How do we know if an organisation is really committed to change?
A big clue is to look at the culture of the organisation. Because in organisations, culture is how things get done.
The Johnson Scholes Culture Web gives us six lenses to read an organisation’s culture. Each gives us a way to test if they are really committed to change.
Stories — Are they telling different stories about who they are and what they value?
Routines and rituals — Have day-to-day practices shifted? Has what they celebrate changed ?
Symbols — Has the visual language shifted? What’s being shown — or hidden?
Control systems – What are they measuring? Has the weight of KPIs shifted? How much R&D is allocated to this change? How are they measuring their supply chain?
Organisational structure — Where is the work of change located? Is it is the delivery teams or in the marketing team?
Power structure — Are senior leaders backing the change, asking questions about it and backing it even when it’s not the easy option?
These six lenses help us spot shifts in culture.
What the culture is doing is a strong clue about whether the organisation is really committed to change — or actually planning on changing nothing.