Shifting Organisational Culture through Innovative HR Leadership HR Forum 2017 Taaka Awori MD Busara Africa
Organisational Culture “The Way We do Things Around Here”
Why Organisational Culture? Why Innovative HR Leadership? • Organisational culture shapes and prescribes employee behaviour. • Culture often trumps strategy, policies and procedures -- It thus affects your bottom line. • HR can provide leadership in influencing how an organisation develops and shapes its culture. • But..HR needs to be innovative; we can’t afford to do the same thing and get different results • Unfortunately, efforts to change organisational culture are replete with mistakes and false starts.
Five Mistakes we make in shaping Organisational Culture and what we as HR can start to do differently
Mistake 1 We are not intentional enough about organisational culture
Action 1 Be explicit and intentional about culture Look in the mirror: Take an honest look at your organisation & openly discuss what patterns of behaviour enable you to achieve your mission and what patterns of behaviour do not. Create a safe space for honesty and candor about what drives existing behaviour Co-create and jointly define what behaviours you want to see – align them with your values. Develop a shared urgency and compelling reason for change from where you are to where you want to be
Mistake No. 2 We exempt leaders from modeling the change we want to see
Action No. 2 Require Leaders to Model Desired Behaviour Support all leaders to align their behaviour and walk the talk; Make them a priority Assess, promote or reward leaders according to alignment with expected behaviours. Work with leaders to ensure that decision making is aligned with desired culture and values
Mistake No. 3 We don’t recruit for it
Action 3 Recruit those who already behave in alignment with your desired culture Go beyond hiring simply the smartest, the ones with the most experience or the best out of the pool interviewed. Recruit people who can demonstrate that they already practice the demonstrated behaviours. Learn how to ask the right questions in interviews: The questions should elicit specific examples of past behaviour that you want to see Take your time to do recruitment properly; don’t just be in a rush to hire and don’t just see it as an HR Function
Mistake 4 We don’t hold staff to account for undesirable behaviour
Action 4 Align Rewards and Sanctions Incorporate desired behaviour into the performance management framework. Recognize and reward desired behaviour: how you do this will vary by organisations e.g. promotions, bonuses, awards. Hold people accountable on undesirable behaviour through coaching, warning, sanctions etc.
Mistake No. 5 Failure to expect others to change when we as HR do not reflect the change we want to see.
Action 5: Do the inner work to ensure your behaviour is aligned Look in the mirror and get feedback on your own behaviour. Invest in your personal development so that you have support to do the inner work and strengthen your emotional intelligence If you have a team, ensure they operate in alignment with the culture you want to see