Posted by mlamers in blogging, recommendations, updates.

One could say that Culture eats strategy for breakfast. And you could concur on transforming your strategy or your customer service, but if this change does not line up with the current organizational culture, you will not be successful…

Organizational culture describes what a team appreciates, the way they notice things, their collective assumptions and convictions about work and so on and so: their doings. When you look at results, organizational culture makes the difference because it has such a capital effect on behavior. Actually putting change into practise and boosting performance, begins in the brains of managers as well as people on the floor. It has everything to do with the culture that they have in common. Let it work for you and not hinder change.

What could make this happen? You don’t know where you stand unless you have some reference. For almost any change process the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) is a very clear starting point. This method is now applied by more than 10,000 organizations across the globe and is certified and developed by professors Kim Cameron & Robert Quinn.

Based on the Competing Values Framework, the OCAI distinguishes 4 culture types with competing values. Those are:

• Clan Culture, based on Cooperating
• Adhocracy Culture, based on Creating
• Market Culture, based on Competing
• Hierarchy Culture, based on Controlling

When finalizing the online survey, participants grade six crucial features of their organization’s culture. The outcome is a profile of the current culture, that is a combination of the four archetypes above.

Most of the time one of the culture types is predominant. For instance, some people might have a prevailing Adhocracy Culture, focusing on original products and services, being innovative and taking risks.

People grade their preferred culture for the future, after the change has taken place. It’s highly interesting and helpful to compare these 2 profiles. In case of a big difference between the current and preferred situation, people might be set for substantial change or are not feeling satisfied about their current working climate.

Rating organizational culture is the principal step to thriving, maintainable change. It will show you where your team or organization is right now and where people want to go. It’s very informative to recognize several subgroups and notice where for instance executives and employees differ. That gives ideas on what to do next: how could executives make the change program better, how could you overcome resistance, what exactly do employees expect, etcetera.

To go from the straight forward but clear four-typology to tailor made solutions for your organization you can work out your results in a workshop. Working with every members, you’ll be able to work out differences and truly get people to not only say YES to the change program, but act like YES and really apply the new behavior. And that is where change actually occurs!