Culture Shift in Action
Mix was asked by a global medical services company to assess cultural dynamics that they suspected were hindering innovation. After mining employee survey results, interviewing senior stakeholders, running employee focus groups and manager workshops and speaking to people of influence within the company, two themes emerged – the prevalence of status-quo bias and authority bias.
Not-invented Here Attitude or Status Quo bias
The company had enjoyed longstanding success, resulting in status-quo bias becoming the dominant cultural force, creating a deeply ingrained preference for familiar ways of working and a collective skepticism toward external ideas or unfamiliar perspectives. This can lead to a powerful “not invented here” attitude, where talent arriving from other organisations – regardless of their expertise – was systematically undervalued and told that true understanding of the business comes only after many years, often five or more. New colleagues, even those with many years experience, were dismissed or met with mistrust, as established teams believe only insiders possess the necessary insight to affect change. Such a culture was stifling innovation, resulting in missed opportunities for growth. New talent felt undermined and this fostering an environment where new ideas struggle to gain traction.
Authority Bias with a dash of age-bias
Authority bias further compounded the organisation’s resistance to change, as leadership practices gave disproportionate weight to the voices and decisions of those at the top. In this environment, leaders consistently spoke first, set the agenda, and made it clear that all meaningful decisions had to be approved or driven by them – creating an unspoken rule that their opinions were above challenge and carried unique validity. Such a hierarchical culture stifled innovation by training employees to defer, even when they saw new opportunities or solutions, leading to groupthink and a pervasive belief that only those in authority held correct or valuable perspectives. This dynamic particularly affected younger employees, whose enthusiasm for fresh approaches met with dismissal; their ideas were sidelined as naïve or irrelevant until they had “paid their dues,” reinforcing mistrust and squandering the energy and creativity that could have driven genuine advancement
Mix’s solution
A fundamental first step was getting buy-in from the most senior leaders, given the findings. Mix presented to the board and held 1:1 conversation with the CEO, Board Members and key stakeholders.
With their support a clear culture shift strategy was developed and with a detailed implementation plan. The plan which came to fruition in fullness included:
- Establishing a Next Gen Forum as a source of generational perspective for the Board and leadership team.
- A global leadership training programme with a specific focus on removing the identified biases and establishing best practice in collaboration.
- A highly innovative communications campaign using short videos and a digital magazines, and podcasts highlighting positive examples of innovation through collaboration.
