4. Culture Facilitator

Every organisation has a dominant culture that is rooted and established in traditions, systems and practices. People are likely to resist, reject, or sit on the fence whenever you introduce something new if it looks or feels strange, uncomfortable or non-cognizant. One of the reasons for this is that the dominant culture is entrenched over time through a set of values that most adhere to and are formed by habit. Paying attention to this topic is crucial because culture produces results. To introduce a major change effort successfully means you will need to be a facilitator to create the culture that you want to see. But how will you know if the change effort will require a significant shift in the community’s culture? Connors and Smith in their book, Change the Culture, Change the Game, suggest four criteria to help you determine this (see Tools section for more details): Difficulty (degree of effort to achieve the change); Direction (significant change in direction); Deployment (large-scale deployment or redeployment of resources, e.g. people); Development (developing a new capability or competency). As Culture Facilitator, you will need to change the way people think (i.e. their beliefs) and act to build commitment and trust. Use the activities below to help you make the culture change.

Input/Output Change Model

Stop, Start, Continue Exercise

What, So What, Now What?

Activity – Identifying the present culture

45 minutes

One way of unearthing a church’s or organisation’s culture is to ask the right questions.

Dykstra and Bass suggest we start by identifying the communal practices:

What moves (i.e. main practices) do people make as they encounter one another in the context of God’s grace?
What words do they say?
What gestures do they perform?

With your team of change agitators, spend some time (using a notepad or flipchart) identifying your communal practices by answering the above questions.

Activity – What is the dominant culture of your group?

120 minutes

‘I like things the way they are!’

‘That’s a great idea – what are we waiting for?’

Take time to observe the mood for your change project, if it were to take place. This is your starting point to know how the proposed change may be received
How well will the impacted party welcome the change?
Is there likely to be resistance? If yes, why do you think that is?
What will be the hardest things people will need to let go of?
How will the impacted party cope with the transition (from the old to the new)?

With your team of change agitators, spend some time (using a notepad or flipchart) identifying your dominant culture by answering the above questions.

Activity – Fostering a culture for change

60 minutes

Here are some ideas on how to foster the culture you want to see:

Storytelling, inclusive decision-making, and volunteer opportunities
Create a culture charter that displays the values people have signed up to. This should be discerned together with representation from every group (e.g. age, class, ethnicity, cultures)
Update your job descriptions with these values
Leaders should reinforce culture by walking the talk and through communication
Celebrate people publicly when values are demonstrated
Practice role modelling (‘walk the talk’)
Do some Bible teaching and coaching or mentoring on the area you want to introduce
Create short-term wins and let the change be done in stages to give people time to adapt

Decide on one activity you are going to start to foster a culture for change.

Andy Stanley notes how “culture is everyone’s responsibility, especially leaders who set the tone”.

Remember that repetition and rituals create and make culture stick.

Change Resource