Is Your Culture Great or a Mere Guise? A Warning for Boards & Execs
Getting a direct read on the value of a designed, aligned culture is difficult; some would say impossible. However, indirect indicators of the value of a poorly aligned, unhealthy culture stand out like prawn’s eyes as we have seen recently with some iconic brands. Shareholder value erosion, talent attrition, reputational indices and poor customer satisfaction, all point to culture.
“Look Up.” A Personal Insight into the Power of Now.
A wet, but determined runner following a riverbank path in the rain. The simple goal is to be as fit as possible by 30th June. My surgeon Sarah has told me to get ready for a major operation coming my way, so every day starts with a lengthy walk or run along the beautiful Karawirra Parri (River Torrens). This story is about a journey of discovery, healing and the parallels with my work in executive development and culture change.
Are you Culture Change Ready? Preparation is Vital.
“Hey James, can you send us a proposal? We have a culture problem that needs fixing.” If I had a $100 for every time I have fielded this request…
At CulturAlchemy our first response is to ask two primary questions:
1) How do you know that you have a ‘culture problem’?
2) Why does it even matter?
These two questions unfold a rich process for explorative dialogue that is learning and begins to diagnose the underlying issues. This process can take days, weeks and even months to unfold.
From Fear To Hope
How the stories we tell frame our response to challenging times.
As Victoria goes deeper into lockdown and other states seem destined to follow, we may feel a sense of descent into darkness, a heaviness, perhaps even depression.
So; I’d like to pose a question for reflection:
Looking back over your life, what were the experiences, the turning points that most led to growth and development, that “made you who you are today”.
The Multiplier Effect of the Board’s Own Culture
The AICD and AFR BOSS Roundtable in late April saw Karen Moses FAICD sum up the Board’s pandemic conundrum vividly;
“The challenge we’ve got around remote working is: how do boards stay connected to culture and how the organisation is faring? We can’t do site visits. We can’t do corridor talks, all those things that would typically give you a line of sight into the pulse of the organisation. That is a puzzle for us to walk through.”
Avoid the NEW Normal Trap. Think NEXT Normal
In six short months, a whole range of new pandemic-created words have entered our lexicon; COVID-19, self-isolating, social distancing and R-naught measures but the phase with an embedded mind-trap is “new normal”.
The world has started what will be infinitely more complex, ambiguous and difficult than was the move to lock-down in March. What lies ahead for leaders and their organisations is the labyrinthine process of navigating our way into new modes of life, business and economic health.
At CulturAlchemy, we have spent recent weeks connecting with executives and board members of our clients in the service of taking the pulse of corporate and government organisations and the economy more broadly. (more…)
CulturAlchemy’s Knowledge Gems
A series of on-line culture articles and magazines created by our Alchemists to help demystify and provide thought leadership to the complexities of organisational culture change.
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