We all know it’s important, we talk about it, say it is what separates the good from the great, but it is often hard to put your finger on. I am talking about “culture.” Culture is synonymous with sport, teams that rise to the top often are credited with having the best cultures. This week, Coach Dawn Staley, head coach of the University of South Carolina’s 2022 NCAA Women’s Championship basketball team explained “culture matters.” This is no surprise, as the best sports teams and organizations are described as having a shared identity, openness to change and meaningful interpersonal dialogue. Yet, understanding what makes the culture of an organization or team unique can often feel elusive. Using rigorous research methods, we can begin to systematically unpack a team or organization’s culture to explain what is going well and what needs to be improved.
Culture can be described as the shared beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of a collection of individuals. This means every team and organization has its own unique perspectives, values, decision-making processes, not to mention its challenges. Since an organization’s culture is defined by its people, self-examination can reveal the culture of an organization, but more importantly, this means once a culture can be quantified, people can take meaningful action to change their behavior. Here are some reasons why studying your culture can improve your organization or team:
- Transform intangibles of culture to the tangible
We all know having a strong culture is important for a group of people to thrive, but how an organization collectively understands the lived experiences of individuals can be inaccurate or inconsistent. By engaging in a research study based on scientific principles, we can transform the intangibles of culture into the tangible. Identifying clear concepts of culture will help individuals understand what is going on, and what needs to change.
- Engage with stakeholders to build credibility
When you conduct a research study on culture, leaders build credibility with their stakeholders. Leaders who prioritize strong cultures signal to their followers that their welfare and success is important. Asking questions around workplace satisfaction, work-life balance, the freedom to express one’s ideas, collegial respect, reveals leaders’ commitment to improving their organizations. When your people know you care, they begin to care about their leaders and workplace.
- Help leaders understand the nuanced experiences of organizational life
Organizations often have subcultures within the larger organizational culture. Examining the nuances of subsets of an organization will reveal that experiences across an organization are not uniform. This is important to establish to reveal why some parts of the organization are thriving, while others remain problematic. This also is a way to dismantle assumptions leaders may have about certain people or groups of people. Seeking to understand the lived experiences of your people will reveal the subtleties of what defines your organization.
- Give leaders confidence when speaking to employee perspectives and aspirations, building trust in decision making
It is never good when a leader gets in front of their people and fails to speak to their experiences and outlook. It is even worse when leaders fail to listen to their people. When conducting a culture study, you reveal the perspectives and aspirations of your people. You listen to their needs and challenges. Leaders who are armed with this knowledge can begin to make decisions that are grounded in the experiences of their organization, building trust and a common bond.
- Track culture and strategy over time to measure improvement or regression
A culture study is a snapshot in time, it reveals what is going on now and offers a benchmark for how to measure strategies for improvement. Measuring culture over time is essential to understand if an organization is improving or regressing. Strategically timed evaluations will provide meaningful feedback to determine if a strategy is working, or there needs to be a shift in behavior.
For more information:
Marc Christian at contact@intellisportanalytics.com
