Measuring An Organization's Culture Effectiveness
Can you believe it’s almost October? I’m so happy that fall is settling in! Utah is absolutely gorgeous this time of year so I have to say it is my favorite. Today Is 1 of a 3 part series where I am discussing, Measuring An Organization’s Culture Effectiveness, in preparation for entering into Q4 and ultimately 2022.
I’m here to champion the change in the traditional practice setting and give a real solution to the structural change that needs to happen. Only, structure changes alone do not deliver anticipated improvements. As a result, it’s imperative to also address an Organization’s Culture Effectiveness.
Organizational Culture is often the most difficult to address and therefore strengthen, which is why it’s the VERY first place we start at in The Providers DOO Certification Program.
Today, I’m discussing part 1 of the framework as well as addressing the quantitative measurements of an organization’s cultural effectiveness. This is only the first step and you may need to take action to strengthen what you have created.
Organizational culture can be summed as the shared grounded commitment in the purpose, values, norms, rules, and language of a business. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed an increase in the question, ‘what is the right organizational culture’? Typically this question is being pulled from a larger question of, "why isn’t the business thriving?"
According to Edgar Schein,
"Organizational culture is the pattern of shared basic assumptions—invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration—that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems."
This definition captures one of the basic challenges faced by any culture to reconcile the often divergent aims and actions of its members. It also points to the difficulty of addressing that challenge. Its emphasis on the role of shared basic assumptions influencing beliefs and behavior suggests that organizational culture denotes much more than just “the way things are done around here”
Changing the way things are done appears, on the functional level of systems redesign - so should be relatively easy. However, Attempting to understand why things are done in their distinctive ways, the factors underlying resistance to change attempts, and the intentional work to build a sustainable business is far more challenging.
An Organizational Culture can’t be summed into ‘just the way of doing things' because it flatlines the strengths and growth of the business. This can lead to the lack of innovation, creativity, and result in the owner and team feeling frustrated and falling back into silos to survive the chaos that the lack of stability.
SO that brings us to the question of what makes up a strong Organizational Culture?
We’ve identified 3 core areas of any organizational culture
- Organization Profile, specifically identifying the purpose, what strategy type, and what stage the practice is at culturally.
- Psychology, specifically understanding and supporting mindset and allowing for structural growth and changes.
- Social Psychology, specifically evaluating Inspiration, Action, Cognitive, and Emotional Agility on an individual level. Overall this Brings the Science of Human Understanding to Solve Leadership and Team Challenges and Fulfill Purpose-Driven missions.
Each of these areas strengthened individually can also strengthen the areas around them, but for long-term stability, we work on each area which results in a strengthened Organization’s culture.
So how do you measure Organizational Culture Effectiveness?
The biggest struggle is that can’t measure culture itself. However, the impact of a healthy culture gives tangible results that you can measure because culture is tied to every aspect of your business. I want to start by explaining each of these areas and identify the strength within each and how they give a measurable example that you can then use to assess the effectiveness of your culture.
Organization’s Profile. This is the very beginning of any business and can be considered the Core.
The very first place to start is to clarify the purpose of the business. Together, the vision, mission, and values statements provide direction for everything that happens in an organization. They keep everyone focused on where the organization is going and what it is trying to achieve. And they define the core values of the organization and how people are expected to behave.
The next piece of the Organizations Profile is the strategy type. The strategy type is ultimately determined based on values and gives a framework for assessing and profiling the dominant cultures of organizations because it helps individuals identify the underlying cultural dynamics that exist in their organizations.
You as a business owner, likely make decisions according to your business strategy. Too often, though, those decisions gloss over a crucial asset of any successful business: your people.
The strategy doesn’t run itself. It runs through people.
Having a strategy type identifies the unique dynamic of business that facilitates better organization development, better strategic planning, better leadership development, and ensures there is alignment both in your purpose and your people.
Changing an established culture may seem daunting. For many companies—especially those that have been around for decades—changing culture means altering time-honored traditions.
However, the benefits of a renewed culture are well worth the effort. By aligning purpose and values with strategy type, you ensure your employees aren’t stretching themselves to work in a way that runs counter to your business. The end result is a company that’s more productive—and ultimately more successful.
At the end of the day, fostering a strong culture comes from within.
The final piece of the Organization’s profile is the culture stage itself. Culture stages identify the dynamic of the ‘tribe’.
Some are moving in the same direction while others veer in another. Some tribes propel while yet others add friction. Some tribes attract talent and others eject it. Performance is set not by the individual tribe leader but by the aggregation of them.
Tribal leadership is a process not an outcome and most people are blind to the dynamics of their tribes. Like all of our mental models, when you learn to see your company as a tribe, you can’t unsee it. Things just click.
Once you see your team as a tribe it changes how you respond as a leader. When you see your culture and understand its dynamic, it changes how the organization evolves and grows.
From this core area that are several specifics, you can identify and measure. The biggest is the business performance - is it continually meeting goals and objectives? Or has it become stagnant and collaboration has become non-existent.
Next is psychology. We specifically want to support the mindset and behavior around structural growth and changes.
Allowing yourself to run a practice that is aligned with you, but more importantly, that supports the vision you have that you alone can not achieve. It becomes a realization that the mindset around the internal support may vastly change because it becomes about 'us' and not you.
The 3 main outcomes we want to see from having psychological support are
1. Belief in your Vision
2. Your team is an INVESTMENT, not a risk!
3. It may be time for structural change. We want you to trust your DOO and form a true partnership; walk through the difficulties that come up TOGETHER and expect growing pains.
From this core area, you can again, take several specifics that you can identify and measure. The biggest is the CEO and to assess their investment in their vision and therefore the business.
Our expert coach, Ashley will be talking about how she coaches differently and why she does so that she can provide stronger support for our providers.
Finally is the Social Psychology. We specifically want to identify the innate strengths of each team member. Core-Four assessment insights give you a true multi-dimensional picture of yourself and your most important business asset—the current human beings who make the magic happen in your workplace every day.
The strengths and style information in these reports is the missing ingredient that enables you to have a clear pathway to optimize your team. With the benefit of decades of research and study, these four assessments have been designed to provide unique insights into the human psyche that is essential for team development.
From this core area, the specific measurement here is team performance and development.
Without this area, the business lacks its true magic because the team brings their own unique strengths, and with that innovation becomes powered.
Our expert coach, Dr. Norton will be talking about the 4 core assessments and the importance of each assessment, and how the strength lies within.
Applications are open for our October Cohort for The Providers DOO Certification Program.
This is the ONLY gold standard program that transitions Office managers to DOO. This means having an operations guru that runs the entire back end of your practice - giving you not only operational efficiency but a right hand who can give high-level strategy and business management. Let’s get you a DOO to support your growth plans for 2022!
