Change the Culture, Change the Game summary

Managers shape a company’s culture every day in the experiences they create for employees. Employees in turn learn how things are done, and an organizational culture establishes itself.

Yet not all organizational cultures are healthy. In some cases, they can even do more damage than good.

This is why leaders need to focus on creating a culture that is beneficial for the company as a whole, from the lowest levels all the way to the top. But how is this done?

The first step is to define your goals and a strategy to reach them. For example, “Make decisions. Take risks. Move fast. Be accountable,” was the strategy General Motors put forward in 2009 to change its culture and stop the company from losing money once and for all.

How did GM decide on this route? To shape your culture and help your organization win, you have to understand the results pyramid.

There are three key components that make up the results pyramid: experiences, beliefs and actions. Stacked on top of each other, the components all contribute to the end result, or the achievements of your organization.

In short: experiences promote beliefs, beliefs impact actions and actions generate results.

Alaris Medical Systems had a bad rep on Wall Street and was criticized for its inability to execute on otherwise quite good ideas. This was the case, that is, until the company turned to the results pyramid as a guide to change its culture.

Alaris executives discussed with every manager how to create the right experiences to foster the desired beliefs, which would in turn produce effective actions, and ultimately achieve the company’s desired target results.

Once the program was introduced, every employee at every level was motivated, optimistic and determined to get results and execute. Within six months, Alaris had completely turned their reputation around!