This is why your attempts to change your company culture are failing-and how to fix it

"Over the next few years, Gilbert guided IBM's shift toward design-thinking and re-trained thousands of employees to work differently, all without mandating a thing. Today, he sees corporate mandates as pointless: They don't work, he says. And yet, they're ubiquitous-take the RTO mandates that companies are enforcing, often to the frustration of their employees. At Paramount, about 600 workers took a voluntary buyout rather than accept the company's 5-day RTO mandate. But change is inevitable, whether it's about remote work or AI integration."

"We're in a time when companies are undergoing and implementing lots of changes, from RTO to AI to DEI-all the acronyms. In your book, you talk about the importance of treating change like a product. What do you mean by that? My predisposition, based on years of experience, is that mandating changes in the workplace is hugely inefficient and hugely ineffective. Cultures drive outcomes. Mandating culture changes to achieve different outcomes doesn't work."

In 2010 a longtime startup entrepreneur's company was acquired by IBM, exposing friction between startup speed and a slower, process-oriented corporate culture. IBM shifted toward design-thinking and retrained thousands of employees to work differently without mandates. Corporate mandates are described as ineffective and often provoke employee resistance, illustrated by about 600 Paramount workers taking voluntary buyouts rather than accept a five-day RTO mandate. Change across remote work, AI, and DEI is inevitable. Successful change requires earning buy-in, treating change like a product, and focusing on cultural transformation rather than top-down mandates.

Read at Fast Company