You’ve finally landed your dream job, have the free parking (or transit pass), great gym at work, nice bonus, good vacation, and a nice view out the window of your office.

The only problem is your car spends more time in the parking lot at work than at home (even on weekends), your gym clothes are dusty they’ve been in your locker so long, the bonus is eaten up in take-out food (much like the payout for the vacation you never took), and thankfully you have the window so you can see daylight at least through the glass.

Okay, so maybe only doesn’t belong in that sentence, but you see where I’m going.

I’m sure it’s happened to all of us, where the job we thought we’d signed up for doesn’t seem to be the job that we’ve actually signed up for, whether on something small or something huge. So, as I mentioned the other day, our options are pretty much summed up as do nothing, quit, or work to change the environment to something you’re happy with.

Changing corporate culture isn’t an overnight activity, and isn’t easy. But through being consistent and taking the right steps, you can have an impact, and affect the change you want to see. What steps are those, you ask?

Baby Steps

Organizational change, whether it’s implementing a new computer system, adopting new procedures, or changing a corporate culture, isn’t something that can happen easily. It will take persistence, communication, and working in increments that can be easily conceptualized and evaluated.

This is especially true with corporate culture. One of the most difficult forces to overcome is inertia. Companies are doing things they way they do because that’s the way they feel it needs to be done. Coming in on day one with this mythical end state (frequently personified by the high tech companies in the late 90’s, early 00’s) you do several things. You foster resentment, as many will feel that you don’t have enough background into WHY things are done the way they are (which is arguably true); you can inadvertently reinforce the perception that Millennials/Gen Y is “too ambitious” or “too entitled”; and you can shoot your entire argument in the foot, because a lot of the companies who were throwing out those massive perks are now out of business.

By taking small, measurable steps, you get the opportunity to make your case with the results to back it up, and without seeming too greedy or agressive.

Talk is not cheap

One of the keys to any organizational change is communication. Telling people what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, when you think it’s going to be done, how you’re getting there, and what’s in it for them can help assuage a lot of fear and resistance.

And this is not just to the upper echelons. Sure, you need to make the case to your boss (and perhaps their boss, and theirs, etc. etc.), but another sure fire way to fail miserably is to ignore the people who will actually be affected by the changes. Getting buy-in at all levels is necessary to implement any change, especially one as large as changing corporate culture.

Picture this. You’re one voice, probably young, maybe middle of the totem pole, trying to get the executives to truly buy in to your crazy, new-fangled ideas on work-life balance. As a single voice amongst the storm, you may very well get lost in the noise.

But if you’ve got a sizable group behind you, people from all levels of the corporation, suddenly your ideas aren’t so crazy-sounding any more.

Listening is on sale

Okay, so you know what you want to do (in small steps of course), and you’ve gotten enough support to at least get started. But if you really want to make a change, you shouldn’t be the only person deciding what needs to be fixed and how to do it. Even if you are a consultant hired because of your experience in this sort of business, listening to others within the organization is key. By listening to others, you gain their input as to why things might be problematic, which can allow you to treat the cause, not just the symptoms. Additionally, when you are listening to people, it’s much easier to make them feel included. People are far less likely to actively fight a change they feel that they’ve had a part in directing.

Talk still isn’t cheap

It’s not just a matter of figuring out and telling people what you’re going to do, and getting them to let you do it in the first place. Once you’ve started the change, this definitely becomes a continuous improvement type of process. You’re making small changes, and the results from these changes need to be analyzed and communicated. If things are working, celebrate the success and then recheck that your plan still makes sense. Who knows, as you succeed in some areas, other things may either become possible or unnecessary.

It’s important to keep up the communication even if things aren’t working. by being open about your failures, you can maintain trust in the process. People won’t feel that you’re out to muck up the system or game it to your own advantage.

This is another great reason to be taking baby steps. If you make a mistake, you are able to manage the communication effort on a far smaller scale, and it’s less likely that you’re going to have to do major damage control.

As you can see, much of implementing a successful organizational change comes down to two things. Setting realistic, attainable goals, and communicating with all of the stakeholders in the change.

Start your change today

So if you’d like to start working in the job you signed up for and enjoying your life, start your change today! It doesn’t need to be anything huge to start. Maybe it’s something like starting “topless” meetings, or realistic hours as to when people are available by mobile phone or email. Maybe it’s larger, like implementing a flex-time program at work, or starting a work-life balance committee. Either way, it just takes one small step in the right direction to start building momentum and improving your balance.

Share your stories of change

I’m sure we’ve all been through some organizational changes, both those that have succeeded and failed. Whether it was implementing a new computer system, work process, or trialing a teleworking program, please share your stories of how they’ve worked for you. This doesn’t necessarily have to be anything you’ve led, just something you’ve experienced.

You can either share them in the comments, or for longer stories, feel free to email me at adam@liveworkbalance.com and I’ll post the best of them!

And more stories . . .

This is by no means the end of the story on organizational culture, change, and work-life balance. I’m in the early stages of some initiatives in my own career related to this, and will be sure to periodically expand on this topic.

Thanks!

Adam