PurposePoint Program Helps Leadership Visualize and Enhance Culture
A new 30-day Culture Development Program aims to help senior management experience their organizations from the point of view of employees to develop cultures better designed to support their purpose, goals, and objectives.A Holistic Process
Assessing the True State of Culture
Starting With a Clean Slate
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Many companies have culture development initiatives, observes Chris Steely. The question is: how well do they work? As Founder and Managing Director of GPS Business Group, he says he has worked for over two decades to empower business owners, executives, and cross-disciplinary teams to help transform businesses into successful organizations and world-class operations, through effective training, facilitation, consulting and coaching. A common fundamental challenge, he finds, is to create an enduring culture that supports what the organization is seeking to accomplish.
“Many companies have culture initiatives. But often when an organization stops to do a reality check, they often find that that the message isn’t resonating, that the mission is merely smoke blowing,” Steely says. Without a well-defined culture, he adds, the organization spontaneously develops its own, which might not be consistent with its purpose, goals, and objectives.
A frequent mistake, Steely explains, is to address culture through specific tactics such as recognition programs, benefits, or employee resource groups, when the process requires a strategic approach that links the culture to the organization’s purpose, goals, objectives, and values. This demands leadership to take a step back to address the issue holistically, he continues, without pre-conceived notions about the current state of the culture or what systems and tactics will be required to align it with organizational goals.
A Holistic Process 
To this end, Steely says his company has developed a process to help organizations create high-performing purpose-focused cultures. The 30-day process, which he leads with colleague Tim Kelley, enables management “to see the business how it is, how it can be, and what will be required to get there. Management will gain a realistic perspective on the true condition of their culture. Unless you deliberately sculpture your culture, it will create itself. The senior management team is often clueless to the damage. The ultimate reward for this process is to create an environment in which people become more productive and focused on what the organization is trying to accomplish, resulting in higher and more sustainable performance.”
The company’s 30-day Culture Development Program draws upon “three high-level organizational development experts who work with clients to identify and implement customized strategies to your business needs.” The goals are to “increase leadership team effectiveness, build high-performing teams; engage your employees at a higher level; develop a better culture, and better position your organization for enhanced results and grow and mature your leaders along the way.” Clients “experience a realistic, quantifiable shift in the positive orientation of their businesses with more empowered, productive cultures, and develop a plan to maintain and advance the renewed cultural initiatives, sustaining optimal culture into the future,” the company says.
Assessing the True State of Culture
The culture development audit and program begins with an initial strategy session which provides the scope for the entire engagement, Seely explains, followed by a culture survey initiative and a two-to-three-hour virtual strategic culture workshop that includes only senior management. This is followed by an assessment phase (about two weeks), program development, and a two-day live program delivery event.
Based on the findings, “consultants present a step-by-step easy-to-understand presentation and plan that will recommend a direction your organization should take as compared with some of the best companies in the world. This will be followed by an in-depth comprehensive plan customized to your company’s needs. This plan will take your company from a strategic to a tactical level through the optimization of your culture.”
The initiative culminates with a two-day on-site event with the strategic leadership team. This two full-day program outlines specific systems and organizational development programs customized based on the results of the culture assessment, Steely explains. These two days will also include the review of a plan for leadership and team development, communication strategies and how to measure and monitor progress during deployment. This is a complete culture strategic plan which includes everything you should do as well as how we can best support your team during deployment, he adds.
After this event, he explains, “we will create a prioritized integration process and action plan. We will work with your leadership team to determine the priority order of the steps to be implemented. Because effective communication is essential for organizational buy-in, we will communicate with the executive and management teams to ensure there is a full understanding of how and when each step will be executed.”
Starting With a Clean Slate
Steely emphasizes the need for a holistic approach. “We come to each assignment with a blank slate,” he says. Solutions can involve any number of specific initiatives including:
- Building trusted advisor relationships
- Skills to hold difficult and high stakes conversations resulting in positive results
-
Increasing Behavioral Emotional Intelligence (BEQ)
- Empathy
- Listening
- Building effective relationships
- Stress Management
- Influencing others
- Motivating others
- Flexibility
- Innovativeness
- Self-Control
- Self-Insight
- Self Confidence
- Optimism
- Leveraging the strengths of others through understanding behavioral styles
- Effective coaching and development skills
- Developing the willingness to support healthy conflict
- Defining values (personal and corporate)
- Holding effective accountability conversations
- Development of results tracking systems
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
- Leadership Analysis
Program techniques can include:
- Dialogue
- Group Work
- Problem Solving Exercises
- Games and Activities
- Role Plays
- Coaching
- Mentoring
- Meditation
- Feedback
Chris Steely
Director | PurposePoint Consulting Partnerships
702-327-9545
chris@purposepoint.com
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