Culture survey

Sun Jul 17 06:50:48 PDT 2005

Harrison and others;
I imagine that I was not entirely clear about my  needs. In fact, while I 
need the elements of a culture survey (i.e. what kinds  of continua would you put 
in one) I and my client have no intention of actually  surveying. Rather, it 
is a talking point for facilitated conversations that one  of my clients needs 
(with my help) to have with some others of the internal  folks. So I'm not 
really setting out to do a big complicated culture survey. I'm  trying to arm my 
client with some of the elements they need to consider which is  why I posted 
to the list. I hoped that I would get some elements suggested by  the list 
members. 

Thanks
Esther

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_ (http://www.openspaceworld.com/) 

----- Original Message ----- 
From:  _Esther  Ewing_ (mailto:EwingChange at aol.com)  
To: _OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU_ (mailto: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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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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