Culture is most often described as the collective set of shared values and beliefs of the people in an organization. As you can imagine, shared values and beliefs can't be changed overnight. All too often we see organizations launch "culture change initiatives" through communications strategies. Unfortunately, that approach rarely works. That's because our values and beliefs - those which we hold dear and truly believe - are a product of our own personal experiences. Accordingly, the only way to truly change the culture of an organization is to replace old experiences, those reflective of the old culture, with new experiences derived from the desired value/belief system.

We also find that in the final analysis, the culture of an organization can be characterized by observing the top leaders - usually the top 10 to 12 people. The overall culture of an organization is usually reflective of this group. By extension, the only way to truly change the culture of an organization is to change the culture of the leadership team. Do so, and in time the organization will follow. Communications can be used to accelerate the process, but it cannot by itself drive culture change. Conversely, all the effort in the world to change the lower 99.9% of an organization will fail without a change in the leadership culture.

Of course, today we live in the real world. Executives are busy and occasionally either 1) delegate their culture change efforts or 2) the effort itself emanates from lower in the organization, without leadership support to begin with. Even in these cases, a good change leadership plan can help - it just happens to be a bottom's up plan, vice more traditional top-down plans.

Change Leadership - The key to success for any change initiative

At BMGI, our experience has shown that applying the particular methodologies of Performance Excellence, even flawlessly, is not sufficient if world-class performance is the goal.

According to a Harvard Business Review study, 70 percent of change initiatives are not successful because organizations fail to manage the "human" reaction to change. If you've ever been involved in a major change effort, you will probably agree that predicting how people will react to a proposed change is not easy. In fact, resistance from the right people at the right time can cause any initiative to fail.

Great change leaders are made, not born

Successful and sustainable transformation efforts require leaders who know how to manage change. At the simplest level, managing change means:

• Knowing what you want to accomplish and creating a compelling vision that motivates others
• Understanding stakeholders and communicating with them early, consistently and often
• Managing the varying levels of support and resistance that will inevitably emerge in response to any change

BMGI has helped dozens of organizations develop change leaders who have the skills to successfully implement sustainable change. As a result, we've identified six critical system factors that are key for anyone who is leading change. Without all six factors in place, successful transformational change is unlikely.

Change Leadership and TPE

In the context of Total Performance Excellence (TPE), Change Leadership is a skill set that is required throughout any deployment, from planning and executing to sustaining improvements. Change Leadership skills are essential for both high level executives and program leaders, who are responsible for setting the vision, as well as those who will communicate the vision and make the changes happen (Champions, Lean Six Sigma practitioners and process owners). These individuals require even more intensive training in change management tools and techniques.