This is the first part of the 3 part series on Transformation Feedback
Part 1 – Transformational Feedback: Taking the next step to the 21st-century culture
Part 2 – A what culture?
Part 3 – Transformational Feedback
While research shows that organizations with a strong culture have a better chance of success, it seem there is yet another question out there: what kind of culture would benefit the organization the most?
In this 3 part article I present a model for a culture Change based on three pillars: Safety, Learning, and Transformational Feedback.
A brave new world?
In today’s VUCA world, with its fast-pace development, changing needs, constraints, and recently even worldwide pandemics, there is a constant need for creativity, flexibility, continuous growth, and change in the way organizations work and succeed.
As long as the pace of change was slow and gradual, organizations could count on their manager’s capabilities to find the right technical solutions and improve with time. However, today, the staggering amount of information, its complexity, and the rapid pace in which current knowledge becomes outdated dictates that employees and teams, and not only managers, are now the organization’s most valuable asset for success.
In addition, the shift from mostly encountering technical challenges at work to more and more adaptive challenges means that in order for organizations today to not only survive but to flourish, each and every team member in the organization needs to develop at an ever-increasing rapid pace continually.
Interestingly, this push towards continuous personal and technical development is no longer only being requested from the employees by their managers but is now often demanded by the employees themselves as a prerequisite to join and stay in the organization.
Although this change is not new and is often researched and discussed, it seems there is a gap between the current understanding of the situation to the actual implementation of that understanding in the business world. Indeed, there is a great need for a cultural shift that will empower employees and teams to work, grow and flourish, both on the technical as well as on the personal level in order to achieve that new developmental-edge in the industry.
Research in recent years consistently shows that in today’s world, with its ever-changing global economy, constant competition, and quick and successive breakthroughs, organizations can flourish if they implement a strong culture. As an example, in a study of organizational cultures and their effect on performance done at Harvard (Heskett & Kotter, 1992). Researchers observed 200 companies over 11 years, discovering that companies with a strong organizational culture grew their net income by 756%, compared to only 1% for companies who did not show a strong culture. But what is the “right” strong culture for this age? What are the shared values, ideas, and behaviors that would allow organizations, employees, and teams to flourish?
In this article, we will present research-based evidence on the most essential ingredients in creating such a cultural shift that focuses on the real asset of the organizations, the single employee, and the team. This culture will allow the employees to flourish by supporting the following three pillars:
- A Safe Culture
- A Learning Culture
- A Transformational Culture
I have already written about the first 2 pillars here and here and in our next article I will talk about the 3rd and most important pillar which brings all the pillars under one roof.
The Next Article is: A what culture?!
