Book excerpt: Seize and expand the competitive edge with a smart, well-managed culture “renovation” Most business leaders understand the power of a dynamic, positive culture—but almost every effort to change culture fails. Why? The approach is often all wrong. Rather than attempt to “transform” a new culture from the ground up, leaders need to instead spearhead a culture renovation. It’s all about keeping what works, changing what needs to be changed, and ensuring proper care and maintenance—much like refurbishing and living in a beautiful historic home and improving its overall value. In Culture Renovation, the head of the world’s leading HR research firm—the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp)—Kevin Oakes provides tangible, tactical insights drawn from a robust data set and informed by CEOs and HR leaders at many of the world’s top companies. You’ll find everything you need to rebuild your corporate culture with care and expertise, including: Three phases and detailed action steps for architecting the change you want to see Practical insights and examples from T-Mobile, Microsoft, 3M, and other top companies The traits of a healthy corporate culture Proven talent practices to maintain your new culture for long-term success Oakes identifies 18 proven leadership actions for turning any culture into an agile, resilient, and innovative high-performance organization. You’ll learn how to best understand the culture in place today and set a new cultural path for decades to come; develop a co-creation mindset; identify influencers and blockers; ferret out skeptics and non-believers; measure, monitor, and report progress; and implement “next practices” in talent strategies to sustain the renovation. Culture Renovation delivers everything you need to plan, build, and maintain a corporate culture that drives profits, growth, and business sustainability now and well into the future.