BCG: ‘To sustain change, you must adapt culture to supports new behaviors’

While attending BCG Edge, an annual event held by American consulting firm Boston Consulting Group, UNLEASH was presented with an exclusive opportunity to meet Nick South, the company’s Managing Director & Senior Partner.

Having led BCG’s People and Organization practice in the UK for over a decade, South is well adept at advising clients on organization design, operating models, leadership, culture, change management, HR and similar topics.

During the conversation, South shared his top tips on changing and managing company culture, keeping pace with change, and how to ready a workforce for AI adoption.

Keeping pace with organizational change

During his time at BCG, South has spent a vast amount of time helping companies redesign their organizations – to which he identified numerous shifts as to how businesses think about people and structure.

Reflecting, he says: “Some things remain constant – organizations regularly revisit their strategy and respond to changing customer needs or competitive pressures, often requiring them to rethink their structure.

But what’s changed significantly over the last decade is how conscious people have become about technology and data. Companies want organization around common digital and data platforms and to work in more agile ways.But what’s changed significantly over the last decade is how conscious people have become about technology and data. Companies want organization around common digital and data platforms and to work in more agile ways.

“Tech and data are transforming how businesses operate, influencing new ways of working and organizing.”

HR leaders need to not only keep pace with these changes, but they also need to be aware as to how they can effectively measure cultural transformation – beyond just the usual engagement surveys.

For South, these cultural transformations work best when they are tied to clear business goals.

“If you want to be more customer-centric, collaborative, or innovative, start by asking why the current culture doesn’t support those behaviors,” he advises.

“Then focus on what needs to change to enable those behaviors, and measure outcomes linked to business performance – such as how quickly you bring products to market or make decisions.

“The best transformations have clear goals, define the behaviors needed, and track specific, relevant metrics.”

To encourage these behavioral shifts, South makes it clear that HR leaders need to articulate what they desire very clearly.

Then, they need to work on understanding why certain behaviors are present, by asking: What signals do leaders send? What is incentivized? Who do you celebrate or promote?

“To sustain change, you must adapt the culture, so it supports the new behaviors,” South adds.

He continues that if HR wants more collaboration, they need to encourage leaders to not be defensive about their teams’ work.

Instead, they should encourage cross-team collaboration.

"Help people see change as positive by aligning it with a clear, shared goal – such as beating competitors by getting faster to market," he notes.

When everyone’s united around a goal, leaders become more committed to encouraging the behaviors that support it."When everyone’s united around a goal, leaders become more committed to encouraging the behaviors that support it."

AI’s impact on people and culture

One of the most recent influences for workplace culture is, of course, AI, as it challenges companies to rethink learning and development to keep pace with change.

AI is changing the way we work in fundamental ways – with big implications for learning and development.

To accommodate this, South believes that every employee needs to become more familiar and comfortable with AI. He explains that at BCG, employees are encouraged to experiment with it.

“You need new skills – either by hiring or training people – especially those who can use AI effectively. But it’s not just tech skills,” he highlights.

“The core educational skills such as logic, ethics and rhetoric remain crucial. Logic helps you ask the right questions and interpret results; ethics help you to avoid algorithmic bias; rhetoric is key to communicating clearly.

Alongside technical skills, people need to be agile, open, and adaptive – mindsets that are essential in a fast-moving world.”Alongside technical skills, people need to be agile, open, and adaptive – mindsets that are essential in a fast-moving world.”

Over the next few years, AI will continue to change how we work. However, alongside the positive impacts it will bring, there will also be drawbacks.

South explains that one risk is that people may have the tendency to become nervous or fearful of it.

To combat this, organizations need to help people see the positive side – that although some tasks may be automated, many roles will be augmented, enabling people to do more valuable work.

The best organizations actively build confidence and excitement around these opportunities.

This being said, HR leaders also need to strike a balance between automation and maintaining a human-centered employee experience.

To do so, they need to foster strong human connections, where people feel cared for, respected, valued, recognized, and rewarded for doing meaningful work.

“That’s fundamental and won’t go away,” South insists. “AI should augment work by removing drudgery and freeing time for more impactful activities.

"Successful organizations will blend technology and AI in ways that reinforce a strong human culture rather than undermine it.”

Concluding, South notes that HR leaders have a huge opportunity to use AI across the entire hire-to-retire employee journey and should lead the charge in exploring these possibilities. But they also have a broader role.

“HR leaders must help to shape the organization’s vision for AI, identifying future skills, leading reskilling programs, and evolving the culture to encourage employees to be enthusiastic about AI,” he summarizes.

“They must focus both on what AI can do within HR and on helping to guide the entire organization through this transformation.”