CONFERENCES
Convergence 99
Building Innovation with a Culture Pyramid
Theresa A. Brelsford,
Federal Quality Consulting Group
Culture represents the attitudes, beliefs, stories, and behaviors of people. The culture can be described by various characteristics. The Federal Quality Consulting Group developed a collection of 35 typical characteristics of various organizations. The characteristics represent both positive and negative aspects of a culture. Some examples are:
The Culture Pyramid Exercise
Give a set of culture characteristic cards to a small group of 6 or less people to do a culture pyramid. Divide a large group into smaller teams and give each team their own set to do the exercise.
Ask the teams to select the 10 cards that represent the most significant current characteristics of their organization. They may use a "wild card" to create their own wording of a characteristic, and they may change any words on existing cards to describe characteristics of their culture. Once they select the top ten, they then are to put the cards in a pyramid representing the ascending order of significance: one card on the top row, two on the second row, three on the third row, and four on the fourth row. A pyramid with boxes for the 10 characteristics can be drawn on flip chart paper and made available to the team to guide their posting.
Have a representative from each team present their results to the whole group. Following the presentations, lead the whole group in a discussion of their similarities and differences in perceptions.
Now tell the teams they are going to take a look into the future and think of the ideal culture in which they would like to work. Give each team another set of cards, just like the first set but on different color paper. Ask the teams to follow the same instructions as before, but this time select the 10 characteristics they would most like to see in their organization. The teams then create a pyramid of the characteristics of their desired culture, share the results with the full group, and discuss their similarities and differences.
The final part of the exercise is to have the teams look at their current culture characteristics and their desired culture and identify the three major gaps between the two. These gaps should be defined in their own words and not be restricted to literal differences between the two described cultures. These gaps can then be used as a springboard for developing an action plan to move closer to the desired organizational culture.
The exercise usually takes about 1 to 1 hours.
Experiences with the Culture Pyramid Exercise
People really like this exercise. As they are identifying characteristics of their current culture, they usually have a very lively discussion about the way things are in the organization. They see characteristics that really strike a chord in them. And they take solace in hearing agreement from their colleagues. Unfortunately, most characteristics identified for current organizations are negative. But people get energized in finding out they have a common vision for the desired state.
Particularly interesting are results that occur when managers develop the culture pyramid based on their view of the current organization and those results are compared to what employees come up with. In one recent experience, the senior management team's perceptions (all negative) matched 80% with the employees! This was an organization in which employees had been severely critical about their managers. They were quite amazed that the senior managers had the same perceptions of the organization and wanted to change to the same desired state as the employees described.
In another experience, a top executive did his own version of the current culture and found that his pyramid bore no relationship at all with those done by his employees. This had a profound affect on him, causing him to finally to "see the light" and be convinced of the need to change.
As a result of the exercise, people start to realize that to change a culture you have to change behaviors.
Using a Culture Pyramid is a practical, easy technique to lead a group in identifying the characteristics of the current culture in their organization, the culture they would desire, and the gap that needs to be addressed to move from the current to the desired state. The technique can be used to determine the extent to which perceptions are aligned in an organization, energize people to begin change, and identify gaps that need to be addressed to move to the desired state.
Innovation and risk-taking are valued.
Each characteristic is printed on a card. In addition, 3 "wild cards" are included to be used to add any culture characteristic that is not covered.
People don't understand the goals and priorities of the organization.
Everyone knows who their customers are and what they want.
Managers don't want to hear new ideas about how to do the work.
Communications are guarded.