Culture change comes from the leadership of a company. It does not start with the front-line employees, though you could argue that a “Grass Roots” movement within a company can make changes, but for the most part it is the leader or leaders that make it happen.
So, what is the first change that has to happen? The leader/founder/owner has to let go of doing the work themselves. You built the company, you know how it all works, but you can’t do it all, so stop.
I met a Husband and Wife while visiting Cuba that had two businesses, he restored classic American Cars and she drove them as cabs. I say she drove them because she was one of the drivers. She would set up several people to drive for her, but then she would take the wheel and drive one of the taxis.
All that changed when she got pulled over for using her cell phone and had her license taken away for 6 months or so I recall. 6 months without driving! How was she going to generate money? She decided that what she would do is be the dispatcher and simply have others drive the cabs.
Turns out that having her license taken away was the best thing that could have happened. Their income more than doubled when she stopped driving. She could spend more of her time setting up customers and coordinating drivers. Before she would have a limited time to do that because she was behind the wheel and always ran the risk of being caught on her phone setting up the next customer.
That was a cultural change in the business, having the owner no longer be one of the drivers. It was forced upon them, but they figured out how to make it a good thing.
In your business or your job, are there “tasks” that you are doing that prevent you from doing the work that you should be doing? Are you busy with things each day just to find out that yes work got done, but the business did not get better, it just stayed in place? Getting lost in the tasks of the day it a very easy way to hide from the tough decisions, but it does not make your business better.
Culture change can be forced upon you, but it is often best if you make a decision to just get out of the business’ way and let others that can specialize and become better at it than you do the work. This does not mean that you lose touch with that work. You can still supervise, set expectations, write the procedures you want followed, but it does not mean you do the work.
If you want some help figuring out what you should STOP doing in your business, don’t hesitate to reach out at rick@gramatges.com.
Gramatges Consulting 