Designing Culture Change: Defining the Reality of Your Organization

Abstract James D. White is Co‐Founder, Chair, and CEO of Culture Design Lab; and former CEO of Jamba Juice. Krista White is co‐founder of Culture Design Lab and founder and CEO of Kiki for the Future, a platform for LGBTQIA+ sex education. They discuss specific techniques for understanding and transforming organizational culture, based on their experience and research. “The daily systems, rituals, behaviors, and attitudes that make up culture accumulate over months and years to drive strategy, collaboration, and innovation – or not,” they write. They note that “a fundamental prioritization tool James has used throughout his career is the Strategic Thinking And Results (STAR) method, created by organizational theorist Jay Galbraith in the 1960s.” These steps revolve around assessment, empathy, goals, strategy, plans, actions, and the gauging of impact. The use of this by James at Jamba Juice is outlined with examples in Figure 2. They have “developed a roadmap to design culture change,” with six steps, which in their words are: 1. Use action‐learning principles and employee resource groups to drive your organization's desired outcomes. 2. Create a highly intentional communication strategy. 3. Enlist key leaders as catalysts for change. 4. Reimagine and redesign your “people” strategy.