Companies go through culture change for all sorts of reasons – a change in leadership, business transformations, a lack of motivation in the workplace, you name it. No matter what the driving force, there is one question they all have to answer: How are we getting this all-encompassing journey off the ground?
A recent example from one of Gagen’s wonderful clients demonstrates an impactful and engaging way to kick off a multi-year culture transformation.
The global player in the manufacturing industry had surveyed employees’ perceptions around ethics and culture and uncovered some critical business challenges. Without delay, the executive leadership team committed to improving the company’s culture, and the CEO appointed a small but mighty culture action team to champion the work.
When the cross-functional group assembled for its kick-off meeting, it had two days to set the foundation for the company’s culture journey. The tightly-knit in-person session covered a breadth of activities in an interactive and engaging setting, featuring inspiration boards, personalized journals, engaging videos, and a life-size transformation roadmap.
During the kick-off, Gagen helped the culture action team to:
- Identify a vision for the desired future culture and recommendations to existing values through an engaging dialogue with the CEO
- Define critical goals and milestones for the culture transformation journey by targeting short- and long-term priorities
- Create a culture action team charter, defining its mission, role and way of working together
- Synthesize the session output and align around a core culture message set to create a compelling case for culture change directly linked to business results
As a result, our client was able to foster a deep understanding of the company’s culture transformation and inspire leaders and employees to join the journey ahead. To navigate the path forward, the culture action team can now build on a detailed and actionable culture transformation roadmap that is directly tied to the company’s strategy – a powerful tool and first step in making the new culture an operational and sustainable reality.
And often, the first step is the most important.
