You will find tons of material & discussions happening on CULTURE. Culture is defined differently by different people and therefore it becomes difficult to accept one particular definition of CULTURE. More than this what is difficult is to measure culture in a manner that most of the people find it acceptable. The acceptability factor is more important if a measure of culture is going to be used to drive changes in behavior.
A group of Habits becomes your behavior and when certain group of people starts behaving in a particular way, it becomes a culture. Therefore if you want to change culture change habits. Also note that performance can also be changed by changing the Habits & Climate/Physical workplace environment.
Habits drive culture and KAIZEN™ is a journey of moving from Current set of habits to Better set of habits. Pick a few habits, change them, celebrate, and keep moving forward one step at a time. But often organizations & employees makes mistake when it comes to Behavior Change. Below given are top 10 mistakes:
1. Relying on willpower for long-term change
Solution: Imagine willpower doesn’t exist. That’s step 1 to a better future.
2. Attempting big leaps instead of baby steps
Solution: Seek tiny successes….one after another
3. Ignoring how Climate/Physical workplace environment shapes behaviors
Change your context and your change your life
4. Trying to stop old behaviors instead of creating new ones
Focus on actions, not avoidance
5. Blaming failures on lack of motivation
Make the behavior easier to do
6. Underestimating power of triggers
No behavior happens without a trigger
7. Believing that information leads to action
We humans aren’t so rational
8. Focusing on abstract goals more than concrete behaviors
Get in shape
9. Seeking to change behavior forever, not for a short time.
A fixed period works better than “forever”
10. Assuming that behavior change is difficult
Behavior change is not so hard when you have the right process
Source of top 10 mistakes: Stanford University’s Persuasive Tech Lab
Organizations cannot change their culture unless individual employees change their behaviour/habits. But how do you facilitate this change in behaviour/habit and go beyond behavioural change alone to true transformation. To know the answer to this question, there is great article written by Keith Ferrazzi. His article outlines the ways in which leaders can learn about corporate culture change. Click here to read further.