Change Management Training for Cultural Change Initiatives

Success leaves clues. So does business failure. The difference between thriving companies and failing ones? Implementing transformation in the wrong sequence. Leaders who struggle with a dysfunctional workplace often miss a fundamental truth: cultural transformation can follow a specific, predictable process. The 4 D's of Cultural Change are a game-changer: 1. DEMONSTRATE Culture change begins with what you DO, not what you SAY. Your team watches every move you make, especially during stress and conflict. I've coached founders with toxic cultures who transformed their companies by starting with their own behavior. One founder began openly acknowledging when he was wrong - within weeks, his team followed suit. No mandate needed. Your actions broadcast priorities louder than words. Want psychological safety? Publicly thank someone for challenging your idea. 2. DEFINE Only after consistently demonstrating behaviors should you name the behavior as a desired cultural value. You're not inventing culture – you're articulating what's already emerging. Founders I've coached only formalize values after weeks of modeling those behaviors. By then, the team understands what the words mean through experience. Words create powerful shortcuts once behaviors are established. 3. DEMAND This is where most leaders mistakenly start – with demands before demonstration. And this is why so many leaders get frustrated trying to change culture. I've seen countless founders demand "intellectual honesty" before modeling it themselves. They get compliance but not commitment. After months of sharing their own errors, demanding the same behavior actually sticks. Your demands gain moral authority when they match your behavior. 4. DELEGATE The final step is building systems that maintain culture without your constant presence. Culture becomes truly embedded when it runs without you. The most successful founders I coach implement: • "Learning from Failure" sessions in team meetings • Peer recognition systems tied to values • Performance evaluations based on cultural alignment, not just results The most powerful cultural systems allow team members to hold each other accountable. Most leaders want culture change without personal change. They follow frameworks without doing the inner work. Through coaching dozens of founders, I've observed this consistently: The leaders who create lasting culture embody the transformation first. This requires uncomfortable self-awareness: Seeing your own patterns clearly. Understanding how your behavior creates ripple effects. Being willing to change first. At Inside-Out Leadership, we help founders combine leadership development with deep inner work. The result? Leaders who transform their cultures sustainably by transforming themselves first. When you demonstrate change, define it clearly, set expectations, and build systems... You don't just change culture. You transform your company from the inside out.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” - Peter Drucker   In a recent conversation with Mary K. Pratt of CIO Online, I shared some thoughts on the changing culture and talent landscape in high performing organizations and closing the “AI skills gap”.    Successful growth and adoption of AI will require a shift in both the skillsets for varying roles as well as the broader culture towards adaptability and embracing change. This shift is required in all parts of the organization. There are key “existential” questions that need to be answered: - How will the work of colleagues change for various roles and levels? What skills are required? - How will the workforce change to support the new ways of working? How will the organizational structure and mix shift? - How does a company best prepare the workforce for the change? - How does a company successfully sustain the change over time? Overall, there is opportunity to modernize most cultures towards high-speed decision making, agility and experimentation while re-skilling leadership with the critical skills to accelerate AI.   To execute successfully on integrating AI throughout a company, you can take a multi-tiered approach that segments colleagues into groups. - Core AI 'Bubble': Colleagues that are the closest with AI strategy and delivery and are responsible for both the AI platform builds and execution of prioritized business use cases. - AI Users/Early Adopters: Colleagues that are expected to be early adopters of AI such as prioritized business unit groups and technology teams. - Overall Colleagues: The rest of the colleagues where AI may integrate into their day-to-day in the future. So, how do you get started? One approach, as shared by a top consulting firm, has a 5-step framework for a training program that enables talent to adapt to GenAI's impact. Although cultural change requires much more, it’s a good start.  1 Undergo an Impact Assessment to understand the impact in the areas of People, Processes, and Technology. 2 Conduct a Skills Assessment that benchmarks existing skills and the gap to target state. 3 Create Learning Paths based on role or archetype. 4 Establish Change Management practices for socialization, alignment, and communication. 5 Define a Training approach, assets, and schedule to equip learners. I expect that the cultural changes required to take full advantage of AI, will take years, although there will be immediate benefits for sure. What is nice is that there are so many positives about Guardian Life’s existing culture that is focused on Inspiring Wellbeing to build upon. My thoughts on the topic continue to evolve, but here are some point-in-time thoughts in the referenced article.  https://lnkd.in/e5zAwGhc   I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic and practical ways to address culture and talent challenges. #guardian #guardianlife #ai #artificialintelligence #cio #cioonline

Transforming Risk Management from Process to Culture In twenty years of transformation work, I've noticed a pattern: organizations invest millions in sophisticated risk frameworks while underinvesting in what determines their success—the human element. Risk management has a behavior problem, not a framework problem. 🤫 When Risk Management Fails Silently We've all seen it: - Risk policies nobody reads - Training with high completion but low application - Risk registers maintained but rarely consulted - Near-misses that don't trigger process reviews In 2012, a major financial institution learned this lesson the hard way when $6B in losses occurred despite "best practice" risk controls. Post-incident reviews revealed employees had developed workarounds for controls they viewed as obstacles rather than safeguards. 🔗 The Missing OCM Link Risk management isn't just a technical implementation—it's a profound cultural transformation that requires: 1. Understanding current risk culture: The informal norms that actually govern behavior 2. Addressing emotional responses: Where raising risks is seen as negativity 3. Translating abstract risks to daily work: Helping people see how risks manifest in their role 4. Activating influence networks: Engaging those who shape opinions about "how things work" ➡️ From Process to Culture: The OCM Approach Effective risk culture transformation applies change principles specifically to risk behavior: - Risk storytelling: Creating compelling narratives about both risk successes and failures that emotionally resonate - Decision point mapping: Identifying the everyday moments where risk choices happen and focusing change efforts there - Psychologically safe feedback loops: Building systems where near-misses and concerns can be reported without blame - Visible leadership modeling: Ensuring executives demonstrate risk-aware decision making even when inconvenient One auto manufacturing organization reduced safety incidents in plants by 60% by implementing a system and cultural shift that empowered any worker to stop production if they saw a quality or safety issue. 📊 Measuring Culture, Not Just Controls The most sophisticated organizations are now tracking: - Risk reporting at different organizational levels - Psychological safety scores in risk discussions - Time spent on risk analysis in decision processes - How often the organization says "no" to opportunities due to risk concerns The most powerful risk management framework isn't the one in your documentation—it's the one embedded in your culture. How is your organization approaching risk culture? Are you focusing on frameworks or on the human behaviors that determine whether those frameworks actually work? #RiskManagement #OrganizationalChange #CultureTransformation #ChangeManagement #OCM #RiskFramework

“𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚!” 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙝𝙤𝙬? 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲. But you can 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 for others to change their mindset. When Toyota joined forces with GM in the 1980s, they set out to take GM’s worst-performing plant and transform its culture. The approach: ❌ They didn’t mandate. ❌ They didn’t force. ❌ They didn't lecture. Instead, they immersed leaders in a new way of working — learning-by-doing, side-by-side with their Toyota counterparts in Japan — to experience what the possibilities of that change could be. One year later, the NUMMI plant was GM's best performing: ✔️ Absenteeism dropped from 20% to 2% ✔️ Quality increased to Toyota’s standards ✔️ Productivity soared and the time it took assembling a car was cut in half In this episode of Chain of Learning, Toyota leader Isao Yoshino — the leader behind the design and delivery of NUMMI’s leader training program in Japan — shares how he and his team (including John Shook) approached training 100s of American and helping them become a "new me". They created the space for leaders to shift their own mindsets — no pushing, no forcing — just powerful opportunities to learn and grow. Because forcing change rarely works. You might get compliance, but not lasting impact. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘄, 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘁, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀. 🎧 Tune in or watch to discover the inside story behind one of the most famous business transformations in history — and how you can leverage these successful principles to lead the changes you envision for your company too. 🎙️ChainOfLearning.com/50 #ChainOfLearning #IsaoYoshino #LeadingToLearn #Lean #ChangeManagement Lean Enterprise Institute #NUMMI Mike Rother