Shaping Culture through Cultural Maturity Models

As Peter Drucker observed, culture really does eat strategy for breakfast.

We may have an inspiring vision, and a structure which provides meaning and clarity for people to engage with it. However, without a culture which supports and rewards the behaviours which deliver that vision, progress will soon stall. In practical terms, strategy engagement is all about behaviour.

So, what are those behaviours?

Firstly, they are behaviours that make us effective in making the best of opportunities, challenge and change. Such as openness, creativity, curiosity, diligence. Secondly, they are behaviours which encourage those same behaviours in others. For example, honesty, empathy, compassion, humility, listening and inclusion.

The required shift is well illustrated by Scharmer’s model of collaborative behaviours on the right.

These behaviours, in ourselves and, equally, in each other, are key to supporting progress. Altogether, they provide the help, insight and encouragement we each need. And, as a result, we can maintain each other’s enthusiasm through the setbacks, and feel part of a team which enjoys the recognition and appreciation of our efforts.

And also it helps us to keep the goal real, and shared, and reinforce our shared values.

To shape culture effectively we need to define it and to define what we want it to be.

At one level, that can be as simple as an agreed set of ground-rules for teamwork and collaboration. But, for the organisation as a whole, cultural considerations may need to be broader than this.

Our Cultural Maturity Model (excerpt shown on the left) and workshops help people to better understand their culture, and the part they each play in it.

It also helps to shift people’s perspective from changing others to changing ourselves.

personal responsibility for culture change

Moreover, it provides a framework for people to set their own personal visions for how they want to be different. To take a leadership role in their own growth and development, and to consider their agency in the growth and development of those around them.

Teams can identify their current level of collaboration within the model. They can then propose a viable target level to pursue, in order to increase their effectiveness and quality of dialogue. And they can see, in the descriptions within the model, the practical steps required to close the gap.

In this way, we empower people to shape culture, and to take responsibility for it themselves. Furthermore, with this approach, we move toward the idea of facilitation being a basic collaborative skill set, and the concept of ‘everybody leadership‘.

Of course, shaping culture doesn’t happen all at once.

The Cultural Maturity Model enables people to focus on particular cultural changes together, making cultural change more manageable. This also helps to articulate a shared culture, and to provide a vocabulary for people to work together within it.

Furthermore, this shared culture builds attitudes that reach across silos and other organisational barriers. Even into the business’ customers and partner organisations. As a result, it strengthens bonds and supports cross-functional, cross-business, innovations that build success.

The culture of the Maturity Model is further augmented by identity and cultural factors captured by the emotional components of Insight Landscaping.

In this way, pre-defined Cultural Maturity Models provide a great start to understanding and working with culture. They provide a basis for early cultural improvement, and a personal sense of ownership for how your people want it to change.

Over time, that ownership will result in a desire to change the model itself. To extend its reach and tailor it to the specific situation of your organisation and its developing community. Our maturity models enable this to happen organically, initially through customisation of the original model, but ultimately through a complete rewrite if this is what is needed.

You can discover more about cultural maturity models, and even try them out for yourself, within our meeting toolchest. Or, if you are looking for something more local and immediate, you might consider this guidance on ground-rules.

Or, to explore this topic further, feel free to contact us. We find our own thinking is continually sharpened and enriched by the questions people ask, and by the discussions that emerge from it.