Everyone agrees that ‚culture‘ is important. But, when it comes to questions such as
- What are the specific elements of our culture?
- How do we influence it?
… the answers are usually vague and fluffy. We know that any culture work or discussion has to start with looking at the business. Hence, we work from the business specifics to cultural principles, not as usually done, the other way around. That' s why we can be so targeted in our hands-on recommendations and services:
Culture cues come from the top. At the CEO level, culture becomes a highly sensitive and subtle issue. The formal decisions on the one hand and the behavior on the other hand constitute a very powerful "machinery" that deeply influences their ability to get traction with stakeholders. It is not only contradictions in explicit CEO behavior that weaken the CEO's ability to act; often, it is unconscious, subtle dissonance that gets in the way. We help our clients understand what these are and how to deal with them.
Changing a firm's culture is often compared to eating soup using chop sticks, a lot of action but not a lot getting done. Our diagnostics enable Senior Executives and CEOs to understand very specifically the "pressure points" of their culture. We also look at the soft issues such as vision and mission. But since we know that culture is driven by what happens in the day-to-day work, that is where we focus first.
Closing the knowing-doing gap. We also know that whatever the challenge is that a firm faces, people need to be able to close the gap between knowing what is needed and being able to do what is required. We help organizations find highly effective ways of "infecting" organizations with new ideas and behavioral norms. Corporate Communications, together with HR, are seen as the key management vehicles for culture. We help organizations close this knowing - doing gap. As a result, "cultural change" becomes "performance improvement".
Systems and infrastructures are the key drivers of culture.
Consider for instance the permeability of organizational boundaries. Depending on how you design them they will foster or inhibit collaboration and innovation. We support Management Teams in creating the desired culture through workshops, team and individual coaching.
Use the
S P H E R E Management Diagnostic to shape culture as you need it.
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S P H E R E l Peak performance at the top.
