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So, you want a high-performance culture…

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Break it down

The problem with the abstract is that it remains exactly that — abstract. To create a different culture, organisations need greater clarity. This applies whether the goal is high performance, agility or innovation. Leaders must look more closely at the behaviours that underpin each one.

After all, simply telling someone to “be more innovative” rarely delivers results. I tried this approach on my other half while he searched for his socks. Unsurprisingly, it did not work.

To understand these often overwhelming cultural destinations, we need to dig deeper. We must identify the root behaviours we want to encourage. For instance, imagine that greater agility is your desired cultural outcome. What behavioural characteristics would support it?

To what extent are your people action-orientated and decisive? Are people approachable? Do they share information transparently and flexibly? If so, that is good news. You already possess many of the ingredients required to move in the right direction.

If not, you are at least engaging with the challenge at a practical level. That means you can start addressing it directly. In effect, you give your cultural destination some behavioural ballast. Consequently, leaders gain clearer language to describe what needs to change from today.

Bring on the ballast

This is one of the areas we spend a lot of time on at Coode Associates, bringing the ‘behavioural ballast’ to our clients’ cultural destinations if you will. Using our Culture 15™ diagnostic tool, we help leaders to identify the behavioural characteristics needed to support their desired culture and enable their strategy to succeed, and then we support them on that journey. By breaking the cultural destination down a level and building awareness around the specific behaviours that we need to see more often, we can help our clients to measure how far away they are from that reality today, and set them on the path to success. And it’s not just a topic for Executive teams – with the FRC’s updates to the Corporate Governance Code specifically calling for Boards to play a more tangible role in shaping, monitoring and overseeing organisational culture, Culture 15™ provides a practical route in.

It’s not an overnight journey. After all, you need to tend to your culture if you want it to grow, and it takes time and attention to get there. But if increased agility is a core enabler for your business strategy, investing the time to understand the behaviours you need to get there, and taking people with you on that journey has to be more effective than cries of ‘be more agile’ settling upon a bemused and inflexible workforce.

At Coode, we work with CEOs and leadership teams to enact deep-rooted cultural change and improve their organisational performance. Click the link to find out more about our services and our culture diagnostic tool Culture 15™, or get in touch. 

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