Excerpt from Chapter 5: How to Change CN’s Culture

Culture Equals Behavior

Ned met with Les and Peter Edwards, presenting CLG's executive coaching offering. But he also explained that CLG's primary focus was on behavior- based change of entire workplace cultures. He explained how CLG's coaching services had been developed to support their culture - change engagements.

The three talked about culture. The standard definitions of culture left them cold - vague statements like "culture is common values" or "culture is shared beliefs." Ned shared CLG's definition of culture:

• "Culture is the patterns of behaviors...
• that are encouraged or discouraged...
• by people and systems...
• over time."

Ned had made his point. The behavioral definition of culture made sense. Then he said, "Using this definition, we can frame everything that you and Hunter want to do, in very actionable steps:

• Identify the patterns of behavior (that you want and don’t want)...
• To encourage and discourage...
• By people (the behavior of leaders) and systems (how you set up and manage your organizational systems)...
• Over time (long enough to make it stick). "

Ned made a final point: "The tough part is learning to be precise in identifying behaviors and getting good at effectively encouraging the behaviors you want and discouraging the ones you don't. This is where the science of behavior helps." Les and Peter were encouraged. Ned's behavioral science solution matched their beliefs about how they needed to change the culture, and provided a clear path for action.

Excerpted from SwitchPoints: Culture Change on the Fast Track to Business Success, Copyright ©2008 by The Continuous Learning Group, Inc. (CLG) Published by John Wiley & Sons. Used with permission of the publisher.