Organisational Culture

#MeToo, the Dame Laura Cox report into harassment and bullying in the House of  Commons, investigations into NGOs regarding prostitution and other forms of harassment and recent allegations within Ted Baker plc have all hit the head-lines in 2018, suggesting that organisational culture must be a key priority for a Board.

Our approach takes its roots from complexity theory and the Cynefin framework. This recognises that complex adaptive systems have numerous factors or influences which are all dynamically shifting in response to each other that it makes a linear cause-and-effect response inadequate, yet this is the typical response.  I spent 3 months researching why staff in NHS maternity units did not blow-the-whistle, even when patients' safety was at risk and mothers and/or babies died.  I discovered over 40 factors or influences before I had even spoken to anybody. 

We use SenseMaker as a tool to support organisational culture change.  Sensemaker is a tool used for capturing micro-narratives from people and then analysing the results to detect early patterns of behaviour, from which initiatives may be designed to prevent their escalation and shift the culture in a more positive direction. The collection tool is often on a smartphone and the framework is co-created with the users to promote buy-in and confidence.  Users enter their experiences anonymously, answering each question in turn and dragging the "stone" to the position that reflects their experience, as shown on the left.  Users rate its significance to themselves against the framework, which permits subsequent analysis.  By rating the experience themselves, the user indicates how important it is to them, how long they think it will affect them and whether it has been a positive or negative effect.  The tools encourages the completion of demographic data which can then be analysed to identify different patterns of behaviour affecting different elements of the organisation.  When a number of experiences have been collected, they are analysed with a software package, which then provide the insights into potential initiatives.  With near real time reporting, this allows Executives and managers to identify emerging patterns and together with users, develop initiatives, building mutual trust and transparency.  Some of these initiatives could then result in programmes from our workplace conflict suite.

For more information on Organisational Culture support, please ring +44 (0)23 9249 2603 or email info@rogerlaneconsulting.com.