Innovation Starts with Changing Behaviours and Attitudes

Question: Five birds are perched in a tree. Four decide to jump. How many birds remain in the tree?

Answer: Five, because deciding and doing are not the same thing.

Time and again, hospitality businesses and golf courses—the sectors we are concerned with here—invest significant amounts of time and money in launching new initiatives, yet after the initial enthusiasm, nothing changes.

The previous riddle perfectly sums up this situation. Professionals like me often highlight the need to focus on the behaviours that lead to successful cultural change. Decisions, initiatives and new processes will not guarantee change unless behaviours themselves, and the team’s attitude towards them, also change.

Innovation and, consequently, new processes and systems do not create sustainable cultural change. However, I believe it is important for the desired behaviours to already be present within the organisation in order to ensure that the introduction of a new process is sustained. Without this, once the initial launch is over, nothing changes and everyone returns to their old ways.

A recent example I encountered was a hotel chain I worked with when it launched a new CRM system.

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The organisation invested considerable time and resources in the rollout, but only around 20% of its employees ever used the system. One reason for this was that the team leading the project did not define what the team’s attitude towards the project should be, or how people would be rewarded for using it. Furthermore, the hotel chain did not consider the consequences of staff failing to use the system properly, resulting in no return on its investment and no change in behaviour.

So, why don’t we start cultural change with team behaviours and attitudes?

The greatest obstacle I have encountered time and again is the deeply rooted belief that behaviours are of little relevance compared with things considered important, such as innovation itself, new structures and processes. But that is a false distinction: team behaviours and attitudes should be seen as matters of the utmost importance.

For example, when recruiting new employees, the first priorities are that the candidate understands the subject and is competent in the required tasks. However, when you begin to ask what the deciding factors would be between two candidates, an employer is likely to say that they are ultimately looking for someone who is a team player and gets along well with the rest of the staff—in other words, behaviours!

So, based on this, where do we start?

Ultimately, a small set of non-negotiable desirable behaviours is all that is required for meaningful change in processes to take place. The simplest way to make this happen is for an organisation to move away from a broad base of concepts that are easily open to interpretation and introduce a smaller set of specific behaviours defined in micro-detail, leaving little room for deviation. This ensures that all staff members are on the same page when it comes to how they should behave and the consequences of doing so.

There are two important issues to consider:

1. What will be done differently, and how will it be achieved? When innovating, or designing a new process or system, it is essential to think ahead and consider what you want the organisation to look like. Based on these desired outcomes, organisations can outline exactly which behaviours are needed to create that change.

2. How will new behaviours be rewarded? There are several reasons why behavioural change may be initiated, but it is often underpinned by the level of reinforcement. For example, if the desired behaviour is greater teamwork, then the organisation needs to introduce an incentive programme that reflects this.

It is not only rewards and incentives that will help sustain behaviours, but also the presence of role models within the workforce. As a leader, setting an example shows other employees that you believe in what you say and are passionate about the system. It is a case of ‘practise what you preach’.

I truly believe that middle managers are among the most important leaders in an organisation, alongside chief executives. Leaders’ behaviours account for around a quarter of how productive, motivated and engaged employees are.

So, to summarise, successful cultural change is based on a clear focus on behaviours from the outset. Behaviours must be seen as something to consider, and it is important to model and reward the desired behaviours that sustain them.