Change the Culture, Change the Game

Picture this: You're standing in a boardroom watching quarterly results that tell a story no leader wants to hear. Despite having talented people, solid strategies, and adequate resources, your organization keeps falling short of its potential. Sound familiar? You're not alone. Countless professionals find themselves trapped in this frustrating cycle, wondering why their best efforts yield mediocre results.

The answer often lies not in what we're doing, but in how we're thinking and acting collectively. When people throughout an organization operate from outdated beliefs and disconnected actions, even the most brilliant strategies fail to deliver. The secret to breakthrough performance isn't found in the latest management fad or technological innovation. It's discovered when leaders learn to deliberately shape the experiences, beliefs, and actions that drive their organizational culture. Your culture is either working for you or against you, and the choice of which direction it goes is entirely in your hands.

The journey to transformational success begins with crystal clear results that everyone can rally behind. Think of results not as hopeful goals, but as non-negotiable outcomes that define your organization's future. When results lack clarity or conviction, people naturally pursue their own agendas rather than collective success.

Consider the remarkable turnaround at Alaris Medical Systems, where CEO Dave Schlotterbeck inherited a company drowning in debt and hemorrhaging cash for thirty consecutive months. Despite his extensive experience in manufacturing turnarounds, traditional cost-cutting measures were making things worse. The breakthrough came when Dave shifted his focus from financial metrics to cultural transformation. He realized that creating an organization filled with "go-to people" who could execute flawlessly was the key to survival.

The transformation began with defining R2 results that would require a complete cultural shift from their current state. Dave and his team acknowledged their accountability for past results while painting a compelling picture of their desired future. They understood that achieving new results would require new ways of thinking and acting throughout the organization.

Your results must be specific enough to drive action yet inspiring enough to ignite passion. When people understand exactly what success looks like and why it matters, they naturally align their daily efforts with organizational priorities. Start by identifying the top three results your organization must achieve, then ask yourself this critical question: "If everyone continues to think and act exactly as they do today, will we achieve these results?" If the answer is no, you've identified the need for cultural change.

Moving from good intentions to measurable results requires a fundamental shift in both actions and underlying beliefs. Actions are what people do, but beliefs are what drive those actions consistently over time. When you focus solely on changing behavior without addressing beliefs, you get compliance without commitment and involvement without true investment.

The power of belief-driven action became clear at a manufacturing plant where workers routinely ignored quality problems they spotted on the production line. Management discovered that employees held a deep belief that "senior management cares more about delivery than quality." This belief was reinforced every time engineers overruled quality concerns to keep products shipping. The solution wasn't more quality training or stricter procedures, but changing the experiences that shaped worker beliefs.

The transformation began when management made a bold commitment: no product would ship that failed to meet specifications, period. Initially, this meant scrapping good products with minor cosmetic defects while specifications were updated. But within months, workers began proactively identifying quality issues, customer complaints dropped dramatically, and the company achieved a fivefold improvement in quality metrics.

Successful culture change requires working with both the top of the pyramid (actions and results) and the bottom (experiences and beliefs). Use the Stop, Start, Continue framework to identify which behaviors need to change. What actions should people stop because they don't produce results? What new actions should they start? What existing strengths should they continue building upon? Remember, all behavior is rewarded in some way, so you must understand why people act as they do before you can help them change.

Experiences are the foundation upon which all beliefs are built, yet most leaders create experiences unconsciously without considering their impact on organizational culture. Every interaction, decision, and policy creates an experience that either reinforces desired beliefs or undermines them. The key is becoming intentional about the experiences you provide.

Amy's Ice Creams exemplifies this principle perfectly. Owner Amy Simmons knew that to compete in the crowded ice cream market, she needed employees who naturally created fun, memorable experiences for customers. Rather than simply telling people to be creative, she designed experiences that would instill this belief from the very beginning. Her unique hiring process involved giving applicants a plain white paper bag with simple instructions: do something creative with it and bring it back in a week. This experience immediately communicated that "things are different here" and attracted people who thrived in creative environments.

The four steps to providing effective experiences are straightforward but require conscious effort. First, plan your experiences by identifying what belief you want to reinforce and who your audience is. Second, provide the experience authentically and sincerely. Third, ask for feedback to understand how people actually interpreted what happened. Finally, interpret the experience by explaining the intended belief and clarifying any confusion.

Most experiences require interpretation because people naturally filter new information through their existing beliefs. Without proper interpretation, even well-intentioned experiences can backfire and reinforce the old culture you're trying to change. Remember that Type 1 experiences create immediate insight without interpretation, while Type 2 experiences require careful explanation. Avoid Type 4 experiences that people will interpret negatively no matter what you do.

Sustainable culture change requires more than inspiration and good intentions. It demands practical tools that people can use every day to reinforce desired beliefs and actions. The three Culture Management Tools provide this practical framework: Focused Feedback, Focused Storytelling, and Focused Recognition.

Focused Feedback centers conversations around your Cultural Beliefs, using specific language that builds rather than diminishes people. Instead of general criticism, you might say, "Here's where I see you demonstrating 'Speak Up'" followed by specific examples, then "Here's where you could demonstrate 'Speak Up' even more" with constructive suggestions. This approach provides both appreciation and guidance while reinforcing the cultural values you want to embed.

Focused Storytelling transforms abstract Cultural Beliefs into concrete examples people can follow. At Opthometrics, one powerful story described how store associates refused to let a diabetic customer leave without an eye exam, discovering she was hemorrhaging behind both eyes and likely saving her sight. The story began with "Here's what 'Live the Brand' looks like to me" and ended by connecting the outcome to business results. Such stories create emotional connections to desired behaviors while showing people exactly what excellence looks like in practice.

Focused Recognition allows anyone to acknowledge others for demonstrating Cultural Beliefs, creating a 360-degree reinforcement system. Recognition cards become visible reminders that progress is happening while motivating continued improvement. When these tools are integrated into existing meetings and systems rather than added as extra work, they become part of how business gets done and culture gets sustained.

The final step in culture transformation involves enrolling every person in your organization as an active participant in creating change. This isn't about rolling out a program or conducting training sessions. It's about engaging hearts and minds so that people take personal ownership for living the desired culture every day.

Successful enrollment follows five key principles. Start with accountability by helping people see their role in creating both current results and desired future outcomes. Get people ready for change by securing both their intellectual agreement and emotional involvement. Begin with the relative top and intact teams, since culture change must be leader-led and team-based. Establish process controls that keep the effort honest and on track. Design for maximum involvement and creativity so people become co-creators rather than passive recipients.

TransEnterix demonstrates this approach beautifully in their recruiting process. Rather than just describing job requirements, they walk potential hires through their Cultural Beliefs with real examples of how people live them daily. They encourage candidates to ask current employees about the culture and observe it in action. This confident transparency attracts people who want to be part of something special while ensuring cultural fit from day one.

The transformation at Kimberly-Clark Health Care shows the power of organization-wide enrollment. When leadership defined their "Big Three" results with crystal clarity, conversation about these priorities spread throughout the company like wildfire. People began asking themselves, "What else can I do?" to achieve these results. The outcome exceeded all expectations: net sales beat budget by 10 percent, operating profit surpassed budget by 19 percent, and the organization achieved breakthrough performance across all key metrics.

Culture change represents the ultimate competitive advantage because it multiplies the impact of everything else you do. When people throughout your organization consistently think and act in ways that produce desired results, you create a self-reinforcing system that drives sustained excellence. As the research clearly shows, either you will manage your culture, or it will manage you.

The path forward is both challenging and achievable. Start by defining clear R2 results that require people to think and act differently. Work simultaneously with actions and beliefs, using experiences to shape the thinking that drives consistent behavior. Apply the Culture Management Tools to provide daily reinforcement of desired changes. Most importantly, enroll everyone as a co-creator of the culture you need to succeed.

Your next step is simple but powerful: identify one Cultural Belief that, if embraced by everyone in your organization, would significantly improve your ability to achieve key results. Begin today by having conversations about this belief, sharing stories that illustrate it, and recognizing people who demonstrate it. Culture changes one person at a time, and that change can begin with you, right now.