Culture survey

[Harrison Owen]

Esther -- Truth to tell, I am not much of a survey person. Probably emotional immaturity on my part, but in most cases I find it gives me information I (they) already knew or information that was interesting but basically irrelevant. And then of course there is the matter of time and expense. I think it (the survey) may also just set you up for failure when it comes to making some useful and needed change. What I have in mind here is the fact that most surveys I have seen give you results in bits and pieces, where as culture is always a "whole." Specifically, I remember one massive survey done in a massive organization -- which after many months and mucho bucks came up with the finding that, "We are a culture of secrecy." Basically this translated into the fact that nobody talked to anybody else, and when they did it was usually to supply mis-information. OK -- Now what? Well I suppose you could do training of various sorts -- communications, personal integrity etc. And they did just that. Result? No change. Except for lots more time and money down the hole (into the consultants' pockets). It finally became clear to folks that this "problem" had no single, simple solution. Every part of their life together (culture) either created or supported their malady. If you were going to do something useful, you would have to change everything all at once! How is that for a prescription for failure? A job you would rather not take on? Speaking just for myself -- this is a road I would not travel.

Alternative? Just do an Open Space. Or you might call it Action Research. Theme: "What are the issues and opportunities for building a business we would all like to be a part of?" Invite everybody who cares -- and that could be a lot of people. Results? -- Well I am sure you can fill in the pieces, but. . .

First off, the organization will essentially "map" itself. All those "issues and opportunities" will be the critical cultural issues, at least as the people see it. I sometimes think of Open Space as a community Rorschach Test. Since there is no content to begin with (just a question) whatever shows up is what the people see. Also, the critical issues will be in the language of the people, not in some pseudo-psycho-babble (pardon my bias). This becomes important when you start to talk with folks. They can actually understand what you are talking about and do not have to learn a whole new esoteric technical language.

But most important (as I see it) -- they will actually be the change they seek. And it will have happened everywhere and all at once. At least that was the experience of the organization I was talking about above. Suddenly all those folks who knew that they were condemned to be a, "culture of secrecy," experienced something radically different. In the closing I noted this "fact," and followed up with, "Your culture change has happened. You can continue and get better -- or just go back and be miserable the way you were. The choice is yours." Sad to say, they chose to go back and be miserable, or at least most of them did. But they never could deny that alternatives existed -- and the smart ones (I think) sought those alternatives, which in most cases meant choosing alternative employment. But they did have a choice.

Harrison  



   
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD  20854
USA
301-365-2093
207-763-3261 (summer)
website www.openspaceworld.com


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Esther Ewing 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2005 9:17 AM
  Subject: Culture survey


  Dear all:
  I wondered if anyone can help me. I have a client with whom I am engaged in an exercise in making a culture change. We want to create a survey that allows their people to rate their organization on a number of continua. 

  Picture, for example, a scale which goes from one to five where one is "shares information openly" and five is "information is shared on a need-to-know basis". 

  What I need to do is to measure the major continua that we would ask people to rate the organization. 

  I could really use some suggestions for this and/or examples of culture surveys. I would be glad to compile them and give the results to anyone who would like to have them (assuming that the donor was comfortable with that).

  Can you help me?

  Regards
  Esther

  Esther Ewing
  The Change Alliance - Building Organizational Capability
  330 East 38th St., Suite 53K
  New York, New York 10016, USA

  Phone: 212-661-6024
  Fax: 866-296-6712

  Distributor of Panoramic Feedback (www.panoramicfeedback.com)
  Kolbe Index (www.kolbe.com) 
  Certified Network Member - Team Management Systems
  (www.teammanagementsystems.com) 

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