Everybody loves the blueprint. Nobody talks about the dust.

In this episode of Leadership After 5, Kim gets honest about what it actually feels like to shift culture in an organization that isn't ready for it. The resistance. The moments you question whether the change was even necessary. The unexpected things behind the wall that cost more and take longer than anyone planned for.

Kim breaks down why most culture change efforts stall before they finish, the focus group trap that derails more strategies than people realize, and the three things that actually move culture forward, none of which involve a values poster or an all staff email.

If you are leading a culture shift, living through one, or wondering why the one you started never quite finished, this episode is for you.

Transcript

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Welcome to Leadership After Five, where leadership gets real. I'm Kim. Today I want to talk about culture shift and specifically shifting culture in an organization that isn't ready for it. Not the theory of culture change, not the framework, not the five-step model that looks great on a slide deck, but the actual experience of trying to move an organization that is resistant, uncertain, and sometimes completely unwilling to do what it takes to get where it says it wants to go. I recently had some work done on my home, floors, bathroom, different things at different times. And I want to tell you, the idea of the renovation was everything. I was truly excited. I loved the blueprint, I loved the vision, I loved looking at what that space was going to become. And then a few weeks later, the work started. By day two, I was questioning every decision I had ever made. Contractors in and out, dust, and I mean a sizable amount of dust accumulating daily. I'm a clean freak. I'm a germaphobe. And I was living in the middle of a construction zone that I had voluntarily created. I started to question whether the change was even necessary. Like I genuinely contemplated just living with the old floors, the old bathroom, the way things were. Because at least that was familiar. At least that was clean. But here's what I kept coming back to. The renovation had to happen. Not because I felt like going through it, but because the current state no longer aligned to the standard I needed it to meet. And if I ever wanted to realize the full value of what I had, the work had to be done. That is exactly what shifting culture feels like. Organizations know they need to change. Most of them will tell you that directly. The culture needs to shift, the behavior needs to evolve, things have to be different. They know and they mean it. But then the renovation starts and the dust starts accumulating, and the discomfort of living through the change starts to feel worse than the problem the change was supposed to solve. And that is where most culture change efforts stall. Not because the vision was wrong, not because the people are bad, but because nobody prepared the organization for what it was actually going to feel like to go through it. Here's something I want you to sit with. It's not painful to experience growth. It's painful to actually see it. Think about that for a second. When you are in the middle of growth, when behavior is actually shifting, when the culture is actually moving, it is uncomfortable. It is disruptive. It looks messy before it looks like progress. And a lot of organizations mistake that mess for failure. They pull back, they soften the expectations, they declare victory too early because the dust is too much to live with. And sometimes, even after the renovation has started, you run into unexpected issues. Things behind the wall you didn't know were there, problems that are more costly than what you originally planned for, delays that push the timeline out further than anyone anticipated. And at that point, you have two choices. You can stop, walk away from the mess, and try to put everything back the way it was. Or you can recognize that you are already in it. The walls are already open. And the most expensive thing you can do now is leave the renovation unfinished. Keep going. Whatever it costs, keep going. I want to name something specific here because I see it derail culture change efforts constantly. And that is consensus seeking. Someone would say something, and you could watch the room shift. People who hadn't felt a certain way five minutes earlier were suddenly nodding along. I also noticed that despite all of that noise, the candidate's campaign manager held the strategy. They took the feedback into consideration, they made some tweaks, but ultimately they did not let the focus group become the compass. And that candidate won. Here's the lesson for culture change. You can absolutely solicit feedback and you should. But feedback is not the strategy. And when you convene a room of 20 people and ask them how they feel about change, you are going to get 20 different answers. Some of those answers will influence others in the room. And if you're not careful, you will walk out of that room more confused than when you walked in. Hold the strategy. Hold it. Make the tweaks, but don't let the noise of the room become the reason the renovation stops. So let's get practical because the renovation has to get done and you need to know what actually moves it forward. Here are three steps. First, you need buy-in from the top. And I'm talking real buy-in, not verbal agreement, not a leadership team that nods in a meeting and then operates exactly the same way they always have. I'm talking visible, actual, demonstrated commitment from the people at the top of the house. Because culture change is not something that gets cascaded down from a PowerPoint. It gets modeled, it gets lived. And if the people at the top are not visibly changing their own behavior, nobody else is going to believe the renovation is actually real. Second, accountability has to be built in. Without accountability, culture change is just performative. You have to embed the expectation of behavior change into how people are evaluated, into what gets rewarded, into what gets addressed when it doesn't happen. If there are no consequences for staying exactly the same, people will stay exactly the same every time. Third, you have to keep saying it. Culture change is the long game. So sit tight, grab you some popcorn because you're in for the long haul. You cannot say the thing once and then move on. You have to revisit the expectations, you have to keep the conversation alive, you have to periodically bring the organization back to here is where we said we were going, here is where we are, here is what still needs to happen. Because the moment leadership stops talking about it, the organization assumes it's no longer a priority, and the renovation quietly gets abandoned. Changing culture is not glamorous work. And the leaders responsible for shifting behavior inside an organization have some of the most difficult and least celebrated jobs. You are asking people to change who they are at work, how they communicate, how they make decisions, how they treat each other. And that is not a small ask. And it does not happen because you put the values on the wall or sent the all-staff email. It happens because someone decided to stay in the renovation through the dust, through the discomfort, through the unexpected things behind the wall, through the season where it looks worse before it looks better. And they kept going anyway. That is the work. But I will be honest, it is worth it. Hey, if you're in the middle of a culture shift right now, whether you are leading it or living through it, I want to hear from you. Find me on LinkedIn, send me an email, and tell me where you are in the renovation. This is Leadership After Five, where leadership gets real. I'll see you in the next episode. Take care.