Planning to Transform Your Organisation?

David Liddle’s latest book, Transformational Culture: Develop a People-Centred Organization for Improved Performance, is a must read for those interested in modernizing their organizations.

Key takeaways:

#1 A transformational culture is an organizational culture that is just, fair, inclusive, sustainable, and high performing.

#2 To achieve and sustain a truly transformational culture, the out-of-date norm of dealing with conflicts and gaps in behavior/performance through a typical retributive “justice” system must be stopped and replace with a restorative justice system. Retribution is backward looking and based on shaming, blaming, punishing, and scapegoating, whereas restorative justice is forward looking and interested in reducing harm, fixing systems, dialogue, and putting people first.

How can organizations replace their retributive-style system with a restorative one? Liddle introduces a realistic and imminently doable Resolution Framework as a viable alternative for resolving grievances.

#3 Liddle produces a new Transformational Culture Model (TCM), which touches every aspect of business. The TCM model has three components: The Transformational Culture Hub, The 8 Enablers of a transformational culture, and the 7C’s of a transformational culture.

The Transformational Culture Hub

Given that all things tend toward chaos (see the 2nd law of thermodynamics), if no one oversees intentionally supporting the goals and aims of a transformational culture, the changes won’t be sustained. Therefore, Liddle writes in detail about the need for a Transformational Culture Hub that sees to the continued support of embodying and embedding the aim of being an organization that is just, fair, inclusive, sustainable, and high performing.

The 8 Enablers of a transformational culture

Liddle identifies eight vital components of a transformational culture. These enablers offer a holistic and flexible framework for the modern workplace. They are:

• Values first
• Evidenced based
• The people and culture function
• Leadership and management
• Resolution Framework
• Wellbeing, engagement, and inclusion
• Sustainability and social justice
• Brand, reputation, and risk

The 7C’s of a transformational culture

Infused throughout a transformational culture are the 7’Cs: Courage, Connection, Collaboration, Common Purpose, Communication, Compassion, and Curiosity. When the 7C’s are in play, convergent culture flow occurs, linking values to desired climate, behaviors, and outcomes.

#4 Both theory and practice are present in Transformational Culture. In the first section of the book, Liddle lays out the need and vision for transforming our cultures to be values-based and people-centric. In the second section of the book, Liddle offers eight transformational toolkits to assist organizations in making the shift towards a transformational culture an organizational reality.

In keeping with the style of David Liddle’s first book, Managing Conflict, reading Transformational Culture feels as if you are in David’s mind, hearing him interact with what he has witnessed from being a workplace mediator and transformational culture advocate and pioneer for over twenty-years. His point-of-view and prose make for an engaging, powerful, and truly transformational read.

Merry Brown

Merry Brown owns and operates Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services, hosts the weekly podcast Conflict Managed, and is a transformational consultant for The TCM Group based in London, England. Merry is passionate about training and empowering employees and businesses to deal with conflict swiftly and justly, with a win/win… MORE