It’s rare to truly “change culture”—a better mental model is “evolve culture”.

1. Approach to Evolving Organizational Culture | Blue Beyond Consulting1

2. Approach to Evolving Organizational Culture | Blue Beyond Consulting2
Contents
Who is Blue Beyond
Foundational Thoughts
Our Approach

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Blue Beyond helps leaders and teams succeed. We are people-side-of-
business generalists who are expert in the “soft stuff” that is so often the
hard stuff — leadership, communication, change, culture, organizational
effectiveness, talent management, and employee engagement. We partner
with our clients to envision possibilities, activate their people, execute with
excellence, and achieve breakthroughs.
Building effective organizations where
both the business and the people thrive.

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Employee Engagement
Activating employee
commitment, enthusiasm, and
accountability in the ways that
matter most.
How we help
Leadership, Management,
and Team Building
Developing leaders, managers,
and teams that deliver for the
business and for one another.
Culture
Nurturing effective
purpose-driven,
trust-based, brand-aligned,
accountability-focused cultures.
Change Management
Managing complex changes in
ways that make people part of the
solution, not the problem.
Communications
Enabling employee
engagement and high-
performing cultures through
effective “Big C” and “little c”
communication.
Talent Management
and Organizational
Effectiveness
Building organizations
where learning, agility, and
business outcome
achievement are the norm.
Education, Government,
and Nonprofit
Clarifying strategy, strengthening
capabilities, and unlocking
possibilities for mission-driven
organizations.

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Experience in a Wide Variety of Industries
We have worked in nearly every industry, including energy, financial services,
high tech, biotech, government, manufacturing, retail and consumer goods.

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What is Organizational Culture?

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Impact
Workplace Trends Impacting Employee Expectations
of Culture and Engagement
Speed of innovation
is key to success
Workforce comprised of
multiple generations
across the globe –
“Generation C”
(connect, collaborate, communicate)
Work is an activity, not a
location – the growing
integration of work and life
Expanding social web
can increase engagement
and collaboration
Companies no longer
“own” their brands – who
we are on the inside is
who we are on the outside
The era of “always on”
customer engagement
with expectation of a
unified experience across
all channels

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Pitfalls to Avoid
Culture imposed top-down
rather than engaging a
critical mass in evolving
the culture
Leadership does not
understand their critical
role, nor do they model
their behaviors in line with
the desired culture
Not enough middle
management and
employee engagement,
contribution and
collaboration
“Soft” side of culture
(engaging vision, leadership
behaviors, etc.) not backed up
by “means of execution” i.e.
realignment of operational
processes and support systems
Failure to anchor desired
culture and behaviors to
marketplace and company
vision and strategy

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Our Approach
It’s rare to truly “change culture”—a better mental
model is “evolve culture”
Why leads to what and how—a compelling business
rationale is essential
Leadership is essential but not sufficient—“CEO-says”
approaches rarely succeed
The method is the intervention—engaging and
empowering employees to aspire to and cultivate an
effective culture is the cornerstone to high-performing
cultures
Brand/culture alignment—culture is invigorated when
who we are on the inside and who we are on the
outside is aligned
BASELINE ASSUMPTIONS

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Our Approach
Clarify how culture is linked to the future success of our business
Engage the organization to create a compelling culture aspiration
Align leadership commitment and behavior for success
Build architecture and plan to stimulate and sustain desired culture
Execute plan, empowering the organization to aspire and achieve
ADAPTABLE | APPRECIATIVE | PRACTICAL | HOLISTIC

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Our Approach
Evolving culture requires a clear and compelling case for change
Senior Leadership understanding and alignment on case for change
is essential to ensure leadership sustains ownership of the effort
Taking the time up front to build this leadership understanding,
alignment and ownership is key—and begins to lay the ground work
for how leadership may need to shift in order to evolve culture
Ensuring agreements and governance processes are in place for
brand/culture alignment is essential
Establishing “culture evolution team” to ensure cross-organizational
and cross-functional (up/down and across) alignment, ownership and
commitment is crucial—HR can not “own” culture change alone
Clarify how culture is linked to the future success of our business

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Our Approach
A generative, “organization up” approach (versus top-down approach)
engages multiple levels in the discovery process and begins to build
the foundation for engagement in culture evolution efforts overall
Utilizing qualitative methods such as culture “walks”, critical incident
interviews, focus groups, leadership interviews, etc. help us observe
“culture in action”, understand strengths, identify gaps, and reveal
aspiration
Leverage technology to ensure global voices are engaged (video
conference, WebEx/GoTo Meeting, pulse survey, poll anywhere, etc.)
Utilize cross-organizational working group (or groups) to
support/validate findings and aspiration
A thoughtfully designed culture and engagement survey may be
suggested to validate and augment qualitative findings and help lay the
groundwork for culture evolution
Engage the organization to create a compelling culture aspiration

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Our Approach
Engage and involve leadership throughout the process to:
o Build understanding of their role
o Equip them to become effective supporters and role models of the
culture evolution
o Ensure ownership and alignment of the diagnosis and aspirational
culture
o Translate aspirations to evolved culture framework (values and
behaviors) that they must portray and hold themselves accountable to
Leverage governance to ensure alignment of culture/brand
initiatives
Coach/advise/scaffold key leaders as needed to ensure they show
up as effective “amplifiers and enablers” of desired culture
Align leadership commitment and behavior for success

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Our Approach
Determine how aspirational culture is going to be nurtured and
sustained in the organization
o HR/People practices, processes and tools (i.e., Development, TA,
Onboarding, Performance Management, Rewards and Recognition, etc.)
o Communication/Employee engagement initiatives, programs, tools, etc. that
create/reinforce lore, meaning and identity
o “Launch” strategy—in alignment with brand/new building, etc.
o Leadership competencies, behaviors, programs initiatives
o Manager role, accountabilities and development
Establish “launch” and “sustaining” plan execution governance to
ensure effective, collaborative and sustained implementation
Ensure ongoing organizational voice, buy-in and feedback—”nodes”
throughout the organization that will enable us to sense what’s landing
and taking hold and what adjustments need to be made
Align on key measures and metrics for progress
Build architecture and plan to stimulate and sustain desired culture

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Our Approach
Implement in a coordinated, aligned way—learn and adjust as we
go
Clearly and consistently articulate evolved culture framework in
ways that are meaningful to employees in their “day job”
Help employees internalize the culture through storytelling and lore
Provide scaffolding for desired leadership and manager behavior
and role modeling
Empower employees to share own experiences through social
platforms, mobile app, etc.
Explore other potential ways to roll out and keep alive such as
culture videos, Website, engagement events, etc.
Celebrate how success gets enabled by culture
Execute plan, empowering the organization to aspire and achieve

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Things to consider
Culture and Strategy need to align in results-producing behaviors.
o How will the desired future state culture enable business goal
achievement?
Cultures don’t change—people change cultures.
o Who—among and beyond leadership—are the essential opinion
leaders and change agents we need to enlist?
Communication just increases confusion and lack of alignment if
the mechanisms that really drive behavior are not aligned.
o What 2-3 most important people processes need to be changed first to
create the conditions for culture change?
Progress milestones and outcome goals need to be owned by
leadership.
o What key metric(s) will all leaders be accountable for?

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Thank you
To learn more, please visit bluebeyondconsulting.com