Culture themes

Recognise the risks

• Are there behaviours present in your business right now that may give cause for concern? Sexual harassment, gender or ethnic inequality, high risk behaviours, unethical behaviours, or even extreme achievement behaviours? If these are occurring in your business then you could be sitting on a cultural and reputational time bomb.
• Is culture discussed? Companies that have an open dialogue about values, beliefs and behaviours are more adept at managing reputational risk.
• What happens when performance pressure is applied? Where are the risks? How can you reassure your people that no matter the pressure, certain corporate values and standards will always be preserved?

Action checklist

• Run an honest assessment of your current culture. You need to understand what behaviours are present in the organisation and the beliefs and values upon which they are built.
• Define your values and standards. Make it easy for people to understand the behaviours which are going to be encouraged and discouraged. Be wary of how behaviours become tolerated over time.
• Be overt in describing how the intended culture will impact decision-making in the business. Creating a strong culture story and communication are vital.
• Find your culture champions, those already exhibiting the behaviours you want, and work with them to influence the rest of the organisation.

You may be interested in:

• Our approach to culture assessment.
  
  
• Foundation program:
  Our training program to build understanding of core culture concepts and management practicalities.
  
  
• Lead program:
  Our intensive capability-building program for those in leadership positions. We connect business strategy, to culture, to behaviours, to the individual. It is a personally transformative session.