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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
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.
Merging two organizations is a complex process. And it’s the details that can bog you down. From the way you slice a lemon to the way you serve a drink, each practice must be evaluated to ensure that those with a Delta or a Northwest history will perform similarly. The details are significant because they are not only habit for the employee, but also practices that should reflect the culture.
Evaluating how employees do everything might be excruciating, but it might also be a valuable experience. It’s the details that communicate values and produce a consistent customer experience. Companies should take the time to consider how work is designed and the systems and processes for doing work because if these actions do not reflect and align with the principles and values of the organization’s core culture, then the customer experience might not convey the right message about the company.
So even if your company has not experienced a merger, stop and evaluate what you do in your work each day. Screen those actions against the values that are core to your organization and make changes so that every action consistently produces an experience that supports what your company says is important. It’s the little things that matter–yes, the details can make all the difference. Each Delta employee greeting, each pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight experience should consistently communicate a set of values that differentiate the company and express what’s important. Know the values of your culture and be sure all the little things you do at work reflect, reinforce and align with those prime principles.
After reading the WSJ article “Michael Dell Looks Beyond PC Business,” you may wonder where is the soul of Dell. In the excerpts of the WSJ interview with Michael Dell, no clear company Purpose or set of defining principles–a Philosophy–stand out. Where is the soul of Dell?
Leadership is the dominant driver of culture and strategy; therefore, in all communications, the CEO must share the Purpose of the company and its defining Philosophy. These core attributes must be at the heart of each conversation. These defining principles serve the company internally as a glue to unite and a compass to guide. But they also must be consistently communicated to the public so that everyone has a sense of the heart and soul of the company and its distinctive contribution. The energy of the company’s essence can be a powerful tool–when it is genuine and shared.
But in the interview with Michael Dell–the founder–the conversation centered more on the company’s move from consumer to enterprise, the importance of acquisitions and the push to supporting cloud computing. These are conversations that are important but not distinguishing.
If Dell wants to stand out and achieve, the company must look inside and unite again around a Purpose and Philosophy that every employee connects to and that the public understands. To be a leader, a company must know itself and its distinguishing attributes and then build on that internal strength and devoted mindset. Understanding your markets and strategy is essential, but you must also understand and communicate your Core Culture–the essence of who you are–so that you stand out and succeed because of your distinctive ability to make a contribution.
According to the WSJ, Walmart will be reporting a second straight year of declining domestic same-store earnings. The cause is attributed to the company’s move from its core culture centered around the principle of providing everyday low prices to the American working class.
According to the Walmart website, they state that three simple principles that were part of their founding in 1962 are what make them great.
Walmart’s changes in their merchandise and even the look of their stores was designed to attract higher-income customers. Then they instituted discounts on select items while raising prices on others–not in keeping with their tradition–and part of their core culture– of everyday low prices.
The company Purpose is simply stated by Walmart:
Saving people money to help them live better was the goal that Sam Walton envisioned when he opened the doors to the first Walmart. It’s the focus that underlies everything we do at Walmart.
Sometimes we get distracted from our roots in our attempts to grow and thrive. But when a company changes its central principles, then the company confuses its loyal customers and its employees. Changing core principles should be avoided unless it is required for survival.
Companies should define their vital Purpose and their distinctive and enduring Philosophy and understand that those attributes are their identity, and they should always be preserved.
Another recall for Toyota. Now over 1.7 million vehicles world-wide including some Lexus models are being recalled for defective fuel devices or other faulty parts. What is happening to quality at Toyota?
It all goes back to knowing what’s core to your culture and never compromising on it. Every organization must define what values must be shared by everyone in the organization. These are the values that are never compromised. These are the values that each employee takes pride in and wants to live more effectively each and every day. You don’t want a lot of values–that important– so that there’s no excuses. These few values must be clearly understood. So, for example with Toyota, the focus should always be about quality. Quality should be the blood that runs through the veins of all who work for the company. Nothing moves quality second to anything.
So why do companies mess this up? It’s often a problem of not integrating the value throughout every aspect of the company. It’s about aligning all practices with the core principle. In the case of Toyota, as reported in the Wall Street Journal,
“Toyota has been using more common parts in its vehicles” in order to cut costs, said Koji Endo, an auto analyst at Tokyo-based independent auto industry boutique Advanced Research Japan.
Toyota should know better. The suppliers they use and the materials they buy must meet their high standards for quality. Anything less should not be qualified to be in a Toyota product–from the car to the key chain.
The article says Toyota has been taking actions to prevent recalls, such better reporting of safety issues, assigning engineers to focus on quality issues, and spot-checking vehicles for potential problems before launch. But maybe that’s just not comprehensive enough.
Every aspect of the company’s internal practices from how the organization is structured, how work is designed, systems for doing one’s work, hiring practices, orientation, training, performance management, internal communications and technology must reinforce the focus on quality.
And every aspect of the company’s external practices including its suppliers, vendors and partners must be screened to set quality as the number one requirement.
Also, the image the company projects should always be about quality. When I look at the Toyota website, I don’t see a dominant focus on quality. There seems to be a greater focus on selling more cars. Maybe the focus on growth has become more important.
If quality is the core value that captures the core essence of what Toyota is all about, then they must make it core to all they do. Costs or any other value cannot be a higher value than quality.
Successful organizations understand that they must define their core culture–the principles that are central to who they are that are never compromised. And employees must practice those few principles in everything that they do. That consistency is what makes organizations great.
Use your organization’s culture to manage retention. When you hire people who are a fit with the culture, there is a greater likelihood that they will want to stay.
First, you must define your Core Culture:
Then, be sure your hiring—your recruitment materials, recruitment practices and interview process—is aligned with your Core Culture so that you are effectively screening for culture fit. It is essential to hire people who naturally value the Core Culture attributes that are central to the organization.
Think of culture as your distinctive advantage—as your unique fingerprint.
Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines, put it this way, “Everything (in our strategy) our competitors could copy tomorrow. But they can’t copy the culture—and they know it.”
Think of your culture as the basis for your business success. Former IBM Chairman and CEO Louis Gerstner, Jr. stated in Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?, “Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success — along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like. I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game; it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.”
To build your culture of distinction, you must define your Core Culture and then hire people who personally connect to the Core Culture, and want to live by it. Use your unique culture to manage retention and drive your organization’s success.
[This post concludes a seven-part discussion on Hiring for Culture Fit]
Interview for fit with the Purpose
Are you hiring people who want to make their contribution to society through the work that you do? Are they passionate about the Purpose of your organization? It’s easier to retain employees who are passionate about their organization’s Purpose.
In your interview process, try to discover whether or not your organization’s Purpose is a match for each candidate you interview. Consider asking these questions:
Through these questions, discover if the applicant finds your organization’s work a personally meaningful contribution to society. Is this a cause that the applicant really cares about? Is the person a fit with the Purpose of the organization?
Be sure that you include behavioral interview questions. These are questions that ask “How did you…” rather than “How would you….” The goal of a behavioral interview question is to determine if the applicant has exhibited the behaviors you seek—not whether the person can just talk about how they hypothetically would exhibit the behaviors. Behavioral interview questions might also start with the words: “Tell me about a time when…,” or “Give me an example of a time when…,” or “Describe a situation when….” In a behavioral interview question, the applicant will explain a specific situation from a real life experience, their actions and the outcome. You are not looking for hypothetical responses; instead, you want real examples.
Some behavioral interview questions to evaluate whether the Purpose of the organization is meaningful to the applicant:
Interview for fit with the Philosophy and Priorities
With an understanding of the organization’s Philosophy and Priorities, create interview questions that evaluate the alignment of an applicant’s values with the organization’s values. Questions to reveal a candidate’s values and fit might be:
Next, ask questions to determine if the candidate has exhibited in past situations the values of the organization—the Philosophy and Priorities. These behavioral interview questions help discover if the applicant has lived the values of the organization.
Examples of these types of questions, listed by values are as follows:
Tailor your questions to specific issues that are common to your organization. The more tailored the question is to your culture, the better opportunity you will have to get a response that has not been pre-planned by the applicant.
Interview questions should also focus on how the applicant would apply the organization’s values in their future job at the company. For example, if cost control is one of the organization’s values, then you might ask applicants how they would decrease costs in their new job. If collaboration is one of the organization’s values, another question might be: How will you enhance collaboration in your work to make it better than it is today? If the culture values safety, be sure to get applicants’ ideas on how they would incorporate a greater focus on safety in their new job. You want to hire people who can make a contribution to the organization’s culture by offering new and interesting ways to more effectively live the culture each day. An interview question might focus on how the applicant has strengthened the culture of a previous employer.
Give applicants an opportunity to ask questions so they understand the culture and what is valued. Also, observe whether or not the applicant is knowledgeable about the company. Is the applicant only screening the job or is the applicant also screening the organization, as well? Those applicants who have taken the time to understand the organization are better candidates because they are looking for a broader fit.
Interview practices
Onsite visits give an opportunity to observe an applicant’s behavior. For example, at Southwest Airlines, they want to hire people who naturally have that warm, friendly service attitude. During group interviews of flight attendants, applicants give three-minute speeches about themselves in front of about 50 people. Managers are watching the audience as closely as the speaker. Candidates who pay attention pass the test; those who seem bored or distracted do not pass. Seeing how recruits interact with people helps them hire individuals who naturally will keep their customers happy. Southwest looks for people with the right “spirit,” and will hire for attitude—their sense of humor and positive attitude—and train for skills.
The hiring process should be a team effort. Those who will be working regularly with the candidate should be included in the interview process. Provide a variety of interview settings—like a breakfast, lunch or dinner—to determine if the applicant demonstrates the values that the organization seeks.
If it can be arranged, set up a way for the candidate to role play the job they would be performing. This opportunity can help the candidate get a real preview of the work and allow the company to assess the applicant.
Once you align your hiring practices with the Core Culture, you are ready to screen applicants for culture fit. Where there is synchrony between the individual and the culture of the company, there will be a greater likelihood that the person will feel connected to the company and want to stay with it.
[For continuation of Hiring for Culture Fit discussion, read the next post on topic: Part 7]
Evaluate Your Recruitment Practices
Do your recruitment practices—before and after the candidate interview– support the Core Culture?
What practices do you use to get applicants? And are those practices aligned with your Core Culture? For example, at the Whole Foods Market, one of their values is teamwork. The fundamental work unit is the self-directed team. Therefore, job fairs are generally staffed by the actual leadership that the new team members will be working with. Also, after the candidate interview, prospective employees have a four-week probation period where the team decides whether or not the applicant stays after that trial period. Their selection practices align with their culture of teamwork
Many companies have an initial phone conversation with the candidate to screen for the core values and evaluate how well informed the candidate is about the culture. Any aspects of the culture that would make the person feel like a mismatch should be communicated at this time. For example, if it’s a noisy workplace or a hierarchical workplace or whatever it’s like there, the applicant should know upfront to ensure time is not wasted on the part of the individual or the organization in the hiring process.
Southwest Airlines believes that behavior is the best predictor of behavior. Being a service leader, they want to hire people who naturally have that warm, friendly service attitude. When a candidate calls for an application, managers jot down anything memorable about the conversation. And when the company flies recruits for interviews, they receive special tickets, which alert gate agents and flight attendants to pay special attention to how they are behaving to determine whether the recruits are a natural fit for their service culture.
In the recruitment process, some companies have employees spend informal time with recruits in social settings like a meal or attending a company event. These informal settings are prime opportunities for evaluating for culture fit—both for the applicant and the company.
At Zappos.com, after a person is hired and at the end of the first week of training, the company offers the new employee $2,000 plus the time he or she worked to quit. And the offer continues until the end of the fourth week of training. They want only those people who love their culture to stay. Again, these selection practices are established to build a strong culture with employees whose values are aligned with the culture.
Giving applicants the opportunity to see the culture and understand the way things work in the organization offers applicants a way to screen the organization themselves.
[For continuation of Hiring for Culture Fit discussion, read the next post on topic: Part 6]
Sheila L. Margolis, PhD
President, Workplace Culture Institute
