How to tell if culture change is needed

In the previous post I talked about culture change and how to go about changing the culture of an organisation. The examples given, the CBI and the Metropolitan Police, are both high profile examples where serious misconduct had taken place which expedited the need for change. Never waste a crisis, but far better to spot the signs of a poor culture before disaster strikes and address it in a more measured and controlled way.

So how can you tell if there is a poor culture in your organisation?

You need data. And you need examples. A blend of soft intelligence and hard data will enlighten you.

Things to look for include:

• Values not being lived. I’ve heard it said that, ‘We can’t have a culture problem because we’ve done a lot of work on our values.’ That may be true; however, values that aren’t lived give little more than an illusion of the right culture. And just as a negative culture can be changed by the leader, a positive culture can be rapidly undone by a leader whose behaviours are not aligned to the behaviours expected of others.

• What are your staff telling you? Scan free text from staff surveys and search for words that might indicate the presence of a problem. Words like trouble, stress, bullying, and others that indicate a poor working environment can be very telling. Is the frequency of these words going up, down, or staying the same?

• What is important to the board? What is being measured? If the focus is on results with little or no focus on how the results are being achieved, you have a gap in assurance – you simply won’t know what it actually feels like to work in your organisation. You may be hitting targets but at what cost?

• Sickness absence, recruitment and retention, reports of bullying and harassment, and general staff complaints, can all be counted and reported to indicate culture and areas where work might be required.

• Do people feel able to speak up? Do you have a whistleblowing policy and how often is it used? An open mechanism where staff can raise alternate perspectives, which may include concerns, is less likely to lead to a poor culture. Feedback and two-way conversations is important.

• Are managers promoted too quickly? What support and training are managers given to help them maintain a positive culture? Mentoring and coaching are great ways to give people the confidence they need and to develop their own leadership style that is, ideally, in tune with the organisation’s approach.

• What is the focus of general staff training? A heavy focus on compliance training (health and safety, data protection, project management etc.) without training on how to go about doing things, sends a strong message to staff about what is important. Be creative about building the right culture and reinforcing the right behaviours - people learn in different ways. Once called ‘soft skills’, there is nothing ‘soft’ about setting the right tone and setting an example and inspiring others to do likewise.

• What does your onboarding look like for new recruits? This is a great opportunity to set out and help manage expectations. Will staff be expected to respond to emails in the evening and at weekends or not? Will staff be rewarded solely for achieving targets regardless of how they are achieved?

Don’t wait to become the next sensational headline and have to fire-fight. Maintain a relentless focus on culture, on values and behaviours, as relentless a focus as on profits and business success, and you’ll be well placed to know how the culture of your organisation is experienced by others and how it contributes to the overall success of your enterprise.

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