Leading cultural change initiatives at work is a mammoth task. Especially for introverts. I used to be the shyest of people. Certainly not someone you would consider for heading up a large scale organisational change project for an organisation.
The idea itself seemed terrifying. But I put my hand up to be considered as a resource for the project anyway. Note, to be a resource. I thought it would be great to learn how to approach a project like this and lend a hand myself.
Background
A little context first. I was part of a central executive team for my boss who had about 1,000 employees located in multiple offices across the state. His team had five people who were dedicated to running his central office. The team had a manager who I reported into and we ultimately reported to our boss.
My manager became the lead for this project. It made sense that all messaging and direction came from this central team. He asked me whether I wanted to co-lead the initiative and I said ‘yes’! Liking the fact that I would have him as a safety net.
Staff from across the organisation nominated themselves to also be a part of the initiative. They first checked in with their managers as to whether they could participate.
After about 6 months, the project really wasn’t going anywhere. This was mostly because of a restructure among the leadership team with culture being the last thing on their minds. As a result, those who had self nominated weren’t very motivated to contribute. They didn’t show up to our regular scheduled meetings or become involved in initiatives.
On top of this, my boss and my manager eventually left the organisation as well! This left me as the key contact for the project. Among all this, I admit I had let the project slide. It was terrifying to lead it on my own! I also didn’t have anyone I felt I could turn to for support with leading a project like this. Going it alone was scary.
After a few months, the organisation had somewhat of a stable leadership team and my new boss wanted the project to kick up again. I was asked to lead the project and think of a way to re-launch it.
This was terrifying and exciting at the same time. I wanted to make a good impression on the new leadership team.
So what did I do? I’ll summarise it here in dot points as I could go on for a little while!
Pitch at the weekly executive meeting
I asked my boss if I could speak at the following weekly executive meeting, where all the executive directors (her direct leadership team) would be in the room. I developed a short slide pack explaining what the initiative was about, why it is being relaunched and what I needed from everyone in the room. I.e. support. I needed their backing to run a cultural change project or it would have no hope and die a slow death. Again.
Executive leadership team support
Leading cultural change needs support from the top. I wasn’t sure whether I’d have their support at first. But I managed to pitch my idea for the relaunch well and they were overwhelmingly supportive of it. In the case that this happened, I had prepared exactly what I needed from them. And I just asked!
Staff nominations
I knew the only way people in the organisation would want to be part of a movement like this is if they were directly nominated by their leader. So I asked each executive director to nominate a certain number of people each and to send me their nominations by the end of the week. I also asked for their support in letting staff be part of this initiative.
Hold a Launch day
I tried to make this significant and special and asked people to help me put it together. I spent $40 on a packet of balloons, streamers in the colours of the project logo, and of course chocolate, and asked people to help me decorate a room.
Merchandise
I wanted to market the group as the ‘go to people’ for change for all staff across the organisation and sought help to advertise this in some way. I tried to create a bit of a following or a ‘club’ that people could still ask to be a part of. There was a print team located in one of our branches and I asked for their help to create a few things for the movement. They helped me design and create notepads, posters and calendars showcasing events to staff, with all with the relevant logos and colours featured.
Ask a leader to attend the launch and brief them
I asked whether anyone from the executive leadership team would support me as an executive sponsor and attend the launch and weekly stand-ups. I had half of them say yes! Again, leading cultural change requires visible support from the top.
Prepare
I was seen as the source of knowledge for this project, even if I felt I didn’t know what I was doing half the time, so I tried my best to prepare for any questions they had about how the program would work, what they needed to dedicate to being part of this project. In some of the meetings, if I didn’t have the answer, I looked to one of the exec leaders for support in providing an answer.
Set up actions
I asked an external consultant who was working in a team nearby whether they would be willing to dedicate a couple of hours to facilitate the first workshop where we would gather ideas for initiatives to action. I checked with the relevant executive director who approved (after I did a lot of chasing)
Chase
Whatever it was I needed, I just kept going after it. If I needed an exec director to give me a list of names, I would ask nicely, creating a sense of urgency (e.g. everyone else had given me their names and I was just waiting on theirs). When I asked whether I could borrow a consultant for a few hours, the executive director wasn’t sure at first so I chased and kept pointing out how successful the first workshop would be with their support. Keep chasing, nicely and respectfully.
Weekly stand-ups
I led weekly stand-up meetings with all the staff who were involved and we all spoke about our progress, what we had on for the next week and any blockers regarding each of our initiatives. This was a great way to keep momentum, remain engaged, show them that we had exec leadership support and help teams overcome anything blocking their progress.
Use of a social platform
Our organisation had a few online ways of communicating with staff so I made sure we were featured regularly on each one. Staff who were part of the group would also post what they were doing in their projects or activities they had on and we started to have a following of staff.
That’s pretty much the essence of what I did and it managed to work. There were definitely other actions I also took throughout the process. But I feel these were the most significant that led to the success of the initiative the second time round.
As time went on we quickly had successful projects launch and people coming together to take part in them. I even started to have people asking me whether they could be a part of the group!
Leading cultural change in an organisation is difficult. Even though it terrified me I did it. When asked to lead my next project, I was less nervous to do so. And so my experience began to grow.
I would love to hear about your own experiences in leading a project that initially terrified you! Please comment below.
For further career insights, check out my blog here.
