There are an infinite number of ways that you could measure culture, and if you start researching culture assessments, you’ll see what I mean.
When we created the WorkXO culture assessment back in 2016, we settled on 8 distinct elements of culture to measure:
- Agility
- Collaboration
- Growth
- Inclusion
- Innovation
- Solutions
- Technologies
- Transparency
The model behind these 8 was derived from the research Maddie and I did for our first two books, Humanize and When Millennials Take Over. Those books both focused on the transition we were experiencing back in the 2010s (and still today) where leadership and management were evolving away from traditional management and toward what many call the “future of work.” It is inside each of these 8 elements that we see that change happening. That’s why you need to know where your culture stands in each area. Here is an overview of what each culture element means.
Agility. This element of culture is fundamentally about how quickly and effectively an organization can adapt to changes. It involves being responsive and flexible in the face of new challenges and opportunities, and it is rooted in speed—your ability to move forward quickly while still maintaining quality. What people often miss, however, is that this cultural element is also about your ability to fix things and stop things. It is hard to be agile when you are constantly doing end runs around broken processes or wasting time in projects that should have been killed years ago (a complaint we often hear when doing culture work).
Collaboration. This element of culture is about the extent to which teamwork and cooperative efforts are emphasized and facilitated within the organization. It looks at how well both individuals and groups work together towards common goals. Understanding this element requires that you look at internal capacities, like facilitation or effective use of internal communication platforms, and a lot of it is about well the groups inside your organization work together, which includes cross-functional collaboration but also the ways different levels in the hierarchy work together (which is typically where organizations struggle).
Growth. The root of this culture element is in the organization’s commitment to personal and professional development. It considers how much emphasis is placed on learning, skill enhancement, and career progression. The capacities evaluated here are around issues like giving and receiving feedback and exercising judgment. But it also addresses growth at a higher level, assessing how your culture taps into people’s passions or sense of purpose, and how much the organization focuses on the broader community. In our research, we have found that passion and purpose are important in every industry, across the board (not just nonprofits or other purpose-driven organizations).
Inclusion. This element of culture is ultimately about how your culture values difference. This includes the degree to which diverse perspectives and backgrounds are valued and integrated into the organization and how much things like authenticity and autonomy are valued. But it also has a structural element—how much do you include people from all levels in your planning, and how broadly do you share your strategic vision. It looks at how inclusive practices are embedded in the culture. Those, in fact, are issues of inclusion, and they are often given less attention in organizations.
Innovation. This culture element focuses on the organization’s ability to generate new ideas and implement creative solutions. It involves both the conceptual aspects of innovation (like creativity and future focus) as well as the practices of innovation (like experimentation or testing new ideas). We find that a lot of organizations value the concepts a lot more than the practices (i.e., they are talking the talk of innovation, but not walking the walk).
Solutions. This culture element is one that doesn’t make the list in a lot of assessments, but we think it is very important. It focuses on the organization’s approach to problem-solving and delivering effective outcomes. That includes how well it solves surface level challenges (like solving customer problems, for instance) but also how deeply it customizes solutions and meets the deeper needs of employees or stakeholders. In our research, we have found that the needs-focused components of this culture element tend to score relatively traditional and are not as present in most cultures.
Technologies. This culture element has two basic components. The first is the more obvious one: the organization’s use of technology to enhance operations and drive success, which includes looking at reliability and the extent to which an organization fully leverages the functionality of its tech. The second component is more about how much the organization embraces the digital mindset, including user focus and removing obstacles. Interestingly, in our research we have found that the mindset tends to get more attention in cultures than the straight-up tech side.
Transparency. This element examines the openness and clarity of communication within the organization. It looks at how information is shared and how transparent decision-making processes are. Capacities within this element include trust and the ability to handle conflict. One important nuance within transparency is the difference between reactive information sharing (if you ask, I’ll share it) and proactive information sharing (we have processes for getting information out before people need to ask). Our research shows that the proactive piece is often not very supported in cultures.
If you want to know what your culture REALLY is, then take a look at these eight elements. You can invest in a formal culture assessment, or you can even just sit around the table and talk about these eight elements. Just try to be really honest about how your culture truly is in these eight areas, and try not to lean toward a rosy picture based on your ideals.
If you want an INSTANT snapshot of how your culture might be in these 8 areas, take our free Culture Pattern Quiz online.