virtual and in-person support for your culture needs

Ultimate Culture and Performance: 90-Day Quick-Start Program

Engage your organization and its members in defining and implementing a customized 90-day blueprint for success with the support of a culture expert. Quantify and connect culture to your top priorities, including customer experience, growth, employee engagement, and/or quality to accelerate desired results. The Culture Quick-Start Program includes a thorough assessment of organizational culture and climate to support a facilitated planning session with a leadership team and/or change team.

Download PDF Here

Education Version PDF

Key Benefits of the Culture Quick-Start Program

Adopt a Proven Language for Culture

Measure critical dimensions of your organization's culture and climate, including values, norms, factors that lead to norms, and attitudes and other outcomes.

Ensure Accountability and Confidence

Build ownership across the organizations as team members at all levels unite to support the most important improvement plans.

Facilitate Shared Learning and Results

Adjust strategies/plans and employee involvement approaches to support shared learning and performance as a team.

Four-Phase Approach to Culture and Performance Improvement

Four-Phase Approach to Culture Change: Phase 1

Understand “Why”

Discover and align

Four-Phase Approach to Culture Change: Phase 2

Build a Baseline

Enlist and engage, measure and analyze

Four-Phase Approach to Culture Change: Phase 3

Create Change

Debrief results, build capability and initiate planning

Four-Phase Approach to Culture Change: Phase 4

Learn & Sustain

Finalize plans, implement, learn and adjust

What’s Included in the Culture Quick-Start Program

+ Purpose & Vision

A requirement-gathering session will be carried out with key leaders to clarify the purpose and vision for the culture blueprint.

+ Education

Top leaders and change agents will be briefed on culture and performance connections. Based on the How Culture Works model, this briefing will focus on the subtle ways that climate shapes culture—many of which are not widely understood.

+ Focus Groups & Interviews

Individuals and groups will participate in facilitated sessions to capture insights (stories, examples, etc.) about the current cultural norms, underlying beliefs, and their impact on outcomes/performance.

+ Culture & Climate Analytics

The most widely used and thoroughly researched culture assessment, along with a complementary climate survey, will be administered to generate reliable feedback for planning change. Our culture survey and climate measures provide a common language and invaluable data on critical aspects of culture and climate and how they’re connected.

+ Sub-Culture Analysis

Culture and climate differences across levels, departments/groups, and other strata will be used to identify and spread best practices and to customize improvement plans. The objective will be to understand culture gaps and their impact on outcomes within different levels, groups, and units.

+ Ideal Culture & Organizational Values

Use qualitative and quantitative approaches to identify the ideal culture for the organization in terms of the shared values—specifically, the behaviors that members believe would maximize performance. Gaps between shared values and the behaviors currently expected will be analyzed to determine if refinements in norms are needed.

+ Improvement Planning

Key learnings about the current culture and climate will be captured from top leaders and used as a foundation for devising and adjusting strategies/plans to create a more Constructive culture and improve effectiveness.

+ Roadmap & Engagement

A customized roadmap will be developed to share results throughout the organization and to ensure clarity regarding improvement plans.

+ Culture Expert Coaching

Coaching and genuine support from a culture expert will be provided throughout the entire program. Each expert is a member of the Human Synergistics Global Change Circle™ with extensive experience improving or sustaining performance via culture.

Feedback & Testimonials

“This work gave us surgical clarity regarding our problems and what needs to be done to resolve them. It will allow us to turbocharge our plans and results.”

Plant Manager at a Major Consumer Products Company

“After conducting over 7 mergers/acquisitions, our organization was a potpourri of cultures. It was very important to honor the histories of these organizations while at the same time pull people together toward a common vision. We utilized Human Synergistics’ Organizational Culture Inventory^® to facilitate the collaborative process of defining our Ideal Culture and capture objective data about the characteristics of our Current Culture. We were then able to establish project teams to focus on key development areas that directly drove improved company performance.”

Sandy Kuohn, Chief Human Capital Management Officer, TCF Bank

“Sometimes folks identify evolving culture as something really monumental. What this work did was to put things into really tactical, very digestible pieces where leaders and team members can understand the day-to-day actions and habits that ultimately impact culture.”

Nikki Green, Manager, Organizational Development, Universal Parks and Resorts

FAQs

+ What is the time investment for top leaders?

Top leaders are typically involved in individual interviews, an introductory orientation and requirements gathering session of 1-2 hours, and facilitated planning events that range from 1-3 days depending on scope.

+ Can the program be expanded with additional custom elements?

Absolutely. Common customization options include individual coaching sessions with top leaders, expanded qualitative interviews and focus groups across multiple locations, engagement of larger groups or teams (e.g., company meetings, top 100 leader groups, etc.) in improvement planning, formation and coaching of a change team, leadership and/or management development programs, and Leadership/Impact^® assessments of top leaders.

+ How soon will we see results?

Improvement plans will be directed toward critical mission and/or performance priorities like customer experience, growth, innovation, and/or inclusion. Leading indicators in the outcome(s) targeted typically show improvement in 3-9 months. Some quick wins should be observed, but major changes in outcomes are likely in 12-18 months (at which time posttest surveys are recommended for evaluation purposes).

+ Is there an option to use the culture and climate assessment without consulting support?

Yes, we have an option for one or more of your internal consultants or organizational development specialists to complete our Culture Accreditation Workshop. Your accredited team member(s) may then conduct an assessment, receive and interpret the feedback report, and support leaders in creating change. While not required, we do recommend the support and advice of an accredited external culture expert if it is your first time utilizing our assessments.

+ What types of organizations are the best fit for the quick-start program?

- Organizations desiring to go beyond just measuring outcomes like engagement and to understand the underlying culture and related forces driving those outcomes

- Organizations looking to shape or change culture via initiatives that involve leadership development

- Organizations interested in a program to unify subunits and integrate teams while supporting their differentiated objectives

Note: Leaders will need to commit the time to apply a disciplined and inclusive approach to drive shared learning and results as a team.

+ What should follow the culture quick-start program?

Consulting options include continuing to work with the accredited external culture expert and/or accrediting internal team members in Human Synergistics diagnostics so that they can take the program to the next level. Subsequent developmental initiatives should focus on the levers for change identified during the quick-start program—potentially involving additional management and leadership development, structural changes, changes in technologies and the design of jobs, initiatives to improve communication, team development, new appraisal and reward systems, etc. The improvement approach should be continued for 12-24 months before a re-measure using the Organizational Culture Inventory^® (OCI^®) and Organizational Effectiveness Inventory^® (OEI) as a foundation for a second cycle of planning and improvement.