Culture Renovation

Culture Renovation Plot Summary

Introduction

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations face unprecedented challenges in attracting talent, engaging employees, and delivering consistent results. What separates the exceptional companies from the merely good ones isn't just strategy, technology, or market position—it's culture. The most successful organizations have discovered that culture isn't just a nice-to-have; it's their ultimate competitive advantage. Creating a thriving organizational culture doesn't happen by accident. It requires intentional design, consistent nurturing, and continuous adaptation. Throughout this blueprint, you'll discover how leading companies have transformed their cultures from potential liabilities into powerful assets. You'll learn practical approaches to listening deeply, honoring institutional history, setting clear direction, modeling desired behaviors, and measuring progress. Whether you're leading a startup or revitalizing a legacy organization, these principles will help you build a culture that doesn't just support your strategy—it becomes your strategy.

Chapter 1: Listen First: Develop a Comprehensive Strategy

The journey to cultural excellence begins with listening. Before implementing any changes, successful organizations invest time in understanding how employees currently perceive the culture. Research shows that two-thirds of successful culture change efforts started with gathering comprehensive sentiment data to understand current perceptions and desired future states. T-Mobile exemplifies this listening-first approach. When John Legere became CEO of the struggling wireless carrier, he implemented a comprehensive listening strategy that transformed the company. T-Mobile was losing customers rapidly and had earned the unfortunate nickname of "America's fastest-shrinking wireless company." Rather than immediately imposing his vision, Legere began by listening intently to both employees and customers. "Listen to your employees, listen to your customers, shut the f*** up, and do what they tell you," he famously advised. This transparent approach became his hallmark. The insights gained from this deep listening helped T-Mobile create its revolutionary "Un-carrier" identity—a brilliant cultural renovation that gave everyone something to rally around. This wasn't just clever marketing; it represented a fundamental shift in how the company operated. The Un-carrier identity became T-Mobile's mantra to earn deeper relationships with customers by providing exceptional experiences rather than just selling services. To implement an effective listening strategy in your organization, deploy multiple channels rather than relying solely on annual surveys. Combine quantitative methods like pulse surveys with qualitative approaches such as focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and town halls. Create psychological safety so people feel comfortable sharing honest feedback without fear of retribution. Pay special attention to frontline employees who often have the most direct insight into customer needs and operational challenges. When analyzing what you hear, look for patterns rather than isolated comments. Identify themes that emerge across different departments, levels, and locations. This helps distinguish between systemic issues requiring attention and outlier perspectives. Consider using organizational network analysis to map informal influence networks and identify the true opinion leaders whose support will be crucial for any cultural change. Remember that listening is not a one-time event but an ongoing practice. The most successful culture renovations maintain continuous feedback loops throughout the change process, allowing for course corrections and demonstrating to employees that their input genuinely matters.

Chapter 2: Honor the Past While Embracing the Future

When renovating culture, determining what stays and what goes is perhaps the most critical decision. Research shows that 57 percent of organizations that successfully renovated their cultures were intentional about preserving the best aspects of their existing norms while weaving fundamental values and history into the new culture. 3M exemplifies this approach perfectly. With over a century in business, 3M has a long and storied history that began in 1902 as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. Today, the company produces over 60,000 products, generates more than $30 billion in sales, and employs almost 100,000 people. Throughout its history, 3M has consistently demonstrated an ability to innovate and reinvent itself while honoring its past. The company's famous "15 percent time" policy, which allows employees to devote 15 percent of their work time to experimenting with new ideas, dates back to the early days under William McKnight. As a young assistant bookkeeper who joined 3M in 1907, McKnight eventually worked his way up to become a transformative leader. His philosophy of "listen to anybody with an idea" became the foundation for 3M's innovation culture, leading to the creation of iconic products like Post-it Notes and Scotch Tape. When Mike Roman became CEO in 2018, he approached culture renovation by building on what had made 3M great rather than starting from scratch. "We are not deviating from who we are. We're building on our values and our foundation," Roman explained. He partnered with Chief Human Resource Officer Kristen Ludgate to implement a comprehensive listening strategy, engaging the top leadership team, the board, and employees from around the world through focus groups and advisory panels. To honor the past in your organization, start by identifying the cultural elements worth preserving. Ask long-tenured employees about the stories they tell newcomers, the traditions they value most, and the principles that have guided the organization through challenges. Document these cultural artifacts and ensure they're incorporated into your renovation plans. Recognize that people need continuity amidst change—preserving valued traditions provides emotional security during transitions. At the same time, be honest about what needs to evolve. Use data from your listening phase to identify cultural elements that no longer serve your purpose or may actually hinder progress. Frame these changes not as rejections of the past but as necessary adaptations to honor the organization's deeper values in a changing world. As 3M's Ludgate noted, "We're a science company. The experience of hypothesizing, iterating, learning, and improving—we need to be willing to do that with the processes, policies, and practices that support our culture."

Chapter 3: Set a Clear Direction with Purpose

Setting a clear direction for your culture renovation creates a North Star that will guide your company's path for decades to come. This direction should acknowledge past successes while positioning the organization for an unknown future, typically encapsulated in a purpose statement that is concise, memorable, and inspiring. Mastercard exemplifies how a strong purpose can drive cultural excellence. Under CEO Ajay Banga's leadership, the company has seen remarkable growth, with revenue tripling and market value increasing over 14 times in a decade. Banga attributes much of this success to Mastercard's culture, which is built around what he calls "decency quotient, or DQ." "The particular attribute of Mastercard's culture that underpins everything is the attribute of being decent," Banga explained. "What we're trying to do is to put decency, and the idea of behaving that way, at the core of everything we do." This isn't just about being nice; it's about doing the right thing in all aspects of business, from how employees treat each other to how the company interacts with customers, governments, and partners. This purpose-driven approach has created a culture where employees feel valued and motivated to contribute their best. The link between purpose, culture, and brand is unmistakable. Purpose shapes organizational culture and employee experience. What employees experience dictates how they feel about the organization and how they share those feelings with others, shaping the employer brand. This, in turn, affects how external audiences view the company. This interconnected relationship creates what we call "The New Corporate Currency." To define your cultural direction, start by articulating a clear and compelling purpose statement. This should answer the fundamental question: "Why does our organization exist beyond making money?" The most effective purpose statements are simple, authentic, and emotionally resonant. They connect to basic human needs and aspirations rather than business metrics. Next, develop a vision that brings this purpose to life. While purpose is timeless, vision is time-bound—describing the future state you aim to create. Make this vision vivid and specific, helping people visualize what success looks like. Ensure your cultural path connects directly to business strategy. Culture and strategy must be mutually reinforcing, not separate initiatives. Remember that purpose must guide real decisions, not just serve as wall art. CVS Health demonstrated this when they stopped selling tobacco products despite the $2 billion annual revenue loss, explaining simply: "The sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose" of helping people on their path to better health. This authentic commitment to purpose ultimately strengthened their business, with their stock price rising 23 percent within a year of the decision.

Chapter 4: Model the Behaviors You Want to See

When renovating culture, defining the behavioral aspects that will support your purpose is critical. These behaviors must be clearly communicated, modeled, and embodied by the CEO and senior team to create lasting change. Words mean little if leadership actions tell a different story. F5, a global company specializing in application delivery and security services, provides an excellent example of this approach. When François Locoh-Donou became CEO of F5 in 2017, he inherited a strong 20+ year culture. His first priority was to respect the past: "I felt this way because I've seen too many times the movie where the company is very successful, but then plateaus a little bit. A new CEO comes in and immediately starts communicating all the new things the company needs to do to be successful again. That talk track is dismissive of what's been done previously, and it's a very quick way to alienate all the people who have worked hard at the company for many years." Drawing on his West African heritage, Locoh-Donou approached culture change with respect for the company's history. While he found many positive aspects of F5's culture, including employee loyalty and authenticity, he also identified areas that needed change. Working with CHRO Ana White, they developed "BeF5"—a set of five behaviors they believed were necessary for the company's long-term success: We help each other thrive, We obsess over customer needs, We create a more diverse and inclusive F5, We are owners, and We choose speed. These behaviors weren't just words on a slide. Locoh-Donou emphasized that leaders needed to model them consistently: "The leadership team first and foremost had to model the behaviors... and that starts with me. It starts with humility. It starts with being generous... it starts by having each other's back." This modeling created a contagious effect throughout the organization, as employees took cues from leadership behavior rather than just their words. To effectively model desired behaviors in your organization, start by defining them with clarity and specificity. Vague values like "integrity" or "excellence" mean different things to different people. Instead, describe the observable actions that demonstrate these values in practice. For example, rather than just saying "we value collaboration," specify "we actively seek input from diverse perspectives before making decisions." Ensure your leadership team is unified in modeling these behaviors. One inconsistent leader can undermine the entire effort. Create accountability mechanisms such as peer feedback among the leadership team, and be willing to address behavior that contradicts stated values, regardless of a person's position or performance. Remember that what you tolerate becomes your culture. Incorporate these behaviors into systems and processes throughout the organization. At F5, they embedded the BeF5 behaviors into performance management reviews, employee recognition programs, and learning and development initiatives. This systematic approach ensures that desired behaviors are reinforced through multiple channels, not just through leadership example.

Chapter 5: Empower Influencers as Cultural Catalysts

Every organization has "go-to" people whom others turn to for answers, comfort, opinions, and guidance. These influencers are the lifeblood of the organization, yet many executives don't know who they are. When renovating culture, identifying these influencers and enlisting them as proponents of change is crucial, as they will have an outsized impact on a significant proportion of the workforce. Research estimates that more than 90 percent of change initiatives can be achieved in shorter timescales and at lower cost if the right influencers are identified and fully involved. Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) is a powerful tool for illuminating these indispensable people through surveys or analysis of interactions on internal communication platforms. AbbVie, the biopharmaceutical company spun out from Abbott Labs in 2013, discovered the power of cultural influencers somewhat accidentally. Tim Richmond, Chief Human Resource Officer, initially underestimated their value: "We often talk about the value of top-down leadership and messaging when embarking on a culture renovation, but there's a lot of influence from the bottom up that I probably underappreciated." When employees approached Richmond about creating culture ambassadors around the world, he was skeptical at first. "I remember asking, do we really need to have this right now? But I've learned over time that you listen to good people who have good ideas and ask, well, what would that mean? How would it work? It turns out it was a huge catalyst for change." These culture ambassadors took broad enterprise ideas and adapted them to local contexts, making them relevant and meaningful. This approach was particularly valuable in international locations where directives from headquarters might not apply directly. To identify the key influencers in your organization, look beyond the organizational chart. Pay attention to who people naturally seek out for advice, who generates energy in meetings, and whose opinion seems to carry special weight. Rob Cross, a professor of global leadership at Babson College and pioneer in ONA, has found that 3 to 5 percent of people in a typical organization network account for 20 to 35 percent of the value-add collaborations, and half or more are not predicted by leaders ahead of time. Once you've identified these influencers, involve them early in your culture renovation. Give them visibility into plans before broader announcements, solicit their input, and incorporate their feedback. This not only improves your approach but also creates powerful advocates who can translate the change for their peers in authentic ways that formal communications often cannot achieve. Provide these cultural catalysts with the tools, training, and support they need to be effective. Create opportunities for them to connect with each other, sharing experiences and best practices. Recognize and celebrate their contributions, reinforcing the importance of their role in the culture renovation. Remember that these influencers are not just messengers of your vision—they are co-creators who will help shape and refine it through their unique perspectives and relationships.

Chapter 6: Co-Create Change Through Collaboration

While most successful renovations paint an enticing vision for the future, they also rely on strong internal collaboration to propagate it across their employee networks. In fact, high-performance organizations don't just let collaboration "happen"—they are very intentional about how it occurs, actively manage it, and reward it. Patagonia exemplifies this collaborative approach to culture. Founded by outdoor enthusiast Yvon Chouinard in 1973, the company has built a culture that balances purpose with collaboration. As Chouinard wrote, "Our best efforts are collaborative, and the Patagonia culture rewards the ensemble player while it barely tolerates those who need the limelight." Dean Carter, Patagonia's head of HR, explained how collaboration is woven into the company's DNA: "The more a group understands their purpose—why they're coming together, what they're doing to collaborate on a business issue—the better the outcome. Collaboration has been a part of our vision and mission, and a key value for the company for so long that when people make decisions, they do so within teams. Lone decision-making simply doesn't happen." This collaborative mindset extends beyond the workplace. Whether it's a store team working together to support a companywide financial goal or employee volunteers helping rehabilitate injured sea lions, Patagonia emphasizes the power of working together toward meaningful outcomes. "Our people are proud when we hit our business objectives," said Carter. "The motivation to collaborate is great when it means that we're able to create top-quality products, support the communities where we live and work, and give millions to save the environment." To foster a collaborative culture in your organization, start by creating both physical and virtual spaces designed specifically for collaboration. Booz Allen Hamilton has implemented "solver spaces" where people can present challenges for group problem-solving. These dedicated environments signal the importance of working together and provide the practical tools needed for effective collaboration. Develop collaborative skills throughout your organization. Many people assume collaboration comes naturally, but effective collaboration requires specific capabilities like active listening, constructive conflict resolution, and integrative thinking. Provide training and coaching in these areas, particularly for leaders who set the tone for their teams. Align your recognition and reward systems to encourage collaboration rather than individual heroics. Include collaboration as a measure in performance reviews, and celebrate team achievements as prominently as individual ones. Booz Allen Hamilton has made "collective ingenuity" a core value, incorporating it into their performance management and recognition programs. Be mindful of "collaborative overload," where knowledge workers spend too much time in meetings and on email, leading to burnout. Create norms that protect focused work time and give employees permission to negotiate requests. Allow people to shift work without going through formal chains of command and encourage making introductions to other colleagues when appropriate.

Chapter 7: Measure Progress and Adapt Continuously

Measuring and monitoring cultural change is essential for successful renovation. Research shows that 66 percent of organizations that successfully renovated their culture defined clear measures and indicators at the executive level before beginning the process. Conversely, 90 percent of unsuccessful culture change initiatives failed to establish measurement mechanisms at the outset. Ford Motor Company exemplifies this approach to measurement. When Jim Hackett became CEO in 2017, he was described as a "cultural change agent" who would "transform the culture of Ford." The company had traditionally relied on engagement surveys to measure culture, but recognized the limitations of this approach. After extensive research, Ford shifted to smaller pulse surveys and began collecting and analyzing passive data sources to create a more holistic picture. These data sources included written messages on community whiteboards, anonymous reviews on Glassdoor, enterprise meeting chat logs, and comment streams on internal news articles. Using AI-based platforms to analyze text, Ford trained machine learning engines to automate analysis across languages and specific terms used within the company. The HR team used dashboards to report trends to leadership, helping them understand what employees really needed and wanted. To effectively measure your cultural progress, start by establishing a baseline. Before implementing any changes, gather comprehensive data on your current culture using multiple methods. This baseline will allow you to track progress and demonstrate impact over time. Define specific, measurable indicators that align with your cultural goals. These might include traditional engagement metrics, but should also incorporate behavioral indicators that reflect your desired culture. Implement a multi-method measurement approach that combines quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative measures like surveys provide breadth, while qualitative methods like focus groups and interviews provide depth. Passive data sources like internal communications patterns, promotion rates, and collaboration metrics can offer unfiltered insights into how culture is actually experienced. Create regular reporting mechanisms that make cultural data visible and actionable. Workday demonstrates the importance of taking even small signals seriously. When they noticed slight declines in their external ratings on platforms like Glassdoor, they responded with a major intervention—bringing every people leader in the company together for a two-and-a-half day summit focused on leading within Workday's values. This proactive response reversed the trend before it became a significant issue. Remember that measurement should drive adaptation. The purpose of tracking cultural indicators isn't just to monitor progress but to identify areas needing adjustment. Create feedback loops that connect measurement to action, ensuring that insights lead to continuous improvement. As Bob Herz, former chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, put it: "The way I think about it—is our culture providing a competitive advantage? Is it enabling execution of our strategy?"

Summary

Throughout this blueprint, we've explored the essential steps for renovating organizational culture and transforming it into your competitive advantage. From listening deeply to understand current perceptions, to honoring the past while setting a clear direction, to modeling desired behaviors and empowering influencers, each element builds upon the others to create lasting cultural excellence. The journey requires conscious collaboration and continuous measurement to ensure progress and sustainability. As Satya Nadella wisely observed, "Our ability to change our culture is the leading indicator of our future success." This truth applies to all organizations seeking to thrive in today's rapidly changing business environment. Begin your culture renovation journey today by selecting one action from this blueprint—whether developing a more comprehensive listening strategy, identifying your cultural influencers, or aligning your recognition systems to reinforce desired behaviors. Remember that culture isn't something your organization has; it's something your organization is. By making it a strategic priority, you transform it from a potential liability into your greatest competitive advantage.

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Kevin Oakes

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