Right-sized Governance P6: Culture and Behaviour | Nobody follows the process!
Written by Jonny Baber on
How often have you been in a situation where the actual way an organisation gets things done bears little or no resemblance to the official operating model? It’s a common occurrence.
Often this is simply because the delivery process and wider operating model are not fit for purpose. However, we have also seen organisations that have effective change delivery governance process on paper but that is overlayed against an organisational culture that is hard-wired to still do its own thing. The result of both these scenarios is the same – an ineffective (and sometimes toxic) culture that pits one team against another to the detriment of the common good.
The role of Culture and Behaviour in embedding change adoption is all too often underestimated, and this is especially true when it comes to the implementation of a new operating model, delivery process, or way of working.
The first step to fixing this is of course to ensure that what you are trying to implement is fit for purpose in the first place by right-sizing your delivery governance services for Demand Management, Resource Management, Governance & Assurance, and Portfolio Delivery. You then need to double down on ensuring your teams understand what they should be doing - and, just as importantly, why they should be doing it. This will drive behaviours that actively support the operating model, not work against it.
Organisations (and in particular, Senior Leaders) need to remain fully engaged throughout the change adoption process and into business as usual. Given the significant competitive and operational pressures that senior managers face, it is all too easy for leaders to abdicate their responsibility for actively leading and monitoring change adoption. This is often reinforced by an organisation’s reward system, which incentivises a shorter-term, more operational focus and often breeds a subtly damaging “hero culture” as a result.
At changemaker, we use our combined skills in business psychology, team building and coaching, to enable organisations to achieve more with their change programmes and realise a true cultural and behavioural shift. We work with individuals, leaders, and teams to help them understand how to shift their own behaviours, find new motivation, and realise enduring change in themselves and others.
Interested in finding out more?
Contact info@changemaker.org.uk or Jonny Baber, Principal Account Director - Change Delivery at jonny.baber@changemaker.org.uk.
Missed parts one to five? You can read the full articles here:
Introduction to Right-sized Governance
Enterprise Resource Management
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