5 Rules for Affecting Real Culture Change

5 New Rules Guaranteed to Build Trust

A lot of Behavioral Economics can feel intimidating. However, it doesn’t have to be. The Five Rules Podcast Series is our attempt at giving you an easy entry point into the complex and messy world of Behavioral Science.

A great idea is a beautiful place to start when it comes to improving your Customer Experience to benefit your bottom line. When combined with a deliberate strategy and cunning tactics, a great idea is almost enough to make you successful, but only "almost enough." 

While these elements are fundamental to your success, affecting a real culture change at your organization is vital to achieving the customer-driven growth you hope to inspire. This episode of The Intuitive Customer shares our five rules for affecting real culture change. With these rules guiding your actions, you are well on your way to fostering the proper environment for your idea, strategy, and tactics to deliver the results you want.

What Are The Five Rules?

The five rules for affecting real culture change build upon each other. They include:

The 5 Rule for Affecting Real Culture Change

1. Create or define a burning platform.
2. Recognize this is a long-term goal.
3. Be clear on your vision for the future.
4. Remember that "you don't make an omelet without breaking eggs."
5. Lead from the top. 

What Should You Do With Them?

Create or define a burning platform. Change is difficult and a bit painful for people. Therefore, unless the pain of change is less than the pain of staying the same, most people will resist making a change. Consequently, it would be best if you defined the problem and the pain it will cause the organization. Without the burning platform that only change will extinguish, you will have difficulty making meaningful changes in your organization. Just ask Circuit City, Blockbuster, or Kodak. 

Recognize this is a long-term goal. If you think you will implement and complete a culture change in six months, I wouldn't recommend taking it on. While you can get an excellent start and even make progress, six months is not long enough to affect the fundamental changes needed to foster customer-driven growth in many organizations. A more reasonable term is three to five years. 

Be clear on your vision for the future. It is imperative that you know what you want the culture to change to, and also what things you need to do to change the culture from where it is presently. You need to know what you want to start doing and what you need to stop doing. Moreover, communication (and re-communication) will be vital to get the team on board with your plan. 

Remember that "you don't make an omelet without breaking eggs." Despite your best efforts, not everyone is going to approve of your plan or your changes. Some may go so far as to obstruct progress. It would be best to resolve yourself to the idea that you might need to remove someone from their position because they are getting in the way of progress. You can't make a Customer Experience omelet without breaking a few eggs. 

Lead from the top. It takes more than words to effect change. People take notice of what you do to support your ideas. Specifically, you should examine how you prioritize your time. For example, if putting the customer at the center of what you do is essential to your plan, you should have time set aside in your schedule to do that for customers, too. When you show your team that you are not asking them to do anything you are not willing to do yourself, you increase employee engagement and improve the Employee Experience. 

To discuss this further contact us at www.BeyondPhilosophy.com

About Beyond Philosophy:

Beyond Philosophy help organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). We then capitalize on this by improving your customer experience to meet these needs thereby retaining and acquiring new customers across the market.

This podcast is produced by Resonate Recordings. Click here find out more.