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Read our case studies to understand more about our work with Surveys and 360 Feedback.
Culture is like gravity - an irresistible force that affects the behaviour of everything within its field. Corporate culture is the force that both moves mountains and frustrates change initiatives. Our surveys help organisations investigate what helps and hinders and measure where things don't add up, seem confusing or give contradictory messages.
Our underlying model explores the dimensions of culture and simplifies the complexity of organisational behaviour to help executives make timely, decisions, focus their attention and take strategic decisions.
Organisation X - As a management information and publishing company, the need to be agile and entrepreneurial was evident to the MD - but didn't seem to be translated into action and outputs in the organisation. Her directors felt people were suspicious of change and lacked the will to innovate.
We helped them develop a clear picture of the kind of organisational and managerial behaviours, symbols and values they would expect to see and to measure both where these did not exist and people's reasons for not adopting new ways of working.
The "problem areas" centred around confusing messages that people were receiving about the organisation's health and the explicit and implicit rewards offered for courageous thinking and new ideas. The directors' presentations extolling growth did not match their monthly meetings with a general mood of cutting budgets, saving costs and the need for permissions to spend or experiment.
The survey provided clear evidence and suggested fundamental changes to help the MD and her Board match their words and aspirations with their actions.
Our Team Surveys provide the basis for teams to examine how they are perceived by their stakeholders and compare or contrast this with their own thoughts and views.
The whole process takes under two weeks and costs less than one trainer day in the UK. Hundreds of people all over the world have benefited from the insights the survey report allows. For Diageo, the world's largest drinks manufacturing and marketing operation, this has become the international standard for their teams at all levels to use in working towards high performance.
The following page extracts illustrate the depth and richness of data available to the team members, the team leader and the facilitator. Click on a page to see it in more detail. If you'd like to see a full copy of the report, please get in touch.
'Thanks very much indeed for our feedback - it has been very useful. The team are very keen to build on the insights contained in here and become more effective as a result - this additional analysis has helped us realise the different things that we need to do for each of the stakeholder groups - although clearly there are also some common themes running throughout. Thanks again for your help I, and my team, really appreciate it.'Richard J - Production Director
'It's been a sobering experience in some respects but incredibly valuable. As a team we are all clear what we need to be doing to achieve our stated aims and live by our values. Thank you so much for the opportunities and insights this has provided.' Sarah K - HR Director
'The survey, and in particular the text comments from stakeholders contained in the report, has allowed this team to focus on what's important rather than guess what they should be looking at. When 80% of stakeholders say 'Tell us more of what's going on' the message does not need too much debate.' Colin C - Facilitator
Organisation Y - An online survey of a cross section of the organisation helped this leading pharmaceutical company's sales director to establish whether the message was really getting through to the sales force. Sales conferences and initiatives had explained how important it was to change the customer relationships from purely transactional to a closer working partnership. Results were patchy and he wanted to know they both understood the requirement for changing the way they worked with customers and that this fitted with the way they were being managed and rewarded by their sales managers. The survey showed significant variations between regions and a follow up survey of customers helped to identify where there need to be more support and direct action from the sales director himself to reinforce the behaviours the organisation needed and expected.
Introducing self-directed teams was a clear message to the organisation from the new MD that the ways of working were changing and that management's role was guidance, support and challenge - not instructions, memos and orders.
This professional services company was a leader in its field and had a massive strategic advantage in terms of its knowledge assets and experienced practitioners. But market share was being eroded with opportunities lost. The need for teams to respond and react to bespoke requirements which were perceived as high value by existing customers meant the old reporting structures were too cumbersome - and the MD suspected some very talented professionals were not being allowed by the system to do their best work.
If 'empowerment' was to be a reality rather than a concept the teams needed to take charge of their own interactions and relationships with stakeholders, suppliers and customers.
Several rounds of survey design, delivery and administration helped the organisation and its newly formed teams to:
As one team member described in one of the surveys: 'I thought this was another case of PowerPoint promises from the Board. Although Alan had said things would be different we'd heard it all before. Now we're kind of on our own and it's a bit scary - we need to start doing things for real ourselves instead of using the "they haven't told us" excuse…but they've got to help us get ready to do the best job we can.'
Find out more by contacting ClearWorth.