“It is the
emotional nature of culture that renders it capable of becoming your worst
nightmare or your most sustainable competitive advantage” - Coffman & Sorensen
It is being increasingly acknowledged that
culture is the foundation for all that happens in, and issues from, strong,
constructive, fully human, and psychologically strong organisations. It is the
culture or character of an organisation that enables its coping, resilience, learning
prowess, energy, successes, results and sustainability. It is the culture of an
organisation that provides an authentic sense of purpose, meaning and belonging
to its members; that attracts employees, customers and stakeholders; that
upholds its values, behaviours and reputation.
The HR Research Institute (HR.com) researched
over 500 respondents from all sectors (mainly USA-based) and have released
their 2018/ 2019 report. There are 5 major findings and 11 important
takeaways. Here they are, together with
our comments on how
shows a way forward for go-ahead organisations.
The Culturescan process enables and leverages an organisations latent ability
to address and enhance its philosophy, principles, true values, underlying
assumptions, competence, behaviour norms, processes and practices across a wide
range of topics:
TAKE-AWAYS
(Keys to nurturing a performance-based
culture)
Organizations are being thrust into the
cauldron of radical resource and societal threats, accelerating technology
change, shifting consumer demands, increasing activism in many areas, emerging
new competency requirements, ever-changing governance and compliance issues, a
bigger array of opportunity areas than have existed previously …
The 11 takeaways from the HR Research
Institute report make even more sense in this context
Make
culture a strategic priority
CultureScan allows you to move beyond strategy by equipping
you with a process that drives execution and allows for prioritisation and
appropriate focus on specific cultural elements in “real time”
Do not assume “one culture” throughout
the organization
CultureScan offers
analyses, interpretations and alternative narratives across a wide range of breakdowns
– division, department, gender, ethnicity, generation, length of experience
with organisation, level …. Whatever is deemed appropriate by the
user-organisation
Measure and assess culture more often
The Culturescan
process is quick and easy - from set-up, analyses, reporting ….
Within the HR function, consider
creating a team that uses data and analytics to learn about the culture and
subcultures of the organization
Culturescan is a good
way to start. Adding (unnecessarily?) sophisticated analytics is a route that
needs careful consideration within every organization, and is not always a
panacea
Define, describe and communicate the
key aspects of your culture
CultureScan
facilitates this exercise for both existing and desired-future culture, and
related aspects such as purpose, values
Consider creating a learning
environment that makes “diversity of thought” a reality.
(Asking
an unwise question or conveying an unconventional idea can be frowned on, or,
worse yet, cost an individual a promotion or leadership opportunity.
Diversity
of thought is about breaking down any potential barriers in your culture so
every employee feels valued for their differences. It is all about respect for
the individual and their opinions, which, over time, fosters an environment of
trust. Moreover, diversity of thought affords employees opportunities to learn
from each other and brings about higher levels or productivity (and innovation)
as people become more engaged with one another and the organization at large).
Psychological safety, harnessing diversity, respect, trust,
non-violent communication, bonding and engagement are all hallmarks of the
CultureScan: conversations that count process
Provide appropriate training to
managers, and make employees more comfortable talking about cultural
differences.
Subtle ‘training’
takes place during the CultureScan process rendering the need for additional
training doubtful in general. However, the process does cause specific,
appropriate coaching and mentoring needs to emerge under certain circumstances.
Conversations, immersion material, anecdote circle events that form part of topics
like Diversity, Masks, Psychic Prisons facilitate the addressing of overt and
unconscious biases.
Expect challenges and have a game
plan.
This is built into the
process, which allows deliberation on and auctioning of challenges and
opportunities as they emerge.
Adopt/refine a recognition and rewards
program to reinforce values and behaviors
We caution against the
natural tendency to always control, over-measure, assess, appraise, punish and
reward in order to get desired outcomes. Oftentimes this is what stifles
employee ownership, commitment and enthusiastic engagement. Each organization
merits a fit-for-purpose approach.
Make culture part of the hiring
process
Again, job descriptions, use of psychometric evaluations, screening
and appointment/ selection criteria (and their application in a context where
unconscious biases may be present) are organization-specific in our view.
Innovative and alternative hiring, on-boarding and ‘assimilation’ processes
deserve consideration. But certainly, cultural attributes, belief and value
systems, motives are as important as experience, skills and knowledge.
Consider
interest groups that reinforce culture and keep diversity top of mind
(Corporate
culture is more successful when everyone in the organization has a chance to
contribute. Culture prioritizations are also important (for example social
purpose, diversity, project-based organization, coaching, learning … )
That’s CultureScan!
Expertise Available On Demand From Culturescan
as
Organisations Push Through and Execute the
Strategies,
Plans and Decisions that Flow Out of the
CultureScan
Process
During
the execution phase, after the survey, anecdote circle and immersion work is
completed and momentum developed, clients sometimes require our help in these areas:
Governance breaking the
shackles of compliance - governance to develop mastery in areas such as
opportunity – governance
bridging governance gaps between
Boards/ Leadership/ Management/ Employees/ Other Stakeholders
Operations
Training, formulating
meaningful, shared purpose and values
Project
Activities frameworks that facilitate the development of
virtues and mature ethics, and result in reputational benefit
ensuring psychologically safe
workplaces
developing mind-sets and plans for
tackling carbon – footprint reduction, community engagement, encouraging
gentle, reputation-building activism
adopting story, imagery, symbol,
metaphor in applications throughout the organisation, including branding, data
deployment competence, team-building, sense-making, change and transition …
setting up knowledge capture,
storage, access and wise application
enhancing problem-solving,
decision-making, sense-making and preparation skills and practices to accompany
agile operations
developing practices to successfully
incorporate strategy execution, communal leadership into the daily life of the
organisation
Innovation preparing for
the 4th Industrial Revolution
conducting scenario - formation as
contexts for future-fit and focused innovation
advancing customer service through
superior processes, technologies, people development, measures (organisations
and contact centres)
Coaching
& Individual whole person
coaching frameworks (physical well- Development being,
cognitive, mindfulness, emotional, social and
fully-human learning and
improvement)
overcoming unconscious biases,
expanding belief bubbles, non-dualistic thinking, forging valuable connection
inside and outside the organisation
motivational fingerprinting
(personal sense of purpose)
improving and managing personal
resilience to change, stress and trauma
retreating to do reflective inner
work, work on personal integration and balancing (leaders and others)
coaching performance in task,
relating, agility
Communication developing deep listening skills for
customer-facing employees and within the organisation
establishing
a culture of nonviolent yet assertive communication, including
social-contracting and conflict prevention and resolution skills
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