Do you know your team’s Winning Culture Formula?

Organizational Culture

Every organization has a company culture that influences employees’ habits and forms the unwritten rules guiding group behaviour. Business theorists see workplace culture as one of the most important contributors to organizational success. It’s a powerful force that’s often invisible but becomes extremely apparent when it’s working against us – very similar to oxygen. You don’t know it is there until it’s not or there’s an insufficient quantity. Many theorists have developed lenses to see organizational culture through that all hint at a winning formula.

Denison and Neale

Denison and Neale like others propose a model of culture where the most effective organizations are those that are able to both deal well with and celebrate the tensions of competing priorities. Competing priorities like adaptability vs. stability, certainty vs. uncertainty and competition vs. collaboration.

Getting On The Same Page

Most people have some insight into what kind of culture currently exists within their team, organization or project group but what goes unobserved is the culture the team should be building towards. Sure, many have opinions and a leader’s attitudes towards how things should get done certainly shape things. However, for teams to really move forward, they must get on the same page as to what kind of culture they believe is required for breakthrough success and start actively building these capabilities into everyday work.

Defining Winning Culture

By defining the Winning Culture Formula, teams are able to articulate the core culture capabilities required for success and have a way to communicate and measure the effectiveness of culture-shaping activities. The result is the Winning Culture Scorecard that is communicated across the team and can be used as a strategy tool for leaders as well as a cultural change measuring stick.   Culture change doesn’t occur online or in a survey; it occurs when groups of people get together and talk about what’s working well, what isn’t working and most importantly, what actions should be taken to move forward.

How to use the scorecard?

The scorecard below outlines 4 Winning Culture Behaviours that we have repeatedly heard our clients articulate as critical to their success.

• Collaboration: Achieving greater results together. Shared wisdom, shared resources, shared vision.
• Agility: Building some flex in our knees. Expect friction, embrace tension and pivot strategically.
• Innovation: Adopting a fail forward attitude. Fail quickly, fail often, but most importantly fail forward.
• Partnerships: Developing strong partnership relationships with clients, colleagues, team members and competing business units.

The first step in the Scorecard process is to have your team either individually or as a group complete the scorecard and then consolidate the results. As an activity, it is interesting to observe what your team rated as it’s highest attributes as well as its lowest. Focusing on both the highest and lowest scores engage the team in some reflection:

1. Do we think these 4 areas are a fair assessment of what is needed for us to succeed? Anything else?
2. What do we consider to be our strongest attribute? Weakest?
3. What do we need to keep doing to leverage this area of strength?
4. What do we need to start or stop doing to move the needle on our lowest score?

Use The Winning Culture Scorecard For Your Team

The final step is the action plan. In this stage the team assesses the current state of the organizational culture, it’s desired state, actions to realize the desired culture and any obstacles that may prevent action. This activity can be done in small teams with flip charts or with a large group. For small teams, assign each group a flip chart with the following written on each; Current state culture; Desired State of culture; Obstacles to overcome; and Action steps. Then have the team rotate through each chart, consolidate insights, prioritize action steps and then move into action. At your next meeting check-in and measure progress. The Winning Culture Scorecard activity can be used for groups of 3-100 people. Are you interested in finding out how your team measures up? Download the scorecard for your team HERE.