Last week we looked at different types of organisational cultures that could exist and how your organisation compares to these common cultures. Was it clear where you sat in matrix or were you spread out over several of them?
We also suggested conducting a basic cultural survey to confirm your current organisational e.g. is it in line with your desired organisational culture or not.
Assuming that you now have some feedback about how your current culture is perceived by your employees you can now consider if you need to make changes or conduct a further review.
If you need to re-align your organisational culture here are some things to consider as a leadership team.
- What type of culture do you need to have to achieve your organsiational purpose, mission and vision (i.e. innovate, collaborate, keep people safe, promote excellence keeping in mind that excellence isn’t about being perfect to name a few…)
- What are the common behavioural styles that must be shared by managers and employees
- Define the same basic approaches to solving problems, meeting goals and dealing with stakeholders
- Define the way you will govern rewards and punishment
The essential part is getting the entire leadership team on board and then testing or even involving employees to be part of defining what the culture will be. Collaboration through this process is one way to get buy-in and ownership before implementation.
During this process it is also an important step to consider how you will implement and measure the performance of your culture. The below pyramid provides and outline of what makes up the organisational culture of a business, being:
- Clearly define and articulate the shared beliefs, values and assumptions.
- Ensure that you embed into organisational practices, for example how (what is the process) for the way in which you manage rewards and discipline staff for good and bad behaviour)
- The agreed behaviours are being demonstrated by employees, because they have been motivated and trained to do so
Customers experience the lived culture in the quality of work that has been delivered - Back to the top of the pyramid and most importantly the leaders are showing the way encouraging the right beliefs, values and assumptions.
