culture shaping

why a healthy, high-performance culture matters

How would you describe your culture?

Every company has its own unique culture, which is defined by a collective set of values and habits that condition the actions of people within the organization. It is essentially the unwritten and written rules of how people work with each other, customers and other stakeholders.

Cultures become ingrained over time as a response to the style and actions of an influential leader. An organization's culture plays a significant role in its ability to successfully execute strategic plans. Successful leaders shape their cultures instead of allowing their cultures to shape the company.

What is culture shaping?

You can't build a healthy, high-performance culture without changing the behaviors of the individuals and teams that make up the organization. Cultural transformation requires personal transformation as its foundation. Culture shaping is a methodical, comprehensive and integrated approach to shifting a company's culture from the top to the bottom.

Why does a culture need to be shaped?

At best, corporate culture can be a competitive advantage; at worst it can be a significant drag on business results.

Leaders who have worked with us to systematically shape their cultures have a strong understanding that creating a culture that is aligned around their company's mission, vision and values is not the “soft stuff”, but is a vital and disciplined approach to improving performance and enabling strategies to succeed.

Most leaders who try to shape the culture on their own don't succeed. Done correctly, shaping a culture can be very successful, positive, rewarding and stimulating process.

Shaping a culture requires a well coordinated, integrated approach

Shaping a culture is a journey, not an event. The process requires an integrated approach that must begin at the top of the organization and be embedded throughout the entire company. Leading the culture of an organization requires an awareness of and a focus on the following principles:

Purposeful leadership

• Leaders need to have a clear, compelling purpose for the organization and themselves.
• Leaders cast powerful, influencing shadows. They must set the example, putting the key drivers of the desired culture in place and in use.
• The CEO must own and lead the change, not assign ownership to others.

Personal change

• People need to unlock existing habits and make personal behavior change. this occurs on an emotional, not intellectual level. It is best done in natural work teams to shift thinking and reinforce change.
• People need to understand the purpose or reason for shaping their culture. They need to be clear on the “from and to” of the journey.

Broad engagement with energy, momentum and mass

• Momentum, energy and critical mass are needed because cultures resist what they need the most.

• An active, visible group of senior leaders and others, who get it, do it and communicate it in actions and words to ensure the desired culture is in use.

Break through and align institutional practices

• Institutional practices, systems and capabilities need to be in place and in use to drive the desired culture, including HR practices, communication, physical layout and others.
• Visible application, measureable results with feedback, coaching and/or consequences are needed to make the desired culture real and create accountability.