Organizational culture transformation can be a long and difficult process, but many companies find the end result is well worth it. There isn’t one set culture that is right for every company, as there are several very successful companies have very different but equally successful organizational culture.

The first part of any transformation is the planning stage. You will want to analyze what type of an organizational culture would best suit your company, and go about deciding the specific concrete steps you can take to start towards that point. This will be your plan for enacting the vision of your wanted organizational culture. This isn’t a one person jobâ€"having a team that is on the same page will make this much easier. During the planning decide what aspects of your culture you should keep, and which really need to be touched up.

During and after the planning, have a specific strategy. You need to pick people who can handle a whole variety of responsibilities and everyone needs to be on the same page. You need to help everyone understand that transforming your organizational culture will be a long term effort. No quick fixes here.

When you’re actually implementing your plans, try to get everyone excited about the changes. Know that not everyone is going to like the immediate changes, but that in the long run having a lot of excited employees will increase energy, increase willingness to change, and both of those will affect your overall ability to implement any plans.

If you have a particularly charismatic person who is behind the idea, talk with them to see if they can be your “champion” for culture change. Having someone who is generally popular and well liked pushing for change will likely make more people open to it as well.

These types of people can often ride emotional momentum, make the “fun” or “energy” in a room spread. That may be you, it might not be. But finding someone who can really connect with people during a time of change (which is naturally stressful) is going to increase your chances of success.

If you have positive momentum, use it. If you don’t, try to create it. Organizational culture transformation is not easy, and there is no one event that is going to change things. A consistent program of noticeable changes or movements every week will definitely help you. The longer you build momentum, the better the chance that eventually the momentum will carry itself and at that point you can watch the transformation take a life of its own. If you reach this stage, you know things are beginning to really get movingâ€"but don’t let up!

People are creatures of habit. If we get used to bad habits, then we’ll keep repeating them, but the opposite is also true. If people get into good habits, and consistently repeat them, then doing things the right way becomes easier because it is what you are now used to. Keep working to transform your organizational culture, and eventually the repetition will really pay off!