The Dynamics of Cultural Transformation: A Synthesis of Lessons Learnt

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The Dynamics of Cultural Transformation A
Synthesis of Lessons Learnt
Dexter DunphyDistinguished ProfessorUniversity
of Technology, Sydney
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WHY IS ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE IMPORTANT?
In times of crisis, culture takes the drivers
seat
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• It is not the strongest species that survive,
  nor the most intelligent, but the ones most
  responsive to change
• Charles Darwin

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Getting a Fix on Corporate Culture

• What is organisational culture?
• How is culture formed?

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The BIG Question

• How can corporate culture be changed?

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The Metacapability Model for Cultural
Transformation
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Leading Transformational Change

• Making the case for transformation

• Exemplary modelling by the CEO and the
  Executive Team

• Forming a leadership alliance of change
  agents

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Leading continued

• The role of internal and external change agents
  in the leadership alliance

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• We must be the change we want to bring about
• Ghandi

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Engaging People in Transformational Change
Engaging

• Listening
• Telling
• Skills for relating

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Engaging

• Listening that leads to constructive dialogue and
  increased personal involvement
• Telling, particularly developing a shared
  vocabulary involving stories, metaphor and
  imagery
• Developing advanced skills for relating to others
  and engaging in constructive dialogue

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• If communication about change entails a
  dialogue, then listening becomes a central
  communication skill.
• Ian Palmer
• In the mythic moment, meaning awakens a
  creative restlessness ensues, requiring a new
  quality of engagement with reality. Out of this
  engagement, story is born
• Diarmuid OMurchú

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Redesigning
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Redesigning for Cultural Transformation

• Developing a suite of interventions to work on
  the levers for change (mission philosophy,
  organisational structures, systems, technologies,
  skills/qualities)
• Tailor-making these interventions to fit the
  needs of the specific organisation
• Ensuring that these are a natural outcome of
  collaborative diagnosis

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How Culture Works
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• Organisations are not merely inert structures of
  units and departments but living fields of
  collective intelligence of the people who
  constitute the organisation
• D. Chatterjee

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Reflexivity
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Reflexivity

• Building self awareness through feedback
• The power of asking people their opinion should
  not be underestimated Malcolm Broomhead,
  ex-CEO, Orica
• Creating a reality check through appreciating
  others viewpoints
• Organisational monitoring of progress toward the
  preferred culture

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• The unaware life is not worth living
• Socrates

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• But organisations exist for a productive purpose,
  not simply for the personal development of those
  in them. Capable and aware people build
  constructive high performance cultures.

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• So did these transformational change programs
  improve performance?

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Building a High Performance Culture

• Ingredients of success
• A proactive business strategy
• A constructive culture
• We have a very strong strategy and we have a
  group of people around it, making it happen
• Rob Murray, CEO, Lion Nathan