Several years ago the company I was supporting in my L&D role decided a change was needed. Bad press about customer facing business practices led to the need to address employee behavior to address this concern and alleviate the pressure. New workflows and customer experiences were demanded, designed, tested, implemented, and practiced.
It all failed miserably.
The key personnel found work arounds with the new way, diluting its impact and continuing as before. The old behavior, even after information, training and support, returned again and again. The idea was ultimately scrapped.
But before being dropped, There was a long period of blaming employees for not buying-in, managers were fired or reassigned for failing to support change and L&D was criticized for not providing effective training.
What happened?
In retrospect the answer was obvious. The beliefs were targeted as were the behaviors but nobody addressed the system. The business success measures (financial) had not changed and neither did the system of compensation. The new process may have improved the customer experience but the results negatively hit the bottom line of everyone else. Looking deeper, another issue was that the company historically hired for sales roles; people who who were motivated by limitless financial gains. The only way a new customer-centric approach would have work was by an overhaul of the hiring practices, compensation model, management approach and measures. Basically the whole system had to change.
No posters, new mottos and internal marketing was going to make a dent and no amount of training and support would change these behaviors. This was a system problem.
Businesses will turn quickly to things like values and mission statements and align training and development but few look the next level up; the system that guides it all. Just beyond the org chart of authority and decision-making is what keeps it all in place; the systems of communication, trust, information flow and rewards. These organizational systems subtly guide employee behaviors and repeated behaviors will form the beliefs.
If you want change, you have to address the individual actions but be aware of the influences from above.
