There exists a question out there regarding changing culture and making a positive difference. In fact, this is one of those burning questions that many people wonder, especially amongst children who hear stories of a single person throughout some point in history making some lasting change! The burning question is, can one person change culture? Can they have a meaningful impact on culture as a whole?
What we would like to do is look at this idea from a couple viewpoints:
- Can one person from a lower organizational / community level have an impact on culture?
- Can one person at a higher organizational / community level have an impact on culture?
FROM THE BOTTOM UP
First, let us look at this from a the lower position in an organization or community. There are some that think, “Well, I’m just one person how much change can I make. There is nothing special about me, it’s takes too much effort to change something, and no one will listen to me anyway.” Those people may also compare changing culture to being only one vote in some governmental election. Does one vote really matter? It is our belief that one person can no doubt have an impact to the overall culture. Today, unlike generations past, there are asymmetrical ways of generating interest, building momentum, and getting the word out.
Let’s unpack that for a minute. One person can have a major voice if there is also enough buy-in from a variety of people. The individual voice can become stronger and stronger. However, groundwork must be done! The organization itself must know of that person in a positive regard to have a chance at real change. In other words, over a period of time, that individual needs to have established a good reputation for themselves. They also need to be trusted. That way when the timing is right for a culture movement, that individual will be taken more seriously. Compare this to someone who is a “boat rocker” or has a bad reputation for conducting themselves, no trust amongst peers, and is known always being the “squeaky wheel” with pure noise. Most of the time those type of people are dismissed.
It should be noted that others may tend to sit back and not participate in a culture movement unless part of a formed group. This is likely due to fear of retaliation. Individuals do not want to inherently take risks of fallout. Fear is evolutionary. It’s much more comfortable and safer to see someone else push for a culture change type effort. Our question though, is it really safer to sit back if/when change is needed? Sometimes no. No action can be looked at as acquiescence with the status quo. Change can be done extremely tactfully, and then over time, culture could be modified. So, from an individual with a great reputation, even though exists at a lower level of an organization, can influence by planting seeds of information and ideas and suggestions.
Fallout and retaliation can happen when culture is changed too fast, too hard, and being irrationally vocal without listening. So, changing culture from the bottom up is a sensitive process, requires diplomacy, patience and planting of many ideological and philosophical seeds amongst peers, management, and when hen the occasion arises, C-suite personnel.
Any time an individual gets an opportunity to speak with, present in front of, or to write about a topic within their organization, they should be looking at it as an opportunity to plant those philosophical seeds for culture change. The opportunity should not be passed over about how things should look, what type of best practices to be used, and how people should be treating one another. Look at this like planting of vegetable seeds in fresh soil, adding water, sunlight, and waiting a week. At some the plant will sprout!
Once that individual has noticed their little plant of philosophy sprouting and growing around the organization, this is the time to ramp up the encouragement, change minds, and maybe amend or add some policy changes. Now, it’s not guaranteed that anything or any seed will catch, but if the organization is in a place where change is inevitable and in the middle of change culturally, that is a perfect time for planting these seeds and watering them heavily. Timing is everything! Sometimes you can just sense it.
A final point from about change from the bottom up. Use of informal or formal committees is also smart and could be safer. Any minor fallout for expressing a philosophy or an approach to culture will not fall back on one person, but rather a committee. In other words, probably no fall out!
FROM TOP DOWN
Now, let’s talk about can one person change culture but from the top down. If a person is put into place for a specific reason to change things for the better, then they likely know going into the role what the potential issues are. However, a trust but verify philosophy / approach to be taken. The individual would suit themselves well to survey and attitudes and thoughts of the community before looking to implement any changes.
Understanding the landscape first is vital. If the survey shows that the community is distrustful of any new ideas because of bad experiences in the past, then trust needs to be formed. Trust to be established before any philosophical tidbits about culture are planted within the community.
If things are in a good place culturally when a new person comes in, then there is not much to change, but only tweak. Change for change sake is not smart. Change when needed, applying best practices is intelligent.
One important thought about one person changing culture and philosophy from the top. They must walk the walk, not just talk the talk. When there are examples and opportunities to showcase and demonstrate, that individual must not let that opportunity go to waste. They should be aware the whole time of their actions and make sure they are marrying up with their words. If not, the community will recognize that and be skeptical.
For example, say the verbal philosophy from the new person at the top discusses treating people better no matter what position they are in within the company. Then the next day, that same person at the top is witnessed unnecessarily berating the landscaper in the parking lot in front of over people over some minor detail of cutting the grass. That is in direct discrepancy with the verbal statements that person said a day previously. The reputation is lost. In today’s day and age with cell phones, cameras, audio, one must be and live completely authentic. Fakes can be sniffed out quick.
To summarize this amazingly interesting topic, culture can be changed by one person, either from the bottom up or from the top down. One must be aware of how far culture can change from the bottom up in some environments. They may only be small changes. Remember though, any change when needed, no matter how small, is a good one. Today, things can go viral and the fire can spark quick from just a little tinder.