There is one thing I talk about in almost every one of my keynotes on culture:
I’ve always been frustrated by the way “culture” is characterized as something hard to define or understand, that it’s too squishy or too complex.
Sure, there is some complexity and squishiness, but culture is, in fact, a piece of the work world that everyone can understand, observe, and change in order to improve organizational results.
Culture is a tangible business tool, and one that leaders at all levels should know how to wield effectively. But to do that, you have to know the basics of what culture is, how it works, and what is involved in changing it. To that end, Maddie and I are creating a new series of online courses designed to give everyone access to the knowledge and insight they need to do culture right.
It starts with our new “Core Concepts” series, which is a set of four online courses that cover the basics. The first course, “Understanding Culture and Employee Engagement,” was released yesterday, and the next three will be released over the next few weeks. This first course gives you a concrete definition of culture, plus an overview of what’s involved in assessing your culture and changing it. It also includes a module on employee engagement, based on the book Maddie and I wrote in 2019. The course includes a sample chapter from that book, as well as the ebook we wrote, titled Culture That Works. Each module has an assignment to help you apply the learning, and you can get 1 CAE credit if you need it.
The next three courses in the series will dig into more specific components: one course on assessing your culture, one course on changing your culture, and one course on developing your culture maturity by managing culture at an organizational level. You can enroll in each course individually, or purchase them as a package for about 50% off (only $59!).
And the Core Concepts are just the beginning. We are building out more advanced courses as well, and some of them will help you align specific aspects of organizational work with your culture work, like the course we’re working on right now connecting diversity, equity, and inclusion work with culture. In Q2 we plan on releasing deeper “applied” courses in culture design and culture management that will give individual leaders the tools, templates, and resources they need to actually implement and manage a culture change project inside their organization.
Every leader, at every level, needs a culture education, but historically, there really hasn’t been a good place to go for that. Yes, there are a gazillion online courses out there on everything related to business and management, but the culture content, quite frankly, has been weak and high-level at best. We aim to fill that gap with the curriculum we’re developing on PROPEL+, the learning hub for “culture done right.” Start your culture education today by mastering the Core Concepts.