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The Insider's Guide to Culture Change: Creating a Workplace That Delivers, Grows, and Adapts
The secret to the success or failure of any business boils down to its culture.
From disengaged employees to underserved customers, business failures invariably stem from a culture problem. In The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change, acclaimed culture transformation expert and global executive Siobhan McHale shares her proven four-step process to demystifying culture transformation and starting down the path to positive change.
Many leaders and managers struggle to get a handle on exactly what culture is and how pervasive its impact is throughout an organization. Some try to change the culture by publishing a statement of core values but soon find that, aside from some short-term lip service, no meaningful change happens. Others try to unify the culture around a set of shared goals that satisfy shareholders but find their efforts backfire as stressed employees throw their hands up because “leadership just doesn’t get it.” Others implement expensive new IT systems to try to bring about change, only to find that employees find “workarounds” and soon go back to their old ways.
Culture transformation expert Siobhan McHale defines culture simply: “It’s how things work around here.”
The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change walks readers through McHale’s four-step process to culture transformation, including how to
Understand what “corporate culture” really is and how it impacts every aspect of the way your organization operates
Analyze where your culture is broken or not adding maximum value
Unlock the power of reframing roles within your company, to empower and engage your employees
Utilize proven methods and tools to break through deeply embedded patterns and change your company mind-set
Keep the momentum going by consolidating gains and maintaining your foot on the change accelerator
With The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change, watch your employees go from followers to change leaders who drive an agile culture that constantly outperforms.
From disengaged employees to underserved customers, business failures invariably stem from a culture problem. In The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change, acclaimed culture transformation expert and global executive Siobhan McHale shares her proven four-step process to demystifying culture transformation and starting down the path to positive change.
Many leaders and managers struggle to get a handle on exactly what culture is and how pervasive its impact is throughout an organization. Some try to change the culture by publishing a statement of core values but soon find that, aside from some short-term lip service, no meaningful change happens. Others try to unify the culture around a set of shared goals that satisfy shareholders but find their efforts backfire as stressed employees throw their hands up because “leadership just doesn’t get it.” Others implement expensive new IT systems to try to bring about change, only to find that employees find “workarounds” and soon go back to their old ways.
Culture transformation expert Siobhan McHale defines culture simply: “It’s how things work around here.”
The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change walks readers through McHale’s four-step process to culture transformation, including how to
Understand what “corporate culture” really is and how it impacts every aspect of the way your organization operates
Analyze where your culture is broken or not adding maximum value
Unlock the power of reframing roles within your company, to empower and engage your employees
Utilize proven methods and tools to break through deeply embedded patterns and change your company mind-set
Keep the momentum going by consolidating gains and maintaining your foot on the change accelerator
With The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change, watch your employees go from followers to change leaders who drive an agile culture that constantly outperforms.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published February 11, 2020
117 people are currently reading
340 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 3, 2020
If you've read a book like this before then you've read this one too.
February 22, 2021
This book had some good examples, but most stories I've heard before. I did not find many new insights here. Here are my highlights:
McHale walks through the process of culture transformation, including how to analyze where your culture is broken, reframe roles within your company, break deeply embedded patterns, and consolidate gains. Louis Gerstner, the former chairman and CEO of IBM, said turning a bad culture into a good culture is like teaching a herd of elephants to dance.
Corporate culture is “the patterns or agreements that determine how the business operates” and “it’s how things work around here.” No published policy can create a corporate culture. No document outlining an organization’s bedrock values can guarantee that people will faithfully practice those values. Culture emerges not from a proclamation or code of ethics but from how people, especially the organization’s leaders, behave day in and day out. Culture differentiates one company from another. Think of it as an organization’s personality, the set of unique attributes that give it life, make it stand out from the crowd, and give it an edge over its rivals; or it can undermine an organization’s ability to create and sustain a competitive advantage. If you get the culture right, the results will follow.
To create true and lasting change, you must concentrate on the three key elements of workplace culture: mental maps, roles, and patterns. Mental maps, for example, are the perceptions, point-of-view, and images you hold in your head about your work. The maps include expectations, thoughts, feelings, assumptions, values, beliefs, and needs. The mental maps that people hold may not be visible to anyone else, but they strongly influence how people think and feel about their work and the roles they take up. Distinguish the dancers from the dance, the patterns from the behaviors. Culture is less about what happens (the behaviors) and more about how the workplace functions (the patterns)––these patterns hold the key to lasting change.
A study found that the best in class in every industry invested heavily in building strong personal relationships with customers. Relationship building was at the core of these cultures.
There are three major influences on how we are wired to behave: instincts, personality, and role. When you decide to change your organization’s culture, it is often advisable to avoid trying to tackle hardwired instincts or asking people to change their personalities. Instead, focus on what you can more easily and more quickly change: the roles that guide people's behavior.
When you as a leader embark on a change effort, you must put your change initiative at the top of your daily to-do list. That means devoting at least 20% of your time to leading and overseeing the change agenda, especially in the early days.
Mary Barra rose to the position of CEO at General Motors in January 2014. In a few short years, she orchestrated an incredible turnaround, bringing it back from the lowest point in her company’s history—its 2009 filing for corporate bankruptcy. Barra faced a tsunami of criticism in her early days at the helm when, two months after she took charge, GM recalled 2.5 million cars plagued with faulty ignition switches. Company engineers had known about the faulty ignition for at least a decade but had failed to act, a mistake that resulted in 45 deaths and many more injuries. To her credit, Barra did not duck responsibility for the calamity but publicly apologized and issued a blank check to compensate victims. Barra held the whole company accountable as well. No longer would she allow GM’s people to conform to the old pattern of “hiding bad news.” From this day forward, she expected that each and every employee would react to problems with complete openness and transparency.
Purpose is the fuel that drives every successful company’s performance engine. Everyone who works for a living wants to do something meaningful that might enhance the lives of others. It’s a basic human desire. You want to make money, but money is just the yardstick we use to measure whether or not we are touching people’s lives. Do meaningful work and the money will follow. Success depends on purpose and meaning, but it also depends on the right people doing the right work at the right time.
Great leaders are prepared to let talented people go if they do not meet the culture expectations.
Google cascades problem-solving to every level of its organization with the concept “10x thinking,” which encouraged employees to improve what Google offered its customers tenfold rather than the mere 10% that would satisfy most companies. Google also adhered to its famous “20%” rule, giving employees one day per week to work on intractable problems. Many of the company’s greatest innovations have come from this day of innovation, including Google News, Gmail, and AdSense.
McHale walks through the process of culture transformation, including how to analyze where your culture is broken, reframe roles within your company, break deeply embedded patterns, and consolidate gains. Louis Gerstner, the former chairman and CEO of IBM, said turning a bad culture into a good culture is like teaching a herd of elephants to dance.
Corporate culture is “the patterns or agreements that determine how the business operates” and “it’s how things work around here.” No published policy can create a corporate culture. No document outlining an organization’s bedrock values can guarantee that people will faithfully practice those values. Culture emerges not from a proclamation or code of ethics but from how people, especially the organization’s leaders, behave day in and day out. Culture differentiates one company from another. Think of it as an organization’s personality, the set of unique attributes that give it life, make it stand out from the crowd, and give it an edge over its rivals; or it can undermine an organization’s ability to create and sustain a competitive advantage. If you get the culture right, the results will follow.
To create true and lasting change, you must concentrate on the three key elements of workplace culture: mental maps, roles, and patterns. Mental maps, for example, are the perceptions, point-of-view, and images you hold in your head about your work. The maps include expectations, thoughts, feelings, assumptions, values, beliefs, and needs. The mental maps that people hold may not be visible to anyone else, but they strongly influence how people think and feel about their work and the roles they take up. Distinguish the dancers from the dance, the patterns from the behaviors. Culture is less about what happens (the behaviors) and more about how the workplace functions (the patterns)––these patterns hold the key to lasting change.
A study found that the best in class in every industry invested heavily in building strong personal relationships with customers. Relationship building was at the core of these cultures.
There are three major influences on how we are wired to behave: instincts, personality, and role. When you decide to change your organization’s culture, it is often advisable to avoid trying to tackle hardwired instincts or asking people to change their personalities. Instead, focus on what you can more easily and more quickly change: the roles that guide people's behavior.
When you as a leader embark on a change effort, you must put your change initiative at the top of your daily to-do list. That means devoting at least 20% of your time to leading and overseeing the change agenda, especially in the early days.
Mary Barra rose to the position of CEO at General Motors in January 2014. In a few short years, she orchestrated an incredible turnaround, bringing it back from the lowest point in her company’s history—its 2009 filing for corporate bankruptcy. Barra faced a tsunami of criticism in her early days at the helm when, two months after she took charge, GM recalled 2.5 million cars plagued with faulty ignition switches. Company engineers had known about the faulty ignition for at least a decade but had failed to act, a mistake that resulted in 45 deaths and many more injuries. To her credit, Barra did not duck responsibility for the calamity but publicly apologized and issued a blank check to compensate victims. Barra held the whole company accountable as well. No longer would she allow GM’s people to conform to the old pattern of “hiding bad news.” From this day forward, she expected that each and every employee would react to problems with complete openness and transparency.
Purpose is the fuel that drives every successful company’s performance engine. Everyone who works for a living wants to do something meaningful that might enhance the lives of others. It’s a basic human desire. You want to make money, but money is just the yardstick we use to measure whether or not we are touching people’s lives. Do meaningful work and the money will follow. Success depends on purpose and meaning, but it also depends on the right people doing the right work at the right time.
Great leaders are prepared to let talented people go if they do not meet the culture expectations.
Google cascades problem-solving to every level of its organization with the concept “10x thinking,” which encouraged employees to improve what Google offered its customers tenfold rather than the mere 10% that would satisfy most companies. Google also adhered to its famous “20%” rule, giving employees one day per week to work on intractable problems. Many of the company’s greatest innovations have come from this day of innovation, including Google News, Gmail, and AdSense.
July 11, 2020
Honestly, just another book about organizational culture written like a self help bestseller for people who have no idea what that is or how to do it. You'll walk away with fancy shallow examples and a very obvious framework. If you're lucky you'll get one or two valuable insights.
It's like most people who pretend to do organizational and cultural change take their readers for uneducated fools and just recycle the same old hip examples of successful companies you can read about all over the internet. In much more detail.
Where it doesn't come short is when it comes to presenting the author as a guru who can solve complicated problems and put failed change efforts back on track after an hour of talking with the CEO and a couple of what if you stepped back and... kinds of questions.
It's like most people who pretend to do organizational and cultural change take their readers for uneducated fools and just recycle the same old hip examples of successful companies you can read about all over the internet. In much more detail.
Where it doesn't come short is when it comes to presenting the author as a guru who can solve complicated problems and put failed change efforts back on track after an hour of talking with the CEO and a couple of what if you stepped back and... kinds of questions.
October 18, 2021
Dry yet solid. Probably a tad too corporate for my liking.
January 17, 2021
i think you could totally read only the main points at the end of each chapter, no need to read the whole book
January 30, 2021
Useful insights for culture change
The Insiders guide is an apt deal for this book. Siobahn demonstrates a huge amount of experience and provides a practical and insightful guide to leading culture change.
There were many ideas that challenged or enhanced my thinking on this and I feel I am better equipped to lead and support future changes.
I would recommend this to anyone that's leading or wanting to positively influence chances in their work.
The Insiders guide is an apt deal for this book. Siobahn demonstrates a huge amount of experience and provides a practical and insightful guide to leading culture change.
There were many ideas that challenged or enhanced my thinking on this and I feel I am better equipped to lead and support future changes.
I would recommend this to anyone that's leading or wanting to positively influence chances in their work.
June 17, 2020
Interesting ideas, but the examples are pretty vague and unhelpful. I was looking for a substantive, non-academic take on organizational culture, but I didn't find much substance here. It's a shame because the potential is there. Ms. McHale clearly excels at her work but should've gotten someone else to help her write the book.
October 23, 2022
Book full of organisational cultural change stories, from organisations including ANZ bank, Dulux, Google, BuilditPro, Patagonia, BP, Etsi, Hubspot and Nordstrom to name a few.
A snap shot of a few highlighted passages on my Kindle below.
Cultural change is like a voyage
Embarking on cultural change is similar to setting sail on a sea voyage. As the leader you must know your destination chart your path and make necessary course corrections while you diagnose the full business environment before during and after the journey.
It’s hard work
Culture change is the hardest work you will ever do, but it makes all the difference. To accelerate change you must focus on three elements of culture. These include mental maps, roles and patterns.
How do you identify the real issues that are holding your business back from achieving its full potential? You will need to collect data and perspectives through many different sets of eyes in order to understand organizational culture. Talking to people gives you the soft data about what's really going on: the ways of relating between the different areas; thoughts and feelings about their colleagues and their work. While this process provide extremely valuable information about what's happening, it does not give you everything you need to get the whole story about the current culture. You need to add hard data the facts and figures that give you something to measure.
Reframing roles
Even the most capable leader can't change culture alone. She needs the support of a committed leadership group working together on the transformation agenda. Every member of the leadership team must reframe their role to change leader in order to deliver the change.
Discussion about the importance of shared ownership for the change program and have not leaving it to a change consultant or HR.
Co-creation of change
During transformation change, employees must be invited to make the change happen within their areas of responsibility. In the context of a culture change initiative, everyone from the chairman of the board to the janitor must adopt the role of problem-solver and change leader.
Never underestimate your power to change the culture, simply by changing your behaviour.
To successfully transform workplace culture, a leader often needs to invest in new systems processes or training. The CEO at the bank treated culture as he would any other business decision, and then strive to persuade key stakeholders to get behind the investment. The business case he made repositioned the transformation as a commercial need not just a feel-good cultural project.
During an ambitious culture change you will find few if any ready-made easy solutions to the problems you are trying to solve. It involves so many uncertain and ambiguous elements that it pays to conduct experiments that will show you what works and what doesn't.
Role of technology in change process
Businesses have always relied on systems and processes and policies and procedures that enable their people to satisfy customer and deliver business results. New technology makes it possible to do it bigger, faster and smarter.
Culture as a people and process
Culture is a people thing, and it's a process thing. You can leverage process and systems change to create the desired culture. Aligning your processes procedures policies and physical environment to your change goals, can strongly reinforce the aspirational culture.
On Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is tough, especially if it involves overhauling a multinational corporation. Remember that culture is how people make things work. Machines can do a lot of things but they cannot fully duplicate what people can do: apply common sense, dream up new concepts, develop self-awareness, connect seemingly unrelated dots, invent the better mouse trap, and feel true love and compassion. People need people. They also need recognition and rewards for a job well done. If you want a new culture to stick, link rewards to accomplishing the change agenda.
On Organizational Restructuring
Organizational restructures can move people around without producing any real transformation. After all the naval gazing people may go back to their old ways of doing things and their dysfunctional patterns continue. Restructures can give leaders the opportunity to fast-track change by reframing the role of different parts of the organization.
Overview of Siobhan McHale’s process
Four step process for disrupting culture
1. Diagnosing what's going on
2. Reframing roles
3. Breaking patterns; and
4. Consolidating gains
A valuable resource, with great stories and lessons learned for all interested in driving major cultural change.
A snap shot of a few highlighted passages on my Kindle below.
Cultural change is like a voyage
Embarking on cultural change is similar to setting sail on a sea voyage. As the leader you must know your destination chart your path and make necessary course corrections while you diagnose the full business environment before during and after the journey.
It’s hard work
Culture change is the hardest work you will ever do, but it makes all the difference. To accelerate change you must focus on three elements of culture. These include mental maps, roles and patterns.
How do you identify the real issues that are holding your business back from achieving its full potential? You will need to collect data and perspectives through many different sets of eyes in order to understand organizational culture. Talking to people gives you the soft data about what's really going on: the ways of relating between the different areas; thoughts and feelings about their colleagues and their work. While this process provide extremely valuable information about what's happening, it does not give you everything you need to get the whole story about the current culture. You need to add hard data the facts and figures that give you something to measure.
Reframing roles
Even the most capable leader can't change culture alone. She needs the support of a committed leadership group working together on the transformation agenda. Every member of the leadership team must reframe their role to change leader in order to deliver the change.
Discussion about the importance of shared ownership for the change program and have not leaving it to a change consultant or HR.
Co-creation of change
During transformation change, employees must be invited to make the change happen within their areas of responsibility. In the context of a culture change initiative, everyone from the chairman of the board to the janitor must adopt the role of problem-solver and change leader.
Never underestimate your power to change the culture, simply by changing your behaviour.
To successfully transform workplace culture, a leader often needs to invest in new systems processes or training. The CEO at the bank treated culture as he would any other business decision, and then strive to persuade key stakeholders to get behind the investment. The business case he made repositioned the transformation as a commercial need not just a feel-good cultural project.
During an ambitious culture change you will find few if any ready-made easy solutions to the problems you are trying to solve. It involves so many uncertain and ambiguous elements that it pays to conduct experiments that will show you what works and what doesn't.
Role of technology in change process
Businesses have always relied on systems and processes and policies and procedures that enable their people to satisfy customer and deliver business results. New technology makes it possible to do it bigger, faster and smarter.
Culture as a people and process
Culture is a people thing, and it's a process thing. You can leverage process and systems change to create the desired culture. Aligning your processes procedures policies and physical environment to your change goals, can strongly reinforce the aspirational culture.
On Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is tough, especially if it involves overhauling a multinational corporation. Remember that culture is how people make things work. Machines can do a lot of things but they cannot fully duplicate what people can do: apply common sense, dream up new concepts, develop self-awareness, connect seemingly unrelated dots, invent the better mouse trap, and feel true love and compassion. People need people. They also need recognition and rewards for a job well done. If you want a new culture to stick, link rewards to accomplishing the change agenda.
On Organizational Restructuring
Organizational restructures can move people around without producing any real transformation. After all the naval gazing people may go back to their old ways of doing things and their dysfunctional patterns continue. Restructures can give leaders the opportunity to fast-track change by reframing the role of different parts of the organization.
Overview of Siobhan McHale’s process
Four step process for disrupting culture
1. Diagnosing what's going on
2. Reframing roles
3. Breaking patterns; and
4. Consolidating gains
A valuable resource, with great stories and lessons learned for all interested in driving major cultural change.
August 14, 2021
Siobhan McHale’s The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change is an ambitious work with a great deal of potential. It covers a wide range of the functions of leadership, with a massive number of case studies both from the business school repertoire and the author’s personal experience. Unfortunately, these elements are also the reason the book is a disappointment as a tool for practitioners.
The premise of the book is a system for intervention to create cultural change. McHale calls this “the cultural disruptor”. The stages are, in my words:
• Explore culture, identify excellence and goals
• Diagnose patterns that produce negative results
• Change patterns by acting on roles and policies
• Measure impact with business goals, repeat as necessary
This approach has many of the same characteristics and interactions as a functional intervention in relationships. An exploration of a parallel system would complement an understanding of the functional approach, and the cultural disruptor structure offers some interesting perspectives. Her discussion of roles as a means of cultural change is insightful. Separating roles from what McHale calls instincts and personality is useful to the degree that it facilitates behavioral change and the creation of a productive functional environment. There are a half dozen or so other nuggets throughout the book.
Unfortunately, moving beyond this is where the book fails to reach its potential. As a pedagogical tool, case studies are difficult to turn into real-works behavior, and this book exemplifies the challenge. Theory and implementation are tucked away in paragraph after paragraph of stories, requiring a reader to seek them out. The “Points to Remember” at the end of each chapter are business school platitudes. From its focus on case studies to its approach to theory, The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change lacks any effort to facilitate the learner’s progress to behavioral change. Any learner, even an experienced one, will have to be very deliberate in moving through the learning cycle to get value from the book.
There are additional problems in McHale’s method of the cultural disruptor. Because so little of the text explores the concepts, the author fails to connect pieces of the model to each other. For example, she explains the concept of patterns (relationships by another name) as somehow distinct from behavior (“Culture… was less about what happened (the behaviors) and more about how the workplace functioned (the patterns)…”, 26-29), but then goes on to describe behavioral change as the means of cultural change. This lack of clarity occurs throughout the book and on multiple topics, and as a result the way to create change itself is left in an abstract. It feels like the book is a consultation proposal – swoop in, make “change”, and everything will be better – rather than a practitioner’s approach.
In all, The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change is an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful work. A shallow exploration of theory is overwhelmed by examples, leading to neither a useful approach nor any in-depth examination of a specific situation. In its hurry to show how much it knows, The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change reveals it has very little substance.
There is one group who would benefit from this book, and that is the experienced functional leader who wants a mental puzzle. I enjoyed exploring each case study to catch the threads and fit them into a proper framework. The book is a great opportunity to challenge your mental stamina in application of the functional approach to leadership, but it offers little to a learner seeking new tactics to grow his or her leadership practice. Unfortunately, this one is almost certainly not worth your time or money.
The premise of the book is a system for intervention to create cultural change. McHale calls this “the cultural disruptor”. The stages are, in my words:
• Explore culture, identify excellence and goals
• Diagnose patterns that produce negative results
• Change patterns by acting on roles and policies
• Measure impact with business goals, repeat as necessary
This approach has many of the same characteristics and interactions as a functional intervention in relationships. An exploration of a parallel system would complement an understanding of the functional approach, and the cultural disruptor structure offers some interesting perspectives. Her discussion of roles as a means of cultural change is insightful. Separating roles from what McHale calls instincts and personality is useful to the degree that it facilitates behavioral change and the creation of a productive functional environment. There are a half dozen or so other nuggets throughout the book.
Unfortunately, moving beyond this is where the book fails to reach its potential. As a pedagogical tool, case studies are difficult to turn into real-works behavior, and this book exemplifies the challenge. Theory and implementation are tucked away in paragraph after paragraph of stories, requiring a reader to seek them out. The “Points to Remember” at the end of each chapter are business school platitudes. From its focus on case studies to its approach to theory, The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change lacks any effort to facilitate the learner’s progress to behavioral change. Any learner, even an experienced one, will have to be very deliberate in moving through the learning cycle to get value from the book.
There are additional problems in McHale’s method of the cultural disruptor. Because so little of the text explores the concepts, the author fails to connect pieces of the model to each other. For example, she explains the concept of patterns (relationships by another name) as somehow distinct from behavior (“Culture… was less about what happened (the behaviors) and more about how the workplace functioned (the patterns)…”, 26-29), but then goes on to describe behavioral change as the means of cultural change. This lack of clarity occurs throughout the book and on multiple topics, and as a result the way to create change itself is left in an abstract. It feels like the book is a consultation proposal – swoop in, make “change”, and everything will be better – rather than a practitioner’s approach.
In all, The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change is an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful work. A shallow exploration of theory is overwhelmed by examples, leading to neither a useful approach nor any in-depth examination of a specific situation. In its hurry to show how much it knows, The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change reveals it has very little substance.
There is one group who would benefit from this book, and that is the experienced functional leader who wants a mental puzzle. I enjoyed exploring each case study to catch the threads and fit them into a proper framework. The book is a great opportunity to challenge your mental stamina in application of the functional approach to leadership, but it offers little to a learner seeking new tactics to grow his or her leadership practice. Unfortunately, this one is almost certainly not worth your time or money.
February 24, 2024
I "read" this as an audiobook, and it is not too bad. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, huh? And I rounded up from 3.5. McHale has a nice flair for the dramatic in her stories, but it felt like it got to the point where there were just too many stories. It may have been a tad longer than needed.
Okay - Starts out with some stories of companies that needed to make some adjustments. Then discussed how the leaders (CEOs usually) worked to foster the change. Then she tells some stories of good successful stories, and some not successful. Then, she finally defines in her terms what "Culture" really is: her definition (this is loosely paraphrased) is basically the inner mannerisms of the employees, whether it is good or bad. If the employees all strive to work together and get positive results, then good culture; if the workers have separate agendas and out for themselves, bad culture.
Now, in a smaller company, with less than 25 employees, this is a bit easier to foster change, because not as much reliance on dozens upon dozens of members in the leadership team, and then dozens upon dozens of middle/lower managers, and then exponentially more front-line employees. She worked with the CEO of a big bank in Australia (of which I never heard of), and they basically stunk at customer focus and then the CEO helped promote changes. Then he left and the employees went back to their old ways.
If you have been working to tweak or build a new direction (aka culture), in your company, this book may be helpful, but maybe more for the lower managers and front-line personnel. Quite frankly, if you are in the Leadership Team and are unaware of the importance of culture, not sure if one book will be enough for you.
She then tries show how the leaders made some errors. One item not expressly discussed enough that I felt needed more emphasis is ACCOUNTABILITY. In the stories, even deep into the book, where there was success in changes, it was because everyone held each other accountable. It seems implied, but only after the bad stories does she speak of the importance of getting everyone on board, then empowering everyone to hold each other accountable to the changes to be made.
One other shortcoming I found was that she didn't discuss a change in vision/principles/beliefs all the time. I think this is more important than everything else. If you have employees not on same page, they either need to adapt, change, or given the heave-ho. And not because they were recalcitrant, but because they maybe were not a good fit, because they didn't hold the same values/beliefs/principles as the company direction and culture (or would-be culture).
Okay - Starts out with some stories of companies that needed to make some adjustments. Then discussed how the leaders (CEOs usually) worked to foster the change. Then she tells some stories of good successful stories, and some not successful. Then, she finally defines in her terms what "Culture" really is: her definition (this is loosely paraphrased) is basically the inner mannerisms of the employees, whether it is good or bad. If the employees all strive to work together and get positive results, then good culture; if the workers have separate agendas and out for themselves, bad culture.
Now, in a smaller company, with less than 25 employees, this is a bit easier to foster change, because not as much reliance on dozens upon dozens of members in the leadership team, and then dozens upon dozens of middle/lower managers, and then exponentially more front-line employees. She worked with the CEO of a big bank in Australia (of which I never heard of), and they basically stunk at customer focus and then the CEO helped promote changes. Then he left and the employees went back to their old ways.
If you have been working to tweak or build a new direction (aka culture), in your company, this book may be helpful, but maybe more for the lower managers and front-line personnel. Quite frankly, if you are in the Leadership Team and are unaware of the importance of culture, not sure if one book will be enough for you.
She then tries show how the leaders made some errors. One item not expressly discussed enough that I felt needed more emphasis is ACCOUNTABILITY. In the stories, even deep into the book, where there was success in changes, it was because everyone held each other accountable. It seems implied, but only after the bad stories does she speak of the importance of getting everyone on board, then empowering everyone to hold each other accountable to the changes to be made.
One other shortcoming I found was that she didn't discuss a change in vision/principles/beliefs all the time. I think this is more important than everything else. If you have employees not on same page, they either need to adapt, change, or given the heave-ho. And not because they were recalcitrant, but because they maybe were not a good fit, because they didn't hold the same values/beliefs/principles as the company direction and culture (or would-be culture).
Read
August 5, 2020A very readable and helpful guide to company culture change. Some of the review comments are scathing of McHale's efforts but I think anyone with some sense can recognise that culture change does follow fairly predictable lines. What she does is set it out in a clear sequence and highlights some of the traps and ideas you should be aware of if initiating culture change. For anyone buried in the throes of a culture change - this book is very helpful.
September 3, 2020
All too often change is discussed in the abstract as if it is something that occurs in a laboratory setting. Yet, in Insider's Guide, McHale provides real-world experience and a useful for stage model to help anyone have a proper perspective on bringing about change.
The only rub is, change still takes time and a major commitment. At least with this book as a tool in your arsenal you aren't going in totally blind!
The only rub is, change still takes time and a major commitment. At least with this book as a tool in your arsenal you aren't going in totally blind!
February 15, 2020
L’autrice presenta una metodologia semplice ma olistica per gestire e guidare un cambiamento culturale in azienda. Grazie a un’esperienza maturata in diversi contesti aziendali, propone diversi accorgimenti per riuscire a garantire il successo dell’iniziativa. Utile il focus sul ruolo anziché sui comportamenti nel cercare di creare la nuova cultura.
January 24, 2021
Solid, informative and to the point. If you haven't read many business/culture books, this is the perfect place to start because understanding your strategy from the perspective of culture is the best way to make them successful. The book does use a lot of examples that appear in other business books, but the author's personal experience examples are new and interesting
March 3, 2020
Written in a breezy style that verges into occasional vagueness, the methodology and strategies provided seem sound but could do with more rigorous definitions and explanations. Lots of interesting examples, but once again sometimes only seem loosely connected to arguments being made.
October 17, 2021
I thought this did a pretty decent job breaking down complexity theories of culture change for a general reader, particularly liked her analysis of how cultural patterns are formed.
Some is a bit ‘business speak’ but that is her target audience
Some is a bit ‘business speak’ but that is her target audience
November 9, 2024
Lo escuche en audio libros. Me gustó mucho. Da demasiados ejemplo, se hace un poc largo, y no termina de decirte exactamente como cambiar la cultura pero si da un montón de tips. Muchas cosas para implementar. Lo recomiendo
October 8, 2020
A balanced read which is a good intro to the topic. A clear step by step approach anchored around the Disruptor concept. As other reviews have highlighted, it feels like a ‘best-of’ of Harvard case studies, with a good dose of ANZ thrown in. Less benefit for one building towards mastery in this area.
January 17, 2021
A great book to start your research/understanding into culture, culture change and tools how to take a look at it.
October 3, 2022
El libro muestra un framework que podrá ayudarte, acompañado de muchísimos ejemplos, tal vez demasiados.
Al final se hace tedioso de leer .
Al final se hace tedioso de leer .
March 21, 2020
I’m an agile coach whose job is dealing with changing culture in companies to adopt agility and innovation in dealing with abrupt and fast changing events in the market.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” said Peter Drucker.
This book gave me insights on how culture can be changed. Its eloquent demonstration of the framework to change the culture gave me clear objects to be achieved and methodologies to be followed.
Excellent read and I highly recommend it.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” said Peter Drucker.
This book gave me insights on how culture can be changed. Its eloquent demonstration of the framework to change the culture gave me clear objects to be achieved and methodologies to be followed.
Excellent read and I highly recommend it.
July 12, 2021
I hold a great interest in organizational development and culture and read many books and articles on the subject. This book outlines the various aspects of workplace culture and where it originates from, how to change it and maintain it.
Key takeaways:
- Key elements of culture change: personal perceptions, points of view and images about the workplace, roles played by people in any given situation, and patterns which are often hidden agreements and co-created rules.
-Culture is less about behaviors and more about functional patterns.
-Culture drives how employers design, research and manufacture goods or execute services.
-Culture influences how a company moves, sells and service products.
-How to "disrupt" your current culture - diagnose what is really going in, reframe roles, break patterns and consolidate gains.
-Hiring the right people for your company / department is key to success (obviously).
-Executing culture change requires the effort of all individuals working in the company - responsibility does not fall solely on leadership or HR.
Key takeaways:
- Key elements of culture change: personal perceptions, points of view and images about the workplace, roles played by people in any given situation, and patterns which are often hidden agreements and co-created rules.
-Culture is less about behaviors and more about functional patterns.
-Culture drives how employers design, research and manufacture goods or execute services.
-Culture influences how a company moves, sells and service products.
-How to "disrupt" your current culture - diagnose what is really going in, reframe roles, break patterns and consolidate gains.
-Hiring the right people for your company / department is key to success (obviously).
-Executing culture change requires the effort of all individuals working in the company - responsibility does not fall solely on leadership or HR.
August 29, 2021
Best when sharing the case studies familiar to the author, a good read for people persuaded by the numbers.
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