When you assess your organizational culture, you will be looking at the values, beliefs, and behaviors of leaders and employees. While some characteristics of your culture may be evident, others may be harder to define. It can be a challenge to analyze organizational culture, but it is a worthwhile exercise because understanding culture can help you identify which aspects of it are working and which may need improvement or transformation.

Examine Key Attributes of the Organization

A helpful way to analyze company culture is to explore some of the key attributes of the organization, such as how decisions are made and how employees feel about change initiatives. While each organization’s culture is a mix of different attributes, here are some examples that will facilitate a deeper understanding of your corporate culture:

Leadership involvement: Leaders are often key catalysts for driving a particular kind of culture. They model corporate values and deliver feedback that shapes employee behavior. When looking at organizational culture, it’s helpful to observe whether leaders demonstrate the behaviors that are needed to support the culture or if they take a “do as I say, not as I do” approach.

Decision-making: When you examine the role of critical analysis and the degree to which multiple stakeholders have a voice in decision-making, you can pick up useful clues regarding the type of organizational culture that exists. For example, centralized decision-making may be more prevalent in a hierarchical culture, but, as one researcher points out, the same organization may have pockets of consensus-driven decision-making.

How people communicate: How employees communicate internally says a lot about your culture. It can be helpful to observe not only the most common forms of communication (for example, whether most employees communicate face-to-face or via email) but also the degree to which open, honest, and two-way communication is common among employees and leaders.

Openness to innovation: When analyzing culture, it’s helpful to note how the organization approaches risk and evaluates new ideas. A culture of innovation is not limited to start-ups. As one venture capitalist notes, innovative cultures in companies of all sizes share attributes such as embracing risk, accepting failure, and routinely experimenting with new ideas.

Approach to learning and development: A culture of continuous learning is typically one where employees and leaders seek out opportunities to acquire new skills and knowledge that will help them improve their performance. To better understand your culture, examine the variety of learning and development opportunities available to employees and how they respond to the opportunities.

Approach to change management: Change is the great constant, and how organizations approach it is an important characteristic of company culture. If leaders and employees resist change or rarely talk about it, that could be a sign of a more rigid culture. Alternatively, if change is welcomed and the organization has a strategy and detailed processes for managing it, then a more flexible culture may exist.

3 Steps to Successfully Improving Your Culture

Every organizational culture has room for improvement. Here are three steps to successfully implementing changes to your corporate culture:

#1. Identify culture gaps: With the aid of tools like surveys and culture assessments, conduct a gap analysis to fully understand the culture you have and how it compares to the culture you want. A gap analysis not only helps you define the existing culture, but it can also deliver new insights into employee attitudes and beliefs that might have been previously unknown or misunderstood.

#2. Develop a plan for the new culture: Once you’ve identified the desired culture, it’s important to develop a strategy for achieving it. Transforming corporate culture often requires new skills training to help leaders and employees develop the behaviors required to succeed.

#3. Reinforce the new culture: Sustained culture change requires that leaders continue to model desired behaviors and leverage the skills and knowledge they’ve gained to support their employees. The use of reinforcement tools can also significantly help. These tools include mobile boost learning, multi-rater assessments, and culture impact scorecards that help manage culture on an ongoing basis.

Build a Thriving Culture

Culture is unique to each organization and analyzing it is a process of observation, asking questions, and using tools to identify a variety of organizational attributes. Regardless of the type of organizational culture you have or the one you strive for, it’s necessary to provide employees with the required skills and knowledge for adjusting their behavior. Depending on your size and the degree of culture transformation  you’re trying to achieve, there are a variety of tools available to help you successfully analyze your culture, and if needed, change it.

One of the most important components of successful change management is executive alignment. Whether your organization is undergoing a major culture transformation, kicking off a strategic initiative, or involved in a merger or acquisition, having leadership aligned during times of change is critical to your success. So, if you feel your organization is lacking executive alignment, it is important to know the potential effects it may be having on your business so you can take swift action to remedy it:

Corporate Culture Suffers

When alignment among leadership is lacking, there will also be a lack of clarity that will have a negative impact on the company’s culture. When people are left confused or frustrated for too long as a result of misaligned leadership, everyday conversations at the water cooler may quickly turn distracting or destructive to your company’s culture.

The best way to put a stop to this and take steps to repair the culture, is to have leaders collectively wrestle through the tough issues of mission, values, and strategy, and then effectively cascade that clarity throughout the organization. This will provide your organization with a common language, and an agreement on what to do in order to hold each other accountable to the desired culture. Providing this high-quality information will prevent individuals from filling in the blanks themselves with a negative picture of reality.

Leaders and Their Employees Are Uncertain of Expectations

Clarity and alignment begin at the top, and must trickle down to the people leaders and eventually to the individual contributors. If this does not happen, leaders are left on their own to make decisions with the information they have available to them. While they will try to direct their team and individuals, using this information to the best of their ability, neither party can be certain of the right decisions. Unsurprisingly, this leads to mixed messaging, with both employees and leaders getting confused and frustrated about what they are working toward. To overcome this and get change initiatives back on track for success, executive alignment must be achieved.

Your Organization’s Purpose Is Unclear or Undefined

When an organization’s purpose is lived authentically, it will act as a guiding compass for employees and leaders, ultimately dictating the right path forward. If there is no executive alignment on it, the purpose of the organization will be unclear to everyone. This leaves priorities open to interpretation from various vantage points depending on role, level, or department. When this happens, an organization where teams or departments are moving in every direction, rather than in the same direction toward a common goal. All too often this leads to decreased engagement, increased frustration, and a lack of momentum.

Inconsistent and Irregular Communication Causes Confusion

If the communication coming from decision-makers at the top is not open, transparent, and consistent, it may be a sign that there is a problem with executive alignment somewhere in the organization. When leaders are uncertain of the strategic direction, or not aligned with their fellow leaders, this can lead to inconsistent and irregular communication that contributes to the challenges mentioned above. The workforce relies on the communication they receive from the top to make decisions, and to know that what they are doing is in line with the rest of the organization and the change they are aiming to achieve. If this communication changes drastically based on who it is coming from and when, alignment and clarity must be improved.

Next Steps To Achieving Executive Alignment

Executive alignment is always important to organizational growth, but never is this more apparent than during times of major change – which, in today’s world, is more frequent than ever. If executives are aligned on organizational objectives and are committed to a strategy for the change, it will help bring the entire organization onboard. It will help support a corporate culture that promotes accountability and momentum, create clarity around expectations and the organization’s overall purpose, and help ensure that communication is consistent, transparent, and supports the desired outcomes.

When it comes to understanding the balance between theory and practice, look no further than your own home. There are many parenting theories, ranging from authoritarian (telling their children exactly what to do) to indulgent (allowing their children to do whatever they wish) and everything in between. As a relatively new grand-parent, I have watched with amusement as the parents-in-waiting espouse their unique theory of how they will raise their child. In most cases, these theories experience dramatic change as reality hits over the first 4 – 5 years.

Theory is an excellent starting point for understanding something complex. It can also be dangerous if we think we can master something by putting a label on it. In our solution oriented society, one perspective or theory can be adopted as the silver bullet to solve a mystery. If a person has trouble focusing, we explain it by labeling them ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). If they are fastidious, they are OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). And if they are wildly unpredictable, they are Bipolar. But these labels or theories never describe the whole person. They can at best only lead us to a better understanding if we apply them correctly.

New leaders usually adopt some theory of leadership, only to refine their perspective as the years of experience temper their initial position. Great leaders hold views lightly, and are open to assessing alternate and even conflicting theories as they develop their world view. I recently was struggling with my view of strategic planning. I read a book by Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel called “Strategy Safari”. The authors discussed ten theoretical approaches to strategic thinking, and concluded that there is a place for each method. Only after understanding all of the different techniques, could I come to my own understanding of what will work for me.

Robert Ornstein wrote in “The Psychology of Consciousness” about how an elephant is made of many unique parts. We do not obtain an elephant by adding separate observations of trunk, legs and tail together in conceivable proportion; he concludes that understanding “does not arise out of a linear sum of independent observations.” In other words, understanding requires both science and art.

As leaders, we gather independent data, and then form our images in the mysterious reaches of our minds. So, study business theory, then practice until you have looked at the elephant from all sides. Theory and practice must work in concert to create real understanding.

Change leadership is more than managing changes in company processes or tools; it is leading employees through the waters of change. Because it affects everyone, leading change requires the buy-in and support of all employees impacted by the change. They need to know what to expect, their role in the change, the benefits of changing, and how to react when they encounter change. Unfortunately, as pointed out in an article published by the Association for Talent Development, many organizations struggle to achieve employee buy-in and support for change, for reasons such as employee resistance, inadequate resources, and leadership behavior that doesn’t support change. To effectively lead change, here are a handful of actions you can take to prepare your team.

Share the Vision

Employees need to understand not just that change is coming, but why the change is necessary. Taking the time to craft and communicate a vision for change helps the team to see that the change is a reality and not just words or wishful thinking. Sharing your vision also helps individuals to distinguish between which processes or accountabilities in the organization are changing imminently and which changes are more long-term. A vision can also be a source of inspiration to the team because it helps them visualize how things will look after the change has taken place.

Communicate Frequently

Telling employees that change is coming is informative, but it doesn’t effectively prepare the team for change. People often benefit from hearing messages of change frequently and in different forums so they have ample time to develop a deeper understanding of the change that is coming. Frequent communication in the form of one-on-one conversations, team meetings, and email communications not only helps the team understand upcoming changes, but also improves transparency, gives individuals opportunities to ask questions, and helps to open the door for employees to provide feedback.

Create Opportunities for Two-way Feedback

Communication about upcoming change shouldn’t be one-sided. Two-way feedback that provides individuals with a forum for expressing their concerns gives you the opportunity to add clarity and resolve confusion. It can also help to reduce individuals’ anxiety or fears about change as they learn how their role in the change management efforts will look.

Often, when individuals have a chance to discuss upcoming changes with other members of the team, they begin to see they’re not alone and that their fellow teammates can be a source of support for them. Two-way feedback opportunities, such as in-person or virtual brainstorming sessions, team off-sites, and other group sessions, allow individuals to discuss and resolve shared concerns or areas of confusion. The more people participate in dialogue about the changes that affect them, the more they become personally invested and likely to embrace the changes.

Determine Training Needs

Sometimes, changes are complex and sizeable enough that it’s clear the team doesn’t have the knowledge or skill set to deal with them. In this case, a valuable way to prepare your team for organizational change is to determine what kind of training will help them better cope with change and approach it successfully. Whether it’s leadership development that helps individuals more effectively manage themselves or others or skills development training in the areas of communication skills, teamwork, or time management, you can pinpoint training opportunities that will help individuals more effectively approach change before it happens.

Designate Change Champions

Like many things in the organization, preparing for change is a team effort. Instead of assuming that executive or team leaders are the only ones who can help prepare the team for organizational change, it can be helpful to identify others on the team who can help to drive and champion change. Instead of going it alone, look for those who are excited about the change and embrace the ideal behaviors and actions you want to see in everyone else. These people can then be peer leaders who lead by example and set the tone for embracing change.

In many ways, preparing for organizational change can be just as challenging as dealing with the change itself. With some thoughtful actions that introduce a vision for change and support individuals along the way, it is possible to reduce resistance or confusion about upcoming change. Sometimes people aren’t resistant to change at all; they just need a path and some patience to prepare for it.

We live in a world of automatic fixes. If your computer is acting up, you run antivirus software to fix it. If you don’t know how to get somewhere, your smartphone can give you directions while you’re driving—it will even make adjustments to get you back on track if you take a wrong turn.

Unfortunately, there is no such automatic fix to help your business strategy identify potential problems and the solutions that would best address them. In an automated world, organizational development is an area that still requires human ingenuity and ongoing effort to achieve excellence.

People, Process, and Tools

Since technology can’t do all the work, you must create an organizational development plan, establish regular checkpoints to assess your progress, and correct your course along the way. To execute excellently, try using an approach called “People, Process, Tools.” It works like this:

1. As Jim Collins advises in his book Good to Great, ask if you have the right people in the right seats.
2. Secondly, ask if you have the best process in place to enable people to optimize their performance. Are systems and processes fluid, or are they creating roadblocks to success?
3. Finally, ask if your people have the right tools to operate at maximum efficiency. Remember that tools and technology make a great servant and a terrible master, so tools are only valuable if they support and enable better performance.

Picture this: You go for dinner at an expensive restaurant. You place your order and wait patiently for 45 minutes, only to have your meal delivered cold. Is this a problem with people, process, or tools?  In fact, it could be any or all of these. If you were the restaurant manager, you would need to dig deeper to determine which area is causing the problem and establish a plan to fix it.

Implementing a System in Your Organization

Even if you think you already know where the weaknesses are with respect to your company’s people, process, and tools, using a systemized approach to organizational development can mean the difference between achieving excellence and constantly patching the holes. Here a few steps to follow:

Assess

Evaluate all areas of your organization and ask the following questions:

• People: What skills and competencies are necessary for each role? Do the people in each position have them?
• Process: Are the processes that are currently in place working? Are there new processes that should be implemented to help you achieve excellence?
• Tools: Does each person have the necessary tools to properly execute their role? Do those tools need to be updated?

Create a Path

After you have identified the weaknesses in each area, create a path forward by answering these questions:

• People: What specific competencies does each employee need to develop or hone in order to be successful in his or her role?
• Process: What steps will you take to improve ineffective processes and/or implement new ones?
• Tools: What steps will you take to ensure that each person has the tools they need to succeed?

After you have generated your answers, create clear milestones, schedule training if necessary, create committees, and make the necessary purchases to help you achieve those goals in the stated time frames.

Use Checkpoints to Correct Your Course

As you create your organizational development plan, make sure you create checkpoints between milestones to assess your progress so you can make adjustments as needed. For example, you might find that a particular employee has a more robust skill set than you originally thought, making them a candidate for a future leadership role and putting them on a new training track. You might also discover new tools or processes that you were previously unaware of, making it possible to create a new milestone. Whatever the appropriate course correction may be, you won’t necessarily realize it unless you take a step back and look at the bigger picture of your progress.

Take a good look at your team. If you could improve in just one area, would it be the people, the process, or the tools? If you’re not sure how to get started, download our free resources, The Ultimate Guide to Organizational Development, to learn more about how to assess your current status and create a path to get from where you are now to where you want your business to be.

The goal for every organization is to create a high-performance culture allowing employees to perform to their fullest potential. When you cultivate a culture that supports skill development and continuous learning, you’re creating a work environment that encourages high productivity and performance. But other factors contribute to high employee performance, including fewer environmentally-influenced traits like IQ, EQ, and personality. While there may not be a clear answer (which is most critical), you may want to consider some important factors  when thinking about key contributions to employee performance.

IQ

IQ is a measure of an individual’s intelligence—their ability to learn and synthesize information.  Individuals need a certain level of intelligence to function in life and do their jobs effectively. Historically, IQ was considered a strong predictive measure of performance. In the early 2000s, organizations began to recognize that IQ, while an effective measure of cognitive ability, could not effectively measure an individual’s ability to be smart about the needs and motivations of others—key skills needed to succeed in business. The limitations of IQ began to pave the way for an expanded discussion about intelligence based on the introduction of emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence and EQ

Emotional intelligence, measured as EQ (emotional quotient), is the ability to identify and manage your emotions and the emotions of others. It helps you navigate and manage tough personalities at work while guiding your ability to display empathy, demonstrate active listening, and work successfully as part of a team. There is evidence of a strong link between high employee performance and high EQ, as research has found that high emotional intelligence determines 58 percent of success at work.

Some organizations value a high EQ over a high IQ, in large part because intelligence about the motivations, desires, and emotions of others is such a critical success factor at work. In fact, in a CareerBuilder Survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers and HR professionals, 71 percent said they favored emotional intelligence in an employee over IQ.

Personality

A high IQ and EQ are not the only traits that can contribute to an individual’s high performance. Personality—what makes you ‘you’—also impacts performance. Despite many theories on the psychology of personality, the traits comprising our personalities do impact job performance. For example, our level of extroversion and introversion, communication style, and level of conscientiousness affect our behavior at work. In fact, one study found that 37% of variations in job performance are attributable to extroversion personality characteristics.

While personality (who we are) is not exactly the same as behavior (what we do), it can affect job performance and the way we approach our work. For example, when faced with the challenge of giving a presentation at work, an individual with an extroverted personality may feel energized by the prospect of being in the spotlight. Conversely, an individual with an introverted personality might feel less comfortable as the center of attention, and might structure the presentation to pull the audience into a discussion so more views can be heard. Depending on the expectation level, either the extrovert or the introvert will perform better when giving the presentation.

Secret Sauce for High Performance?

Research has shown that environmental factors, as well as IQ, EQ, and personality, contribute to high employee performance. The combination of an individual’s innate characteristics and a high-performance work culture are the main building blocks for employee success at work. When all these ingredients for success merge, when they come together, then an individual is in the best position to learn new skills and behaviors that will lead to continuous performance improvement.

Experiential learning is an ideal tool to support continuous learning and performance improvement.  When individuals learn and repeat behaviors, neurons in the brain grow stronger, and performance improves. This is at the heart of experiential learning; individuals learn and practice new behaviors in training, which are reinforced through repetition, coaching, and follow-up after training.

While there are indicators, there is no secret sauce for high performance. Coupled with the fact that each individual is different and possesses a unique mix of capabilities and personality traits, the reality is that IQ, EQ, personality, and work culture must blend together to support individual learning and productivity.  Once experiential training is added to the mix, your employees can be well-positioned to learn, practice, and master the behaviors that will contribute to sustainable high performance.

Rather than focusing on customer service or the customer experience, healthcare professionals appropriately concentrate on their patients’ experience. Creating a positive experience goes beyond meeting a certain standard of medical care—it has to do with the entire patient journey, from the first person patients have an interaction with to the very last (and we’re not just talking about medical staff here). Now more than ever, this has become particularly important to healthcare organizations, because patients have more choice and the ability to shop around for their healthcare providers.

In addition, healthcare professionals face challenges beyond the typical customer-provider relationship, because they must adeptly handle sensitive information, physical examinations, and the expected emotional stress that patients feel. Shifting your organization to a patient-centric mindset can help address those challenges and ensure that the entire patient experience is a positive one.

What Is Patient Centricity?

Patient centricity is about more than customer service training—it’s about behaviors. You more than likely already have programs in place that teach employees skills such as how to maintain a positive attitude with patients, handle billing disputes, and so on. To go one step further, consider whether every employee personally understands and believes the power they have to influence the patient experience. What your employees believe will inform their behaviors, and ultimately, the patient experience.

When an organization commits to a culture of patient centricity, the culture must be implemented at every level, especially with those not directly interacting with patients as they be most unclear about their effect on the patient. Creating a patient-centric culture requires every person in the organization to approach every decision with the mindset of “how will this impact the patient experience?” Not only does this make a challenging or stressful situation more positive for patients, it also leads to improved performance in patient metrics, and ultimately, a true, lasting change within the organization that inevitable efforts employee engagement and the employee experience.

5 Benefits of a Patient-Centric Culture

One of the end goals of cultivating a patient-centric culture is to improve patient satisfaction. A culture change, not just skills training, can do this, thanks to:

1. Better Communication

Patients and loved ones are often anxious to hear status updates throughout their journey with you. Whether the news is good or bad, the more clearly and more frequently healthcare professionals communicate, the better the experience will be for the patient. In addition to learning the skills to communicate with compassion, patient centricity also creates the impetus to be proactive about communication so that questions are answered before the patient feels the need to ask.

2. Culture Alignment

Every organization has a culture, including healthcare organizations. When all providers and support staff are on the same page about how to interact with patients in a patient-centric culture, the experience will be more consistent. Get your employees aligned around why your organization does what it does, the vision for how that is done, and the values to live by. This gives everyone a greater purpose and allows them to ensure their everyday actions support them.

3. Empathy in All Situations

Many healthcare providers are naturally skilled at expressing genuine empathy about health issues, but are not always trained to do the same about service issues. The patient experience encompasses every interaction, and when billing errors or other administrative mistakes occur, it’s important for staff—including medical staff—to respond with sensitivity and to help resolve any issues. In a patient-centric culture, employees are able to see beyond their own roles and contribute to delivering what patients need, even if it’s outside the scope of their job descriptions.

4. Employee Engagement

While it’s true that many healthcare professionals and support staff start their careers with a sincere commitment to providing excellent patient service, this can wane over time as the rigors of the job take effect. Organizations that take steps to keep employees engaged and enthusiastic about their work will benefit from the results of a good employee experience and a stronger commitment to the entire patient journey.

5. Less Burnout

Burnout is a real issue for healthcare professionals. Patient centricity encourages employees to look at the bigger picture and take the necessary steps to deliver an exceptional patient experience. Creating an environment in which employees know to look at the bigger picture when they are overwhelmed, and seek help to achieve what’s needed, will allow them to serve others better.

When you strip away the details, healthcare is a business and patients are customers. However, the practitioner-patient relationship is a complex one. Creating a culture of patient centricity is the way to achieve lasting change and the desired results, such as increased patient loyalty, more referrals, and a better return on investment.

Introduction

Every organization has a unique combination of leadership characteristics and employee behaviors that contribute to the shared values and standards that are expressed and acted on. At Eagle’s Flight, we have identified several types of corporate culture that can be cultivated to create a higher-performing workplace. Of course, not every corporate culture is suited to a particular organization, as each comes with its own set of benefits and potential detriments to be monitored.

4 Types of Corporate Culture

This list of pros and cons for four different types of corporate culture outlines how they can foster, or potentially hinder, organizational excellence.

1. Culture of Accountability

In this type of corporate culture, individuals feel accountable for both their own work and that of their teams. As such, they feel empowered to take ownership and trust that their colleagues do the same.

Pros:

• Potential issues are identified before they become real problems
• Employees feel comfortable coming to leadership with new concepts
• Individuals are motivated to share ideas that might improve the organization

Cons:

• The word “accountability” can sometimes have negative connotations to employees
• A heavy focus on accountability for poor decisions can decrease morale

In a culture of accountability that functions well, every team member actively and willingly contributes to the success of the organization, because they understand that their contributions have value. On the other hand, organizations that place too much emphasis on accountability for negative outcomes can experience a decrease in performance, as employees are less willing to risk testing new methods and ideas.

2. Culture of Innovation

In organizations that depend on innovation to maintain success in the marketplace, it is essential to integrate team members with diverse skill sets and provide the tools and processes that enable them to develop and implement new ideas.

Pros:

• A shared commitment to innovation at every level of the organization
• Competitive advantage in the marketplace
• An inclusive environment that welcomes all ideas

Cons:

• Internal competition can become unhealthy if not handled appropriately
• There is potential to create a culture of secrecy

Creating a successful culture of innovation depends on empowering teams to be creative and giving them the necessary resources to execute their ideas in a safe environment. However, too much emphasis on competition between teams can lead to secrecy and ultimately hinder performance by preventing knowledge from being shared.

3. Culture of Safety

Industries that require work that poses potential safety risks to individuals and the environment can benefit from a culture in which employees inherently protect not just themselves but also their teammates and their surroundings.

Pros:

• Cost savings due to fewer safety incidents
• Inherent knowledge that the organization values employee safety
• A proactive approach to safety and compliance

Cons:

• Lost productivity if employees don’t have proper training for operating both efficiently and safely
• A strong focus on adhering to strict protocols and regulations can limit innovation

A culture of safety contributes to high performance while mitigating risk and maintaining compliance. However, an organization that also wants to promote innovation must balance internal communication and training in a way that allows individuals to experiment with new ideas while also considering their own well-being and that of those around them.

4. Culture of High-Performance Sales

Organizations with a large salesforce benefit from having a common culture that supports the activities that generate revenue by providing access to the necessary information and resources to promote new products and services.

Pros:

• An informed salesforce that can successfully promote the organization’s products and services

• A commitment from leadership and employees to support the salesforce
• Accountability in setting and exceeding sales goals

Cons:

• Potential competition that results in not sharing knowledge or resources
• Loss of focus on customer centricity

A culture of high-performance sales has the potential to increase revenue, but without a tandem focus on truly satisfying customer needs, the team might not be able to achieve long-term success.

Balance Is the Key

When undergoing any type of culture transformation, consider both the desired positive impacts and the potential negative effects that might arise. Understanding the possible pitfalls can help you address them through organizational training, internal communication, and behavior modeling.