Imagine that you are a departmental director at an organization where the senior leaders want to launch a new initiative to change the workplace culture. Maybe they want to make the workplace less biased or more inclusive or more trauma-informed or centered on a growth-mindset. You see great value in this initiative and are happy this is being launched. The leaders feel that an employee-led initiative is the most effective way to make this change, and they want to establish an employee-led task force, so they send out an invitation to all staff to create and join this new task force. And there’s immediate interest from staff, including an employee in your department…uh oh. Suddenly that good feeling you had about supporting this initiative starts to evaporate. Why is that happy feeling going away? Because even though you support both this initiative and your staff, nothing tangible has changed for you as the department head. You still have the same number of staff in your department as before this initiative started; the same deliverables to achieve by the end of the year; and the same budget to work with. But now you have a motivated employee who really want to add this task force work to their plate, and your boss [and maybe even your boss’s boss] is telling you to let them. And all your other department employees are already at or over capacity with their workloads, so there’s limited bandwidth to simply absorb the work. You are now caught in the impossible trap where you are expected to achieve your departmental deliverables and support your staff to do work outside those deliverables and avoid overburdening the rest of your staff and stay within your budget. Gulp.

Sadly, this is an all-too-common situation. We seem to think that all we need to do is launch a task force and the initiative will magically happen. But there is soooooooo much more to sustainably launching a culture change initiative beyond just forming a task force. Little to no attention is ever given to the supervisors of the employees who want to serve on these task forces, or to shifting the employee’s duties so they can take on the work of serving on a task force, or to the role senior leaders must play to lay the foundation for the task force. And this neglect is one of the main reasons that culture-change efforts continually fail despite the best intentions of everyone involved.

So, below I explain the steps and actions that senior leaders, departmental directors, and task force employees can take to sustainably launch a culture-change initiative, beyond just forming a task force. The steps are clear, intentional, human-centered, and emphasize compassionate communication, all of which are aspects of any trauma-informed, inclusive, and growth-mindset culture. Which means you will be modeling right from the start the culture change you want to create in the organization. So, start your culture change work by changing how you launch the culture change initiative and follow these steps!

Step #1:

This is the only step that Senior Leaders must do, but it is critical to the success of every consecutive step. Leaders – recognize that this culture-change initiative is organizational work and build it into the organizational budget and deliverables.

• To start, 1) clearly explain why this culture change matters for the organization. Consider these prompts: Why this change and why now? How will this new culture impact how the organization achieves its vision and values? Is there a tangible reason for this initiative, such as employee data from a recent workplace assessment or retention/turnover data from HR? Will this initiative fulfill a strategic plan goal? Whatever the reason, get it down on paper so staff have a clear understanding of why this work matters beyond “it’s a nice thing to do.”
• Then, 2) identify the budget and resources you will invest in pursuing this initiative. Include direct expenses, such as tuition for trainings or contracting consultants; but also include the most expensive part of this initiative’s budget – staff time to serve on the task force. Staff time is the most often overlooked expense because the implicit expectation is that staff will simply absorb the work to launch and sustain this initiative into their regular work. But if you expect a task force of employees from across the organization to work together monthly for one or more years, you have to calculate the approximate time/expense and build that into the annual budget. And if you’re a nonprofit, this calculation will also help you fundraise for the initiative.
• Lastly, 3) identify which organizational deliverables will NOT be achieved in order for staff to sustainably take on this new initiative. And plan for 3-5 years of this added work…because that’s how long culture change takes to show impact. If you don’t state this, you are implicitly telling your staff to volunteer their time, which is the opposite of a trauma-informed, inclusive, growth-oriented, compassionate, or whatever culture you claim you want. Set your initiative up for success by doing the hard work of saying, “We are investing in X, which is why we will do less of Y for Z amount of time.”

Yes, this is hard. Really hard. But if you start with these 3 clearly articulated pieces, you will set your staff up for real success. Without these pieces, you’re just saying pretty words without conviction. And that’s not the culture you want to model, right?

The rest of the steps are for the employee who wants to serve on the task force and their supervisor to work through together to equitably support both the department’s needs and the employee’s desires to serve on the task force.

Step #2:

Using the guidance from senior leaders [see step #1], discuss and clearly articulate how this culture-change initiative can positively impact this particular department. Don’t get lost in pretty, esoteric words; get specific by having a frank and expansive conversation with this prompt: “How can our department benefit from one of our employees participating on the task force?” For example, the employee might be able to represent the department’s needs at this major organizational initiative. Or if there are trainings on the task force, the employee may be able to share their learnings with their departmental colleagues. Perhaps the task force can professionally develop the employee to better work with customers of the department. Think creatively and get these potential departmental benefits down on paper. This rationale will help the entire departmental team understand how having a colleague serve on the task force is a direct benefit to them, the department. Without this, you risk an undercurrent of resentment when work is taken off one employee’s plate and added to another’s [see step #5]. These colleagues may feel like they are unfairly “picking up the slack” to allow their colleagues to join what may be perceived as an “optional” committee. Take the time to draft this clear departmental rationale so all departmental staff feel invested and benefited.  

Step #3:

As best as possible, articulate the time and timeline needed to serve on the task force.  Consider how often the task force will meet: ex. once a month for 3 hours, once a week for 1 hour, etc.  Also consider if there will be work done between meetings as well, such as pre- and post-meeting work or tasks. And consider how long will the task force run: in step #1, we established that culture change work takes 3-5 years, so it is natural to assume that this may be how long the task force will run. But that does not mean all task force members should be implicitly expected to serve that long. The employee and supervisor should consider how long the employee will be able to serve while respecting both the task force’s need for consistent membership and the department’s needs for its own deliverables. To get these answers, the task force may need to convene and establish their meeting cadence, goals, and timeline, so this step may need to be revisited by the supervisor and employee a few times. But keep pushing for this information because it will help inform how much and which of the employee’s regular duties need to be adjusted to accommodate task force work. In the meantime, employee and supervisor can make educated estimates based on the task force information available. 

Step #4: Review the employee’s current job description and daily duties. Before we can add new work to the employee’s plate, we have to make space. This is a challenging step for both the supervisor and employee, but begin by reviewing the most up-to-date version of the employee’s job description. Then, take the time to answer the following questions honestly:

• Which duties in the employee’s job description best support the growth of the employee towards their long-term professional goals? It is easy to assume that the duties which are not essential to departmental function should be the ones that are removed to make room on the employee’s plate for task force work. But if those duties are beneficial to the employee’s long-term professional goals, removing them can put the employee in a position in which they feel penalized for joining the task force, which is critical organizational work [as established in Step #1]. So, have a frank discussion about the employee’s professional goals and identify any beneficial duties towards that goal so they are notunintentionally removed.
• Are there any duties that can be temporarily paused? Consider seasonal duties or tasks that are already being attended to by other staff. For example, are there certain meetings that are attended by other departmental staff already that do not require the task force member’s attendance as well? Are there “nice to have” but not “need to have” duties that can be paused for the duration of the employee’s membership on the task force?
• Are there any duties the employee is currently doing that are NOT listed in their job description? It is VERY common that employees spend significant time on work that is not in their job description. Articulate these clearly and ask the following questions:
  • Why is the employee doing work outside their job description?
  • Are they being compensated for this work?
  • How much do these extra duties add to their plate?
  • Can they be removed?

Side note: this step is simply good “job description hygiene” for all employees across the organization to go through.

Step #5:

Consider department bandwidth. It is likely that departments will need to flex/adjust to support the organizational initiative. But we don’t want to create a culture of resentment by “dumping” duties on our colleagues. So, the supervisor should consider the following questions, and maybe even make these a topic of discussion at a departmental meeting:

• What resources are offered by senior leaders in Step #1? How can these be used to offset the impact of the employee’s service on the task force?
• Are there are departmental colleagues who can sustainably take on any of the task force employee’s daily duties?
  • Do these colleagues have the skills to do the duties? If not, can these skills be learned in a realistic timeframe?
  • Are these colleagues interested in taking on this additional work?
    • If so, would this shift their duties so substantially that it would also impact their compensation for any reason? Why or why not?
  • NOTE: Have a conversation with these colleagues before transferring duties to them! Ground this conversation in the departmental rationale from Step #2. Don’t “voluntell” colleagues (otherwise, you risk resentment).
• If colleagues are unable to take on additional duties, does the department have funding from Step #1 to temporarily hire new staff for support?

Step #6:

Determine accountability measures. As established in Step #2, task force work is directly connected and beneficial to departmental work…therefore the employee should be supported, held accountable to, and compensated for doing it. Build the task force work into the employee’s annual goals, and schedule regular check ins so both the supervisor and employee are regularly communicating about progress.

• Note: if colleagues are taking on additional tasks from the task force employee’s plate, these colleagues should also have those new tasks built into their annual goals so they are supported, held accountable to, and compensated for doing it.

Step #7:

Use the answers to the questions above to draft a Task Force Support Plan. Do not assume that a verbal discussion is enough; get this information down on paper, for the supervisor, task force employee, and whole department to refer to regularly. Include in the plan:

• The specific duties to be removed/paused from the employee’s plate…
• …and what will happen to that work. Ex. Paused until a certain date; assigned to a colleague; assigned to a temporary hire; etc.
• the explanation of how the employee’s membership on the task force benefits the department’s goals.
• Approximately how many hours will be “created” by removing each duty, and make sure the total adds up to the ​ task force​ membership expectations from Step #3.

Consider sharing the plan beyond the department, to senior leaders, the task force, and even other supervisors with employee’s interested in serving on the task force so it can be used as a template.

After reading all this you may be thinking, “This is great! But how the heck can I get all these steps done???” Great question. And the truth is: you don’t have to do all of them; you don’t even have to do them in order. The steps above are listed for an ideal scenario, but reality isn’t so accommodating. So, do what you can. Each step you take will leave you and the culture-change initiative in a more sustainable place. Will it be harder to do it out of order? Yes. But you can still make progress. At the very least, you now have clearly outlined steps that you can use to activate other key players in your organization. And if you’d like further support, reach out to me. I’m here to help.