Changing a Culture Is the Hardest Task of

Leadership

Sooner or later, every organization will need to evolve its culture, not only to stay competitive
but to keep progressing. Thats because the culture you have today is set up to deliver the results
you are getting, which may no longer be strong enough for tomorrows economy and
marketplace.
All too often, however, it takes a crisis to shake people from their routines and galvanize them to
change. Changing a culture and making the change stick are perennial challenges for leaders.
During the 2008-09 U.S. financial crisis, The Hartford, a leading insurer that has been in
business for more than 200 years, went through a near-death experience. Forced to confront a
dire reality, employees came together to stabilize and strengthen the company. But once the
immediate crisis passed, so did our sense of urgency for continuous and pervasive improvement.
We needed to transform our culture to drive profitable growth and become a more focused,
decisive, and competitive company.
Over the past three years, The Hartford has made significant progress on both. The company has
undergone a financial turnaround as well as a cultural transformation, which continues. In the

process, we have learned a great deal. Here are three of the principles we follow, which may be
of value to those on a transformation journey.
Model the Behavior You Want to See
As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you
say. The Harford had previously operated in silos: what mattered was how well an individual
business or function performed. Employees made decisions based on what was good for their
area rather than for the enterprise as a whole.
Our leadership team has reversed that orientation, emphasizing One Hartford behavior. We ask
leaders to wear two hatsone for their business or function and another for the enterpriseand
to avoid actions that would disadvantage the company. We also established enterprise objectives
that the executive leadership team is jointly accountable for achieving, as well as leadership
behaviors to model, such as delivering outcomes and operating as a team player. While most
employees listen to what their leaders say, they pay close attention to what their leaders do.
Seek accountability for resultsnot activity
Ducking responsibility for misjudgments and missed goals, and blaming others or external
factors for poor performance is human nature. This lack of accountability keeps companies from
reaching their potential. It saps confidence and encourages a passive, excuse-based culture where
no one feels in control of outcomes.
At The Hartford, we emphasize that accountability equals delivering results aligned to strategic
goals, as opposed to good intentions and lots of activity. We are rapidly evolving to a culture
where people are accountable for performance. Leaders submit quarterly scorecards that make
clear to the board of directors and the management team how well their businesses and functions
are performing across several dimensions.
We are also evaluating performance not only on what leaders achieve but also how they achieve.
Hitting goals in a way that is inconsistent with The Hartfords leadership behaviors is
unacceptable. We want people to deliver strong results the right waythe what and the how
matter equally.
For us, the strongest spur to accountability was sharpening the companys operating focus,
launching a new strategy for creating greater shareholder value, and developing a long-term
vision. The strategy clarified for employees, customers, partners, and investors what businesses
we are committed to and how we are driving profitable growth and shareholder value. The vision
clarified the destination and set a new standard of excellence. Together, they strengthened
employee engagement and created a shared commitment to execute.
Learn how to decide and deliver
One element of The Hartfords culture that had been holding us back from achieving our goals
was an inability to make good decisions quickly and routinely. It wasnt a question of

brainpower. Instead, we had a consensus culture where important decisions would be debated
indefinitely. Too many meetings concluded without a decision being made. The polls never
closed and back-channeling prevailed.
To instill decisiveness, we have been teaching the entire organization how to decide and execute
the most important decisions, using a concept called RAPID. This tool spells out the roles each
person plays in every decision, and assigns a single point of accountability for decisions. That
person commits the organization to action, and once a decision is made, everyone is expected to
support it. We realize that learning how to decide and deliver is essential to achieving
consistently good performance.
Occasionally I am asked by employees when all of this change will stop. My answer is never. I
am gratified that more of my teammates have come to understand that great organizations
respond to change by continually evolving, progressing, and learning, which is what The
Hartford strives to do.
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Diane Coleman
Strategic Account Director | Sales | Relationship Management
How true the RW Emerson quote...What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what
you say.
o
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3 hours ago
LikersRobin-Jo Rios, Daina Huntington, Margaret Reichert, MS, PHR, +5

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John Pirro
Principal, Business Development at Tunnell Consulting, Inc.
A lot of CEO's want Culture change, but few understand the the impact and how to
implement it. One person can not do it alone and it takes leadership, and support to carry
upper management as well as the team over the goal line.
Good article, but can a company change its culture to avoid a crisis, or is a real crisis
required before a company is prepared to initiate the change? Presumably this is what
differentiates a proactive leader from a reactive follower...
Johan Hellstam Segergren
Country Manager - Google Enterprise at Google
A crisis usually give a leader the mandate to change. I'm on a daily basis working
with companies who are looking to change. The CIO wants to go through an IT
transformation, the COO wants to transform the business processes and the CEO
wants a cultural transformation. From a leadership perspective, this require both a
push and a pull, because change is painful and scary to most people. You're selling
the need to your staff and they'll need a compelling event to play along. It means
that the leadership team needs to be able to communicate the need clearly and
effectively and also understand what not changing will mean for their individual
employees. The challenges around the corner needs to be perceived as real for the
employees or else the company will become complacent, because the staff is. My
way to answer your question is that not only does a leader need to be pro-active in
his decision making, but he'll need to be pro-active in changing his organization in
such way that he'll be able to drive through change when change is needed.
Ken Francis
Art Director/Map Designer
Once again, theres an article that insists employees are empty vessels who need to be
shown how to behave. I learned those lessons from my Mom & Dad when I was just a
boy. I do not need any so-called leader to model any behaviors for me.
Lisa Ferlita
Senior Construction Professional
Spot on!
Scott Lucado

Consultant
"Changing a Culture Is the Hardest Task of Leadership" What you mean is, "improving" a
culture. I've seen several leaders take a great organization and change it very quickly-right into the ground. The know-it-all; the take-no-prisoners climber; the egomaniac; the
bigot...these have all gotten into positions of authority and done their cultures great harm
in short order. Because leaders *always* lead by example, whether it's toward their stated
goals or not. If a leader wants honesty, but is a liar, he gets a dishonest organization. If a
leader wants hard work but is always on the golf course, he gets laziness. If a leader
wants openness but punishes bad news, she gets sycophants. So indeed, improvement is
the hard part.
Donnell Cathey MBA CSSBB
Helping clients discover a better way.
Great article Liam! Every time I read it, I keep hearing "Changing self is the primary task
of leadership". A large part of our learning and success comes from what/who we are able
to imitate. Managers, manage process, Leaders lead people.
Cub Berrian
Chief Executive Officer at Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors
Changing culture is a continual mountain climb and takes persistence!
Raj Kumar
Lead - HR Operations in MDeverywhere India Pvt. Ltd.
Changing the Culture of an Organization will remain the hardest task ever as it is a very
time consuming and long term goal of the Organization. HR needs lots of patience and
constant efforts to get this completed gradually.
Lisa von Frank
Global Security and Safety at Henry Schein, Inc.
Persistence and open mindedness can change the world! Great article.
John Thorburn
-culture change is from team-work, communication and a figure-head setting the example
to follow or teaching best practice. a motivational, energetic and transparent leader can

inspire others to take ownership. I agree followers no, sleazy selfish, no. but team-work
built upon integrating core competencies needs a figure head.
John Holst
JOB SEEKER: Space Operations Professional/Blogger: The Mad Spaceball/Freelance
Writer/PM
"Ducking responsibility for misjudgments and missed goals, and blaming others or
external factors for poor performance is human nature." Let's amend that statement, shall
we? Those traits aren't human nature, that's bad leadership. The same with indecisiveness.
Culture is typically set by bad leadership unintentionally, because many of the lower
echelon employees just don't want to deal with the consequences of bad leadership. Good
leaders can give a goal for the company to achieve, and sometimes there's a cultural
impact there if that goal is meaningful to employees.
Kristin Nordby
Experienced design manager with project management, creative direction and marketing
skills
Really great article. My company is trying hard to change the culture and it really does
start with the leaders. My team always says, "The only constant around here is change."
Lisa Burkett
Marketing Director at Woodlawn Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens
After 29 years in corporate culture, I've come to learn that even if the CEO demands the
culture change, the lack of his or her leadership over various decision makers stalls the
work towards change. Being able to affect change at the top of the ladder is crucial. We
managers are mostly powerless against the forces surrounding the highest office.
John Thorburn
-cultural change needs good leadership, a mentor or an icon
Lisa Ferlita
Senior Construction Professional
John, I agree good leadership is key and critical to any cultural change.
Leadership comes in many forms not just that of a CEO.

Ken Francis
Art Director/Map Designer
No. It needs the valuable and important lessons we all learned as children. It does
not happen by following the example of a sleazy CEO who is lining her pockets
from the employee pension fund, colluding with politicians to get around
environment protection laws, and finding new ways to avoid paying taxes.
John Holst
JOB SEEKER: Space Operations Professional/Blogger: The Mad Spaceball/Freelance
Writer/PM
Just to add a little more to this about culture and the negative impact on an organization's
mission or goals in. The 34 cheating missile officers (story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/us/politics/air-force-suspends-34-at-nuclear-sitesover-test-cheating.html). The culture, in this case, was to maintain 100% on tests (not to
pass the test, which is in the lower 90's). Their leadership promoted that view and
penalized those officers who didn't maintain 100%. Result: rampant cheating. Opinion
post here: http://themadspaceball.com/2014/01/17/we-shall-not-lie-cheat-or-steal-exceptwhen-we-do-opinion/.
Richard Pagan
Professional Educator & Training Consultant in Leadership, Aviation/Aerospace, and
Higher Education
Change is often difficult to accept and challenging to implement. As an education
professional, i have found that implementing change in academia is often not as accepting
as might be experienced in other industries. Every organization has at its core a culture
that defines who it is. With the advances in technology and the generational changes
occuring, cultural change is taking place slowly and with some pushback from "older"
generations. If we are to succeed, we must maintain an attitude of openess, not
necessarily of acceptance, with changes. It's ok to question, but not to do so in a
beligerent or defiant manner. With change, leaders are encouraged to explain why
changes are needed and the pros and cons of such changes. Keeping people informed is
of the utmost. It creates an atmosphere of "we are in this together."
Michael R Basso, Ph.D.,MBA,
Adjunct Asst Professor at Yale School of Medicine, Michael R Basso Consulting
Thanks for writing about this important topic....Suggest that a great way to change culture
is to PACE with the current culture then LEAD into new areas by leveraging the force of
current cultural drivers.

Cub Berrian
Chief Executive Officer at Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors
Changing culture is a continual mountain climb and takes persistence