What is Organisational Culture?

Organisational culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, norms, and practices that shape the way people behave within an organisation. It encompasses everything from formal policies and procedures to the informal customs and traditions that define the way in which people interact with each other, as well as the organisation's stakeholders. It is the glue that keeps the different functions of the organisation together. The stronger, healthier and more coherent it is, the more effective, agile and productive the organisation will be.

Just like crops cannot grow in soil that is not healthy and well-prepared, all the energy, effort and resources spent to achieve results cannot come to full fruition and realise the desired goals if the organisation’s culture does not enable it.

An organisation's culture needs to be aligned to the organisational strategy to achieve results. At the same time employee’s individual values, beliefs and worldviews determine their actions and decisions, which in turn, influence the culture. Organisational culture development is the process of harnessing the richness of individual diversity and aligning that to develop the culture required to deliver the organisation’s strategy.

Organisational Culture is shaped by a variety of factors including:

• The organisation's history,
• Its mission, values and strategy,
• The personalities and behaviours of its leaders and employees.

Why is Organisational Culture Important?

A healthy organisation culture forms the foundation that enables the optimisation of strategy and organisational efforts. It is the glue that binds all the various elements in the organisation that are required to work together in a focussed and cohesive way to achieve the desired results. It provides a stable platform for further growth, expansion and sustainability, allowing the organisation to thrive in an ever-changing world.

The benefits that a healthy Organisational Culture enables include:

• Fostering a sense of belonging and engagement among employees that leads to higher levels of productivity and performance.
• A positive and supportive environment that encourages employees to take risks, think creatively, innovate and collaborate effectively.
• The development and support of healthy, agile leaders who are able to deal with high complexity, diversity and continuous change.
• A high employee value proposition to attract and retain top talent and improve the organisation's reputation and standing in the community.
• Unlocking and supporting employees’ ability to thrive and use their knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the organisation’s goals and objectives.
• Empowering the organisation to respond to change in an agile way through pro-active resolution of challenges and leveraging opportunities.

Developing and Managing Organisational Culture

An organisation’s culture needs an active effort from leaders to ensure that it is healthy enough to create the necessary foundation and alignment for organisational success. Once the foundation is healthy, it requires ongoing, pro-active management to ensure that it continues to support the organisation’s growth and change.

Pro-active Organisational Culture development and management include:

• Identifying and understanding the underlying drivers of the organisation's culture in a structured way.
• Developing and communicating a clear vision of the desired culture.
• Identifying the gaps and challenges and implementing solutions.
• Taking ongoing steps to shape, influence and align the culture in a positive and constructive way.
• Creating opportunities for employees to participate in shaping the culture.

Leadership’s Roles and Responsibilities in Culture Management

Leadership plays an important role in the ongoing, pro-active management of Organisational Culture. This includes:

• A conscious decision and plan to heal and manage the culture.
• Setting the tone and leading by example.
• Clearly communicating the organisation's mission and values.
• Create and sustain the momentum needed to pro-actively manage a culture that supports the achievement of the organisation's goals and objectives.
• Being open to feedback with a willingness to make changes to the organisation's culture as needed.

Organisational Culture Services and Solutions

Organisation Culture development and management is a journey that consists of a number of structured interventions that need to be sequenced in the right way to build on each other. ChangeVerve offers a diverse suite of products and tools to assess the current state of an organisational culture, develop and implement a transformation plan, as well as develop internal capacity within the organisation to sustain and management the culture.

Our solutions include tried and tested tools, based on cutting-edge research in neuro-science, human behaviour development, culture transformation, and change management, as well as partnerships with international experts.

When used in the correct combination, these solutions can result in focused, rapid, and lasting transformation, effective change management initiatives and high-performance teams.

Solutions include:

• Culture assessments,
• Designing culture transformation strategies and plans to suit your organisation,
• Executing transformation plans against measured targets,
• Skills development and capacity building to manage change and maintain a healthy organisational culture,
• Develop leadership capability to manage change and maintain the desired culture.

Culture Transformation Plans may include:

• Culture assessments,
• Personality Profiling Tools,
• Leadership development,
• Team enhancement / High performance team development,
• Executive Coaching,
• Change management capacity building,
• Business Process Engineering/re-engineering Analysis and Mapping.

We look forward to embark on a journey of Growth and Performance with you!