How to Tackle Organizational Culture

Culture at work is very hard to change. It is a culmination of years of good and or poor leadership. Leaders who have been elevated to higher positions without any college or lack of atleast one course in psychology or management. One book that I found inspirational was "The Six Pillars of Self Esteem" by Nathaniel Branden. We were told to read Chapter 15. It explains the history of manufacturing and how the old school managing needs to change in this day and age. One Chapter is a quick read but would be of benefit for Management prospects. Unfortunately, reading something and not acting on suggestion is a complete waste of time. You have to be motivated and open to change and that which you read. Philosopher, Leo Buscaglia, tells us " Change is something we must embrace!" " To fight change is a battle that cannot be won." A man is a product of his environment. Bad culture can leave lasting scars.

I agree that culture can strongly influence how people in an organization behave in getting work done and in interacting with and engaging one another. More importantly, research evidence indicates that how people experience culture can ultimately impact important outcomes, such as employee retention and work performance. This has certainly been demonstrated during the Great Resignation! While many executives understand the concept and importance of culture, they are not comfortable with how to measure it and often decide not to deal with it. It’s just too fuzzy to mess with! Based on my research and consulting work, however, I have found that the best way to effectively and efficiently capture organizational culture is through the eyes of those who experience and are impacted by it; and the most practical way to capture that is through a web-based analytical tool that can reach employees anywhere in the world at any time. After all, perception is reality, and most people react to what they perceive! This web-based approach allows executives to compare their views of culture along several traditional (e.g., accountability) and emerging dimensions (e.g., diversity and inclusion) with those of other groups (e.g., functions, geographies) throughout the organization. It allows them to determine whether there is a single all-encompassing culture or very different subcultures. Or for that matter, no clear culture. The data and insights that this approach provides enables executives to get a better understanding of their culture and to set priorities for what facets of the culture that they want to leverage, strengthen, develop, change or eliminate. If you would like to learn more about an easy to administer research-based approach to measuring culture that has been used to enable effective organizational alignment and merger and acquisition integration, please feel to contact me at [email protected]

Find Sarah's interview on the Leadership Launchpad Project here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1e36NurUDdlWcpZVf3ZM8Q?si=bsrOQYPiTHSA800ymDwm1w