Re-Think Your Organization

Build A Better Corporate Culture

5In today’s business environment, long-held certainties about how to organize your business are being re-evaluated, if not completely revamped. As we have seen from some of our client situations, corporate cultures are becoming a hot topic. Companies want to “change their culture.” The problem is, they aren’t really sure what that culture is today, much less what they would like it to become in the future. Nor do they know how to get it there.

At Simon Associates Management Consultants (SAMC), we are corporate anthropologists who work with the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI, © Kim Cameron), developed at the University of Michigan by Dr. Kim Cameron and Dr. Robert Quinn and offered by a group in the Netherlands with whom we are affiliated. You can take a look at the survey tool at www.ocai-online.com.

The OCAI allows a company to assess their business culture as it is now, and then identify what they would like it to become in the future. Once that is complete, we help them instigate the changes needed to shift their organizational culture. This is a process that needs time and metrics so that we can know if it is moving in the right direction and generating the desired results.

Some of the questions being asked (are these ones you may be thinking about?):

  • What’s our business culture, anyway?
  • Are we too Controlling and Hierarchical?
  • Maybe we are too focused on results? Too Competitive?
  • Or perhaps we are like a family, a big Clan and overly concerned about not insulting each other?
  • What about ideas? Do we foster them or frustrate them? Are we a creative and innovative culture or do we wish we were?

Sometimes the questions focus on the business model itself:

  • Should we be vertically integrated?
  • Should we be a manufacturer as well as a designer or engineer?
  • Why do we have our own in-sourced customer care unit? What should we outsource?
  • Where should we have strategic alliances?
  • How could we generate more income from a back office that has been custom-designed for us?

SAMC specializes in helping companies assess their organizational culture and business model today and start a journey toward the organizational culture they want and need for tomorrow. How can we help you re-think your organization?

Culture Change for Your Company

Culture Change CoverDownload this workshop on culture change

What is Your Organizational Culture, Anyway?

Many businesses really don’t know what their “corporate culture” is, much less what it could be to make them a more effective organization. Assuming they recognize that something is not working quite right, we help them diagnose how they are operating using the OCAI. Companies typically fall into one of four categories: Clan, Adhocracy, Hierarchy or Market.

What Would You Like Your Culture to Become?

Once you’ve assessed your present culture and the future one you would prefer, we work with you to develop a cultural transformation. This is typically a process that takes considerable time because it is a journey. But once you have worked through the OCAI and your employees understand what you collectively want to become, the process is not difficult to introduce, understand or actualize.

Want To Read More On Changing Your Company’s Culture?

To learn more about culture change is so important for a company’s future growth, check out one of our blogs on the topic: “Five Blogs On How Companies Are Using Anthropology Today”

How Can We Be Of Help?

There are lots of ways we can structure a program just right for you:

  • Workshops and Retreats: We conduct workshops and in-depth retreats to help companies assess their culture today and envision what they would like it to be in the future.
  • 6-Step Process for Culture Change: Sometimes we are asked to stay beyond the initial time frame and provide a 6-step process for change, grounded in our understanding of 1) how cultures resist change, 2) how to help those cultures begin to shift, and 3) how to evaluate the results.
  • Building New Rituals and Symbols: We work with you on the new rituals and symbols that are needed to build your new culture into the one that will take your organization forward.

When growth stalls, SAMC is ready to help.

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