Breaking the Bias: How New Perspectives Can Revitalise Your Company Culture

I was talking to a CEO recently who told me that no one on his board was brave enough to give him decent honest feedback.  How is he supposed to develop and improve if all he receives is platitudes?  

If you need to get a good look at yourself, you look in the mirror – right?  

The mirror gives you an objective view of yourself – you can pick up that your collar isn’t right, your hair isn’t falling into place etc.  

We all have biases about how we look – perhaps your shoes don’t need polishing – until someone comments on it at work (a new mirror).  

But as an organisation – what is your mirror?  How do you get objective feedback?  

We all know that new recruits (new mirrors) question the status quo of the organisation for about 6 months until they become institutionalised.  And it is this institutionalisation which is the reason why external culture consultancies can help you. Your internal beliefs and biases can blind you to seeing how your culture works and how it could change.  

When working with culture, many organisations try to address their concerns internally.  They run an engagement survey.  Senior managers guess what the issues in their area are.  But are they absolutely sure and do their direct reports really tell them the truth?  How much do the survey results tell you about the reasons ‘why’ behind the scores?  Also how far is the CEO told the truth about their culture?  

Our clients tell us that there are several benefits from working with an external provider to measure your culture.  

• There is a greater level of trust and ability to speak up in focus groups and interviews, providing an honest picture of employee motivation.  
• Response rates for culture surveys are higher than internal surveys giving a more complete picture.  
• In focus groups, the facilitation includes all voices, even those reticent to speak providing a complete picture of all employee beliefs.  
• We are balanced in our focus on strengths and issues in equal measure providing a reliable objectivity.  
• We understand cultures from many organisations globally providing an objective benchmark for culture.  
• For global clients, we flex our methodology according to the regional culture’s attitude to positive thinking to ensure you get the best results.  
• We uncover the root causes of culture and hidden patterns of behaviour to quickly identify solutions.  

Although working with an external culture consultancy may appear expensive compared to ‘doing culture in-house’, we are committed to ensuring culture change tackles the key issues and has a profound impact on the organisation.  

If you needed coaching, you wouldn’t think – I’ll coach myself!  The external sounding board is the value add to you.  

So who helps your organisation ‘look in the mirror’ and how far is that mirror distorted?  

For more information about how ndc can work with you as a trusted partner, please contact our Commercial Director, Fraser, here.