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What Would Your Culture Map Reveal?

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Sponsored by The Culture Platform

What makes maps so special is they tell you exactly where to find places you want to visit.

Wouldn’t it be incredible if every organization had a culture map? Wouldn’t it be even better if that culture map worked like Google or Apple Maps? Anyone could easily search to find organizations whose cultural values are clearly marked on the map, and get directions to those companies. What a useful tool that would be.

The “Why, What, and How” of Culture

I think enough has been said about the “why” of culture and its role in organizational success. Anyone who has managed people or led a business knows a healthy culture is paramount to attract the best employees. And the best cultures consistently outperform and out-execute the competition.

We also know “what” culture is. It’s a set of stated values, beliefs, attitudes, rules, and behaviors expected where you work. For example, when I worked for Cisco CEO John Chambers, one of his stated cultural values was: “Treat people the way you would like to be treated, yourself.” Another was, “Deal with the world the way it is, not the way you wish it was.”

Now, as we enter the post-everything era, it’s time to focus on the “how” of culture. Companies have no other choice. “Post-everything” signaled a fundamental change in expectations. GenZ and Millennials are ready to leave one job for another faster than any generation in history.

If your company wants to attract and keep the best employees, you need a way to prove that you “walk the talk” of your stated values. But all too many miss the mark. The top reason organizational cultures don’t live up to their stated values is a lack of leadership commitment to those values.

Any organization that wants to be a magnet for talent must prove that it can live up to its aspirations. As we used to say at Cisco, “We’re in Missouri now — the ‘Show Me’ state.”

How a Culture Map Can Show The Way

For employers, a culture map is a way to show employees what the organization actually stands for. Mapping organizational culture is a new idea. It will require the same GPS features as digital maps on our phones:

  • Pin Drops: Destinations on the map need to be accurate.
  • Step-by-Step Navigation: Destinations must be accompanied by directions that explain how to get there.
  • Re-Routing: The map should reveal better ways to get to the desired destination — how to “walk the talk.”

I started The Culture Platform because I wanted to surround myself with thought leaders who have “GPS” models to measure cultural values. Because my professional background is in research, my bar is high. I’m willing to work with a model only if it is either research-based or battle-tested in the market. In other words, the models must predictably measure a specific cultural value.

I think it is a mistake to “boil the ocean” by relying on a single culture indicator. Every organization is different and unique — and every organization doesn’t need to share the same values.

The ability to measure a specific aspect of culture with a data model is what makes culture-specific “pin drops” on a map possible. In my search, I found five models that meet my criteria. Each solves a specific element of the “how” for culture-building. Those dimensions can be either curiosity, self-awareness, a sense of belonging, transparency, or empowerment.

For example, consider these five culture scenarios:

  • Many companies say innovation is a strategy — but does their culture promote curiosity, the necessary belief that it’s okay to challenge the status quo without fear of retribution?
  • Many companies say listening to their employees is a key value — but are their leaders and managers self-aware of their behaviors?
  • Many companies say a diverse workforce is their people strategy — but does their culture fundamentally embrace a sense of belonging?
  • Many companies emphasize autonomy and decentralization — but do they truly empower every employee?

These five models do more than provide the pin drop. Each has a set of step-by-step directions that represents the most effective route to the “pin.” For example, a culture of curiosity has four main “turns” to reach the pin. It should:

  1. Encourage exploration
  2. Inspire creativity
  3. Emphasize openness to new ideas and
  4. Drive engagement and focus from the top

Culture Meets GPS

The “how” of culture has always been the hardest part. It can’t be done without leaders leading the way. That’s why I was so lucky to be a direct report of John Chambers who helped him build Cisco’s culture. We had the luxury of time, though. Today, organizations need to move faster. And the way to accomplish that is with a map that includes clear “directions” to reach specific outcomes.

I remember when we Boomers printed out step-by-step directions in MapQuest (and tried to read them while driving). A culture map transports us all to the “GPS” era. Now, we can finally get to desired cultural destinations safer, faster, and with confidence.

If you want to give culture mapping a try and see how your culture stacks up, we welcome you at The Culture Platform. To get started, just email me at:  TheCulturePlatform@gmail.com.

Why Is Great Leadership Like a Fine Watch?

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A fine mechanical watch is exquisite in its own right. But if you look closer, you’ll see more than just a special timepiece. It is also useful as a framework for leaders who want to improve the quality of their organization’s performance. What does that leadership framework look like? Here’s my perspective…

I’m continually amazed at how unrelated things in life tend to line up with almost perfect timing. Nearly a year ago, I decided I wanted to own a “real watch,” so I began researching popular brands. Around the same time, I was recruited to run Birkman International. Birkman is a 72-year-old company that provides businesses with a roadmap that helps teams work better together and drive operational performance.

These two unrelated events have allowed me to witness the elegance and intricacies that both watches and companies need to run well.

What Do Watches Teach Us About Great Leadership?

Imagine opening the case back of a mechanical watch. Inside you’ll find what seems like a highly complicated collection of gears and wheels. Most of us only open our watch when there’s a problem with its function. The same holds true for businesses — we never seem to look inside until we detect an issue.

In a properly functioning company, each individual, department, and team knows its role. They work at the right pace to accomplish their respective tasks. It is all about coming together at the right time to achieve success. Just like clockwork.

Look Inside

When you open the back of the case and look carefully, you’ll see that it is powered by a mainspring. Without it, the entire mechanism won’t work. The same is true with any company.

The mainspring of the business is the CEO who provides the power needed to drive the business forward. As the mainspring, a CEO is responsible for keeping the organization under a kind of tension that creates motivation, movement, and results over time. However, to ensure consistently high performance, this tension must be released in a regulated way.

This is where the Chief Operating Officer (COO) steps in to serve a critical function. The COO is an organization’s balance wheel. This leader is responsible for distributing the power generated by the CEO, releasing it to the rest of the organization at a steady, reliable pace, like the hands of a watch.

However, unexpected things happen sometimes. For example, what if you accidentally drop your watch? The balance wheel absorbs the shock and ensures that the movement keeps spinning at the right rate. Similarly, unexpected things will happen at work. Regardless, the COO ensures that daily business operations continue to run smoothly and reliably.

A Fine Watch at Work

Once a watch’s power is being created and released at the correct pace, it’s up to the gears and wheels to do their job. But first, these components must be positioned in all the right places. Likewise, employees must be placed in the right position before they can move your organization forward effectively.

For any watch (or any company) to perform well, the real trick is to make sure every “right wheel” works with all the other “right wheels.” This is when the elegance of a great organization reveals itself. It is also when underperforming teams require careful attention. Leaders may need to open the “case back” of their organization and diagnose issues by investigating two questions:

  1. What is stopping us from achieving the desired results?
  2. How do we get things running the way they should?

The good news is that, often, new parts aren’t required to fix a broken watch. The same is true in business. Throughout more than 30 years as an executive, I’ve found that organizational problems aren’t rooted in individual employees, but in the friction between all the moving parts. This is why great leadership can make a significant difference.

Making Everything Run Like Clockwork

If you take a watch apart, clean the pieces, reassemble it, and oil it, you end up with a wrist piece that runs properly. Likewise, if we take sufficient time and care to work with our people, we’re likely to find an effective solution to any problem.

In business, “oil” is the understanding of ourselves and others’ needs. This helps us communicate well with people so they can overcome the friction that arises from misunderstanding and mistrust. This gives us the ability to move forward in unison.

To maximize business results, leaders must take time to break down what their organizations are doing at their core. When we define our company’s purpose, bring it into focus with laser-sharp clarity, and provide a psychologically safe environment for team members to communicate, we build a foundation for truly remarkable results.

When we add oil to watch components, the mechanisms come to life. The same holds true for businesses. The latest technologies may increase efficiency, but they cannot reduce human friction within a team. Similarly, a modern smartwatch may be a reliable way to keep track of time, but it does not compare to the craftsmanship of a fine watch.

Effective Leadership Endures

The tagline of luxury watchmaker Patek Phillipe is, “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.” In other words, if you properly care for one of their watches, it will last hundreds of years.

This aligns with my approach to leadership. I believe executives are merely caretakers for their successors. As the leader of a business now entering its third generation, I take heart in knowing that if we do the work to improve ourselves and better our organization, our impact on the world will be an enduring legacy.

I hope leaders everywhere share the same vision. The future of business depends on it — as does the future of work.

People-First DEI is High-Impact DEI. What’s the Secret?

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is by definition a people-centered business endeavor. So at first glance, the phrase “people-first DEI” may seem redundant. But that’s not always the case. Numerous factors shape DEI initiatives. But not all of these factors are beneficial. In fact, some even derail DEI progress. Why is this happening?

In recent years, many organizations have invested heavily in DEI endeavors, primarily in response to growing societal pressure, evolving customer expectations, and increasing competition for qualified talent. However, research reveals mixed results.

For instance, according to Deloitte, 86% of business leaders think embedding DEI into their work culture is very important. Yet only 25% say their organization is ready to move the needle. And only 30% link inclusion with business outcomes like productivity or profitability.

In this environment, it’s easy to find employers that are struggling to succeed at DEI. Plenty of programs land flat or wind up amplifying the issues they’re trying to solve. So, how can employers fix this?

Where DEI Goes Wrong

Inclusion challenges clearly are people-driven issues. But often (and ironically) organizations view DEI through a technical or data-focused lens. For example:

  • Many organizations see DEI as a layer of additional commitments and activities, rather than a comprehensive transformation that starts with embedding people and culture into business strategy and objectives. As long as a specific “target” percentage of employees are from underrepresented populations, leaders see DEI as a success.
  • Well-meaning executives invite inspirational DEI speakers to deliver presentations once a year at company meetings. They believe these stories will make a lasting impact on employees. Then they’re surprised when it doesn’t happen.
  • Similarly, some organizations hire a specialist to spearhead their DEI efforts. But if that position is a title in name only, and lacks appropriate responsibility, authority, and budget, nothing changes.

Although choices like this can contribute to stronger DEI outcomes, they won’t make a difference without employee buy-in. That’s where people-first strategies make all the difference.

Marissa Andrada, a self-described culture master and kindness catalyst, counsels companies on DEI. As a chief people leader and board director, she’s found that integrating people-centered DEI strategies with business strategy unlocks opportunities for growth in individual performance, corporate performance, and beyond.

Andrada says, “Diversity is rooted in the practice of inspiring people to feel confident in bringing exactly who they are to the table, which is unique for every individual. Overlooking the potential and value of individual talents defeats the purpose of building a company culture with diversity at its core.”

She adds that leaders who develop emotional connections with staff are better able to hear their voices and “grow the company through growing people.”

Of course, the road to embedding deeper people connections into your DEI program requires deliberate, thoughtful action. Try the following steps to make sure your efforts are designed and delivered with true human needs in mind…

3 Keys to People-First DEI

1. Close Gaps in Career Opportunities and Pay Practices

Many companies still struggle with pay gaps among people from different gender and race populations. In fact, Pew Research over the past two decades reveals that women still don’t earn equal pay for equal work. And SHRM says race-based salary inequities are just as disappointing.

It’s very difficult for employees to believe your company cares about DEI if you ignore existing pay gaps. Staff members won’t get behind internal DEI efforts if they’re being discriminated against in their paychecks. On the other hand, if you identify and close discriminatory pay gaps, you’ll open the door to DEI program acceptance and momentum.

Don’t forget that opportunity gaps and pay gaps are closely related. Equal pay is not enough. Your job is to also remove barriers to advancement and professional development across the board. By leveling the financial and opportunity playing field, you’ll speak volumes about DEI. Plus, you’ll get more people excited about diversity and inclusion as a broader work culture concept.

2. Ask Employees to Share Meaningful Changes They Want

Rather than play a guesswork game with DEI, go right to the source. Survey employees to determine what matters most to them. Where do they see openings for DEI to help make your workplace more inclusive? What do they want the DEI team to do for them and their colleagues? I guarantee the answers will be both eye-opening and informative.

For example, you may discover that employees want your organization to invest in employee resource groups (ERGs). Company-supported ERGs give people common ground and a chance to feel more “at home” on the job. Healthy ERGs are naturally inclusive and open to all members, including those who want to be better allies.

Another DEI program your people might appreciate is formal mentoring. Many up-and-coming workers from underrepresented groups feel isolated. They may want to climb the corporate ladder but have few (or no) internal role models to follow. Mentorships can be a way for them to grow within a supportive system. They can also attract talent from diverse candidate sources. That’s yet another reason to get staff members involved in developing your DEI strategies.

3. Keep Updating Your DEI Vision, Mission, and Approach

DEI doesn’t work as a standalone “set it and forget it” campaign. It’s not an automatic process. It’s a moving target that requires fine-tuning every step of the way. As your culture changes and becomes more inclusive and diverse, your people’s needs will change, too.

If you’re a leader, this means you’ll also want to take a flexible stance toward DEI. For instance, instead of building a formal, structured 12-month, 3- or 5-year DEI plan, consider taking a page from the agile playbook.

On a quarterly or semi-annual basis, evaluate what’s happening across your company related to DEI. Are things working well, or are tweaks in order? What’s missing? What’s no longer needed?

It’s best to assign a committee of employees to own this responsibility. Just be certain you empower them to conduct regular reviews and recommend appropriate adjustments.

By constantly refining and retooling your DEI efforts, your organization will stay ahead of the curve on DEI, in general. The field has experienced significant transformation — particularly since 2020 — with increased social injustice awareness. If your DEI is stuck in a pre-Covid era, you’re probably not connecting with your current employees’ needs and expectations. A refresh can resolve this issue and help you get back on track.

Final Thoughts on People-First DEI

When handled well, a commitment to DEI can be a huge asset for any company. It builds a sense of camaraderie that improves a brand’s reputation and appeal, while enhancing a company’s value in the marketplace.

But lasting change doesn’t happen unless employers design, implement, and manage DEI efforts around what truly matters to their people, rather than trying to force everyone into a one-size-fits-all mold. For successful results, start by connecting with your people, reassessing your culture, and moving forward from there.

#WorkTrends: Culture Wins

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Two out of three Americans hate their jobs.

That’s a crazy statistic, and it’s one we all want to be on the opposite end of. We want to love going to work — and we want everyone else on our team to love work, too.

This week on #WorkTrends, we’re talking to William Vanderbloemen, author of the new book “Culture Wins: The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace.” He’s helping us think through why culture matters so much and how we can all build better ones.

You can listen to the full episode below, or keep reading for this week’s topic. Share your thoughts with us using the hashtag #WorkTrends.

Work Is Family

I thought I could get through 5 minutes of an interview without bringing up the “M” word, but nope — we jumped into a conversation about millennials right away. Vanderbloemen points to the number of workers, by generation, who are available to work. There are a lot of baby boomers and millennials, and much fewer Gen Xers. As the Boomers start to retire, millennials are going to absolutely dominate the workforce. So their preferences about work are only going to become more important in the next 10 years, he says.

“Smart companies are starting to say, ‘What are the things we can learn about this generation? How can we build a workplace that matches them so we can retain them?’”

One thing that’s unique about millennials: They prioritize financial security, but are marrying and having children much later in life. So, Vanderbloemen says, “that means the people they work with are their family. And if they don’t like the people they work with or the place they work, they’re going to go find another family to hang out with.”

Millennials aren’t looking to stay at one organization for 20 years, but finding ways to retain millennial employees for just two years longer than your competition can lead to huge advantages for employers, he says.

Values Trump Fun

We’ve talked before on #WorkTrends about fun at work. So I asked Vanderbloemen: Does fun at work matter? His simple answer: Nope. “If I could rewrite my book, I’d have one more chapter titled ‘Culture Does Not Equal Fun.’ Work is work, and work is where you show up to get things done. A lot of people mistake a winning culture for a place that’s fun.”

When his company won a Best Place to Work award from Entrepreneur a few years back, he was surprised that they took home the top prize even though they had a simple office without bells and whistles like free food or foosball tables. Instead, his team focused on their values.

“We laid out nine clear values of how we function together,” he says. “We’ve hired around it. We’ve reviewed people around it. We compensate around it. We fired people because of it. And it’s created a sense of family. Now, is it fun when you all function the same way? Absolutely, but if fun is the target you’re going to be chasing windmills. Fun is a byproduct of a healthy culture, but it’s not the target.”

Vanderbloemen reverse-engineered his company’s culture to define his team’s core values — or what he calls “defining our kind of crazy.” One of those values is “ridiculous responsiveness.” He realized early on, when he was running his business from a card table, that clients were amazed by how quickly he got back to them. He realized that responsiveness set him apart from the competition, so he made sure to hire only people who were “almost maniacal about getting back to people right away.”

Defining your culture, he says, is all about asking this question: “When we’re at our best, what do we do that’s common to us but uncommon to other teams around us?”

Build a Business Case for Culture

Vanderbloemen has seen the impact culture can have on a team — and on the bottom line. When he was writing his book, he researched more than 100 companies with award-winning cultures. One thing they all had in common: they invest cold, hard dollars in culture every year.

So, how can HR pros make a business case for investing in culture? Vanderbloemen says HR teams have to shift the conversation away from spending and instead focus on how investing in culture will save the organization money and create fewer people problems.

“There’s nothing more expensive to a business than people problems,” he says. He points to one tech company that has two very similar competitors, but they’re much more profitable than those competitors. What sets them apart? They invest 5% of their revenue on culture.

“In the tech industry, turnover is rampant,” he says. This particular tech sector’s churn rate is about 38%. Once the company started spending money on culture, their churn rate dropped to 2%. “So, every year, four people leave instead of 76. That’s 72 vacancies they don’t have to deal with every year. By spending a million dollars on culture, they’ve retained people. They have momentum in their business, less turnover cost, less hiring cost and greater profitability.”

“That’s why we called this book ‘Culture Wins,’” he says. “It’s a way to win in the coming years.”

Continue the conversation. Join us on Twitter (#WorkTrends) for our weekly chat on Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern, 10:30 a.m. Pacific or anywhere in the world you are joining from to discuss this topic and more.

Beware the Feel Good Work Culture

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How critical is work culture to recruitment and employee retention? It’s important, I’ll give you that. But a feel good work culture might do more harm than good. As the economy continues to grow, hiring managers and HR personnel realize how fiercely they must compete for top talent. As I recently wrote, if you’re looking to snag the best prospects, employee perks alone just won’t cut it.

Today’s modern employee is looking for much more than great benefits and a healthy 401K plan. Those recruiting for tech industries especially know that companies such as Google and Facebook have raised the bar when it comes to work culture and the lure of a fun, modern office space.

And yes, I regularly encourage businesses to think creatively, encourage a human-centered workplace, and build a collaborative and relationship-driven work culture. But there is a catch—a trap, if you will—to all these good feelings. Focusing too much on creating a happy workplace may mean you create one that’s less productive. Let’s take a look.

The Bottom Line Impact of an Engaged Workplace

It is easy to drift into Kumbaya-land when discussing how to build an engaged work culture. There is much talk of employee self-actualization and this new, seamless “work-life” way of living that impacts an individual from sunup to sundown.

But the real reason there is so much focus on employee engagement is because the numbers back up the fact that engaged employees are far more productive. Business leaders are beginning to understand that the bottom line is directly and greatly impacted by their work culture.

At the end of last year, CareerBliss released their 5th annual CareerBliss 50 Happiest Companies in America, and it is not surprising that it is populated with industry leaders. As CEO and Chief Happiness Officer Heidi Golledge says, “It is important to see how workplaces are constantly evolving and changing. Creating happiness at work is a very fluid process, building and adapting to a changing workforce, while accounting for the key factors that create happier environments.”

Too Much Focus on Feeling Good Affects Productivity

Employee happiness matters to business success, period. But let’s take a look at the flip side of the coin. As I mentioned, studies repeatedly show that positive work environments equal higher productivity, but I caution against going too far in the “feel good” direction. There is a big difference between creating a happy work culture and creating an environment where productivity comes second to individual happiness. Building a culture of engaged employees does not mean you create a stress-free zone where accountability and productivity take a back seat to personal needs and wants. In order to create an engaged, but successful workplace, a good portion of the “happy” culture must be connected to performance.

What good is a happy workplace if profitability is at risk? A happy employee is also an employed employee, and it is management’s job to keep the business alive and thriving. A culture of excellence, where employees and teams are recognized and rewarded for success, is a signature element of both a happy work culture and a profitable business.

Finding the Balance between Sound Business and a Positive Work Culture

Offering perks like free lunches, part-time remote work schedules, and flex time are benefits any employee appreciates. Paid leave and great healthcare also help to make employees feel valued. However, to build a truly positive work culture, go a step further and create a clear vision so that all employees understand your core principles. Create clear lines of open communication so both management and their reports know that they will be heard.

The danger in not having a strategy for how to achieve a positive, happy work culture is that management may make some very expensive decisions centered on perks and individual happiness without a clear connection to performance. If you’re not careful, you may create an environment where people feel that their right to be happy and not stressed out takes precedence over performance.

Getting the Positive Work Culture Right

For a good example of strategic planning for a positive work culture, we need look no further than Netflix. The slideshare presentation outlining their corporate strategy lays the foundation with the title: Freedom with Responsibility. They clearly lay out that their “culture focuses on helping us achieve excellence.” There is no confusion about the goal—it’s clearly communicated, right at the onset.

In the presentation, Netflix talks about values and they directly connect them to performance, stating, “The actual company values, as opposed to the nice sounding values, are shown by who gets rewarded, promoted, or let go.”

The company nails exactly what I’m talking about. “Great values is not espresso, lush benefits, sushi lunches, grand parties or nice offices…We do some of these things, but only if they are efficient at attracting and retaining stunning colleagues.”

No one at Netflix can be confused about the company’s work culture and goals after watching their 124-slide presentation. They have obviously thought it through and clearly communicated their intentions.

What do you think? What is your experience with positive work cultures and strategies that create engaged employees? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this topic.

Photo credit: study world culutre via photopin (license)

A version of this article was first published on Huffington Post on 12/30/15

When Our Workplace Culture Is On Fire

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“The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. We don’t need no water let the m-f burn.” –The Bloodhound Gang

At least, that’s the melodic hip-hop mantra many of us have wanted to repetitively belt out at some point in our world of work lives (with an unapologetic emphasis on the unabbreviated curse word, of course).

Not because we’re having so much fun dancing around the water cooler, or in the break room, or the conference room, house music thumping in our heads, but because our workplace culture around has all but burned out our aspirational goals.

Many years ago I worked for a firm with an unsettlingly quiet dragon at the helm, one that erupted at the most seemingly inconsequential things, especially when he felt out of the communication loop of any minute detail of the client services work we delivered week to week.

Most mythic dragons spew toxic flames but usually telegraph their eruptions. Heroes have time to duck and cover, but most of us expendables, however, do not.

But this particular dragon? No telegraphing whatsoever. Nothing but surprise eruption after surprise eruption with the complete “why” context not quite coming clear until after the smoke literally cleared and you were sweeping your own ashes from a dust pan into your cubicle trashcan.

After surviving the first year unscathed, jousting internal “windmills” and ungrateful clients, I was presented the opportunity to travel internationally and work onsite for at least six months with a great client of ours. My excitement was palpable and was exceeded only by my naïve, inquisitive nature.

So I started asking the client questions about where I’d be living and how much my per diem would be each day, and the like.

It seemed to me to be innocuous enough, as did the client, but as soon as the dragon caught wind of my inquiries, my days of being a hero were doomed. Without notice and no more than an hour after my client e-mail exchange, the dragon swooped down the long hallway to where the account managers worked and let loose an ungodly fire that decimated every single cell in my godforsaken soul, something I had never experienced before, nor since.

Damn, let the m-f burn. And burn I did.

I lasted just over 3.5 years in that hardcore culture, never really fitting it. While I learned a lot of valuable lessons, and had sound relationships with many colleagues, some that still exist to this date, when I left there, I never looked back.

I imagined that I was the dragon burning that place to the ground. Over and over and over again. All the while bouncing to the house music, curse words intact.

The quest for all of us is to find a company culture that fits (which is the one that forever eludes us). But mercy me, we must keep working towards the goal of finding, and/or making it, and keeping it. According to Strategy& of PwC, 96% of employees have stated a “culture change” is needed at their company. Only about half of all employees say their leaders treat culture as a priority on a day-to-day basis. Fewer still say culture is effectively managed at their companies.

But culture goes deeper than a workplace flexibility, pizza lunches, ping-pong tables – or international travel to exotic client locales. In fact it should drive most every aspect of business – from customer relations to internal practices. Culture is a living breathing entity in companies and one of the most important drivers.

Today, talent science shows us that we perform better when we’re a fit with our workplace culture. This is the science of using quantifiable data to find and hire employees that will be most engaged with the company, its culture, and therefore contributing more to the bottom line and driving business outcomes.

But when we talked about this on the TalentCulture #TChat Show, we all rediscovered what we already new so very well, and only now we can better analyze it – the fact that there are many, many layers of cultural nuance, driven by leadership as well as every single individual contributor in the organization.

Which is why RoundPegg, a company that increases business performance through applied culture science and employee engagement software, believes we can:

  1. Measure it. The first thing you have to do is to “look in the mirror” and measure the values of everyone in the company, via surveys and assessments. How’s everyone really wired in the organization and why? Personal values are the best predictors of what’s happening in company, but until recently we really didn’t have the powerful combination of modern psychology, computing power and rigorous algorithms.  Now we do.
  2. Analyze it. For example, take a mid-size firm growing rapidly that burned through a huge investment but wasn’t performing. Their board of directors of course found the firm’s lackluster performance less than acceptable and demanded the “righting of the ship.” Internally they thought accountability was the issue, but after measuring the values and analyzing the results, the most challenging issue was really about rules — half wanted rules, structure and discipline, and the other half wanted flexibility and freedom, to be more spontaneous. This was at the real root of their stagnation.
  3. Then change it. Once identified, they realized that communication was at the heart of their rules issue, one that had previously only been paid lip service, if any at all. Over the course of six months clear communication channels were developed and maintained, and the course corrections they made impacted employee development, hiring those who shared the same newly unified values, and improving overall engagement that had immediate and long-term improvements, especially business growth.

Values and engagement aren’t just nice-to-haves, they’re personally vital, and when our workplace culture is on fire from jousting fiery dragons and ungrateful exchanges, it kills our shared values, productive affinity and the business mojo within.

Gathering the right cultural data and analyzing what’s wrong with collective values allows organizations to make the changes that insulate the entire business and keep them somewhat dragon safe.

photo credit: balt-arts via photopin cc