Or better yet, prevent different forms of resistance from happening in the first place. Creating a PULL effect, where the people around you are leaning in towards the change and wanting to be involved.

This is where our Culture-Friendly Strategy approach excels, as shown in the framework below. I’ve used and refined this approach for the last 25 years in my work with the FutureBuilders team. It is based on Human-Centered Design principles where employees, customers, and stakeholders are at the centre of strategic planning. Importantly, it includes a holistic, strategic perspective including:

• Business strategy – to give you precision in where you’re headed

• Project management – to give you traction

• Change management – to give you momentum

  and

• Culture – to navigate workplace culture successfully.

Without the 4 ingredients above, strategy cannot be successfully executed. I’ve seen this on over 50 improvement programs I’ve worked on, and it is true every time. With this in mind, below are 3 tips to get started with a Culture-Friendly approach.

3 tips to get started

1. Get out of the dark room – this means identifying your stakeholders and involving them in your strategy process early, rather than doing this behind closed doors. More here.

2. Co-design your solutions – ask your stakeholders for their ideas when you’re developing your strategy, you will be surprised. There are ways to do this without losing control over the process. See strategy is not democratic here.

3. Understand your culture to navigate it, not just change it – See some of my YouTubes on this, such as this 60 second clip. Please forward this to others you think will find this useful.