Raise the Culture question with any C-Suite Executive and the immediate response from many is:
“That feels like an exercise in swallowing the Sun.”
“That Pandora’s box? How do I even get my arms around that?”
“Sounds great but no way I’m going to see meaningful results quickly. So why would I scratch that itch?”
On their face, those are (somewhat) reasonable objections for a group tied to a very short and taut 90-day analyst leash. A group who has seen their tenure drop almost as quickly as the Toronto Maple Leafs from this year’s Playoffs. In fact, according to a Korn Ferry Global Survey, average C-Suite tenure is 4.9 years. If you’re the big dog CEO that’s 6.9 years, if you’re the poor CMO that’s a dizzying 3.5 years.
And if you’re the CHRO – the person typically tapped to solve these complicated culture scenarios – it’s a scant 3.7 years.
Inside a sprawling global organization, that’s the metaphorical equivalent of being escorted from the building before your morning latte has cooled.
Okay, so where do you start?
The same place you’d start any investigation around any critical aspect of your business.
With an Audit.
Struggling with a marketing conundrum, you’d run a competitive Audit.
Struggling with a fiscal issue, you’d run a financial Audit – or at the very least interrogate your Balance Sheet with a vengeance.
If you’re an Executive prone to making statements like “Our people are our greatest asset” – why wouldn’t you be auditing the culture those assets exist in with the same scrutiny as any other asset you have?
Particularly when the mobility of those assets (to move to your competition) or the depreciation of those assets (in terms of lost productivity, creativity and initiative) is way higher and way faster than any other asset class you hold?
In many ways a Culture Audit seems like such a logical and obvious route to take. Why then are we not talking about Culture Audits with the same enthusiasm and anticipation as the annual arrival of the Auditors from one of the large Auditing firms.
Ok, perhaps the analogy of “enthusiasm” doesn’t work quite as well in that situation, but the question still stands.
Why aren’t we running (Culture) Audits on our most important assets?
So, who would do this Audit and what would I learn?
There are a number of credible organizations who run Culture Audits – or an equivalent diagnostic tool – for organizations of any size and complexity. Importantly organizations who have been doing this for enough years and with enough organizations in enough countries to have built real rigor and expertise into the tool. And, to have seen enough organizational scenarios and snafus to address any questions you and your CEO might throw at them.
I’ll reference two that I’ve had personal experience with.
For the record, while I know several of the Principals, this is not me shilling for them and I’ve not received any royalties for this article. That being said, I prefer chocolates over flowers and a chilled case of Dom or Krug wouldn’t go amiss over the Summer. <joking guys!!>
Human Synergistics OCI and OEI tools are a robust set of tools that enables organizations to understand the prevailing and most dominant culture style inside your organization. Benchmarked against a global database of organizations, Human Synergistics has defined twelve unique culture styles which they called the Circumplex. Running this diagnostic enables you to understand the dominant style your presently have and the ideal style you need in order to achieve your strategy.
Importantly the tool helps isolate WHERE and WHY these are your current dominant Culture styles. Is it within a certain geography, level of seniority, tenure or a department? Is it being driven by a scenario where the mission of the organization is poorly understood or is it a factor of something else like org structure or the systems and org design elements that are impeding or accelerating progress?
The wicked smart folks at SLAP in San Francisco run a different analytic – deliciously branded “Under the Hood” - that is equally powerful and insightful. Just as the Human Synergistic tool is derived from the philosophy of that organization, SLAP’s solution utilizes 10 years of ground-breaking work and research that resulted in a wholly new definition of that much-misunderstood word: “culture.”
From the SLAP solution you’ll understand the operating systems of your employee and manager cultures and how they use data from the organization, its leadership, and its managers. You’ll understand the culture’s level of commitment (a term I adore) and why and where that commitment may be waning, even when engagement may be high. You’ll also learn the moments in your organization’s history that formed and cemented the culture’s belief system about its relationship with the organization: what it believes are the “rules for survival”. I’ve always found that part of the analysis so rich and insightful because what the culture internalizes as the “rules” are rarely what was communicated by management and aren’t always reflective of reality. BUT, those moments are reflective of reality to your culture…and, ultimately, that’s the only reality that really matters!
So, two different diagnostics. Two different approaches and philosophies on culture. However, two powerful culture auditing approaches worth their weight in gold.
Great, but I already run Engagement Surveys.
And, please don’t stop doing that but let’s recognize that comparing Engagement and Culture isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison.
As this brilliant piece from Gapingvoid so wonderfully illustrates, despite all the trillions spent in Engagement Tools and Engagement Surveys over the years, the net impact has been a disappointing flat-line.
And this from the Godfathers of Employee Engagement – Gallup - in June of 2020
Gallup found early last month, the percentage of "engaged" workers in the U.S. -- those who are highly involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace -- reached 38%. This is the highest it has been since Gallup began tracking the metric in 2000. Now, with the measurement from June 1-14 following the killing of George Floyd in late May and subsequent protests and riots on top of a pandemic, unemployment, and attempts to re-open some businesses, 31% of the working population are engaged.
In simple terms I think of it as this…
Engagement is HOW we’re doing. Culture is WHY we’re doing the things we do.
Sounds great, but why the urgency?
I’d suggest the urgency to truly understand your culture has always been there. To scratch beneath your Engagement Survey and determine the beating human heart of your culture has been a Level 1 priority for many of the most revered (and successful) companies.
But right now, the urgency is white-hot.
Hundreds of organizations, likely including yours, are poised to make one of the most important and potentially perilous decisions in recent corporate history.
What is our Work-from-Home, Back-to-the-Office, Hybrid, Wing-and-a-Prayer decision now that COVID is in decline?
When Microsoft’s 2021 Workplace Trend Report suggests that 40% of workers are actively considering leaving their current job, alarm bells should be rining throughout the Executive Suite – or the home offices and dining room tables of the Executive Suite. Zoom fatigue, loneliness, feelings of detachment and discontent are all contributing factors but they can’t be ignored.
That number alone, even if it’s potentially lower inside your company, should suggest doing a Culture Audit immediately, if not sooner, would be an astute move.
In truth, any significant move inside your organization should be undertaken with the insight of a Culture Audit close at hand.
Corporate layoffs, a COVID spectre that still looms large for many organizations, might be more surgical (than suicidal) if you knew what the culture was inside the parts you’re considering cutting. Be a dreadful shame if that was the group consisting of the most cultural aligned or culturally committed.
Mergers and acquisitions are another critical strategic move significantly enhanced with the insight (or warning signs) derived from a Culture Audit. The 3,840,000 articles thrown up by a Google Search of “mergers fail because of culture” suggests a deep vein of research, Executive angst and shareholder disappointment when culture isn’t factored into a merger. Ironically, the finances get scrutinized at an-almost-Audit level in due diligence, why not the human/culture assets?
A final thought
Culture isn’t easy and it’s not simple. All joking aside, the Executive apprehension quoted at the start of this post is both understandable and legitimate.
However, few will debate that unlocking the creativity, passion and adaptability of the humans in our organizations is one of the most critical requirements needed to accelerate any post-COVID recovery and growth.
Being able to unlock that with dexterity and speed requires gauging, and understanding, all the complexity of the most precious asset you have at your disposal.
A Culture Audit is the critical first step in that determination.
