Culture Alignment

It’s not often that I read something I like so much that I feel compelled to write about it straight away. But this paper, from RoundPegg is great: 

Why do I think it’s great?

For starters they make the case (with evidence) that culture is important to performance, and that there’s a strong link to engagement. They then carry on to clearly make the point that culture can be pretty simple – and that it should simple because it should be about a handful of core values.

So why do they say culture change initiatives fail?

Because:

a)     there isn’t enough communication 
b)    leaders aren’t visibly enough behind it 
c)     they are too short or one-hit exercises

I’ve seen and experienced that, but here’s more evidence. Initiatives also fail because without those things in place, people revert back to their previous behaviours.

So what do they suggest?

They don’t suggest a big, fundamental programme of change. Instead they suggest starting from the current culture and values of the employees and either:

a)     aligning process and systems to the values that already exist, or 
b)    if there is change required, add a small number of values, or interpretations of values to what’s already there.

It’s a research process, and you’ll always find me endorsing good research to make smart business decisions.

Then what?

Having described the values, you’re in a great place to:

a)     hire people that will fit 
b)    develop, manage, coach, encourage and engage your current staff in line with the values 
c)     measure the results, and use these to keep improving

It’s all about having everyone on the same page, so that they know what’s good for the business, and what’s good for them.

It’s the ultimate win-win.