How to build a culture of change at a time when change is constantly needed

Traditionally change has been viewed through a strategic lens, as in the legendary case at Intel, when Gordon Moore and Andy Grove made the fateful decision to move out of memory chips and bet the company on microprocessors. Leaders were advised to form a strategic vision, build a coalition, then communicate and institute the change. Yet today, there’s rarely time for all that. We are going through an era of unprecedented disruption. When tariffs are leveled, a pandemic hits or a new technology changes the game entirely, behaviors throughout the organization need to shift quickly—sometimes within days or even hours—and those changes need to be adopted at scale. That’s exactly what confronted the leadership of Alberta’s Ministry of Communication and Public Engagement. The pandemic made it clear that resources needed to be centralized for rapid deployment in a crisis, but operations had become proudly decentralized over the years. Change couldn’t simply be mandated. It needed to be embedded into the fabric of the culture. Step 1: Identifying Behaviors Historically, the Ministry had been decentralized, with key personnel embedded in each client ministry, such as Justice, Public Safety and Education. The idea was that each client ministry could be best served by communications professionals dedicated to its unique mission and needs. For a long time, that model made sense. But during the pandemic, it became clear that the approach was no longer tenable. Today, the rapid advancement of technology, political and social instability, and the increasingly volatile social media environment require organizations to surge resources quickly to where they can be most impactful. In these disruptive times, leaders don’t always get to choose their priorities. Events often choose them. In my discussions with the leadership team, it became clear that the history of decentralization had created a fiercely independent culture. Executives prided themselves on delivering for their cl