Are you working in the kind of organisation that needs to change but no matter how much they try and change internally, no matter who they recruit from outside, and no matter what kind of advice they pay for – change does not happen?

Chances are that it’s not the effort of the workforce, the talent of the new recruits or the pearls of wisdom from consultants that is holding the organisation back – it is the culture of the organisation that prevents real change.

In order to create change, (rework your structure, develop new products or find new markets, etc.) it is essential to first re-culture your organisation.  Any efforts to think or operate differently, without creating the right culture, will be short term. 

Changing culture can be long-winded but there are some ways you can short cut the process.

If you want to re-invigorate your team, why not identify everything that currently shuts them down and then stop doing that stuff?

If you want to hire new talent, why not inform them of the “shutdowns” so that they are inoculated from them, even giving them permission to challenge your sacred cows?

If you want to bring in consultants, don’t just check their technical credentials, check their culture so that anything they develop or advice fits your culture.

If you really want to change your culture, then a change in attitude from “that’s not how we do things around here” to “how should we be doing things around here?” may make all the difference.

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Written by Lisa Smith

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Lisa is a professional thinker dedicated to helping people unlock their innate creativity and to empower them to think differently – for themselves. She is passionate about building innovative cultures and about harnessing and engaging talent to create thinking communities. Lisa holds an MBA, specialising in organisational change and innovation, which forms the nucleus of her work. She relishes opportunities to share the Minds at Work thinking strategies with government bodies, socially responsible corporate, educators, community groups and farmers, helping them to turn their big ideas into realities.