Culture Change

The collectively held norms and assumptions that make up organizational culture drive much of our behavior at work. What needs to shift in your culture to create a high functioning environment that supports your strategic goals?

While a high functioning organizational culture is a well-established enabler of business success, many organizations avoid confronting elements of their culture that are barriers to realizing their strategy. We partner with organizations to diagnose their current culture, envision their desired culture and design high-impact interventions that drive culture change.

Culture is key driver of value for the most successful organizations, underpinning everything from brand to EVP, engagement to innovation. A vibrant culture accounts for as much as a 20-30% performance differential against ‘culturally unremarkable’ comparables. It is not something which leaders should leave to chance.

We partner with you at any and all stages of your journey to:

Create a shared understanding

Some of our clients have a clear roadmap in mind, and others want more guidance on what would have the greatest impact in terms of driving their strategy. We work to understand your system – not the other way around. Our partnership is based on your existing timelines, priorities, and long-term ambitions.

Articulate the direction of your culture

We help your top team align on organizational purpose, values and identity. How can your core cultural narrative grow to become energising, pragmatic, resonant and distinctive? Top team alignment is a necessary but not sufficient condition of culture change – a pre-requisite for any successful transformation.

Assess the dimensions of your culture

To change culture, you need to be specific. We measure the health of your culture, and dive into what makes you unique. Real change is often more about finding the core strengths and qualities of your culture – those which have been taken for granted or overlooked – and putting them back into the heart of all you do.

Target the drivers of your culture

Culture is like a stream. You don’t change it by grabbing handfuls of water. You build turning points – specific initiatives which redirect the flow and have a persistent impact. YSC’s role is to help you create initiatives which act as turning points. We target three underlying factors: the leadership, social and structural drivers of change.

Evaluate and extend the impact

Culture is always evolving. Because your process is more important than ours, we work with the natural shifts in your culture and priorities. Ongoing assessment of your culture is critical to ensuring we have the highest-value impact possible – which we extend further, working where you think YSC is most needed.

CHANGE IS ABOUT LEADERSHIP

At YSC, working with the most senior global leaders is what we do, and we’ve done it for 30 years. No culture change transformation can succeed independently of senior leaders. Aligning with organizational strategy, setting the new direction, and role modelling ‘what good looks like’ all have to be done at the top of house. Throughout the whole organization, leaders at all levels bridge the gap between cultural ambitions and what eventually ends up happening on the ground. YSC works with leaders and leadership on a daily basis, and it’s this understanding which underpins our culture change practice.

CULTURE IS PERSONAL

Culture is about values, the reason we come into work every day, and the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. Organizational culture is not just another facet of corporate life – it matters to individuals at an emotional level. We work with inclusiveness at the heart of all we do, and as psychologists we understand that change happens only when you work with reactions, not against them. Culture change comes alive when individuals are supported to forge a personal connection to the new way.

Individual
Styles

It sounds obvious, but individuals carry culture. Individual leaders act as role models, create narratives, and reinforce patterns of behavior. We empower leaders to become culture carriers – defined as being aware of their role, bought-into it, and capable of influencing others.

Team
Dynamics

Culture change must be signalled from the top, and this starts with the executive team. We partner with top teams in terms of content and process – working with you to become a more effective unit as we together scope, shape and deliver culture change programs. The top team needs to lead in a way which both signals and reinforces the cultural shifts it needs to realize.

Organizational Culture

Effective culture change has both a central and a local component. Take a vast multinational. All employees around the world should know what it means to work there, and be inspired by it, but that doesn’t mean that the culture in the New York office should be the same as in Singapore, or that finance and HR need to operate in exactly the same way. We help you unravel what needs to be worked on centrally, and what should be devolved.

Case Studies

Refreshing Leadership Structure in a Disruptive Business Environment with Li & Fung

Leadership Development & Cultural Change With A Fortune 100 Retailer

Development & Sponsorship Program For High-Po Black & Latinx Leaders With Fortune 500 Company

Creating A Leadership Capability Framework With Coats

Designing A Custom 360 Feedback Tool With A British Multinational Insurance Company

Podcast: Creating inclusive cultures

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Hybrid teams: Four fundamentals to get your leadership team working well when together and apart

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The purpose gap: Going beyond the personal

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Welcome to the new ethical context

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Love is in the air; Somebody call HR

YSC’s CEO Eric Pliner offers timely advice to leaders navigating the ethics of office romances in his latest article for Forbes.

The great resignation = The great re-engagement

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As ESG demands escalate, here are five ways organizations can invest in the evolution of their leaders to meet heightened societal expectations.