Consciously cultivate your culture for growth, speed and sustainability
Culture and talent are top of mind in most minds of C-Suite executives…
In fact, according to Accenture, organizational culture and the impact of the pandemic on culture was a topic in 53% of company earnings calls analyzed between January 2020 and April 2022. And one in two CEOs are investing to unlock talent to drive their business transformations.
Like most C-Suite executives, you may think that high performance is an automatic result of having the right strategy and people in place. But actually, if instead you embraced this opportunity to strengthen culture strategically and unlock people’s potential you will move your company forward not by chance, but by design.
Unfortunately too many conversations about organizational culture are still focused around space and place. The reality is that since the pandemic, many employees are fundamentally re-thinking their relationship with work, not just the experience of a new world of work but essentially living in a new world.
The majority of organizations invest most in ensuring their people are gaining financially and in their employable skills, yet what matters more today in unlocking the potential in your people and creating an expansive, growth minded culture are the emotional, relational, mental and purposeful dimensions of work. Sadly, there’s still a gaping gap between what people need and what leaders are providing.
It’s important to remember that the work of strengthening culture doesn’t end—it continually evolves. One day you my find your culture is flourishing in the Zone Of Empowerment, then a month later, you find it has dipped to the Zone of Disengagement. As we embrace continuous change, the journey involves listening to your people, gauging progress and acting with intention to close gaps. In order to meet your goals of growth, speed and sustainability, you must double down on the employees’ needs for flexibility, trust and meaning. Executives that embrace this opportunity strengthen culture strategically, unlock people’s potential and move their organizations forward, by design.
Whatever your focus, you can think of the Conscious Culture Performance Spectrum as being like a dial on a dashboard, giving you guidance and feedback on where you are at on your path. Incorporating research into workplace cultures, energy, consciousness and performance, the Spectrum is based on a scale of consciousness that allows you to see not only the “zone” where your company culture is at any moment, but also what the next step and lever is to pull to move you up a zone, if you so choose and the level of resistance you may experience in your efforts to shift the dial.
For some you may be seeking a way to quantify your culture, to measure where you and your people are at in order to envision a way forward. For others you may be feeling stuck and challenged and wanting to see what the next step is to transform your workplace and culture.
Within your own organisation or team, you’ll see that some teams, departments or people are in different zones than others, however you may still be able identify your current overall level or zone on the spectrum. For example, you might feel that you and other leaders resonate at the level of Determined or Conscious however you may see evidence of blame and competition across many areas of the organisation suggesting that culturally the organisation is in the Zone of Disagreement. This would indicate a need to apply strategies to shift the culture up the scale to the more expansive level of 7 - Determined. My research and experience working with dozens of companies from across many industries indicates that jumping more than one or two levels at a time is too challenging and unsustainable. Rather small, incremental, sustainable shifts have the greatest, lasting impact.
Your company and leadership goal may be to not just to move the dial one position say from a level 5 to a level 6, but to shift an entire zone in order to become more expansive. Below level 7, the culture experience will be contractive, challenging and draining. It is likely to show signs of people being more fearful and distrusting and therefore less likely to collaborate and cooperate. It will feel like you have to apply force to push the needle up. Conversely, above level 7, the zones and levels are expansive and grow your talent and the culture in a positive way. On this side of the Spectrum things have a leveraged effect and things get easier as you go.
I find that many leaders can be disappointed or even gloss over the reality if they find their culture operating at a zone on the spectrum however I always invite it to be held lightly and that the tool is merely providing feedback on a moment in time. The real opportunity is not in the number or level your culture is at but the opportunity the feedback provides for reflection, resetting and recalibration. Which aspects are contributing to a healthier, more expansive and conscious culture and which aspects are contributing to a more unhealthy, contractive, unconscious one?
Most CEOs would agree that the past two years can be defined as an equal mix of stunted growth, unpredictability and tough decisions. Working toward a positive, expansive culture however, of growth, speed and sustainability is the opposite. It results in lasting, positive outcomes for people and the business alike. That, of course, makes it one of the best investments a leader can make.
