A lot of change programs within organizations and teams simply fail. Lots of people say: ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’. And you could agree on adjusting your strategy or your customer service, but if this change does not align with the current organizational culture, you will not be successful…
Organizational culture names what you appreciate, the way you look at things, your assumptions and convictions about work and so on and so: your behavior. When you look at results, organizational culture makes the difference because it has such a great effect on behavior. The start of realizing change and boosting performance commences in the minds of executives as well as people on the floor. It has everything to do with the culture that they share. Let it operate for you and not hinder change.
What could make this happen? You don’t know where you stand unless you have some reference. Using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), you have a clear beginning for virtually any change process. This tool is certified and built on by professors Kim Cameron & Robert Quinn and is now used by more than 10,000 organizations globally.
Looking at the Competing Values Framework there are 4 culture types with competing values the OCAI distinguishes. These are:
- Adhocracy Culture, based on Creating
- Market Culture, based on Competing
- Hierarchy Culture, based on Controlling
- Clan Culture, based on Cooperating
Though this characterization may be plain, it works tremendously well. When finishing the online survey, test takers grade six essential characteristics of their organization’s culture. The result is a outline of the current culture, that’s a mix of the 4 archetypes above.
More often than not one of the culture types is predominant. For instance, some people might have a prevailing Clan Culture, sharing information and ideas, connecting and smiling.
Also, people assess their preferred culture for the future, after the change has taken place. It’s very interesting and helpful to compare these two profiles. In case of a big difference between the current and preferred circumstances, people might be all set for solid change or are not feeling satisfied about their current working climate.
For example, particular colleagues have a warm working climate, but they know they should focus more on results. So they agree to improve aspects of Market Culture and commence using pieces of competition to get things done.
The number one step to profitable, maintainable change is rating organizational culture. It’ll tell you where your team or organization is currently and where people want to go. It’s very informative to identify distinctive subgroups and check where for instance executives and employees differ. That gives methods on what to do next: how could executives make the change program better, how could you overcome resistance, what exactly do employees expect, etcetera.
Detailing your results in a workshop, takes you from the minimal but clear-cut four-typology to tailor made solutions for your organization. Working with every participants, you will be able to work out differences and really get people to not only say YES to the change program, but act like YES and truly apply the new behavior. And that is where change truly happens!