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Written by Judith E. Glaser

Culture transformation is an advanced leadership skill.  The primary way to change a culture is to use your Conversational Intelligence to create an environment that infuses energy and commitment into relationships, teams, and the whole organization.  Too often we get stuck in habit patterns of ‘taking about’ change but not creating change.

The most we talk about change, the more we talk about all the problems and challenges that can emerge – and we fall into negative mindsets which trigger ‘fear hormones’ and ‘threat networks’ in our brains. No wonder change is so difficult. By the time we are ready to take action we are frozen in place.

You can shift the way you think about change by that the most successful leaders use to navigate their journey…

1st Success Factor:  The first skill is be the change for transforming the culture. Realize you have the power, influence and the ability to see and understand the culture in which you work, and to see how you can play a role in transforming it into a healthier, more inspiring, and thriving culture. The words transforming culture can be seen in two different ways, depending on how you speak the words.

Transforming culture can mean a culture that is so powerful it transforms itself.

Call to Action:Transforming culture can also mean something that you need to be accountable for doing—creating a transforming culture by the way you show up at work everyday. Both meanings have the power to transform, and the second one puts skin in the game.

1st Success Factor:  The second skill, embrace the opportunity, is the ability to step out of your Comfort Zone and rather than fear the unknown, embrace it with excitement and enthusiasm for the future opportunity for learning and growing. Your shift in focus will create positive ripple effects for those you influence and with whom you work. The words embracing opportunity can also be seen in two different ways, depending on how you speak the words. Embracing opportunity can mean an opportunity that is so powerful that it transforms us.

Call to Action:Embracing opportunity can also mean a call to action, an opportunity that speaks to us because of its magnetic power. Both meanings have the power to transform.

3^rd Success Factor:  The third skill, create space for change, is the ability to intentionally open up opportunities for feedback-rich communication one-on-one, within teams and across the organization. By opening up space for and creating Learning Journeys and Leadership Journeys, you create an environment in which employees have room to learn, grow, and be nourished by new ideas and energy. The words creating spaces can also be seen in two different ways, depending on how you speak the words. Creating spaces can mean a space or environment that is so powerful that it transforms us.

Call to Action:Creating spaces can also mean a call to action, the actions you need to take every day to open the space for more innovation and life-giving force to take hold. Both meanings have the power to transform.

4^th Success Factor:  The fourth skill, practice Co-creating Conversations ^®helps you Let Go of old baggage from the past as you embark on your Leadership Journey. You learned to recognize and release old baggage filled with toxic experiences that negatively undermine and denigrate relationships, and replace them with new meanings that positively uplift and inspire relationships, which empowers them with a new sense of optimism and effectiveness.

As a leader, you can begin to have “co-creating conversations” that interrupt old I-centric patterns from the past and have the power to transform companies, businesses, and even entire industries. The words Co-creating Conversations can also be seen in two different ways, depending on how you speak the words. Co-creating conversations can be conversations that have the ability to release the past and open space for the future with others, a psychological state of being that is powerful and transforms us.

Call to Action:Co-creating conversations can also mean a call to action, the actions you need to take with others every day to have conversations that release old emotions that are no longer facilitate change, and open the space for new energy for co-creation with others. Both meanings have the power to transform.

5^th Success Factor:  And, finally, there is the fifth skill is shaping stories. Having moved from a place of understanding, to challenging, to stepping out and releasing, to opening space for Co-creating Conversations, you have now mastered the most proactive and intentional skill of shaping the story of your team’s collective success. This is what a visionary leader does—not on your own in isolation—but together, with others. And what you create together are “shared stories for success” that envision and make possible the fulfillment of WE. The words shaping stories can also be seen in two different ways, depending on how you speak the words. First, these two words refer to how we think, how we see the world, how we interpret reality; they are so powerful that they transform us.

Call to Action:Shaping stories can also mean a call to action, the actions you need to take every day to shape stories so that we are winning, we are included, and we are appreciated. They are conversations that have the ability to reframe our view of the world, that give us hope for the future, and that enable us to see the best outcomes for all of us. Both meanings have the power to transform.

How You Label Determines How You

Empowering your team to work in concert to achieve your organizations goals and strategies requires flexibility of thought, agility of mind, and speed of response. Most of all, it requires you to break out of old conversational habits and negative patterns of communicating and view the impact you can have on your business in totally new ways. Use conversational intelligence as a way to break from the past and create the future.

Rather than thinking about situations as problems, think of them as challenges and opportunities, and communicate this point of view in your conversations with others. Until you challenge yourself to change old thinking and old conversational habits, you will see little change from yesterday to today. Without changing how you approach your challenges, no new corporate strategy will ever achieve the desired results or hit the expected targets.