Culture Change Workbook

1. Culture Change Workbook World Conference

2. Agenda

3. 80 MINS LEFT 10 MINS Getting Started • Each person share a story about something that happened to you as a communicator or change agent in the last couple of weeks. • What role did your organization’s culture play in the story? • Thinking about the story, consider your role in the situation: • In what way were your behaviours or the choices you made consistent with the cultural norms in your organization? • Were there ways in which your actions were inconsistent with your organization’s culture? What was that like? “Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game. It is the game.” - Louis Gerstner, IBM

4. 78 MINS LEFT 2 MINS Overview The most significant barrier to organizational change is culture. Even the most compelling business case for change often can’t move past the pervasive, systemic and entrenched forces of cultural norms. Of all the types of transformation, culture change is the most difficult to achieve, and one that typically takes 3-5 years of dedicated, focused and deliberate effort. Through this Workbook, you’ll have the opportunity to explore the nature of culture and identify techniques to advance culture change. The objectives for this Workbook exercise are to: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” - Peter Drucker 1 Understand organizational culture and its significance in change. 2 Identify a specific culture change goal. 3 Explore strategies and techniques for advancing your culture change goal.

5. 68 MINS LEFT 10 MINS Reflections The first step to changing culture is to become aware of it. To dial into your organization’s unique culture, ask yourself: What would happen in my organization that wouldn’t happen anywhere else? Share your example with your group. Culture is to humans, what water is to fish

6. 65 MINS LEFT 3 MINS What is Culture? The grandfather of organizational culture is Edgar Schein. He defines culture as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solves its problems of external adaptation and internal integration. It’s a product of joint learning”. Schein identifies 3 levels of culture: “Culture is the way we do things around here.” - John Kotter Artefacts (symbols, icons, organizational structures, sources of meaning) Beliefs & Values (what we stand for, our strategies and goals) Basic Underlying Assumptions (unconscious beliefs, what’s taken for granted)

7. 50 MINS LEFT 15 MINS Understanding Your Culture Using Schein’s model of unpacking culture into 3 levels, identify how these show up in your organization: Artefacts E.g. Our historic building Cultural norms are vital to orient human behaviour. Any initiative to changing culture must deal with the anxiety that is caused by challenging these fundamental touch points that guide day-to-day behaviour. One of the essential tasks of the change leader is to create and demonstrate psychological safety. Beliefs & Values • E.g. Our commitment to quality patient care Basic Underlying Assumptions • E.g. Unchallenged job security since we are funded by government • Discuss your findings. • What is true about your statements above? • Are they supportive of the priority change agenda of your organization?

8. 40 MINS LEFT 10 MINS Identify Your Culture Change Goal Thinking about your organization’s change agenda, clarify the specific elements of culture that you want to affect:

9. 25 MINS LEFT 15 MINS Solutions Through Culture “We can’t be creative if we refuse to be confused. Change always starts with confusion. Great ideas and inventions miraculously appear in the space of not knowing.” - Margaret Wheatley While we often see organizational culture as the problem we’re trying to fix, it’s often more effective to think about culture as the key to unlocking solutions. Thinking about your organizational culture, how can it be a source of solutions to advance your goals? Desired Mindset Desired Behaviours E.g. Develop a communications campaign to connect the electronic record to the value of quality patient care E.g. Use the electronic medical record Your Organization’s Culture Actions/Solutions E.g. Artefacts, Beliefs & Values, Basic Underlying Assumptions E.g. We are one team united for quality patient care

10. 10 MINS LEFT 15 MINS Tapping Into Social Proof Consider ways that you can tap into social proof– that is, connect your culture change to naturally occurring relationships/networks. Think about how teams can demonstrate that the change is working for them, so that these ideas and behaviours become “contagious” and spread among peer groups.

11. 0 MINS LEFT 10 MINS Wrap Up Share your perspectives on this Workbook exercise with your team. 1 What did you find most useful out of the reflections guided through the Workbook? 2 How can you integrate some of these insights into your organization? 3 What’s your first action item?