Delta Associates has broad experience in organizational culture. Call Jack Speer @ 512-498-9780 or email jspeer@delta-associates.com.

A Healthy, Vibrant Culture . . . It Never Happens by Chance

When someone speaks of organizational culture, it sounds as if they are suggesting sending all the employees to the opera this year. As nice or horrible as that might seem to you, we’re not talking about that when we use the language of “organizational culture.”

Organizational culture answers these questions: “In your organization, apart from what is written or verbally dictated by formal authority, what is the style of the organization and the ways in which people are expected to behave? Who is normally is seen as having clout and who is powerless? What’s cool to do and what is embarrassing? What is the set of behaviors and norms that tend to hold powerful sway no matter what leader comes or goes?”

Delta Associates engages in the critically important process of building, changing and sustaining organizational culture. Success or failure in this area can mean whether the organization will maintain itself as an organization that can be successful in the present environment or will go the way of the 8-track cassette.

The following are some of the components of our cultural change program:

• Understand the culture and how the organizational components function as pieces of the overall culture. Today we are facing more culture change issues than ever. Organizations still operate in a specific space in an expensive office building. Technology makes it possible that skyscrapers can be abandoned and most people can work with a laptop from their kitchen tables. But what are the unseen implications?
• Creating the Bridge from Past to Present. Over the next few years, Delta Associates predicts that contract employees will exceed the numbers of regular employees. Organizations will tend to hire skillsets for specific needs that they have, often for short periods. Yet under those circumstances how will the organization function that operates from the cover of meetings with a stable set of people? The answer will lie in occasionally bringing contractors and vendors together for what feels like a traditional meeting. The future must look a great deal like the past in order for cultural change to be successful.
• Making New Culture Seem Cool and Rewarded. Years ago, wearing torn denims signified someone who lived in marginal circumstances. Today it costs extra to buy the ragged ones because they’re cool. Early adopters with group popularity must be identified, convinced and rewarded.
• The New Culture Must be Carefully Communicated. Changes are dictated that radically and severely impact the deepest cultural aspects of an organization with little more thought than, “They’ll get over it.” And “they” will get over it, but even the most cynical must ask, “At what price to the organization?” Huge revenues are lost in cultural confusion. One of the keys to cultural change is skillful communication. The impact of cultural change can be lessened greatly by getting out in front of the change and explaining in advance why it is necessary and when it will happen.

Contact us at 512 -498-9780 or jspeer@delta-associates.com to discuss strategies for building and sustaining an organizational culture that attracts the best, keeps them engaged and on-board and deploys them productively.