In his new book The Secret of Culture Change: How To Build Authentic Stories That Transform Your Organization, Jay Bryan Barney discusses why changing company culture is sometimes necessary but always challenging—and how the power of stories can help leaders mobilize their employees around a new strategy.

Jay Barney, a professor of strategic management and the Pierre Lassonde Chair of Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, is one of the world’s leading strategists and the father of so-called resource-based competition.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Barney explores the connections between the realms of strategy and culture—discussing the power of stories to change culture and support a new strategy, and identifying the key characteristics of great stories and story-making, such as being authentic and putting the leader at the heart of the narrative.

Key topics discussed: 

[01:10] How do you define culture and why do we sometimes need to change it?
[03:31] What are some examples of successful culture change?
[08:01] What are the key characteristics of culture-changing stories?
[16:33] How do leaders navigate social/political “culture wars” in their own culture?
[22:20] Are stories and culture change something that can be shaped or are they emergent?
[25:40] How do stories and culture change apply to a business school setting?

Additional inspirations from Jay Barney:

• What I Didn’t Learn in Business School: Making Strategy Work in the Real World (Harvard Business Review Press, 2010)
• Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage (Pearson, 2010)