Connie Curran wrote ‘Culture eats strategy for lunch every time.” Culture is a powerful component of an organization’s success, laying the foundation for productivity and progress. While it can accelerate getting to the next level of performance, it can just as easily act as a drag. Engaging groups in exploring corporate culture and taking targeted actions to change culture to better align it for future success can result in:
Higher productivity by eliminating culture drag that impedes group performance
Development of hard-to-imitate practices and behaviors that create competitive advantage
Delivery of the brand promise for increased client loyalty
On-time projects and improved change planning when the way things really get done is better understood and responded to
A high engagement work environment that attracts, motivates and retains top talent
It’s a choice—culture change by design or by default?
The Culture Snapshot reveals the alignment, strength and cohesiveness of culture patterns (organizational and leader practices, group norms of behavior and beliefs) that strongly influence the success of an organization’s future direction. It is a broad scan across aspects of organizational culture that helps organizations appreciate cultural strengths and the way these operate to both support and sometimes impede new strategies and plans. It also:
Makes explicit the interplay of practices, behaviors and beliefs that are creating competitive advantage or causing culture drag
Narrows focus to culture opportunity areas and levers for getting to the next level of performance
Removes rose colored glasses and blind spots that may be delay development of new capacities
Establishes a culture baseline against which to assess progress over time and to compare the culture synergies and tensions with potential acquisitions
It starts with a web-enabled survey that results in the creation of images of organizational culture, much like a camera snapshot captures a group photo. The Culture Snapshot displays the data for specific culture patterns but importantly our culture experts identify the culture dynamics at play. This results in meaningful reports that can lead to a high-impact culture roadmap.
Rapidly activated, confidential survey available 24/7
40-80 item statements plus open-ended questions takes about 15 minutes to complete
Fast and easy set-up with quick turnaround of results
A culture pattern scorecard that indicates culture strengths and areas for attention (red, yellow, green indicators)
Objective analysis by culture experts with strong business backgrounds
Frequently a small set of focus groups also build a picture of the dynamics between aspects of culture and the enablers and inhibitors influencing behaviors and mindsets.
Objective analysis by culture experts with strong business backgrounds
Use the Culture Snapshot as part of:
Organizational Culture Alignment Build appreciation of culture strengths and identify areas requiring collective action. Lay out a pathway for culture development
Development Provide groups that want to improve their performance with a baseline of where they are now, a means to identify priorities for improvement and a tool to track progress
Leadership Development Build understanding of the role of leaders in systemic culture change. Engage them with data from their own groups
Mergers & Acquisition Compare differences in key areas of culture that can create synergies and/or tensions
Change Initiatives Create more effective change management plans by probing the current culture and how specific assumptions, beliefs and behaviors will support, impede or stall implementation
Capacity building Establish the culture baseline and measure culture development over time in critical areas such as adaptability, innovation, collaborative practices, systems thinking and so on
New insights for action
Encourage appreciation of culture strengths and how they operate build group spirit and pride
Use objective culture assessment for deep insights remove blind spots; target whats needed to get to the next level of performance
Understand sub-culture and post-merger integration issues determine what needs attention in the short and longer term
Build leader cohesion around prioritiescreate shared intent to create a culture by design, not by default
Provide a means to measure how leaders are building capacity for the future measure development of adaptability, innovation, execution excellence and more
A Culture Snapshot provides the baseline data for monitoring change over time. It can be rapidly adapted to create a shorter survey such as a Culture Pulse for monitoring progress over time.
We gained valuable insight into the strengths and weaknesses of our departmental culture. The workshop provided a venue for open discussion and appreciation of team member perceptions and feelings as well as resulted in a workable action plan for self and departmental improvement.
Katherine Hewitt, Program Director, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance
