There’s a saying that goes: Culture eats strategy for breakfast. And you could agree on modifying your strategy or your customer service, but if this change does not align with the current organizational culture, you will not be doing well…
Organizational culture labels what a team appreciates, the way they see things, their collective ideas and opinions about work and so on and therefore: their doings. When you look at results, organizational culture makes the difference because it has such a capital impact on behavior. The starting point of implementing change and developing performance begins in the brains of executives as well as people on the floor. It has everything to do with shared culture. Let it operate for you and not hamper change.
What could make that happen? If you have some reference you will know where you stand. For just about any change process the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) is a very clear beginning. This instrument is currently applied by more than 10,000 organizations globally and is certified and extended by professors Cameron & Quinn.
Looking at the Competing Values Framework there are 4 culture types with competing values the OCAI distinguishes. Those are:
- Hierarchy Culture, based on Controlling
- Clan Culture, based on Cooperating
- Adhocracy Culture, based on Creating
- Market Culture, based on Competing
Participants assess 6 essential parts of their organization’s culture when finishing the online survey. The result is a profile of the current culture, that is a mix of the 4 archetypes above.
Typically one of the culture types is prevalent. For example, some people have a prevailing Adhocracy Culture, focusing on original products and services, being innovative and taking risks.
Also, people measure their preferred culture for the future, after the change has occurred. It’s very interesting and useful to compare these 2 profiles. In case of a large difference between the current and preferred situation, people might be set for significant change or are not feeling satisfied about their current working climate.
Evaluating organizational culture is the initial step to profitable, sustainable change. It will show you where your team or organization is right now and where people want to go. It is very instructive to determine where executives and employees differ and discover different subgroups. That gives approaches on what to do next: how could you overcome resistance, what exactly do employees expect, how could executives make the change program better, and so on and so forth.
Detailing your results in a workshop, takes you from the minimal but clear four-typology to tailor made solutions for your organization. Working with every participants, you will be able to work out differences and truly get people to not only say YES to the change program, but act like YES and actually apply the new behavior. And there change really takes place!