How to Perform Cultural Assessment

Lisa Jackson of Culture Pros discusses FOUR CRUCIAL must-do’s for conducting an internal cultural assessment in your organization.

According to Edgar Schein – organizational culture guru and thought leader:

“Culture assessment comes into play when an organization identifies problems in how it operates or as a part of a strategic self-assessment relating to merger, acquisition, joint venture, or partnership.
But your ability to decipher your own culture is still limited. What other techniques are available to you?”

A great question... but a perfect answer does not exist.
The intention of the leadership,
the methodology,
the people you choose to do the information-gathering –
all determine whether the data gathered is high quality AND if the remedies to “improve” culture are workable.

Too many companies use culture assessment as a reason to “flush out” problems in the business – then set about fixing them from the same perspective and with the same people who conducted the survey. This is recipe for failure - and lowers trust, rather than identifying fixable problems.

There are GOOD WAYS to perform an internal cultural assessment, all of which depend on the baseline of employee trust today in your company.

The WORST way to use a cultural assessment, is as ammunition versus remedy.

For example: Leaders suspect they have a trust issue or bad leader, and conduct a culture assessment to flush it out – then often punish that person or group, rather than viewing the process (and its outcomes) as a genuine learning opportunity to improve performance and leadership.

(YES the fish always has and always will, rot from the head.)

The best use of cultural assessment is to pinpoint areas of the business that are contributing to high performance - rather than just identify where low performance is a concern.

Further, studying your culture is a tricky process.
You might think of it this way:
What if you were asked directly “Do you like your job?”
Depending on who asked (a good friend vs. your boss) you might give the safe answer VERSUS the truthful answer... and those are not always the same!

It’s also important NOT to confuse culture assessment with “employee experience” or “employee engagement.”

Those outcomes are both elements of culture – and are currently measured frequently via surveys.

But culture involves a deeper understanding the DNA of your identity, beliefs, unsaid or unconscious biases - not just whether people like their job or boss. Of course EE and Engagement are a key indicator of perceptions and actions –

but culture change (which often seeks to alter the ways of working substantially to become more innovative or lead digital transformation or integrate an acquisition) IS a much more complex process.

Thus, ensuring you’re assessing the RIGHT behaviors, beliefs and attitudes with a depth of true understanding is essential.

We have coached many companies to conduct such assessments, and have performed them for organizations that are genuinely seeking to do a proper culture change initiative.

Please contact us if we can assist you! We love to serve, and a no-pressure conversation will support your success either way.

CONTACT US:
[email protected]
720-815-6530
  / lisajacksonculture