The dictionary definition gives an insight into a
different perspective by its use of the word ‘behaviour’. In other
words the way people behave can be influenced, if not dictated, by
the prevailing culture.
In fact a four year study of 200 firms in 20
industries, carried out by Kotter and Heskett of Harvard Business
School (Source: Corporate Culture and Performance, Kotter and
Heskett, 1992), found that firms with a strong adaptive culture
based on shared values, outperformed firms with rigid or weak
cultures by a significant margin. The survey showed that they;
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revenue grew more than four times faster
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rate of job creation was seven times higher
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stock price grew twelve times faster
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profit performance was 750 times higher
Similar findings were made by Jim Collins & Jerry
Porras on their seminal work on the successful habits of visionary
companies, Built to Last.
So culture can significantly affect your
performance in many ways, the question is how do you go about
finding out what it is, what you want it to be. And how do you then
transform from current to future states.
How to Transform Cultures
Surprisingly to most people, there are a number
of ways of measuring cultures including PeopleScan from the Spiral
Dynamics Group, and MindMap and BrainMaker from the Brain
Technologies Corp.
The method that the Centre for Integral
Transformation has chosen as being the most comprehensive and
fitting closely with our other services are the Cultural
Transformation Tools (CTT) based on the work of Richard Barrett
(author of ‘Liberating the Corporate Soul’) from The Values Centre.
CTT are based on seven levels of consciousness,
as shown below:
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