Define Organizational Culture and Manage Change
The Five Ps is a model that depicts a system-wide view of an organization. You can use the Five Ps to understand your organizational culture and to use culture to manage change.
The Five Ps
Once you have defined the central three Ps of the Core Culture, you can bring change by aligning the Internal and External Practices and the Projections with the Core Culture attributes.
Alignment of the Five Ps
The Building a Culture of Distinction program is a four-step process for bringing needed change to an organization. Use this process to guide you in using culture to drive change.
The Culture of Distinction Program Cycle
The steps of the organizational change process are as follows:
1. Define the Core Culture of your organization
2. Audit for alignment
3. Develop a plan to improve alignment
4. Implement the plan and monitor success
When conducting an Organizational Culture Assessment, use these questions as a guide when collecting information through interviews, open-ended surveys and/or focus groups. During interviews, be sure to ask follow-up questions to enrich the information you collect. Encourage examples and stories.
Although the questions are designed to reveal particular attributes of the Core Culture, you will find that the responses are not always clear cut. Often people’s responses do not directly answer the question. Be open to what the information you collect actually reveals. For example, a Philosophy question might yield a Priority. You must understand the differences between a Philosophy and a Priority so that you classify the response in the most appropriate attribute category. Review the explanation of the Five Ps to ensure you understand these concepts.
Some of these questions sound repetitive. Often, using a slightly different word or phrase in a question will yield either confirming or new, insightful responses.
Below are some questions to consider asking employees in your process for conducting an organizational culture assessment.
Introductory Question
Purpose Questions
Philosophy Questions
Priorities Questions
An organizational culture assessment is a process for defining and shaping the culture of your company. The outcome is a well-defined set of Core Culture principles and values (the vital Purpose, the distinctive Philosophy, and the strategic Priorities) that center the organization and provide the criteria for all employee practices.
If you’ve never conducted an organizational culture assessment, now is the time to consider it. There are several options for conducting a Core Culture Assessment. Choose the option that works best for your organization.
An organization that has not taken the time to define its core culture principles lacks a clearly-defined identity. And with that lack of clarity, the organization will struggle to be successful. It will experience inadequate performance and unattained goals. In successful organizations, employees are united in shared principles.
Take the time to assess your organizational core culture. It will jump start a process for positive change. Contact me for information on the best way to conduct an organizational culture assessment for your organization.
When things are not going well—for example, good employees are leaving, commitment seems lacking, productivity is not up to par—an organization needs to make some changes. But where do you start? Unless the remedy is clear, rather than making isolated changes, the smarter strategy is to examine the culture of the organization.
When you incorporate change through a culture-defining and alignment process, the organization clarifies the desired values, reviews current practices, and creates a plan for more effectively living those core culture principles. Through this process, expectations for behavior are understood. Any behaviors that are not in sync with the core values are seen as a gap that must quickly be remedied.
Many believe that organizational culture change is a long and involved process. But when employees participate in defining and molding the culture to enhance the organization’s ability to succeed, then the changes that emerge are easier to implement.
Use organizational culture change to bring needed change to your company. Let change management really be a process of defining your core culture, auditing your Practices and Projections, and executing a plan to live the core culture principles and values better each and every day. Bring change from the inside out. Treat your organization as a system. Link organization change to the culture that is valued.
Sheila L. Margolis, PhD
President, Workplace Culture Institute
