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Culture – What and Why
“Culture? The only Culture in this organisation is in the out-of-date yoghurt in the staff fridge.”
Thankfully, this attitude is now even more out of date than the yoghurt. Many now have an innate sense of what organisational Culture is and they know that you cannot, not have a culture. Ask people to articulate this innate sense or organisational Culture and difficulties arise. Achievement Concepts definition of Culture is:
“The shared values, thinking and behavioural expectations that govern the way people approach their work and interact with others to “fit in” and “get on” in an organisation”
Let’s demonstrate what this means using an analogy. Imagine you are going to the football in the corporate box of an established legal firm. You’re getting dressed. What are you going to wear? A suit? A tie? As you are deciding, you are subconsciously thinking about the culture. What is the behaviour (dress) that will “fit in”? Now, imagine you’re getting dressed to go to the same game and you’re sitting in the stands. You would choose different dress, as the culture is different in the stands to the corporate box. This demonstrates the impact culture has on behaviour.
Of course, some cultural expectations are unspoken. For example, a teenager asks their father what time they need to be home on a Friday evening. When the father says, “I think midnight is a fair thing” the teenager’s brain is already in gear. “Does that mean if I’m home by eleven I’ll get brownie points? What if I’m ten minutes late? If I’m still out at three, perhaps I shouldn’t come home at all?”. The teenager is working out the cultural norms, their behavioural boundaries, and the impact of their behaviour in that culture.
For you and your organisation two questions are important:
- Does culture affect performance?
It has now been proven that culture and performance are linked. AC has taken part in research that encompasses over 1,000 organisations worldwide, and gathered perceptions from over 80,000 individuals in Australia and New Zealand. This research shows that a more constructive Culture is linked to higher levels of:
- Staff satisfaction
- Staff retention
- Organisational adaptability to changing customer needs
- Repeat business
- Superior customer service
- Can culture be managed?
Yes. Our case studies demonstrate this, and the following explanation of how AC partners with an organisation to deliver cultural change, will provide some clarity.
Culture - How
Achievement Concepts do not deliver "off the shelf" solutions. Every organisation is unique.
For this reason the outlined process is a guide only. If you're interested in finding out how this might apply to your organisation we can provide clarity in an obligation free 1 hour meeting.
1. Understand
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2. Measure AC will tailor the measurement to meet your needs and leverage existing metrics. In this phase we will agree targeted changes to the organisation’s KPIs and where appropriate
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| 4. Coach AC coach the culture development team, the project Linkers and individuals. AC will tailor our coaching to achieve the targeted KPIs.
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3. Workshop
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Re-measure
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Culture - Case Study