How to Create an Adaptive Culture By Kevin Green, former CEO of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation and HR Director of Royal Mail.
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hy do 87% of people say that they are not engaged at work?* We know that when people are engaged in their work they are happier, more productive and don’t change jobs. All leaders want their organisation to be a great place to work because they know it has an impact on the business’s performance. We know culture matters, but few organisations know how to review, modify or change their organisational culture. If we look at organisations with winning cultures, it’s not the football tables, free fruit and away days that people value, it’s how they are treated every day. Does your business define, communicate but most importantly live its values? One of the tests I use with leadership teams is to ask them to name 10 examples in the last three months when their values have been used to help with a business decision. Have they been used to make a hiring decision, or to decide who gets a promotion or pay rise?
Adapt or Die As markets get disrupted by new competitors and new technology, businesses need to be able to adapt to their changing environment. Often it’s the ability to pivot at pace which is the precursor of business success. This is why creating an adaptive culture is so important today. The science of developing an adaptive culture shows it’s not a quick or easy process. A culture describes how an organisation behaves every day, how it gets things done, the DNA of the business.
Adaptive organisations will have some common traits: they will be innovative, they will constantly be experimenting to explore different ways in which they can provide customer value, they will always be looking for better ways to do things. This quest for continuous improvement will be a core, repeatable behaviour. Adaptive organisations also have strong leaders who define the purpose of the organisation, as well as the goals. In my experience, most organisations are over-managed and under-led. Leaders empower and motivate, managers control and direct.
