DiSC as a Catalyst for Cultural Transformation

Written on 20. Aug 2021.

As we all experienced first-hand now, we live in rapidly-changing and challenging times and workplaces. Some even call today the “era of always-on transformation.” I’m not sure about you, but to us “always on transformation” sounds exhausting! And it IS exhausting for most people. According to Bersin by Deloitte’s 2018 “Meet the Modern Learner” report, people working in today’s modern workplace are overwhelmed, exhausted, and distracted.

Here are a few facts that stood out to us:

More than 80% of all companies rate their businesses as “highly complex” or “complex” for employees.
Yet, fewer than 16% of those companies have a program to “simplify work” or help employees deal with stress.
Today there is a growing population (40% of the population!) who believe it is impossible to succeed at work and have a balanced family life.

Beyond Deloitte’s report, Gallup’s recent State of the Global Workplace report highlights a very serious global engagement problem…fewer than 15% of the global workforce is actively engaged.

You see, the very same, rapidly-changing workplace that is draining people of their precious energy, requires more now than ever before from those same people. As the global workforce becomes more VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), it’s the people of an organization that fuels success and drives competitive advantage. As such, there has been a shift in perception around organizational culture, from nice-to-have to need-to-have. As quoted by Gary Vaynerchuk, “The most important thing for your speed, your company, and your service is your internal culture.”

But if we know anything about culture, we know it means very different things to different organizations. Culture, like almost anything else, is not one-size-fits-all. For some organizations, it’s “how we do things around here.” Others place a robust framework around a culture that articulates corporate values and behavioral policies. Still more, an unwritten behavioral code is learned over time. While the way we define and shape culture has infinite approaches, we know that there are three unifying characteristics of culture today:

Culture is unique to each organization
It is a critical driver of success
It’s one of the hardest things to change. Period.

So what do we do? If culture is critically important to an organization’s future success, yet one of the hardest things to change, how do we rally people and organizations to make the leap toward better? How do we enable organizations to make true cultural transformation possible?

True cultural transformation does not just happen on its own. It’s the collection of thousands of moments, interactions, and choices made by each individual that builds the dynamic nature of culture. True transformation is an ongoing effort that takes not just Human Resources, not just the leaders of an organization, but each and every individual of an organization making a conscious effort toward positively contributing to their culture. True cultural transformation, while ultimately the responsibility of an organization, needs a catalyst.

We believe DiSC can be that catalyst.

Today, we are thrilled to formally share the Everything DiSC promise with all of you our manifesto video titled, DiSCOVER THE POWER OF WE™. While we are proud of this video, we are even more proud of the millions of lives DiSC has impacted and the thousands of organizational cultures our solutions have helped start down the path from personalized insight to culture change. If you love this video as much as we do, share it with your friends! Because now more than ever, it’s time we empower all PEOPLE to engage, connect and thrive in today’s modern workplace.