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Do you have a vision but the rest of the organisation seems reluctant to buy into it. Are you achieving targeted growth. Does your organisation operate in a fragmented, hierarchical way. Are your costs under control. Are your key performance indicators being met. Does there seem little result from past training courses. Are individual team members supportive of each other. Has your investment in IT systems shown little pay back.
If any of these issues seem familiar, you could have a business culture problem that's affecting the performance of your organisation and could impede its progress in the future.
Business culture is the a pattern of basic assumptions - invented discovered or developed by a group as it learns to cope with problems of external adaptation and internal integration - that has worked well enough to be considered valid , and therefore the way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems - Schein 1999. Business culture is therefore learnt shared assumptions about how to make decisions that concern the survival and growth of the organisation. An independent survey by Kotter and Heskett (2008) revealed that high performance organisations have adaptive business cultures, cultures that allow them to flex and change in a timely manner to meet customer and stakeholder needs. Within many organisations the cultural norms, 'the way things get done around here' develop over time and can become a barrier to what the leaders are trying to achieve. A common problem for most leaders is that they know when the culture isn't the one they want, but they don't know how to understand, define and drive towards one they do want. In the aspect of culture, they are leading blind.
Younique Business Solutions as an accredited consultancy specialise in researching and quantifying the cultural norms that impact on the performance of organisations. Not only can we diagnose what the current and a high performance culture looks like for your organisation, we can provide a route map for focused and realistic change given the strategic intent of your organisation. Over years of study twelve cultural norms have been proven to support or inhibit the performance of an organisation. Some support and promote adaptiveness whilst others paralyse and inhibit the organisation, making it slow to change and improve. To support clients Younique study the cultural phenomenon at play within your organisation to understand: The current norms and how they are impacting on performance. The intensity of the norms by benchmarking with other organisations surveyed. How your performance compares with equivalent high performance organisations. What high performance culture looks like for your organisation given its strategy. Which areas to focus on.
We believe cultural review is meaningless without the context of business direction, until you are clear about where your company is going it is difficult to define the culture you want to take you there. Having understood where you want to be culturally it is again meaningless if you don't know how to change the culture. As a HS consultancy we have an internationally recognised system at our disposal allowing us to quantitatively assess and benchmark the cultural phenomenon at play within your organisation. We integrate strategic review within our cultural development projects to ensure our clients are clear about their strategic intent. We then assess how the current culture is impacting on performance and create a cultural vision for change. In addition to the established HS system we deploy unique research methods that get under the skin of your organisation to understand how to change your business effectively. Our approaches create an understanding about the cultural assumptions that drive behaviour in your organisation and allow your managers to see, sometimes for the first time, the real company they are managing. Our Cultural Development Programmes (CDP) involve a six stage review - Diagnosis, Impact, Context, Vision, Change and Results.
The first stage of a CDP is to assess twelve performance impacting cultural phenomenon within your organisation. Performance enhancing shared assumptions include the degree of focus on delivery, innovation and development, support, knowledge sharing and constructive questioning. Performance detracting assumptions focus around seeking others approval, sticking to the rules, doing as you're told, avoiding responsibility, being critical, competing against co-workers, game playing and appearing competent and in control.
Having identified the strength of the cultural phenomenon at play within your organisation by benchmarking with others organisations surveyed, we spend time educating senior and middle managers about the impact culture has on business performance. Specifically your organisations culture is explained in detail and compared to industry norms and high performance organisations.
Awareness is one thing, for any cultural change to work leaders and senior managers have to accept that the existing culture isn't supporting the business, and could if left unchanged inhibit its future survival and growth. Leaders and managers take time to explore stories, rites and rituals, consider where they have developed from and how they impact on current performance. Stars and heroes and those who left the organisation under a cloud are discussed and cultural drivers understood. These stories and discussions are correlated with the twelve cultural phenomenon previously assessed to understand the hidden truths about performance in your company.
With a clear and shared understanding of the cultural assumptions at play within your organisation, current goals and strategies are explored and considered against the existing cultural norms within your organisation. Ten drivers of business performance are assessed and benchmarked against other globally recognised high performing companies. How the current culture will be costing the business money, reducing revenues or impacting on service will be clearly understood.
When the leaders and managers have a clear understanding of cultural impact it is critical to review the current strategy to affirm, tweak or change direction. Our business strategy review helps managers consider/consolidate understanding about their strategy. The existing culture is then considered given the agreed business strategy. The consequences and impact of the current culture on the success of the company are clearly documented.
With clarity and a passion about the future, leaders and senior managers can now articulate the culture they want given the agreed business strategy. Twelve key performance driving cultural phenomenon are considered and a cultural vision born. The existing cultural profiling is considered and a gap analysis completed. Leaders and managers then identify and prioritise the cultural change goals.
Understanding culture is worthless if the knowledge isn't exploited for business success. Key to business success is focused and sustained effective cultural development. With specific areas of development now identified our clients consider unwritten rules surrounding those goals using our patented cultural review workshops. During these workshops leaders and managers explore deep cultural aspects of the desired areas of change and gain insights about the psyche of their organisation. With this understanding, and only then, can managers plan to change the behaviour and culture of the company to improve performance. Behavioural change can be achieved through exploration, awareness and acceptance. However, Younique leave nothing to chance and so assess thirty differing aspects of your company that may be contributing to the culture you currently have. These are more tangible and traditional aspects of company life such as management and leadership styles, Human Resource Management Systems and Operational Processes. These aspects if left unchanged could slow the rate of cultural change in your company. Collective awareness is the best place to start cultural change, yet cultural development has to start at the top. Advanced cultural development is available for the leadership and senior managers within the business as each manager needs to know the part they play in personally changing the culture across the company and within their own area. Three key support areas are provided by Younique to support managers when changing culture at a departmental and team level starting with managerial behaviour. The degree of leadership at all levels in a company will dictate how successful the company is. 360 leadership assessments help senior managers understand how their leadership styles promote positive and negative behaviours in subordinates and peers. Thinking style assessment help managers understand why they behave in the way they do. Coaching sessions are available in planning personal change and development. Competency modelling and coaching is available for those who require this specialist development to improve personal, team and departmental performance.
Our cultural development programmes always include a review of business strategy and the setting of key performance indicators. At twelve, twenty four and thirty six months these key performance indicators are reviewed and plans reset. At this time the cultural development targets are reset as the culture and performance of your company improves. We always let clients know that culture change is a medium to long term objective and not a quick win. With proper focus and attention satisfactory cultural change can be achieved within eighteen months of a plan being actioned. Change isn't over night but is likely to become the only sustainable competitive advantage your company can invest in today for tomorrow's success.
financial services
information technology, IT (UK)
facilities management
contact: enquiries@youniqueltd.com or +44 (0) 770 252 8565
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