Can you change company culture through traditional 'Training'?

David Rock author, consultant, and lecturer who helps Fortune 100 clients integrate brain discoveries into their leadership development frameworks suggests not...

"1-Day training is like trying to grow a garden but only watering it for one day and expecting it to grow".

He says that what causes the most change in behaviour is small amounts of 'focused attention' on something more regularly, (i.e. once a week) rather than overwhelming the brain with a mass of information in a training session. So changing corporate behaviours (a.k.a. culture) is like growing a garden - it requires regular watering in the form of dialogue on what's important.

This ongoing dialogue or 'attention' on something, is what actually changes the hardwiring of the brain. 'Insight' is what is at the heart of learning and regular attention (continued awareness of, and time for reflection) on something, is what leads to that insight. And when it comes to creating change in an organisation, this insight is critical because it's what actually leads people to action! - to do things differently from the way they have always done them.

And turning insight into action is the core premise behind ON-Brand Partners TeamTalk process, used to get people focused on and talking about what really matters in their organisation. And, most importantly, coming up with ideas on how to keep making things better.

So what actually is 'insight'? Well the dictionary offers up the following

•     the ability to perceive clearly or deeply
•     a penetrating and often sudden understanding, as of a complex situation or problem
•     the immediate understanding of the significance of an event or action

I'd say the best definition though is "I get it". And that's what you want your people to be saying...

"I get this now, it makes sense to me, I can play an important role in this and, I want to be part of it".

I can recall going to many Training days on critical competencies such as leadership and coming away feeling very energised ready to change the way I did everything, only to get back to the pressing day-to-day activities of my job and finding that my enthusiasm and knowledge waned. Plus the organisation had provided no framework that allowed myself and colleagues to be continually putting our learnings into action, and actually apply them to current work challenges.

Our experience at ON-Brand Partners has found Training (workshops presented from the front in a stream of one-way download) by itself, creates very little change or insight. This is supported by learning effectiveness research from the likes of the Center for Creative Leadership which indicates this approach accounts for only 10% of any change required.  however, through embedding new processes as part of day-to-day routines, is what is critical to people 'getting it', 'owning it' and driving both short and long-term results. Only when new learning becomes business-as-usual (or in effect change-as-usual) does it have a positive impact on an organisation - helping it to get its' strategy implemented as intended. Read more about the 70/20/10 Model

So Mr Rock I couldn't agree with you more. We need to keep watering those gardens through structured, ongoing, everyday dialogue on what matters to an organisations success. Then, like a garden, a culture will grow that will feed the people.

Grant Costello
ON-Brand Partners
[email protected]