The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR 150 - How Top Companies Build Winning Cultures: Simon Taylor (Head of Organization Effectiveness, Gap)
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Jan 26, 2024 Guest Simon Taylor, Head of Organizational Effectiveness at Gap, shares insights on building a high-performance culture, the role of leaders, and commonalities among top companies. Topics include the conflation between values and culture, steps to building a high performance culture, and the three things all leaders need to do well.
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Three Steps To Change Culture
- Do a culture assessment first using objective external tools to understand current state and blockers.
- Build a focused change plan with top sponsorship, 80/20 priorities, leadership activation, and aligned systems to implement culture shifts.
Failed Culture Push Lacked CEO Buy-In
- Simon recalls a failed culture effort where the CEO wasn't adequately engaged and initiatives repeatedly stalled.
- The lesson was to secure CEO sponsorship and confirm realistic readiness before launching major culture programs.
Seven-Year Book Journey
- Simon spent seven years writing Build Smart and often considered quitting, repeatedly rewriting until he met his own high standards.
- He says the process changed him, requiring new mindsets of patience, resilience, and focus to finish the book.