We are social primates, programmed to follow subtle unwritten rules and social cues. Those rules and social cues are the foundation of group culture. Any group of humans is a community, and every community has a culture. That is as true of informal gatherings as it is of large organisations with complex corporate cultures. The key to achieving culture change is to understand how these rules and cues work, how they affect behaviour and how they can be altered.
In this piece we look at how small informal groups form and change their cultures. Anyone who wants to change their corporate culture can apply these culture change techniques directly. At Aletheian Advisors we use them in our bottom up approach to culture change.
Imagine, if you would, a small rural village in England. We are going to go on a little tour of this village and see various groups in action. Each of these informal groups is a community in its own right. It has certain ways of doing things and certain ways in which people interact with each other. These, in turn, reflect a certain set of values. These are all key elements of the culture of that particular group. We will look at these cultures, and how they change, in order to find clues as to how we can change the cultures of organisations.
Village life may be very different to corporate life, but the village dweller and the corporate executive are both humans. We are all hard-wired in the same way. Groups of villagers and groups of executives use the same mechanisms and social cues to create and respond to the culture of their group. So if we can work out how culture is created and changed in one group then we can apply these lessons to other groups, including our communities at work.
Group 1: Culture Change via Persuasion
It is mid-afternoon, and as workers toil on the surrounding farms a group of around 15 parents wait outside the village school to collect their children. These are the parents of the youngest children in the school. The children in the middle year groups leave school a little bit later, and older year groups later still. We will visit those two groups of parents shortly, but for now let us look at the group currently at the school gates.
As we approach this group we see that there is an obvious divide. The group is split into two different camps. As they wait for their children they stand apart and look mutually antagonistic. This is, sadly, not an uncommon occurrence in such groups. The nature of the split does not matter – it could be over a difference of opinion over school policy, a long forgotten insult or over the behaviour of one particular child. Everyone is aware of the split and everyone falls into one of the two groups.
Now, along comes Ayesha, one of the parents. She has had enough of the rift and thinks that it is pointless. Ayesha asks for everyone’s attention and says “Look, this is stupid. We are all part of a small rural community where everyone pulls together. That’s the way our village works – that is how we survive. But while our sisters, brothers, wives and husbands are working together and relying on each other, we have this pointless split between us. It is stupid. This has been going on for so long I can’t even remember what it was originally about. It does not reflect who we are, or the values of our village. What lessons is it teaching our children? It’s silly that Bill can’t go around to Pete’s house to play after school because their fathers don’t get along. Let’s end this now.”
That’s a fairly powerful speech. And it works. The two sides listen to Ayesha and agree to make peace.
What has happened here is that the speech has made the parents realise that unity is more important to them than their petty disagreement. The speech had the effect of changing the values that guide the group’s actions via Persuasion. They realise that unity is important for them to practice and to teach their children. As a result of the change in the values that they follow, their behaviours also change.
Culture Change Lessons from Group 1
There are a couple of things to note here, besides the culture change mechanisms at work.
First, this incident demonstrated what psychologists have long recognised – that in a group setting people can and do act in ways that conflict with their own personal values. Each member of the group already held a personal belief that unity was very important. However, within the group they applied a different set of values – that being proven right (over something fairly trivial) was more important than unity. This phenomenon can be a major factor in corporate settings, when people will often behave in a way that conflicts with their personal values in order to fit in. It is often a feature of toxic work cultures.
Second, it is worth noting that the change in behaviours was achieved indirectly. The speech made the individuals in the group reflect on the values that their group was practicing. Once the group’s values changed, a change in the group’s behaviour naturally followed.
This is how much of culture change works – changes in behaviours are not brought about directly but are the end result of changes in beliefs and attitudes. But it is worth asking whether behaviours can be changed directly. The answer is yes, sometimes behaviours can be changed directly, as we will see in our next example.
Group 2: Changing Group Behaviour directly
To see how a group’s behaviours can be directly altered, let’s return to the school gates. We are just in time to see the parents of children in the middle years assemble. This group is more harmonious than Ayesha’s group.
One of those parents is Tricia, who works with mental health patients. One afternoon Tricia says to the others, “look, we get together here every day for 10 minutes. When we get here we just chit-chat about nothing in particular. It’s a waste of time – time that we could use more productively. We know each other well and we get on well. We all know that each of us has been through tough times down the years. Many of you supported me a while back when my father died. So why don’t we arrive a little bit earlier, so we have 20 or 30 minutes together, and use that time to support each other and to discuss any problems we have”.
The group all think that Tricia’s suggestion is a great idea and start doing this several times a week. They even begin to bring camping stools to sit on and cakes to share with each other.
In this instance, the group’s Behaviours have been directly changed via Persuasion. That is not the entire story, however, because changes in group practices will, in turn, change the group’s culture. So not only can culture change behaviour; established behaviours become incorporated into the culture, changing that culture in the process. Habits and regular practices (“the way we do things around here”) can be an important part of the culture in many organisations. Indeed, ingrained habits can be among the hardest elements of corporate culture to change.
In this case, the group’s culture rapidly changed to include not just the practice of mutual support but also the values that go along with that, such as empathy, inclusion and caring. By adopting and spreading those values this group had an impact on the entire village.
Group 3: Changing Culture via Personal Behaviour
Now, let us pay a final visit to the school gates, this time to see the parents of the oldest pupils. The same split that affected Ayesha’s group has impacted this group of parents. Like Ayesha’s group, this group also has a parent, Jordan, who decides to do something about the split. However, rather than making a speech, Jordan decides that he will simply change his own behaviour.
So, Jordan carefully changes the language he uses. He no longer insults the “other” side. He makes a conscious effort to be kind and empathetic to all. Jordan makes a point of reaching over the divide and speaking to parents in the other group – getting them on their own occasionally and showing genuine warmth and empathy. Jordan simply behaves as if there is no split at all.
Very slowly, over time, Jordan’s empathy and humanity begin to rub off onto the others and the whole group becomes much less fractious and more concerned about each other. The group quietly forgets the schism and gradually becomes united.
Jordan has just changed both the group’s values and behaviours by Personal Example.
Group 4: Changing Culture in the Pub one Personal Interaction at a time
Now a change of scene. Let’s visit the village pub, an ancient building in the heart of the village with a wood panelled interior that has barely changed in 100 years. Almost everyone in there is a regular who lives in the village and who goes to the pub several times a week. They all know each other and together they form yet another community.
These regulars are, however, a pretty dour and downbeat bunch. They are mostly farmers who sit quietly over their drinks and don’t tend to mix very much. It is not that they dislike each other. They are just in the habit of sitting in a particular seat with the same small group of friends every night and these groups don’t tent to mix very much.
Now along comes Janice, a newcomer to the village who has moved to the countryside after her divorce. She is an extrovert who is the “life and soul of the party”. She becomes a regular at the pub and, as a natural “people person”, she gets chatting to everyone. Janice gets people talking and gets different groups mingling. As a result, the whole atmosphere in the pub becomes much more jolly and convivial.
Janice has changed the behaviour of the pub community by Interaction.
This is subtly different to the example above of Jordan, who changed the culture of his school gate group via Personal Example.
Personal Example works through imitation. Other people are initially inspired to change their own behaviour as they see how this one individual behaves. Then the new behaviour becomes accepted behaviour within the group, and is universally adopted.
Interaction, on the other hand, works through direct inter-personal contact. Pub regulars did not imitate Janice. They did not suddenly start acting as if they were huge extroverts. Rather, they changed their behaviour because of direct exposure to Janice. Her outlook and behaviour was infectious. When people were talking to Janice they mirrored her energy and attitude. When she spoke with more passion, energy and humour, so did they. This is natural human behaviour. When we have a pleasant interaction with other people we bond with them and begin to synchronise our behaviour with theirs as Oxytocin is released and mirror neurons fire in the brain. This is exactly what happened as local spoke to Janice, and over time that default behaviour changed, and the atmosphere in the pub became more jovial.
If Janice had not arrived on her own but was part of a group of new regulars then this is also an example of changing behaviours (and possibly also values) through Turnover. Change the people, change the default behaviour (and possibly also the values).
This can, of course, cause resentment. Long standing members of the community can feel displaced. Regulars might no longer go to the pub if they felt that they no longer belonged. This resentment can be very real in a corporate setting if the changes involve redundancies.
The Structure of different Communities
Now, let’s spend a moment considering the difference between the school gate communities and the pub community. The groups at the school gates do not have any authority figures. There may be an unofficial pecking order amongst the parents but no-one has any sort of formal authority over the group. In the pub, on the other hand, the Landlord is in charge. He has the power to bar people, to call the police, etc. [For non-British readers, the Landlord is the man who runs the pub].
So the landlord has the power to change behaviour by setting Rules. He may decree, for example, that anyone who shouts or argues is immediately thrown out of the pub and banned for a month. The locals all know this, and as a result the culture of the pub community is one in which everyone keeps disagreements civil.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the pub community is more like the sort of communities we see in work places because there is someone in charge. The presence of an authority figure provides options for establishing and changing cultures that do not exist in the unstructured school gate groups.
Of course the Landlord is not solely responsible for the culture of the pub. Many factors and many people will influence its culture. There will be local customs and behaviours in the village that pub customers bring along with them, together with their own personal habits and beliefs. The pub community is a sub-community of the village and adopts most or all of its values and behaviours.
Consider what happens when a new landlord comes along. Clearly, he will make changes that will impact the atmosphere and the way things are done in the pub. However, there are limits to what he can change. If he tries to change things too drastically then the locals will simply go elsewhere. The culture of the pub is created jointly by the landlord and the locals and the landlord would be foolish if he does not take into account the things that his regulars value.
In just the same way, the corporate culture of a company is created jointly by management and staff. The staff bring their own values, attitudes and ways of doing things. These can be changed within the context of the organisation, but only if staff, their values and their culture are acknowledged and treated with respect.
Group 5: Changing Culture in the Choir
Now let’s change scene once again and visit the village’s old stone church. Inside, we find the very active, very professional village choir. Like all choirs this is split into sections – Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. There is also a conductor and soloists, who are the best and most experienced singers who tend to help the weaker members. Everyone in the choir knows their job, and from the moment they walk into rehearsal they fall into place and focus on their particular role. This is essentially the same as people adopting a particular work persona as they come through the front doors of the office each day.
The choir is, of course, a community all of its own. Individual Behaviours are very much influenced by both the professional approach of the choir but also by the organisational Structure of the choir. If that structure were to change then behaviours would quickly change to reflect the new structure. For example, if the choir went from performing church music to performing pop songs then everyone’s role would change. There would be a lead singer and backing singers rather than Sopranos, Altos, etc. This different structure would see the singers behave and interact with each other in a different way that was more appropriate to their new structure. They would do their jobs within the group differently.
As we saw before, these new behaviours would quickly become part of the culture of the choir.
Summary
The brief vignettes above have illustrated that culture change can be achieved in a number of different ways. Any method that works within a social setting will also work in a corporate setting. This is not surprising given that a company or organisation is simply another form of community.
All of these methods change not just culture but behaviours too – because culture is a major driver of behaviour. Some of these methods can also change the values of the culture.
Some of these methods only work if the community has some sort of structure or authority figure in place – as almost all organisations do. Others work where there is no particular structure to a group.
In closing it is worth noting that many organisations try to change culture and behaviours using words alone. As we have seen, this is possible. But in order to work those words have to be very persuasive and ideally they need to resonate with values that are already deeply held by the workforce. This is not easy to do. In general, we would advise clients to do this in conjunction with other methods.
As social primates, we learn appropriate behaviours by observing and mimicking others, not by listening to instructions, explanations or speeches. This is very important to bear in mind when it comes to changing corporate culture.
Despite that, we would still advise that the essential first step in any change management programme is for management to make the case very clearly and compellingly as to why change is needed. If staff do not realise that they are on a “burning platform” and do not understand the need to change and adapt in order for the organisation to survive, they will have little or no incentive to change.
The table below summarises the six methods or levers that we have discussed in this article.
| Lever | Changes Values? | Changes Behaviours? |
| Persuasion | Y | Y |
| Personal Example | Y | Y |
| Interaction | Y | Y |
| Rules | Y | |
| Structure | Y | |
| Turnover | Y | Y |
