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Case Study

The seven stages of culture transformation

By Michael D. Watkins

19 pages

January 2025

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Reference: IMD-7-2615

This note presents an integrated model for organizational culture transformation, addressing common pitfalls and barriers to successful change. It outlines seven key elements: (1) defining the target culture, (2) clarifying leadership’s role, (3) driving change through team cascades, (4) building a culture coalition, (5) aligning HR systems, (6) fostering employee engagement, and (7) measuring progress and making adjustments. The approach combines top-down direction with bottom-up engagement and emphasizes the crucial role of middle management in facilitating change. It provides actionable strategies for each element, including how to assess current culture, develop culture commitments, empower teams, train culture champions, redesign HR practices, implement feedback mechanisms and establish metrics for measuring cultural change. It also incorporates established change management principles to address resistance and ensure sustainable transformation. By offering a comprehensive framework that balances structural and human elements of change, this note equips executives and HR leaders with the tools to navigate the complexities of cultural transformation.

Learning Objective

Understand the seven key elements of successful organizational culture transformation
Learn to develop strategies for aligning leadership, teams and HR systems with desired cultural changes
Explore how to build and leverage a culture coalition to drive transformation
Investigate methods for fostering employee engagement and addressing resistance to change
Master techniques for measuring cultural transformation progress and making data-driven adjustments

Keywords

Business Transformation, Leadership, Organizational Culture, Cultural Change, Change Management, Organizational Change, Employee Engagement

Type

Generalized Experience

Available Languages

English

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