The key to impacting corporate culture through training is to establish and communicate a consistent message. It takes repeated exposure of a consistent message to make your training truly “sticky.” Keep your materials and approach fresh, but always convey the same core message. That sounds like a great plan, but how do you actually accomplish this?
Show them you are serious
In a typical work environment, the natural tendency is for employees to question the training. They are watching and waiting to see if what was covered in the training is truly a core message. Employees want to see how committed you are to what’s being communicated. Consistent reinforcement will show your team that the topics and values covered during training are not going away. It’s also important to dig deeper and consider all the messages being sent. Ambiguity or patent inconsistencies in messages will water down a programs effectiveness.
Less is more
Simplify concepts with diagrams or graphics and focus on core behaviors that are done consistently throughout day-to-day interactions that people have. Help people to see the impact in behaving differently and provide the “why” in the examples you offer. Your training should address behaviors employees can easily relate to as a way to demonstrate core values and standards. Using real-world examples of issues team members face is a great way to convey your core training concepts. These examples can be drawn from your own experiences, company-related scenarios or even recent news.
Create a tipping point
If you’ve ever read the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, you know that relatively small individual actions can produce huge results when repeated over time and networked socially through your organization. Consistent reinforcement is the way to create a tipping point — the “magical moment when an idea, business or trend hits a certain threshold and then spreads like wildfire.” Ultimately, the goal is for your message to take root within the culture and steadily change your corporate culture.
