Culture Change

Diversity is quite the buzzword. In budget season 2025, meaningful business plans will require attention to the topic. There is value in diversity beyond ensuring that gender, ethnicity, different ability, or even sexual orientation quotas feature in the Human Resource strategy. There is a clear business justification that makes diversity and inclusion of different opinions essential. Two justifications, in fact.

When a hotel delivers an outstanding guest experience it’s often a measure of how well the best aspects of organisational culture and national culture have been fused. I recently encountered an excellent example of this happening in the new Hyatt Regency in Nairobi’s Westlands district. What sets Hyatt Regency apart is the genuine intent of staff to welcome and care for guests. Staff were happy, solicitous and proactive.

Culture change is mainly about identifying behaviours that positively impact the business and getting more employees to demonstrate them. It can’t be mandated, so it has to be persuaded. Creating a popular movement that is pro-change. In most companies, employees are surprised to be given the chance to contribute in this way. This creates an opening in which the bravest can step forward to make change happen.

Poor customer service is a plague that afflicts many companies, frustrating customers and hurting the bottom line. While it's tempting to blame inadequate policies and procedures, the real culprit is usually a weak corporate culture. Policies and procedures are important guardrails, but they shouldn't handcuff employees. The best companies give frontline staff the autonomy to resolve issues creatively.

Organisations, like the societies that spawn them, are built on obligations that members owe to one another and the whole entity. In business, we consolidate these into rules, policies and procedures. At a higher level, we may link them to our company’s purpose and values. If we intentionally build a culture, then, over time, these obligations turn into behaviours that are universally understood and embraced by employees.

Looking at hierarchy from the top down, Leaders are there to set direction and inspire human effort by articulating the reason ‘why.’ Managers focus on determining ‘what’ their unit does and managing required performance norms. So, Supervisors work in day-to-day operations, influencing 'how' management decisions in their units are implemented through the work of subordinates.