What is company culture anyways?
As per Edgar Schein
"[It is] a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems".
If we are to work on understanding culture and also on helping organizations change or evolve their culture we can look at it via the Iceberg model - as you can see from the image from the IAEA - which they shared during the UN's Behavioral Science week.
In it we see three layers:
1.
Artefacts and Behaviours
This is the most visible level of culture, including tangible elements and observable behaviours within the organization
When working with teams - we often see confusion here between behaviors and outcomes or even drivers - so it's always good to align and start that shared language.
2. Values: The stated values and norms that the organization claims to follow, such as mission statements, goals and strategies.
3.
Underlying Assumptions
These are the deeply embedded, unconscious beliefs, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings that truly drive the behaviour in the organization. They are often taken for granted and seldom analysed.
When we work on culture projects we do so in two ways and if you are doing this in your organization it is something we recommend.
First we will do a cultural assessment to understand the culture and the organization overall - this means thinking about different dimensions from say decision making, collaboration, recruitment etc...
This allows us to see how well we are mapping to current values and behaviors and lets us explore if we want to keep those same values and behaviors or change them based on current or future needs.
Once this is set - then we are able to do bring this information and go deeper with a behavioral analysis - where we then apply a behavioral models/theories to go to the root causes of why a behavior is not done or of what would be needed to do that aspirational behavior in the future.
That will then lead us to think about the different levers, evidence based strategies and experiments we would need to work on.
(there are of course many activities in the middle, that a post like this can't capture)
By doing it this way we are able to not only think about the individual, but also about the system, the drivers of behavior and we can come out with something that makes culture tangible and achievable - where values and behaviors are mapped to the artifacts and where the basic assumptions are addressed.
Combining the work of Schein (and others) with behavioral science has help us get great results with the companies we help...
I hope to share more of this process in the future...