Is your IT team stuck in the wrong kind of change cycle? Culture could be the missing link.
When the right behaviors aren’t in place, even the best tools won’t deliver the results you’re aiming for. Culture is the invisible force that can make or break your IT transformations. Whether you’re deploying new tech, rethinking workflows, or evolving how your team supports the business, culture can either accelerate or halt progress.
Here are five practical steps for aligning your team’s culture with your change initiatives to ensure lasting IT transformation.
1. Assess Your Current Culture
Culture isn’t just a mission statement written on a wall; it’s the everyday norms and behaviors that shape how your team operates.
In IT, this could mean how teams communicate during crisis situations, the appetite for experimenting with new tools or even how willing your team is to challenge the status quo and outdated processes.
Consider using a framework like the Congruence Model. This model breaks down your organization into four key elements: tasks, interdependencies, capabilities and culture. For your IT team, here’s where to look:
- Component tasks: Are the tasks your team focuses on aligned with strategic business goals or are they caught up in firefighting mode?
- Interdependencies: How do teams collaborate across departments? Is information being shared or are teams working in silos?
- Capabilities: Does your team have the necessary skills to embrace new tools and processes or are there gaps that need addressing?
- Culture: What unspoken rules dictate behavior? For instance, does your team shy away from innovation because they fear failure?
Example: Let’s say your IT team struggles with siloed communication, where vital information isn’t shared during major projects. This signals a deeper cultural issue related to collaboration, which will need to be addressed before any significant changes can succeed.
Understanding these components will give you the roadmap for where cultural shifts are needed most.
2. Lead by Example
Leadership actions speak louder than any memo or directive. If you want your team to embrace change, you need to demonstrate adaptability and openness visibly. Rather than making speeches, practice the behaviors you want to see.
Research shows that leader actions are one of the most influential levers for cultural change. Your leadership actions set the tone. If your team sees you actively engaging with new tools and processes, they will likely do the same. On the other hand, if you ignore the change, they will, too.
Example: When one CIO led by example during the transition to DevOps, he didn’t just talk about the new approach; he personally engaged in stand-ups, shared learnings from failures and helped troubleshoot deployment issues. This active involvement inspired the entire team to adopt the new methodology with enthusiasm.
3. Involve the Team
Top-down change initiatives often fail in IT, where technical teams are used to having a say in what tools and processes they use. If you want successful change, your team needs to be involved early on in shaping that change. It is clear that ownership leads to engagement, and higher engagement drives success.
The L.E.A.S.H Model emphasizes employee involvement to create a sense of ownership. When team members help shape a change, this leads to greater accountability and smoother adoption.
Example: When one IT department transitioned to a cloud infrastructure, they involved the team in early discussions. Throughout the process, they were not just seen as users of the new system but also tested the tools, provided feedback and suggested solutions for potential roadblocks. By the time the new infrastructure rolled out, the team wasn’t just along for the ride — they were co-pilots.
4. Reinforce Positive Behaviors
Cultural change sticks when the right behaviors are consistently rewarded. In IT, where metrics often focus on uptime and performance, softer elements like collaboration or innovation can be easily overlooked. But if you want a culture that embraces change, you need to actively recognize and reward those behaviors.
In high-stress IT environments, where change can feel overwhelming, even small rewards go a long way. To reinforce the behaviors you want to see, consider recognizing team members who went above and beyond during a system rollout or another change initiative.
Example: If you want your team to be more proactive about suggesting process improvements, start by publicly recognizing those who do. Even a simple shoutout during a meeting can reinforce proactive behavior. You can take this further by implementing a “Change Champion” program. This can consist of a formal award program or an informal shoutout where you give special recognition to team members who actively support and lead change efforts.
5. Use Stories and Symbols
Data and logic are powerful, but stories are what move and inspire people. Sharing real-world examples of how change positively impacted your team can help reinforce the new culture you’re building.
Symbols are equally important. When celebrating milestones or showcasing team successes, symbols are powerful reminders of what’s important. It can be as simple as a dashboard showing post-change performance improvements, reinforcing the narrative that your team is moving in the right direction.
Example: Before starting the shift to DevOps, an IT organization at a financial services company shared success stories of how it reduced deployment times or how a new security update prevented a potential breach. These stories show the tangible benefits of change and help your team connect the dots between new behaviors and positive outcomes.