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Changing an entrenched culture is daunting. The best approach is to start small. Identify a group of ambassadors, run a focused pilot project aligned with the desired new culture, learn quickly, and use its success to spread change organically rather than forcing a large-scale overhaul.

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Don't expect your organization to adopt a new strategy uniformly. Apply the 'Crossing the Chasm' model internally: identify early adopters to champion the change, then methodically win over the early majority and laggards. This manages expectations and improves strategic alignment across the company.

To drive transformation in a large organization, leaders must create a cultural movement rather than issuing top-down mandates. This involves creating a bold vision, empowering a community of 'changemakers,' and developing 'artifacts of change' like awards and new metrics to reinforce behaviors.

Radically changing a large company's culture is a decade-long endeavor. A faster, more effective approach is to identify the organization's existing positive cultural DNA. The UniCredit CEO interviewed over 20,000 employees to find their core values, then built his transformation strategy to amplify those strengths.

Address cultural issues by applying product management principles. Use surveys to gather data and identify pain points, then empower the team to propose solutions. Test these ideas like product features and iterate based on what works, making culture-building a shared, active process.

Top-down corporate announcements often fail to resonate. A more effective strategy is to first identify influential mid-level managers. Pre-brief these "change agents" on the "why" behind a change, enabling them to champion it authentically within their own teams.

While top-down support is necessary, the real engine of change is the middle management layer where strategy is executed. Empowering a handful of middle leaders to practice and model new behaviors creates a more organic and lasting cultural shift.

To overcome widespread resistance and inertia, companies should avoid company-wide digital transformation rollouts. Instead, create a small, empowered "tiger team" of top performers. Give them specialized training and incentives to pilot, perfect, and prove the new model before attempting a broader implementation.

Developing internal tools, like a project management system, evolves a company's environment and workflows much faster than rolling out new policies, which require extensive communication and buy-in for adoption.

Culture is an emergent outcome of underlying organizational conditions. To change it, leaders must modify the environment, processes, and reward systems that shape employee beliefs and behaviors. The culture will then shift as a natural consequence.

Leaders often frame innovation as a monumental, revolutionary act, which can stifle progress. A more practical approach is to define it as incremental improvement. Fostering a culture where teams focus on making small, consistent enhancements to existing processes makes innovation a daily, achievable habit rather than a rare, intimidating event.

Reshape Corporate Culture by Launching Small Pilot Projects, Not Big-Bang Initiatives | RiffOn