White Paper by TOP and R&G Global Consultants
Company culture is a term on everybody’s lips these days. And rightly so. If you’re aiming for Business Process Excellence through sustained and improved performance, you’ll be very unlikely to achieve it if your culture isn’t right. That’s not just our opinion. A survey by HBS Professor Emeritus James L. Heskett found that as much as half of the difference in operating profit between organisations can be attributed to effective cultures.
The number of surveys and seminars being carried out on the subject of company culture confirms that awareness of its importance is at an all-time high. However, a study on investments in cultural change by HBR revealed a mysterious gap between the acknowledgement of culture’s importance and the reality of instilling a culture that delivers the anticipated business impact. Clearly this is no straightforward matter.
The reason? Culture is not an exact science. Outcomes are unpredictable. Culture can, and will, manifest in many different ways. Further complicated by the fact it will always continue evolving (for better or worse), so therefore requires constant ongoing attention to maintain efficacy. The analogy with herding cats is truly appropriate.
Yet rounding up those cats is essential for future success. The only remaining question is “how?”. In the absence of scientific solutions, many myths have arisen around the possible approaches.
Our whitepaper addresses five of the most prevalent myths relating to cultural change we encounter in the course of our work. Our unravelling of these should reveal insights that will help you to lead change, as well as challenging you to re-examine your current ongoing initiatives or plan for effective culture change interventions.
Read the White Paper by Aart Willem de Wolf (R&G Global Consultants) and Sonja Wekema (The Other Perspective): Mastering the Art of Herding Cats