| SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLES |
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| Cultural research project. Recent experiences that make us grow! |
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Context:
A Romanian entrepreneurial company, with an important position in a bustling and ever changing market asked us to conduct a study in order to analyze the extent to which the company’s values were put in practice. The company currently has over 150 employees split into 3 business areas.
We worked very close with the company’s HR department, one of their objectives being to complete the study by the end of the year. The initial discussions showed us that the project was a specific one, meaning that it wasn’t part of a bigger strategy for organizational development.
Our proposal:
Looking to understand the values that needed to be measured and the correct instrument required, we proposed an investigation and cultural consolidation program OCI® from Human Synergistics. These instruments helped us comprehend all the values expressed and therefore the program was enthusiastically approved by both the Top Management team and the stockholders.
The three stages of the program we proposed consisted of:
1. An organizational research with the help of the instruments defined above on 100 respondents and generating reports both at a organizational level as well as at a business unit level
2. A strategic workshop aimed at:
a) making the project known to the entire management team (middle and front-line)
b) familiarizing them with the specific language of the instruments that were used
3. Separate workshops for the managers of every business unit in order to:
a) understand the report and results of the research project
b) generate an Action Plan in order to improve the weak points that were discovered
Deployment:
We completed the tasks that we were responsible for however we didn’t get the results we were expecting.
The limited budget that the client had at its disposal meant that the time initially allocated for steps two an three was halved, thus generating a dramatic decrease in the quality of the learning process and also the management team’s commitment - the most important part in any process of cultural consolidation!
Even more, because a follow up budget wasn’t taken into consideration the effect of the workshops was null. No matter how good the ideas generated in the workshops were, the management team’s enthusiasm and their trust in seeing them implemented, they were restrained by a lack of genuine support - both from the team of consultants as well as the HR team and Top Management.
Due to the combined effort of the Human Invest consultant’s and the HR department the project was considered a success by the client in the context described above.
The solution that was found in order to benefit from the results was that future internal processes would try to be linked with the output from the cultural consolidation process. However it will require a huge internal communication effort and high commitment on behalf of the people supporting the process!
Our observations:
• A research study of organizational culture has to be integrated in a coherent organizational development program. The consequences of going on a different path, from our observations, are as follows:
- the level of effort on behalf of the people committed in the process diminishes rapidly in terms of credibility and the energy they put into it
- the energy of individuals implicated in the program will be very low in terms of the process itself as well as the follow-up
• Managers will not make a priority out of learning from the results of the process as long as:
- they find themselves in a situation where they have to dedicate the maximum amount of time and energy to a business pressure only defined in financial targets
- they don’t have a direct requirement to be involved in concrete organizational development activities
- they are not prepared, from a management ability point of view, to implement the change deemed necessary by the study
• Like any other program designed to have a major impact at an organizational level, it must have the support of the main sponsor - in our case the main shareholder and the Top Management team
Lessons we’ve learned:
• Before starting a similar process, check with the client if he understands all the consequences that result from the organization’s level of training regarding the initiation of a research study for organizational culture
• It’s very important to establish, from the very beginning, the level of expectations and to specifically define the results you’ll generate in the circumstances given
• As long as you have a low budget or time restrictions that can significantly diminish the quality of the process you might as well postpone or back down so as not to be seen as the cause of a potential disappointment
• The main sponsor’s direct backing is a decisive factor in the projects outcome and efficiency. This means:
- being there at key moments in the program (public statements, strategic workshops, meetings of the project team)
- initiating conversations at a management level that ensure it is given interest and importance
- transforming management expectations regarding effort into qualitative and quantitative objectives which must be communicated to the management team
Despite all this the story is one with a happy ending! The client learned as much as we did. We finished the project with a firm belief that in the future more attention will be given to the quality and rigor of the processes- something which will benefit everybody!
Bogdan Pode,
Trainer
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Human Invest is a Premier League company in the arena of training and
organizational development consultancy services, present on the Romanian market since 1998.
We are recognized for conceiving and implementing programs which offer managers an authentic experience towards improving their leadership
performances, and thus we support companies in becoming more and more engaged in delivering excellent services for their clients.
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