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Writer's pictureDaan Noordeloos

Cultural change in the real world

Over the past few weeks, we’ve had fascinating conversations with a large number of experts, clients, and interested parties about culture change. Sometimes to better understand what it really is. Sometimes to explore what you can or cannot achieve with it.


In all these conversations, there was little to no debate about the 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 of a healthy organizational culture. We concluded that:


💬 "Culture influences how we 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 in organizations..."

💬 "Culture 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 attention, but it’s not always clear how..."

💬 "Culture is a kind of 𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥 of 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦 that guides us..."


That's why we started sketching to discover what this field of force might look like in organizations. This is more of a didactic model rather than an explanatory or predictive one. In plain English, it's a 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳.



The idea behind it is that there are tools (we visualize eight of them) that can deliver something to you. Management gives you the power to decide over others. Structure (e.g., governance) provides the foundation for a process (e.g., decision-making).


These tools are part of the cultural field of force, and therefore influence the culture. In turn, the organizational culture affects the (outcome of) these tools and themes.


For example, if there is a toxic work culture, you might want to investigate whether there are issues surrounding the themes of power, conflict, and processes. You can then further explore if this is caused by poor management, conflicting interests, or a malfunctioning structure. And how the culture, in turn, “poisons” these tools. This interplay is crucial when designing culture interventions.


Culture interventions are therefore never aimed at "the culture" itself but at the field of forces (dynamic interaction process) that shapes the culture.


Want to know which forces influence your organizational culture? Take our (free) test here: https://krachtenveld.scoreapp.com

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