Culture Development Program

Purpose of Culture Development

The culture of any organisation is a representation of “the way we do things around here”. Research into supportive and non-supportive cultures shows that organisations achieve optimum outcomes through developing a constructive culture by building constructive mindsets and behaviours amongst the leadership team.

"The team at Pacific have been very helpful to me and the senior management team in identifying the key leadership areas for each of us to develop so we are able to achieve our goals and create a constructive culture for the future"
Guy Cooper
Director and Chief Executive
Taronga and Western Plains Zoos

"Lynn and Ross have done great work in helping us conduct our culture survey and interpret the results to develop a plan for the future."
Sandra Hardy
Director
Human Resources
University of Sydney Union

What is Culture Development?

Developing a constructive culture will enable you to more readily achieve optimum outcomes for the clients and the organisation. It provides your people with the”fuel” that enables them to perform at their personal best. The first step in developing culture is to find out what type of culture exists currently. This is done by conducting a survey using a tried and proven methodology - the Human Synergistics Organisation Culture Inventory (OCI), which gives a clear picture of:

• What is the existing culture
  
• What are the elements that are creating the culture
  
• What are the areas that may need special attention
  
• What are gaps between the ideal culture and the existing culture
  
• What to do about closing the gap

This will create a benchmark for all future surveys, and enable you to benchmark with other organisations who use the Human Synergistics culture model.

Once this information is known a comprehensive culture development plan can be prepared which will give a blueprint to work by in creating the ideal culture.

It is important to understand that the Human Synergistics culture survey measures specific cultural drivers. This information cannot be gathered through staff attitude/climate surveys which measure different aspects of the organisation, and is therefore not a replacement for such surveys. Hence we find that some clients use both types of surveys to provide maximum information.

Conducting the Culture Survey

The steps in the survey process are as follows:

1. Communication with staff –why the organisation believes it is important to embark on this initiative
2. Set up and administration of the survey working closely with the Human Resources Manager
3. Culture workshop with senior team
   1. What is culture and how does it work?
   2. How do you get a culture and how do you change it?
   3. Define the ideal culture
4. Run survey and collate results
5. Analyse results and write report covering the following:
   1. What is our current culture
      
   2. What is driving the current culture
      
   3. Areas to pay attention to
      
   4. Gaps between ideal culture and current culture
      
   5. Recommended culture development program
      
6. Present and discuss results as above with the senior team.

Implementing the Culture Development Plan

Once the current culture, ideal culture, and gaps between the two are identified the culture development program should be rolled out throughout the organisation.

This focuses on Phases 2 and 3 outlined above including:

• Senior team workshops exploring the leadership role in leading and developing the ideal culture
  
• Individual coaching on constructive behaviours
  
• Workshops run by leaders for their staff on “the way we do things around here” – and the expected behaviours
  
• Follow up exercises delivered by email
  
• Culture development activities run by staff including things such as: competitions, posters, culture champions, outdoor activities, prizes, rewards, etc