By Jonathan H. Westover, PhD
Listen to this article:
Abstract: This article provides a framework for implementing sustainable cultural change within organizations from the middle levels out, rather than solely top-down directives. It explores how organizations' cultures emerge through daily interactions and the limitations of leadership-mandated shifts. The concept of one's "zone of influence" is introduced as the sphere of impact natural to each person's current role. Strategies are outlined for leveraging daily interactions, meetings, networks and processes under individuals' control to subtly shift behaviors and mindsets from the grassroots. Industry examples demonstrate how coordinated grassroots efforts can compound over time into organization-wide cultural evolution. The framework equips readers with an empowering approach for cultural evolution through cultivating everyday change agents throughout all levels of the organization.
Over my career, I have had the privilege of partnering with leadership teams across many industries to tackle some of their most pressing culture and change initiatives. Through this experience, one theme rings consistently true - sustainable, impactful change originates from empowering those in the middle: your managers, supervisors, and individual contributors who span departments and divisions. These middle actors often lack visibility and authority at the executive level, yet hold immense, untapped influence over their teams and peers through the day-to-day interactions that define culture (Schein, 2017). By harnessing this "zone of influence" strategy for cultural evolution, leaders at all levels can build buy-in, foster collaboration, and drive meaningful progress from the grassroots up.
Today we will explore a framework for building culture through empowering our middle actors.
Defining and Measuring Organizational Culture
Before outlining strategies for cultural change, it is important to understand what exactly constitutes an organization's culture and how it is shaped. At its core, culture refers to the deep-seated values, behaviors, attitudes, and assumptions that define "the way we do things around here" (Schein, 2017). These patterns emerge over time through a complex interplay of external environmental forces, leadership philosophies, and the daily interactions that reinforce certain norms (Schneider et al., 2013). Notably, culture is something that is constantly evolving based on new pressures and priorities. As such, it should be consciously nurtured and steered in alignment with strategic objectives like customer experience, innovation, or collaboration.
Looking to measure and assess culture provides useful insights for improvement efforts. Popular diagnostic tools capture things like an organization's dominant decision-making style, approach to change and risk-taking, focus on people versus tasks, and degree of flexibility versus stability (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). Other indicators examine employees' level of engagement, trust in leadership, willingness to champion new ideas, and perceptions of fairness, ethics and integrity (Frey et al., 2013). Taken together, these quantitative and qualitative data points paint a holistic picture of "how we operate" and where culture may enable or inhibit desired business outcomes.
The Challenge of Top-Down Cultural Change
Given culture's dispersed emergent properties, enacting sustained shifts from the executive suite alone poses challenges. While leadership philosophy certainly sets the tone, studies suggest day-to-day employee interactions and localized norms have a stronger influence on engrained mindsets (Giberson et al., 2009). When change comes down solely as directives, compliance may achieve short-term wins but fails to shift hearts and minds over the long run (Kotter, 1995). People also tend to resent top-heavy mandates that overlook real work challenges and dynamics at their level.
Furthermore, leaders so removed from operations lack insights into cultural nuances across divisions, where localized priorities and relationships can counter mandated shifts (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). Such centrifugal forces easily derail centralized initiatives once oversight loosens. Lastly, the sheer volume and pace of imposed changes from above often breeds fatigue, skepticism of follow-through, and a preference for the inertia of status quo over disruption (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999).
Given these limitations, instilling sustainable culture evolution demands grassroots empowerment strategies that cultivate buy-in from the middle-out. Leaders must identify and champion everyday "micro-cultures" already in motion to scale proven shifts more organically across the enterprise.
Harnessing Your Zone of Influence
Amid competing demands and limiting job scopes, contemplating long-term cultural change from your current role may seem a stretch. However, even mid-level contributors hold tangible spheres of influence within reach to advance strategic aims. Harvard professor John Kotter dubbed this bounded space the "zone of influence" - areas already under your control or sway to drive progress from the grassroots up (Kotter, 1982). Rather than feeling paralyzed or passive, focusing cultural improvement efforts within your zone empowers impact.
To identify natural zones of influence, consider things like your:
Direct reports and cross-functional partners
Committees, task forces or special projects led
Informal networks and communities of practice
Operational processes under your purview
Interactions with customers, suppliers or stakeholders
Leveraging your zone may require subtle adjustments versus major overhauls - tweaking existing systems, reframing communications, piloting new behaviors yourself to spark buy-in. But these localized nudges can compound across divisions faster than sweeping directives alone from above (Carter et al., 2013). With dedicated efforts over weeks and months, you build momentum through your established sphere of connections versus confrontation.
Strategies for Change Through Your Zone
Once you identify areas within your natural zone of influence, tangible strategies empower cultural evolution through grassroots effort. Research illustrates several evidence-based approaches to consider:
Model new behaviors yourself. People are far more receptive to changes seen lived out authentically by respected peers versus mandated from above (Kotter, 1995). Walk the talk with consistency to build trust.
Reframe regular touchpoints. Leverage existing meetings, check-ins and correspondence to underscore priorities, share progress and crowdsource ideas (Schein, 2017). Tweak agendas versus adding obligations.
Activate networks as change agents. Enlist informal leaders to champion shifts among peers by sharing wins, addressing concerns and coordinating grassroots pilots (Kotter, 2012). Ownership accelerates buy-in.
Empower autonomy within guardrails. Loosen centralized control by setting aspirational goals and core values, then trusting dispersed units to self-optimize paths suited to their needs (Giberson et al., 2009). Bottom-up solutions stick better.
Showcase exemplars as proof points. Amplify models of success through observation, storytelling and incentives to inspire risk-taking and spark emulation across boundaries (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999). Visual learning motivates.
Reward intangible behaviors explicitly. Recognize and elevate efforts like collaboration, creativity and empowerment through tailored incentives versus hard metrics alone to embed the cultural habits desired (Carter et al., 2013).
Cultivate champions at all levels. Identify and develop vocal change agents to spread influence laterally versus relying only on vertical hierarchy. Grassroots traction compounds progress exponentially through networks (Kotter, 1995).
Industry Examples and Scaling Grassroots Shifts
While cultural change strategies apply broadly, nuanced industry contexts merit discussion. Consider a mid-size financial services firm facing stifling bureaucracy. A department head identified energizing her direct reports as a natural zone of influence. She began weekly "huddle boards" for sharing wins - a subtle reframing that sparked collaboration and healthy competition. Seeing impacts, this approach organically spread to other departments as motivated imitators emerged.
For a global technology company, leveraging networks proved key. Special interest groups for women in tech and young professionals became empowered change agents by hosting skill-shares, sponsoring speaker events and spotlighting small test-and-learn projects that caught on virally. With senior champions’ backing, these grassroots shifts scaled horizontally faster than top-down directives could.
To embed progress sustainably, leaders must systematically identify zones of influence across all levels, then coordinate efforts strategically versus fragmented locally. This involves cultivating alignment through regular vision-setting, showcase forums to spark imitation, and removing organizational obstacles inhibiting momentum. With patience and relentless focus on nurturing everyday change agents dispersed throughout, cultural evolution occurs from the middle-out versus top-down in a way that takes root naturally versus through mandates alone.
Conclusion
Cultures emerge gradually through countless daily interactions - and so sustainable cultural shifts demand empowering change agents dispersed throughout the middle layers versus top-heavy mandates alone. By identifying natural zones of influence already within reach and leveraging relationship networks, meetings and processes under your control, grassroots leaders at any level hold untapped potential to drive progress from the bottom-up. Examples illustrate how subtle, proven adjustments to behaviors and rituals compound over time into organization-wide evolution when strategically coordinated versus isolated efforts. Leadership must champion everyday change agents as the heroes of cultural renewal by clearing their paths, amplifying exemplars and celebrating intangible mindset shifts in a way that inspires grassroots viral imitation. With patience and harnessing organic mechanics of culture already in play, sustainable progress scales exponentially through networks versus directives alone.
References
Armenakis, A. A., & Bedeian, A. G. (1999). Organizational change: A review of theory and research in the 1990s. Journal of Management, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639902500303
Cameron, K. S., & Quinn, R. E. (2011). Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: Based on the competing values framework (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Carter, M. Z., Armenakis, A. A., Feild, H. S., & Mossholder, K. W. (2013). Transformational leadership, relationship quality, and employee performance during continuous incremental organizational change. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(7), 942–958. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1824
Frey, B. S., Dirks, K. T., & Fritze, M. P. (2013). How do incentives influence reciprocal behavior? An experimental study of signing bonuses in the employment relationship. Management Science, 59(11), 2504–2520. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1120.1693
Giberson, T. R., Resick, C. J., Dickson, M. W., Mitchelson, J. K., Randall, K. R., & Clark, M. A. (2009). Leadership and organizational culture: Linking CEO characteristics to cultural values. Journal of Business and Psychology, 24(2), 123–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-009-9109-1
Kotter, J. P. (1982). What effective general managers really do. Harvard Business Review, 60(6), 156–167.
Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 73(2), 59–67.
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Harvard Business Review Press.
Schein, E. H. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M. G., & Macey, W. H. (2013). Organizational climate and culture. Annual Review of Psychology, 64(1), 361–388. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143809
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills (9th ed.). Pearson.
Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.
Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2024). Building Culture From the Middle Out: Leading Change Through Your Zone of Influence. Human Capital Leadership Review, 11(4). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.11.4.4
Comentários