Culture Creation vs. Culture Change
Every organization has a culture whether it designed one or not. Here is how we assess it across 12 key points — and build a Culture Creation Plan rather than chasing change.
By Clay Phillips
Organizational culture is the *absolute* when it comes to a company's viability, sustainability, and vulnerability. Put simply: if keeping its culture in tip-top condition is not a priority, a company's days are numbered.
What is organizational culture?
Also referred to as corporate culture, organizational culture encompasses businesses and organizations of all kinds and sizes, without respect for industry, class, or nationality. It is the brutal reality of every organization's life, health, agility, and survivability. Whether or not a company has a defined culture that serves its strategic plan, it has a culture. Strong, indifferent, or weak — every company has one.
Organizational culture is comprised of 12 key assessment points:
- What we do, make, or sell
- Why we do, make, or sell it
- How we do, make, or sell it
- How we go to market
- How we participate in the market
- Who our customers are
- How we treat our customers
- How we treat our environment
- The condition of our workplace
- The condition of our workforce
- How we treat our employees
- How all of the above are measured
Combined, these points are the measuring stick for evaluating a culture's strength, agility, and sustainability. Modifications to any of them shape and determine changes to the culture — whether or not the organization is aware of the change. An organization that needs to modify its culture efficiently must first know how to measure each point, then design a specific plan, then test and implement it.
We see culture as the unforgiving mirror on the wall that reflects the real health, productivity, talent utilization, employee satisfaction, ethics, and compassion of a workforce in response to its internal and external environments. When that mirror does not reflect a healthy, safe, productive, ethical, and compassionate workplace, the workforce — and the workplace — is undeniably compromised.
The good news, as we see it, is that while humans are generally change-averse, we are also extraordinarily resilient and remarkably predictable about what motivates us to improve our lives, at home and at work.
Why culture matters
Every organization — yours and ours included — has a reputation among its employees, partners, customers, competitors, and community. What is yours? Are they saying what you need them to say?
The reputational assessment points:
- Brand awareness and public perception
- Market share and growth
- Industry-specific reputation
- Community awareness
- Workplace attractability
- Employee relations and loyalty
- Employee retention
- Cost of employee benefits
- Customer retention
- Cost of turnover, hiring, and training
- Risk tolerance
- Liability and exposure
What culture creation looks like
We assess the reflection, then design a specific, strategic Culture Creation Plan™ to move the organization to a strong, agile, and sustainable condition. We help organizations of all sizes, in all industries, design and maintain the culture that makes them viable today, agile tomorrow, and sustainable in the years to come — by coupling leadership excellence, digital transformation, and people.
