How to Incent Culture Change (long post)

      First off, I apologize for the long post, but I think, in order to get the full gist of my questions it's needed. The root of my post is in that first paragraph, read beyond that for more conte

      The area of culture change that I am most interested in  and would like manager tools feedback, lies in a question that I have yet to find a clear answer to: "what is the best, most appropriate, most effective (etc.) way to incent culture change? Is it through monetary incentive, granting rewards for display of desired behavior? Is it via recognition, organization or division wide, for display of desired behavior? Is it simply clear communication and leadership (at all levels) demonstrating the desired behaviors? Or, is it some combination of these or even some other method?"

      My reason for asking these questions is that I believe our organization has not got it right. When I make that statement, I realize that there has most likely been several hundred thousand dollars spent on consultants who would disagree with me.

      I don't have an MBA, I am not an expert but I do listen to manager tools and I did spend the last several weeks using all of the resources available to me (HBR via our company’s paid subscription, books l have, consulting web sites etc.) to see if I could come up with a good answer to the questions I have asked. I have not found that answer. I have tried to conduct my due diligence and my challenge to the manager tools community is to bring to the table strong answers to the questions I have raised.

      The data that I have to back up my theory, that our company has not got it right, is in the real world impact of the way we are attempting to incent behavior change. As managers, our differentiation and sales bonus payout have been tied to "culture surveys." These culture surveys have become the focus of everything culture related.  Comments such as: "How is your team doing on the survey metrics?" or "The surveys will be released to the sales organization in a few weeks, are we executing on our plans to change the culture?" Our Area even spent 3 hours of a managerial meeting three weeks prior to the release of the surveys to ensure we were "taking the needed steps to ensure we were making changes vs. the baseline surveys." It is far less frequent that we hear discussion about the actions we see on a day-to-day basis that demonstrate changes in the culture.

       We have even been told to develop "culture action plans" at our level (10-15 direct reports per team). Some of the actions in these plans include utilizing change agents (peers on a team) to ask the culture survey questions to individuals on the team so the manager can get a "clear view" of how the team is doing relative to the culture surveys. This in and of itself is not bad, but again, is focused on the surveys. Other actions include asking our direct reports "what does the top score/ranking look like to you (for any given question)?" Again, not a bad approach, but still tied to the score vs. what the culture really needs to look like.

      Then there is the issue with the survey questions themselves. Many of the questions relate to the organization as a whole vs. what the front line manager has in his or her span of control. This is not an inherently bad thing. Senior leadership needs to know what the employees are feeling about the organization. The issue lies in that the compensation and differentiation of a front line sales manager is now tied to something that he or she has marginal influence on.

      Feedback that indicates this is the wrong route comes from our direct reports. Comments such as: "If we score everyone high on the surveys can we stop talking about the culture surveys" and "it's pretty clear that some people are scoring the surveys high to help their boss." I even had a direct report state: "don't worry, I scored you high on every question, you should be in good shape." 

     I firmly believe that surveys that assess an organization's culture are a critical piece to ensuring true culture change. They offer a venue for employees to anonymously provide their feedback on the organization as a whole and the progress the organization is making. When this tool of assessment is then tied to an individual's compensation it can take on a different meaning. Can tying compensation of managers incent behavior change? Most definitely. Are the behaviors that this type of incentive create the behaviors needed for long term culture change? From what I've seen, not entirely. 

     For what it's worth, coming from a simple front line sales manager, culture change is not something that can be tied to a rigid action plan, stated through a few webcasts and face-to face meetings between senior leaders and front line staff then left to a semi-annual survey. It needs to be clearly communicated, by all members of the organization. Everyone needs to know their part in making the change. It requires that you have the right people who truly believe in the desired end state. It requires letting these leaders, at all levels of the organization, display the desired change, walk-the-walk so to speak. These leaders need to have the freedom to reward the behaviors that lead to this change. They need to be allowed to speak up when there is resistance. The true measurement should be in the business results, both the increase in revenue and the way that increase was obtained. 

     When asked about my "culture action plan" I state that I strive to know my people, understand their challenges to moving to the desired culture and I focus on rewarding, recognizing and thanking people for displaying the behaviors that truly demonstrate the culture needed to continue to be a top tier organization. Can my culture plan be measured by a survey? Maybe. What I do know is that the results to our business have been proven and how we obtained those results is very different compared to. what was done in the past. My team is #1 in sales for their benchmark two years running. That’s pretty good data supporting how we’ve not only changed our culture but also moved our business.

     I'm very curious to see what the manager tools members have to say about this.

Thanks,

Jason