Culture is key to organizational success, influencing performance, employee interactions, and the ways people work. It is a promise to both your team and your customers that defines what sets you apart from similar companies and gives you a tangible advantage over the competition.
According to the Arbringer Institute, nearly half (46%) of all leaders and key decision-makers report critical growth improvements—in areas such as productivity, retention, and engagement—when they improve organizational culture. Additionally, 90% of executives surveyed by the global leadership development firm agree that the importance of culture is increasing in today’s marketplace.
Cultural mistakes
In 2021, PwC conducted a global culture survey in which 72% of the 3,200 leaders and employees they engaged with were confident in their claim that a good company culture allows for successful change initiatives to happen. While that is undoubtedly true, the methods that organizations go about improving their culture can be detrimental to the desired outcomes.
Too often, leaders discuss culture in a general sense, using terms like “open,” “green,” and “dynamic.” The problem is that without measurable metrics to back up these claims, these concepts are entirely subjective. If you don’t track the parameters needed to demonstrate innovative behaviors in tangible, measurable values, for example, how can a company prove it’s innovative? Similarly, if it has no specific goals to pursue, how can it drive sustainability-driven improvements?
Culture is not the same as interaction.
The tendency to confuse employee engagement with culture only reinforces the issue, with the abstract, personal, and often biased thoughts, feelings, and motivations of employees being used to shape the future of an organization. While these elements have an undeniable impact on the individual experience, with improvements potentially serving to increase satisfaction and thus bottom-up performance being very incremental, they do not directly and unambiguously improve the overall performance of a company.
Culture is more about what people do—a set of common processes and practices—than it is about how they feel, and in turn, it is these everyday activities that influence how they view and feel about their jobs. In other words, culture is not interaction itself, but rather a precursor to it.
To get from A to B, you need a step-by-step plan.
Leaders looking to strengthen and grow their company culture should start by assessing their current position in measurable terms. It’s all about determining where the company is now and the type of culture needed to achieve future organizational goals.
Every company has a unique idea of how things should look. For example, an organization might want to grow its database nationally or increase employee retention. Whatever the goal, without a clear picture of the current state, cultural improvement plans become somewhat wishful thinking.
In order to truly improve, leaders need to identify their starting point and keep the target culture they have defined in mind. This can be achieved through a comprehensive cultural audit, identifying any opportunities and/or barriers that are separating them from their destination. They can then create a step-by-step plan for the journey from A to B, whether that means implementing a few minor adjustments or taking the company through a major refresh.
Therefore, all changes should be tracked continuously to assess progress. For example, if your company is looking to build a culture of teamwork and collaboration, it needs mechanisms to measure mutual efforts. Similarly, if it is looking to foster diversity and inclusion, it should set goals for diverse hiring and promotions before tracking progress toward a more inclusive workforce. Similarly, if a culture of learning and development designed to further organizational advancement is the goal, employers will want to monitor employee engagement in the training programs they offer.
Team presence
According to a 2018 study by Gallup, about 20 percent of employees feel completely disconnected from their company culture, which is why tangible steps are needed to create that connection. In fact, according to Google re:Work, teams with a strong sense of shared purpose and values benefit from a 17 percent increase in performance; so measurable connection is a must.
A culture that inspires interaction.
When a company’s culture is defined by measurable values such as transparency, collaboration, and employee development, it naturally creates an environment where employees feel heard and valued. As a result, engagement becomes an outcome rather than a forced initiative that they feel disconnected from. Regular feedback mechanisms and clear communication create a tangible sense of inclusion, for example, leading employees to be more engaged in their work. Similarly, focusing on career opportunities tied to clear performance metrics can motivate employees and increase their commitment to the organization.
Charlie Coad, founder of Culture15
Launched in 2015, Culture15 is an innovative SaaS business that provides organizations with a precise platform for measuring and managing culture, and has since helped over 50 people.
Organizations in 65 countries are putting culture at the heart of business performance through the power of technology and data.
Inspired by decades of real-world culture change experience, Culture15 provides users with detailed, actionable insights that directly relate to business challenges and illuminate the path from current reality to desired culture. Empowering business leaders to recognize that culture—described as behavior—determines business performance. Culture15 enables users to effectively recognize their culture, define their desired culture, and then close the cultural gap through clear strategy and direction.
Already used by leading brands such as BMJ, British Army, Concurrent Technologies, London Energy, Virgin Pulse, M&G, VW, Places Leisure and Quilter, Culture15 is quickly becoming the go-to tool for cultural measurement.
Source: https://hrnews.co.uk/
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