Culture development: from analysis to everyday practice

A culture is viewed in relation to the task and the strategic direction. Reliable routines can sustain the ongoing business and at the same time make new forms of collaboration more difficult. The assignment therefore needs a concrete question: what requirements arise from the new direction, and which existing patterns help or hinder?

Every company has its own cultural fit. Targeted development makes sense when the lived culture is no longer experienced as suitable for achieving the strategic objectives. Typical occasions are rapid growth, mergers and generational change in family businesses. Changed market conditions are another. They call for a strategic realignment, and the culture has to accompany this change.

This is about far more than a pleasant working atmosphere. A fitting culture strengthens communication and decision-making channels and connects stated guiding principles with what is actually lived. This makes strategic orientation easier and increases the capacity to adapt and innovate.

The Systemic Culture Compass offers a common language for observation. The analysis combines a quantitative online survey with interviews or focus groups. This produces a picture of the lived culture and ideas about the desired development. Qualitative conversations help to interpret results and understand differences between departments.

Strategic priorities, formal communication and decision-making channels, key roles and people development are possible starting points. They change the situations in which employees have experiences. What effect this produces cannot be fully predicted. Concrete interventions are therefore combined with feedback and developed further on the basis of the reactions observed.

Culture development follows a sequence of culture analysis, shared awareness of change, a vision of the future, work on structures and processes, strategic initiatives and a learning and development architecture. These elements have to fit the assignment. A shared picture of results alone is not enough. Further work needs people responsible and recurring opportunities to learn.

It starts with clarifying the assignment with the client. This defines the initial situation, objectives, project leadership and the units to be involved. The culture survey follows. Its results are presented to the management board and the operational units involved and discussed together. At the end of the analysis there is a validated picture of the current culture and a representative picture of expectations for the target culture.

In the intervention design, a consulting system of external consultants and internal key people works together. It sets up the project organisation with roles, responsibilities and decision-making structures, determines the target groups and plans organisational and individual measures. These include a schedule with regular progress monitoring, an estimate of internal resources and a proposal for accompanying communication.

Implementation runs in several phases of work and usually takes one to two years. Organisational development and people development interlock: each phase is followed by reflection and qualification for the next. The aim is to reach a critical mass in all target groups.

Two further reference points complete the path. Restabilisation anchors selected innovations in stable standards and processes. The foresighted organisation establishes routines with which the company continuously observes its relevant environments and adapts internal processes. Targeted communication and continuous monitoring of effectiveness accompany the entire path. Scheduled reflection meetings serve to steer the process and adjust it continuously.

Shared values can provide orientation without forcing every department into the same way of working. Leadership, transparent decisions and the handling of mistakes are themselves part of culture development. The question for observation remains concrete: what experiences do people have in decisive situations, and which behaviour patterns are repeated or changed as a result?

Culture cannot be changed at the push of a button or fixed by a decision of leadership. Anyone who merely drafts and publishes values and leadership guidelines exerts hardly any lasting influence. The work therefore addresses the formal structure. The culture is played, as it were, off the cushion. It comments on the changes in its own way, and this reaction is the starting point for the next step.

Failed culture processes come at a price. They often lead to cynicism, frustration and a loss of trust in senior management among the workforce. Managers are therefore more than bearers of status reports. They help shape the change through their own leadership and communication and act as role models for the desired culture.

Culture is the result of recurring expectations and actions. An analysis can make patterns in communication, handling of mistakes or decision-making visible. For the further work, those involved select which of these patterns no longer fit the future strategy. Then concrete situations are needed in which a different practice can be tried out.

Leadership can, for example, clarify the scope for decisions and explicitly include divergent observations. Teams can evaluate what changes in collaboration as a result. If a new practice gets stuck on formal rules or incentives, these conditions must be addressed as well. A mission statement can give direction. Whether culture develops only becomes apparent in people's experiences in actual work.

Leadership has several levers for changing culture. The first is processes. The second is the frameworks of observation and evaluation, that is, what the organisation pays attention to and how it judges it. Then there are communication structures, communication and decision-making routines, and topics.

Two kinds of programmes also belong here. Purpose programmes follow the pattern “in order to” and direct action towards a goal. Conditional programmes follow the pattern “if … then” and link it to a condition. Finally, communication spaces and communication platforms in which exchange takes place can be designed.

transformis names eleven success factors for targeted culture development. The first is an attractive and authentic vision of the future. A clearly communicated strategic positioning creates clarity about the meaning and purpose of the company. Concentrating on a desirable vision of the future that takes the emotions in the company seriously gives collaborative processes an orientation that guides action.

The second factor is an organisational design aligned with the strategic objectives. The questions are what kind of organisation the organisation needs and what degree of agility is required to meet existing customers' current needs while working on solutions for future challenges. Anyone asking these questions should examine the organisational design closely.

Third, a positive culture of learning from mistakes makes it easier to use the knowledge present in the organisation, the so-called system intelligence. Anyone who tries something new makes mistakes. Defined zones of error tolerance and an atmosphere of psychological safety are needed. This strengthens interdisciplinary networking on an equal footing between managers, departments and teams.

Fourth, established learning architectures strengthen organisational resilience. Organisations that interlink people and organisational development cope more easily with change, uncertainty and growing complexity, and they exert structural influence on the culture.

Fifth, purpose-driven leadership makes it easier to distribute responsibility and creates room for action. Explaining a work assignment well is no longer enough. Ideally, a department works out its objectives and their contribution to value creation together with the team. When team members identify with their work and its significance for the company's objectives, effectiveness and independence increase.

The sixth success factor is making decisions collectively in the team. This means decision-making among equals, designed around the exchange of arguments. Agreement is shaped by the better arguments rather than a majority vote. This creates a broad and robust commitment among those involved. It is particularly valuable for complex tasks beyond everyday routines.

Seventh, room for self-reflection strengthens future viability. Companies can rest on their achievements less than ever. Communication routines in which managers and teams observe themselves promote continuous self-renewal. This includes the healthy discarding of outdated or dysfunctional arrangements.

Eighth, the value of corporate identity extends beyond employer branding. Entrepreneurial value creation includes not only financial and economic aspects but also social, ecological and cultural values. It is reflected in a confident and visible corporate identity that gives culture development meaning.

Ninth, transparency towards all stakeholders sharpens this identity. Transparency internally and towards important stakeholders is considered a hallmark of effective organisations. If all important information is in principle accessible, partners can obtain what they need in a targeted way. This also implies an open approach to one's own misconduct.

The tenth and eleventh factors concern the diversity of ways of working with shared values and the role-model function of managers. Early in the process there is also a simple question: what happens if nothing happens? It creates broad awareness that cultural change is necessary.