culture diagnostics

Identifying how your culture works to support or impede performance and sustained success can be difficult, especially when, like a fish in water, you are in it. We bring a wide range of approaches to help make what is tacit knowledge more explicit. We bring the complex culture dynamics that operate to create your organization’s uniqueness to life by illustrating how they work to accelerate strategy or create culture drag. We do this through both data-driven surveys and/or high-engagement methods that range from use of photography to gathering and analyzing seminal stories that reflect the way the organization works at its best. We help you:

• Define the culture required to achieve longer-term goals
• Understand culture strengths and their potential to both support and impede adaptability
• Identify opportunities to strengthen the alignment of culture and strategy
• Understand the dynamics of your current culture and how it is affecting performance and sustainability
• Uncover priorities and levers for change
• Identify tensions and synergies in mergers and acquisitions
• Measure culture change over time

Culture patterns and their dynamics

Our research has identified 44 culture patterns that contribute to specific strategic outcomes. Culture patterns (noted in italics when named) are operating and leader practices and behaviors that influence group norms of behavior and reflect assumptions and beliefs.

Which patterns are most important for your organization? Some culture patterns are more important than others in different environments. For example, while E-bay’s culture requires strength in Idea Generation, operating within Ambiguity, Consultation, Collaboration and External Focus, a five-star hotel such as Four Seasons would focus attention on Responsiveness, Empowerment, Excellence and Building Relationships, amongst other aspects of culture.

We help organizations identify the culture patterns that will deliver their goals and strategies and uncover the way these patterns operate dynamically to support strategy implementation and/or create culture drag.  Culture patterns operate in dynamic relationship to each other, and as such, create the uniqueness of the organization. Over time these dynamics need to adapt to external change, but are often obstacles as in the example below.

Why are profits so weak? Our U.S. client, the sector leader in its industry, was concerned about profitability and lack of innovation. There was a plan to launch an innovation initiative. From a survey customized for the organization that assessed 22 culture patterns, a culture dynamic was identified which indicated that Risk Aversion was one of the predominant responses within the culture. Read more…

The Culture Snapshot™ survey

The Culture Snapshot is an on-line survey that is available 24/7. Select from 44 culture patterns and 10 dimensions of culture to create a custom survey that focuses on culture attributes most important for delivery of strategy and goals. A custom survey can be quickly developed or use our broad baseline survey that is suitable for those organizations looking for an economical survey approach.

• 40-80 items statements
• Compare perspectives and experiences by demographic groups
• Two open-ended questions are included; more can
• be added; analyzed for themes

All of our reports present culture strengths in an easy to remember scorecard formats (green, gold, red) and include not just identifying those culture patterns that are strengths but also the key dynamics between the patterns so that priority areas for attention and levers for change can be recommended. Our commitment is bring attention to the critical few areas needing attention in your culture.

• Identify your organization’s culture strengths and opportunity areas
• Describe culture dynamics and their implications
• Pinpoint 1-3 areas for priority attention

High engagement approaches

Pictures say 1000 words. They represent a moment in time but can reveal deep truths. Imagine asking participants to come to a workshop with photographs that represent 'the way things get done around here'. No people required - just images from the workplace.

Experience a survey

Try out a sample survey. The demo illustrates how quick and easy it is to respond to the survey and how we are able to examine different demographic views.