A strong organizational culture is like a sports playbook to help your team succeed. It is composed of the shared values, beliefs, and behaviours that shape how your team interacts with each other and others — and a strong culture can help recruit new talent, retain employees, and attract new customers to your business.

A strong culture can also support change management within your organization, including when you introduce new technology into your company. However, 85 percent of organizational transformation efforts fail to achieve the desired outcomes. What are the key elements of a strong organizational culture, how can you assess the culture within your company, and how can you develop a culture that will support organizational change?

The success of your company depends on the technical skills of your employees. However, it also depends on how they work together to utilize their unique strengths to overcome obstacles — similar to how a sports team combines the talents of each player to overcome challenges on the field.

Your organizational culture is present in the way that you onboard new staff, how your employees interact with each other, and in your leadership decisions. A strong organizational culture is defined by three key factors:

1. Everyone can contribute at all levels
2. Nothing is beneath anyone
3. Everyone can be a leader

A strong organizational culture creates a harmonious environment where everybody has a voice and feels heard. It also helps support the change management process when you implement new technology in your organization because it ensures that every member of your team is working together toward the same goals.

You may be looking to create or develop the organizational culture in your business to support the change management process — and wondering where to begin. While your organizational culture will be as unique as your company, there are three distinct styles defined by how your team members work together to achieve business goals:

1. Competitive — A competitive culture focuses on surpassing benchmarks, exceeding previous accomplishments, and setting ambitious goals.
2. Collaborative — A collaborative culture prioritizes mutual empowerment, shared goals, and a supportive environment.
3. Hybrid — A hybrid culture blends different elements of competitive and collaborative culture to achieve its objectives.

Even if your organization is defined by its competitive culture, it is important to remember that there is a time and place for competition — and that this approach may not work best for everyone. The key element in every strong organizational culture is that everyone is working together to achieve success, or to sweep the sheds.

This means that no single member of your team is the custodian, or responsible for the dirty work. Instead, your entire team takes ownership of big and small tasks, ensures everyone’s voice is respected, and supports everyone to be a leader.

A sweep the sheds mentality is essential when you adopt new technology that may affect your team members’ previous roles and responsibilities. A cohesive team will work together to overcome obstacles during the change management process and ensure all changes are implemented successfully within your organization.

Technology is constantly emerging to transform the business playing field and it is important to explore these new solutions to remain competitive in your industry. You may be considering introducing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to connect your business functions, make data-driven decisions, and streamline your operations.

These changes may have a significant impact on the duties of your team members, affect how they work together on projects, and transform established business processes. A strong organizational culture can support the change management process — and you may be wondering how you can develop your culture to ensure success.

These four steps can help ensure your organizational culture fully supports change management:

Encourage everyone in your organization to participate in the change management process when you implement new technology. Transparent communication will help you build trust between your team members. It will also ensure that everyone has an opportunity to shape the journey ahead and understands how the new technology will help your business reach its goals.

Your employees have a wide variety of experience in your business and may have questions or concerns about how new technology will impact their daily work. This gives you the opportunity to address doubts and reduce uncertainty. Giving equal weight to each voice in your organization will make your employees feel valued, heard, and empowered to contribute their own ideas — which may lead to innovative solutions to the challenges you face during the process.

You may have a variety of reasons for implementing new technology — including streamlining complex processes, reducing repetitive tasks, or increasing collaboration. Communicate the reason for the change clearly and explain why it is needed. This will help employees understand how the new technology will benefit them and reduce resistance to change.

Communicate a clear plan for your organization’s future and show how your new technology will make your vision a reality. A shared vision for the future will help increase employee investment in the new technology’s success and ensure everyone is on board with the transition.