We’re all schooled to think of culture as something instituted top-down – just as we’re schooled to think that our inner psyche drives our behavior. But some psychologists are now using a “what if behavior” model that doesn’t start with the psyche, but first changes behavior as a means of rewiring the brain. And the approach is considered mainstream rather than exotic or experimental. So what about changing work behavior in order to back-feed new values into business culture?
Although we’ve only realized the implications of what we’ve been doing for many years over the past several, we’ve experienced instance after instance where instituting customer-centric work behaviors at primary and secondary points of contact changes culture far faster than using the top down approach.
Of course, C-level management first has to make and back a business decision to migrate from inside-out to Outside-In, but good intent, great leadership, all that don’t get companies to Outside-In unless without redesigning work early in the transition and letting the cultural impact percolate up.
Have you had similar experiences?
