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culture quick start

90-Day Culture & Performance Quick-Start Program

Engage your organization and its members in designing and implementing a customized 90-day blueprint for success with the support of a culture expert. Quantify and connect culture to your top priorities—including innovation and adaptability, quality, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, safety and reliability, and/or customer experience—to accelerate desired results. The Culture and Performance Quick-Start Program includes clearly defining the outcomes and results targeted for improvement, thoroughly assessing organizational culture and climate to understand how they are helping or hindering progress, and using these learnings to facilitate planning sessions with a leadership and/or change team.


Key Benefits of the Culture Quick-Start Program

Adopt a Proven Language for Culture

Measure critical dimensions of your organization's culture (including values and norms) and climate (perceptions of organizational factors that lead to norms, attitudes and other outcomes).

Ensure Accountability and Confidence

Build ownership across the organization as team members at all levels align to support the most important and impactful improvement plans.

Facilitate Shared Learning and Results

Adjust plans and strategies, including those for employee involvement, to support shared learning and performance as a team.


Refine and repeat a proven Four-Phase Approach to Performance Improvement

 

Four-Phase Approach to Culture Change: Phase 1

Understand “Why”

Discover and align

Four-Phase Approach to Culture Change: Phase 2

Build a Baseline

Enlist and engage, measure and analyze

Four-Phase Approach to Culture Change: Phase 3

Design Change

Debrief results, build capability and initiate planning

Four-Phase Approach to Culture Change: Phase 4

Learn & Sustain

Finalize plans, implement, learn and adjust


What’s Included in the Culture Quick-Start Program

purpose_vision

A requirement-gathering session is carried out with key leaders to clarify the purpose, the vision for the ideal culture, and the outcomes/results targeted for improvement (innovation, growth, employee experience, etc.)
education

Top leaders and change agents are briefed on culture and performance connections. Based on the How Culture Works model and, optionally, The Culture Journey Experience, this interactive briefing is focused on the subtle ways that climate shapes culture—many of which are not widely recognized.
focus_groups

Individuals and groups participate in facilitated sessions to capture insights (stories, examples, etc.) about the current cultural norms, underlying beliefs, and their impact on outcomes/performance. The narratives and specific language from this thorough qualitative assessment are combined with quantitative data from the surveys.
culture_climate

The most widely used and thoroughly researched culture survey, along with a complementary climate survey, are administered to generate reliable feedback for planning for change. Our Organizational Culture Inventory®) and Organizational Effectiveness Inventory™ provide a common language and invaluable data on critical aspects of culture and climate, how they’re connected, and how they influence outcomes/results.
sub-culture_analysis

Culture and climate results across levels, departments/groups, ethnic groups, gender, and other strata are generated and compared to understand sub-culture differences, identify and disseminate best practices, and customize improvement plans. The objective is to understand culture gaps and their impact on outcomes within different levels, groups, and units.
ideal_culture

Use qualitative and quantitative approaches to identify the ideal culture for the organization in terms of shared values—specifically, the behaviors that members believe would maximize performance. Gaps between shared values (Ideal Culture) and the prevailing behavioral expectations (Current Culture) are analyzed to determine if refinements in norms are needed.
improvement_planning

The current state and success of strategies/plans to reach the targeted outcomes are captured as a foundation for understanding how culture is helping and hindering progress. Via an inclusive approach, change team(s) analyze and adjust strategies/plans to create a more Constructive culture and improve effectiveness (in terms of the outcomes targeted for improvement).
roadmap_engagement

A customized roadmap is developed to ensure clarity regarding improvement plans and to share results throughout the organization. A timeline is developed, including points in time for proving additional feedback and refining improvement plans (to make appropriate adjustments and maintain the focus on learning and results).
culture_expert_coaching

Consultation and genuine support from a culture expert is provided throughout the entire program. Each expert is a member of Human Synergistics’ Global Change Circle™ with extensive experience improving and sustaining performance via culture.

Feedback & Testimonials

“This work gave us surgical clarity regarding our problems and what needs to be done to resolve them. It will allow us to turbocharge our plans and results.”
Plant Manager at a Major Consumer Products Company
“Sometimes folks identify evolving culture as something really monumental. What this work did was to put things into really tactical, very digestible pieces where leaders and team members can understand the day-to-day actions and habits that ultimately impact culture.”
Nikki Green, Manager, Organizational Development, Universal Parks and Resorts
“We have been very pleased with our use of the Human Synergistics assessments. They helped us gain a language and measure for the often-misunderstood and oversimplified subjects of culture and climate. We have experienced positive business results and feedback from team members. We are happy to confirm our culture is clearly evolving in a constructive and effective direction.”
Amy Dufrane, CEO, HR Certification Institute (HRCI)

FAQs

Top leaders are typically involved in: one-on-one interviews; an introductory orientation and requirements gathering session of 1-2 hours; and facilitated planning events that may range from a 1-2 hours to a full day. A common and useful design involves the external culture expert partnering with an internal change team to coordinate assessment and improvement planning activities. Results are shared with the Leadership Team, feedback is obtained, and plans are refined before implementation.

Absolutely. Customization options include individual coaching and development sessions with leaders and managers with 360° feedback via Leadership/Impact®, Management/Impact®, or the Life Styles Inventory™. Team-based options include: expanded interviews and focus groups across locations; engagement of larger groups (e.g., company meetings, top 100 leader groups, etc.) in improvement planning; and team building for leadership teams, change teams, as well as other key groups to develop skills and processes that complement and reinforce changes at the individual and organizational levels.

Improvement plans will be directed toward critical mission and/or performance priorities like growth, innovation, customer experience, and/or inclusion. Leading indicators of the outcome(s) targeted typically show improvement in 3-9 months. Some quick wins should be observed, but major changes in outcomes are likely to require 12-18 months (at which time posttest surveys are recommended for evaluation purposes).

Yes, we have an option for one or more of your internal consultants or organizational development specialists to complete our Culture Accreditation Workshop. Your accredited team member(s) may then conduct assessments, receive and interpret the feedback reports, and support leaders in creating change. While not required, we do recommend the support and advice of an accredited external culture expert, particularly if it is your first time utilizing our processes and materials.

- Organizations desiring to go beyond simply measuring outcomes like engagement, customer experience, or inclusion in order to better understand and change the underlying culture and related forces impacting these and other priority outcomes

- Organizations looking to shape or change culture via initiatives that involve complementary leadership development

- Organizations interested in a program to unify subunits and integrate teams while supporting their differentiated structures and objectives

- Organizations that value tested, reliable and valid assessment tools and evidence-based approaches to change and development

- Organizations with leaders who are prepared to commit the time required to apply a disciplined and inclusive approach to drive shared learning and results as a team

Note: Leaders will need to commit the time to apply a disciplined and inclusive approach to drive shared learning and results as a team.

Yes, culture change initiatives often start with one or more important divisions, groups or teams. Plans for improvement are then refined based on a more in-depth understanding of the subculture and climate (as well as of the developmental models and surveys). The initiative can be expanded to other subgroups/teams and ultimately, as progress is demonstrated, throughout the entire organization.

Absolutely. Reframing diversity, equity, and inclusion improvement strategies through the lens of culture is a very effective strategy. The program provides a framework, a clear language, and an awareness of subcultures and their differences (e.g., across demographic groups and organizational levels) as a foundation for refining improvement plans. Learn more on our diversity, equity and inclusion webpage.

Periods of change and uncertainty may be the best time to gain a clear understanding of culture and its importance. We can become acutely aware of culture challenges and shortcomings when facing turbulence and managing change. The culture quick-start program will enable change leaders and teams to effectively navigate common culture-related challenges, refine their improvement strategy and plans, and increase the likelihood of success.

Consulting options include continuing to work with the accredited external culture expert and/or accrediting additional internal team members in Human Synergistics’ diagnostics so that they can take the program to the next level. Subsequent developmental initiatives should focus on the levers for change identified during the quick-start program—potentially involving, for example, additional management and leadership development, structural changes, changes in technologies and the design of jobs, initiatives to improve communication, team development, and new appraisal and reward systems.

Relevant items from the Organizational Effectiveness Inventory® (OEI) can be administered on a pulse basis to periodically monitor the progress being made on the levers selected to promote culture change. The improvement approach should be continued for 12-24 months before a re-measure using the OEI and the Organizational Culture Inventory® (OCI®) as a foundation for a second cycle of planning and improvement.

 

Still have questions? Get in touch with a culture expert to learn more.

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