The journey towards the digital transformation of organisations implies a change in corporate culture. It is the new processes that guide us towards the new culture we are trying to achieve, but we must be aware that, in order to embark on this path, we must start from the foundations, always maintaining the essence of our organisation.
Completely altering the corporate culture is not the way to achieve change. It is essential to maintain the umbilical cord between the past and the future as the foundation of what we want to achieve. Radical moves with respect to culture are often doomed to failure.
It is important to realise that corporate culture transformation is not achieved by altering just the vision or purpose of our organisation. It is imperative that this change goes all the way down to operations, adding layers to the existing culture. In addition, we must develop new processes ourselves to replace those that have been used in the day-to-day operations.
New processes and rituals
Beyond messages about the future, changes in culture are underpinned by changes in processes. And by processes we mean the ways of doing things and not just that bureaucratic and rigid aspect that bad processes end up with. We mean how these ways of doing things are underpinned by rituals that in turn generate symbols and ground emotions. And it is precisely these symbols and emotions that build a corporate culture.
What does this translate into? In business objectives that, in order to be met, need ways of approaching them (for example, converging on strategies) that are articulated in certain meetings (processes) where metrics are agreed (symbols) that are determined through the free compatibility of proposals in a precise format of presentation and explanation (ritual) and that lead to a spirit of positive construction of projects (emotions).
With this process in place, we are building a new culture of free and constructive expression without hierarchies that will help us navigate the digital age more efficiently.
The corporate culture reflects the spirit of our company, its way of thinking and its way of proceeding. Methodologies thus become an indispensable value for successful change. Transforming our corporate culture is fundamental for the complete and effective adaptation of our organisation to the digital era.
