Culture Creation
One of the wonderful things about new ventures is that you get to create a new culture. It is essentially a new organisation, and when people join, they are expecting something to be different. One of the biggest challenges in traditional organisations is persuading members of a need to change; the very fact that they are now in an Alliance gets people a long way over this first hurdle!
So, the beginning of a new venture presents a real opportunity to establish new ways of doing things (a new culture). What is essential is that your people are given clear direction on day one. People find their own way, and create their own frames of reference and rules of operation if you do not do it for them. Doing nothing, or little, at the start of your new venture will lead to an emerging culture – once the new culture has emerged it will be nearly as tricky to persuade people of the need to change as it is in any established organisation.
As human beings, we all have a level of desire to ‘fit in’ (though you may not believe this some times!) New members will be looking for direction and guidance of ‘what’s OK here’ and capitalising on this moment is essential.
At Unicorn, we have vast experience at supporting Alliance Leadership Teams to start looking at this early on (usually a few of months before going live.) We work with the team to establish
- What they want the Alliance culture to be
- What that means for them
- How to engage the managers in the Alliance
- How to engage Alliance members
- Plans to deliver the above
New venture Leadership Teams have huge numbers of priorities in the lead up to, and start of, a new Alliance. Part of what we do, at Unicorn, is ensure the culture creation aspect of the start up stays on the agenda (it is the favourite one to get dropped!). We also take responsibility for the design of some of these interventions; though need to work closely with the Leadership team, and particularly the Alliance Manager, as the ownership for all events and activities needs to be theirs.