Culture Shift: A Practical Guide to Managing Organizational Culture Hardcover – October 8, 2019, reviewed

Culture Shift: A Practical Guide to Managing Organizational Culture out October 8, 2019, reviewed

By @SimonCocking review of Culture Shift: A Practical Guide to Managing Organizational CultureHardcover – October 8, 2019. Available from Amazon here.

Culture Shift is a practical guide to using behavioral economics to change organizational culture effectively and sustainably, putting culture at the core of running the business.

Nowadays, stakeholder consideration focuses as much on an organization’s culture as it does on the bottom line–employees want to work for a company that has clear values and an engaging environment; customers and clients want to know they’re supporting a worthwhile brand; and investors look to back socially responsible companies with good organizational health.

Too often, too many businesses see culture change as a project with a defined end point–once the project is considered “done,” the dominant culture re-emerges and things go back to how they were. Culture Shift guides organizations on how to do things differently, ensuring that culture really does shift (with minimal budget and no external consultants) and putting culture permanently at the core of running the business.

Founded on behavioral economics, Culture Shift recognizes that people do not always make average assumptions or follow rational logic. Changing a culture, therefore, is not about telling people what to do and expecting them to fall neatly in line–it’s about identifying where they are now and how they make decisions, in order to help them form new habits to create a comprehensive, sustainable culture shift.

Using her extensive experience, Kirsty Bashforth outlines exactly what it takes to oversee sustainable culture change in an organization, blending practical tips and illustrative stories throughout the book to drive home key points and provide a variety of perspectives and possible outcomes.

Culture Shift: A Practical Guide to Managing Organizational Culture – October 8, 2019, reviewed

Several good definitions to what company culture actually is, are along the lines of ‘what we do at work when no one is looking’ and / or ‘ what happens when the boss is not there’. In some ways this helps to capture the huge challenge of trying to achieve a good, positive, non toxic working environment. There are so many examples of bad work culture, dysfunctional practices, and rampant negative behaviour, with Uber the most recent example. As well as all the messy examples from our own working lives.

The author of this book is well aware of these challenges and does a good job of outlining the challenges to be faced when looking at company culture and then identifying what might be less than optimal, and how it might be improved. To jump to the end too, Bashforth does a good job of articulating that this is an ongoing, and ever iterating process. You are never ‘done’, but you are always evolving and aiming to try to reach a better place.

While this may seem such a daunting task as to question if it is even worth doing, the benefits make it well worth doing. Firstly even from a negative perspective, if you fail to address negative company culture, you may well be on the road to destroying your company very quickly. Ideally, then, having recognised the value of not working in a toxic environment, and remember people endlessly leave bad bosses even if they are at good companies, you then move on to embrace the value of a market leading company culture.

An inspired, proactive workforce will reap far more benefits and rewards for everyone in the company, rather than those aiming to do the bare minimum to get through the day. Bashford’s book grasps the nettle of an interesting, challenging, difficult but well worth goal of achieving better company culture.

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