How to Think About Creating a New Culture in the Corporate World

The term New Culture is increasingly reverberating through the corporate world as more and more leaders acknowledge the need to update and upgrade the work force and the work environment to meet new requirements of rapidly shifting paradigms.

What is meant by the term New Culture?

For most people this means changing the attitude that employees have towards their work place from being a follower to being a proactive, strategic thinker and a tactician doer who is willing to take personal responsibility, take initiative and make decisions while demonstrating high degree of team spirit and charisma.

Although this statement is true it only represents a partial view, a one way view from below to above. The broader definition needs to include the view from above to below, which is a corporate ecology that supports personal responsibility, initiative, strategic thinking and leadership development. This view has to originate from top leadership. These two parts of the definition go hand-in-hand and are equally important in the achievement of a New Culture.

Seeking to create a New Corporate Culture is a huge undertaking and holds within it many dynamics and territories. However, for the purpose of this Thinking Coach Insight here are few general concepts to think about:

1. Having a clear shared vision of the new culture you wish to establish, creating an image of how things will actually look in the new culture is a powerful tool if used correctly and if agreed to and endorsed by the collective body of people.
2. A fundamental understanding of the distinction between Symptoms and Causes is necessary. Don’t fall into the all-too-common trap of thinking that by curing the symptoms you cure the problem. As an example, if a problem is detected in an organization where employees tend to avoid taking personal responsibility, it is important to realize that it is only a bi-product and symptom of an unfulfilled core human feature. Wisdom would indicate to search for the cause and deal with it at that level- it will save time and resources in the long run.
3. Foster the concept of togetherness, inter-support and ongoing mutual encouragement as you will be feeding from each other’s success. Remember that a chain is as good as its weakest link.
4. Keep in mind that creating a New Culture is a long-term proposition and it is best therefore to avoid the tendency to go after quick-fix and instant solutions. Specific formulae works with the acquisition of technical skills but unfortunately, this is not the case when it comes to the territory of human attitude and behavior, as we are dealing with much more intricate issues which are mostly hidden.

Clearly, creating a New Corporate Culture is a colossal undertaking. However, given the enormous amount of speedy changes happening in our times, it is my considered view that creating a professional environment that meets the new human and business requirements is absolutely crucial.

When a person loves what they do, happy to go to work, feel proud of their organization and feel and know they can be themselves, it is the ultimate success. This is a win-win situation par excellence.

Finally, The Thinking Coach specializes in this dynamic and will guide you through the rough waters of real changes and new establishments, to achieve your visions and goals in a balanced, systematic and well orchestrated way that gets lasting results.



Eli Harari
The Thinking Coach