In an age in which innovation is the single most commonly cited core value among S&P 500 companies, and many—whether Apple, Google, the corner bakery or the taco truck—have come to embrace some version of the mantra innovate or die, it’s well for companies to take a penetrating look inward, with an eye toward shedding the shackle of the Conventional Wisdom and adapting a forward-leaning modus operandi to the realities of a new-ish millennium.

Easily enough said, but what exactly is required to facilitate this seeming imperative?

Some—OK, many—have apparently opted for management by cliché, encouraging workers to ‘Think Outside the Box’—to which we, respectfully but emphatically, say, “Bushwa!” (I know, but it’s a great word!—Google it).

‘Thinking Outside the Box’—what does that even mean? Presumably it refers to a thought process transcending some artificial constraint or invisible barrier—perhaps a function of a blindly accepted norm or mindless habit. But if we want our colleagues to think outside of some imaginary Box, why put them in the Box to begin with?

What is the Box?                       

Why are we inside it?

How do we escape its confines?

The truth is this: There is no Box unless we create it—or allow it to develop on its own, which will happen absent an affirmative preventative effort. The Box is a manifestation of our organizational culture—the sum of the beliefs and behaviors of all our organization’s constituents. Actually, the Box is no more than a metaphor for a culture that stifles free, creative, innovative thought. And the more time it’s had to evolve, the more difficult it is to change—but change it we must. Transformation is probably an apt word to describe what such a culture requires. No small task, that—and one that demands the active participation of all stakeholders if it’s to be achieved.

Consider the proliferation of surveys, studies, reports, etc published by The Gallup Organization, Harris Interactive, FranklinCovey, Development Dimensions International, The Corporate Executive Board, Towers Perrin, LRN, Deloitte, Booz-Allen, Quantum Workplace, all manner of consultants, a wide variety of academics, and on-and-on ad nauseam—all of which produce remarkably similar results regarding the pitifully low engagement level of the workforce, the stark disconnect between leadership and employees, and the misalignment between the goals of the organization and those of the individual worker. One recent study revealed that a mere 9% of employees have a favorable opinion of their company’s culture. In sum, this massive body of research reports little in the way of encouragement about the current or future state of the business art.

Apparently, people don’t much like the Box.

Clearly, organizations are broadly failing to effectively communicate their purpose, values and goals to those through whom they expect to fulfill them.

So what to do? Where to begin?

First off, it’s essential to embrace the well-documented reality of the integral relationship between workforce engagement, organizational culture, and business performance. As Gallup’s research reveals, they’re quite simply inseparable and irrevocably interdependent—full stop. And innovation cannot happen absent a culture of engagement.

We believe it’s become patently obvious that positive culture change is at once the greatest opportunity and most direct path to improved organizational performance for the vast majority of enterprises. Oh, and it’s the only way out of the Box.

We could readily cite another raft of research studies, surveys, analyses and reports to demonstrate the salience of this notion, but in the interest of brevity, we’ll mention just one that falls about in the middle of the pack in terms of relative dramatic outcome. A study published by the UK-based Barrett Values Centre of the share price performance of the top twenty public companies in the annual Best Companies to Work for in the USA survey over a ten-year period revealed an average annualized return of nearly 17% versus less than 3% for the S&P 500 as a whole. That’s neither a typo nor a coincidence.

The remedy, as we see it, lies in the creation of a culture of collaborative innovation. If innovation is the wheel of progress, collaboration is the grease, and culture is the key.

If an organization’s leadership is genuinely committed—and such commitment is an absolute prerequisite—to positively and permanently changing its culture, and thus escaping the Box, it must undertake four essential steps on the path to the cultural ‘Promised Land’:

1. Educate—achieve an understanding of what it is that comprises the culture; what it looks and feels like, what influences it, and what can change it
2. Evaluate—undertake an objective analysis of the cultural status quo involving the input of all stakeholders; the development of a cultural assessment and profile reflecting the current state of the culture and the desired improvements
3. Elevate—implement specific targeted programs, procedures and practices aimed at effecting the desired improvements on an incremental, comprehensive and, above all, continuous basis
4. Perpetuate—engender the conscious and continual pursuit of the established cultural objectives throughout the enterprise as ‘SOB’— Standard Operating Behavior (see It’s All About Behavior)—on a truly perpetual basis

These are the core elements of the CultureDynamics approach to permanent cultural transformation. Obviously, we can’t cover all of this here, but we can suggest a couple of basic but critical steps in the right direction. Note that ‘basic’ is synonymous neither with ‘easy’ nor ‘quick’—effective execution of these two seemingly simple steps will itself require enduring commitment and consistent effort if they are to become behaviorally engrained, which they must if they are to matter at all. Good practice for the main event.

That said, meaningful steps toward improvement in organizational culture can be achieved if an organization’s leadership commits irrevocably to:

1. Communication. If you want workers to engage, talk with them—not to them or at them, but with them—that means listening is a large part of the equation, probably most of it. Communicate in every direction and every dimension—up, down, sideways, in, out, across, around, again and always. Develop and implement communication mechanisms that become as autonomic as breathing. Jack Welch’s ‘truth & transparency’ admonition is a good rule-of-thumb, and be ever mindful of George Bernard Shaw’s insightful and oft-quoted observation: