action plans languish in
constant “back burner” mode.
Prioritization and decision
making become fuzzy and
chaotic.
o People’s morale diminishes
as they continue to expend
precious energy on projects
and tasks that foster no results.
Pressure points and
bureaucracy are allowed to run
unchecked, which get in the
way of innovation and new
ideas.
o There is no sense that
leaders are tuned in and
listening to their people, and
thus good people begin to feel
they are not cared for – when
the economy improves,
turnover/attrition increases.
Continued

8 Questions for Establishing Urgency
For You, the Top Leader. To determine
your commitment, answer the following
questions:
1. Describe the change needed in
the organization. Both the
business change and what new
culture behaviors are needed to
drive the business results. What
happens if you continue with no
changes?
2. How urgent are you about the
change, the end result? (If you
are not passionate, why should
anyone else care?).
3. Describe your commitment on a
scale of 1-10. What would have to
be different to say “It’s a 10”?
4. Describe short-term re-allocation
of resources (e.g. people, time,
money, training) you will support to
ensure long-term success of this
change. You will not succeed
without doing this! You need to
send a visible signal to people “I
am serious about this change.”
5. How much time are you willing to
dedicate directly to
communicating, educating and
reinforcing the change (hours per
week)? Executives who have led
successful strategy/culture changes
report having spent nearly 40%
(yes!) of their time personally in the
first 6-12 months, on
communication efforts (road shows,
town halls, meeting with other
leaders). Are you willing?
6. Who are the primary “make-or-break”
influencers (supporters
and resistors) you need to influence
to increase the overall
organization’s commitment to this
change? (e.g. parent company,
board, your boss, peers, your
reports, key managers). Are you
willing to spend time influencing
them? The best way is 1:1 or in
small groups.
7. How are you personally willing to
SHOW your commitment to this
change? How will you be a role
model for it? If you’re asking others
to make changes in their behavior,
what will you visibly do to show
change in your behavior?
8. Are you willing to make hard
leadership and people changes?
The fastest way to show you’re
serious about cultural change is to
let go of naysayers who are
resisting change or creating
problems for others. Who are these
people? (We talk more about
leadership courage in the
Alignment section). Minimally, move
naysayers out of key, visible roles.
And reward the most change
friendly people with key roles to
help lead the change.

8 Questions: Establishing Urgency
For Your Team
1. Have your team answer the same questions you just answered.
2. Conduct a meeting to discuss everyone’s answers.
3. Focus on “What do we need, to achieve a critical level of
commitment?” “How do we role model it, first?”
4. Use that commitment to start to build the story of change. (more details
in Step Four in this section). Together, find a powerful visual image that
represents the problem, or solution. One client took a picture of how
their product was not visible on distributors shelves. A manufacturing
site took a picture of a leaky roof, that represented poor processes
they were trying to fix. Make it have a gut punch, make it emotional.
Continued
Whether the business change is a new technology
implementation, an acquisition, or a change in market
strategy, the Top Leader’s urgency determines the
ultimate success of the change …
and of Culture Building efforts.

Build the Story of Change: 5 Questions
Why this
change?
Why now?
What happens
if we don’t
change?
What does
this change
look like?
What will
leaders do to
support this
change?
What’s
expected
of me…
What’s in it
for me?
Using your Urgency Questionnaire, to build the Story of Change. Years of
experience supporting change communications have shows, this is what
people want to know during change.
Whether the change is big or small, these are the questions people want to
know – that help them make sense of the change. Use this template every
time you are going to communication about a change to your employees.
The next slide provides more detail about how to answer them.

Forging Alignment
Getting People Moving Toward a
Common Direction
6 Steps to Forging Alignment:
1. Sponsor Culture Building
2. Define Responsibilities in
Culture Building
3. Recruit & Organize
Change Leaders.
4. Implement a
Communication
Strategy
5. Implement Culture
Habit #2 : Foster trust-based
communication
in all interactions
6. Working with Mindsets

Alignment – Stage Three Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler
6 Critical Steps to Forging Alignment
1. Sponsor Culture Building:
Leaders must go first.
2. Define Responsibilities in
Culture Building: Who is leading
the cultural building with the CEO?
What are their responsibilities?
3. Recruit & Organize Change
Leaders: Change Leaders are how
you achieve sustainable and critical
mass during any behavioral
change. More tips on how to utilize
these people are provided in the
Adaptability section of this Toolkit.
4. Implement a Communication
Strategy: Forge alignment for the
new direction, as well as the culture
needed to support the strategy and
vision. It’s about creating “pull to
the right.”
5. Implement Culture Habit #2:
Foster trust-based communication
in all interactions.
6. Working with Mindsets:
Surfacing and discussing mindsets
can make your culture building
effort more likely to take hold.

Step 3. Recruit & Organize
Change Leaders
 Why Change Leaders?
 Overview:
o What Change Leaders
Do
 Change Leaders’ Job:
Pull to the Right:
o The Tipping Point
 Role of Change Leaders
o (or Culture Champions)
 Criteria for Choosing
Change Leaders
 Example:
o Culture Champion
Recruitment
o & Selection Process
 Example:
o Culture Champion
Enrollment &
On-Boarding Process
 How to Utilize Change
Leaders

Overview: What Change Leaders Do
Great change leaders attend to all levels of change,
Including mindsets, beliefs, and identity
Senior Team
Alignment
• Clear direction
and goals
• Consistent
messages
about wins
• Be role models
Communicate
100x “See-Feel-
Do
Helping everyone
become clear and
aligned about:
• Why this
change?
• What does it
mean?
• How will we
do it?
Engage People
• Build bridges
between
different
company
cultures or sub-cultures.
• Establish
“fingerprints” on
the change,
• Foster role
clarity
• Effective
decision
process
• Visible reward
and recognition
Build Trust. Restore Belief.
Make Things
Make Sense.

Change Leader’s job in culture building is
creating strong “pull to the right” toward new
habits.
-10 +10
Waiting Hopeful
Cynical
Improbable Committed
-10
Will never make it Ready to lead it!
3 levers to strengthen
“Pull to the Right”
1. Foster a sense of
urgency for change:
Why?
2. Leaders role model the
new habit/behavior
3. Crystal clear goals, with
managers empowered
to re-prioritize or stop
work that doesn’t align
with the habits or
change.

Pull to the Right – Tipping Point
On-Board & Organize Change Leaders
“Pull to the right” is creating a
“tipping point,” where enough
people at the front end of the
change curve are practicing the
new habits, which gets others to
adopt them more quickly.
Executive team must “go first.”
But they are not enough.
You need to aggressively work
the Adoption Cycle:
Late – Middle - Key Influencers
Key influencers can speed up
pull to the right.
o Often these are NOT people
with the most senior titles
o These are people whom others
look to for direction
o They have big networks, often
informal.
You can often identify them
through a survey as simple as
asking employees “Who’s the one
person you most trust to seek help
from around here?” These are your
natural Change Leaders.
o If one person is trying to lead or
role model change, it’s hard.
The key is organizing these
people into a community,
where they can share learning
and be part of the process
together. Bring them together
at least quarterly. There is
power in numbers, and our
experience is people are highly
energized when they band
together and start making
changes to the culture together.
o See the next slide for ideas
about how to enroll and
utilize change leaders in
culture change projects.
Target some key naysayers: A
converted naysayer is often a great
ally.

Role of Change Leaders
How Change Leaders can be
used depends on the scope and
reach of the culture alignment
effort. Typical roles will include:
o Be early adopters and role
models for the new culture
habits. Encourage others
actively to follow.
o Collect stories of
organizational wins and
successes, and actively
participate in organizational
communication forums about
culture building.
o Watch for mindsets and
beliefs that hinder progress:
“That won’t work in our area” –
“It’s too hard” -- “This is how
we’ve always done things” –
“We have to do X, we can’t do
Y.” teach Change Leaders to
ask open-ended questions such
as “How can we challenge this
in our area?” “What are some
possibilities for doing this
differently.”
o Be the “voice of change” to
increase energy and attention
across the organization on
“what’s changing” – eg, regular
posting about culture progress
in online Communication
forums, speak up in meetings.
o Facilitate teams to solve
specific business problems
with the new culture behaviors
or habits. It is very powerful to
enroll a Change Leader to
facilitate a breakthrough on a
project budget or timeline, a
new business strategy, or
across 2-3 parts of the business
that are not working well
together.
o Help bridge line of sight
between leaders and
employees, providing insights
from the “trenches” about
changes – what’s working,
what’s not.

Developing Adaptability:
The capability for ongoing change
4 Steps to Developing Adaptability:
1. The Case for Adaptability
2. Implement Shortcut Habits 3, 4, and 5:
o Faster, better decision making
o Relentlessly pursue role clarity
o Improve customer focus
3. Facilitate Two Conversations
using Change Leaders:
o Recovering from
reorganization
o We are masters of our
destiny
4. Develop Mindsets of
Learning & Personal Resiliency

Adaptability – Stage Four Culture Builder Toolkit
5 Culture Habits Every Company Needs
Habit 1
CLARITY of purpose & direction
Habit 3
CLEAR DECISIONS that empower front lines.
Decision making is highly dysfunctional in most
companies; both speed and process. The goal is to
drive decision rights lower, embed bias for action into
day-to-day work, and ensure meetings end with a
discipline of decision making. Leaders must expect
problems to be solved at the level where they
originate, and empower people to do so.
Habit 5
CUSTOMER focus, Really.
Habit 2
COMMUNICATE to build trust.
Habit 4
COLLABORATE across boundaries

Adaptability – Stage Four Culture Builder Toolkit Sampler
Culture Habit #3:
5 Steps to Faster, Better Decision Making
1 2 3 4 5
What is
the goal?
What is the
decision?
Whose
decision
is it?
Decide how
to decide?
Who to
Inform?
What do you
think? What
are your
opinions?
I know what
I’m going to
decide.
Foster a Bias for Action!

Culture Habit #3:
5 Steps to Faster, Better Decision Making
1 2 3 4 5 Good Decision Making process is a
1) What is the goal?
Most decisions get stuck when the goal isn’t clear. Define it clearly, make it
visual – Post it or write it down.
2) What is the decision?
Name It. (sometimes it’s framed as a problem, sometimes as a solution) –
Name it. Is this the right decision? (often a group will spin their wheels on
an either/or choice between options, when they really should be exploring
several ways to achieve the goal, vs. narrowing and choosing).
3) Whose decision is it?
This is the decision right] Name ONE person. (It’s never a team). Is that
the right person to decide, or should they be empowering someone else?
Who needs to weigh in on the decision? (facts, analysis, opinions,
recommendations). CRUCIAL POINT: Solicit feedback from those who will
be directly impacted before you make the decision. This paves the way for
buy-in later.
On the flip side, stakeholders who want input must agree to support the
decision and the decision-maker once they have weighed in and been
heard. This avoids endless escalation, which derails speed. It requires a
great deal of trust and willingness to suspend one’s personal agenda for
the good of the team or organization.
4) Decide how to decide.
What is the most appropriate decision making method. (see bottom of
page). Identify the most important criteria – in priority order – to consider in
making the decision. (eg: speed of implementation, lower risk, bigger
impact, most buy-in, etc.)
5) Who to inform.
Discuss who needs to know the following about the decision: The goal we
are trying to accomplish, the factors we considered, why this decision, and
how it will impact everyone.
What is
the goal?
What is the
decision?
Whose
decision
is it?
Decide how
to decide?
Who to
Inform?
critical success factor for improving
organizational adaptability

The Human Element of Change:
7 Tips for Getting Adaptability Right
1. Small change: Remember the
small change principle. Don’t try
to boil the ocean. Pick a few
problems to solve. start where
there is felt need, and small
groups of people who want to
lead – working on “pain points”.
Find the leaders in the
organization who want to help,
and give them a lot of permission
and room to fix existing issues
and to try new things. “Place
small bets quickly, learn and
adapt. While the adaptability
stage is the “last stage” of
change, you still want to utilize
the small change principle.
2. Knowing does not equal
doing: a bias for action, with
feedback is critical.
3. The best change leaders know
that learning is the task, that
mistakes happen along the way
and that feedback will improve
what you are trying to
accomplish. If you want more
adaptability, make learning one
of your values. Rigorously
support mistakes and feedback.
Have wide-spread discussions
about this.
4. Role models are crucial to
changing organizational
habits. If leaders (and your
change leader community) don’t
consistently demonstrate the
new ways of working, the
organization will likely slip back
into old habits and patterns.
5. Seek the strongest
commitment possible from the
most senior leader and coach
him or her to make that
commitment public. Nothing is
more important than getting
senior leaders to learn how to be
role models for the change. (If
your vision is to be more
adaptable, are they showing
greater adaptability?)
6. Do you reward people and
projects when they fail? If not
start now. (there is no such thing
as failure only feedback).
7. Major pitfall: Declaring
success too soon, or said
another way, taking your foot off
the accelerator too soon. To
develop true adaptability is a
marathon, not a sprint.
Continued

Final Advice:
If You Want the Best Fruit, Build the Best Soil
Use Turtle Wisdom: Slow and
steady wins the race. Focus on small
changes with targeted groups, done
well.
Be patient. It takes TIME and
persistence for new habits to take
hold in the culture. Don’t back off and
don’t declare victory too soon.
Be realistic. You will need to cycle
through the 4 stages more than once.
Culture building is not a linear
process. We defined 4 stages to
provide a set of concrete definitions
and tools for the journey; but it is not
as simple as “OK we’re done with
that one, time to move on.”
Get the complete
Culture Builder Toolkit
Questions?
Call us for a complimentary
Culture Strategy Session to
discuss:
• Assessing and diagnosing
culture
• Creating a strong culture-profit
link
• Coaching your Do-It-Yourself
effort
www.CorporateCulturePros.com
Or call 303-898-3920

CultureChangeMadeSimple

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