Challenges of Cultural Transformation

The Second Challenge - Stimulate New Thoughts and Behaviours

"If you always do what you have always done…” -- when I ask people to complete this sentence the most frequent response is, "you’ll always get what you always got.” Such a future, i.e. one without growth, would be discouraging for any person or company seeking advancement of any kind, but unfortunately the reality is even worse.

The simple fact is that if you always do what you have always done in a market that is changing rapidly, as it is at present, your results will get progressively worse over time – perhaps rapidly so. And if you spend too much time managing, rather than leading some form of change, that is likely to be your ultimate outcome.

However, even focusing on changing what you do is not sufficient to guarantee results. Why? Because changing behaviour is generally very difficult: many people become stuck as a result of the fact that they do not know how to overcome the habitual behaviour that forms the basis of their personality.

The foundation of successful change is the ability to overcome subconscious habit patterns, otherwise known as conditioning or paradigms. And achieving that requires people to use the mind differently, changing the way that they think.

This highlights a major weakness in most leadership instruction, whether in books or courses, which has a tendency to concentrate on what a leader should do in order to perform at a high level. The idea of leadership has become highly externalised, concentrating on the application of skills, such as communicating or delegating abilities, to encourage others to produce desired outcomes. This approach is highly ineffective, as witnessed by the typically short-lived impact of such efforts.

Creating genuine shifts in performance requires that people are encouraged to think in new ways. To get the best out of their employees, companies need to shift from managing actions to stimulating thought.

 

Raising awareness
Stimulating new thoughts and behaviours
Developing a learning environment
Growing your leaders