How culture can build the resilience to conquer change

From energy to education, organisations are shaking up working and operational cultures to address changing global landscapes writes David Craik.

If organisations are to survive the enormous and rapid changes sweeping across the global business landscape, they must adapt to stay ahead of the game. So, what are the implications for talent, skills and recruitment?

In separate articles, we explore the specific challenges facing three distinct sectors: education, mining and energy.

They may seem strange bedfellows, but each of the three sectors, and we could have selected many others, has one thing in common. They face new and unforeseen cultural challenges that demand a different kind of approach.

Each sector has to contend with shifts in the way they consider all aspects of their activity.

Everything from dealing with technological change to the type of employee or manager they need, from diversity issues to fundamental structural matters, to changing the way they are funded or financed.

New cultural norms

What ties them together is that in their own way they must radically overhaul their recruitment processes and create new cultural norms hitherto unseen.

For example, MEC is an Australian-based, globally active mining consultancy, specialising in mine planning, feasibility studies, geology and onsite professional services solutions for the mining industry.

Resilient response

This recent comment from Maria Joyce, MEC Mining’s General Manager Strategy and Business Development sums up the changing cultural world in mining.

Yet her perceptive comments can be readily applied to numerous other sectors.

As Joyce told australianmining.com.au: “Our industry is rapidly changing; its highly cyclical nature makes it tough to attract and retain talent. In my experience, mining companies with a strong culture are not only more collaborative and innovative, but their teams are also more resilient when confronted with change. They respond faster than their competitors, capitalising on good market conditions. Sometimes even becoming disruptors themselves.”

Whichever way you look at it, cultural change affects all of us.

Click through to read more about the specific business and cultural challenges facing the mining, energy and education sectors.

This article is from the ‘Culture’ edition of the Odgers Berndtson global magazine, OBSERVE.

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