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Our culture strategy is underpinned by our BILT culture methodology. All of the work done in developing a culture strategy and sustaining it hinges around this methodology. The formation of a culture strategy would typically include the following phases:
This is an opportunity for leaders to gather and align around their potential investment into shaping and sustaining good culture. It is vitally important that leadership teams buy into the culture journey given the critical role that they play in the process. As trusted partners to our clients, we require leadership buy-in. This conversation unpacks our BILT culture methodology, looks at global trends around the role of culture and its link to global organisational performance as well as what goes into the development and execution of a robust culture strategy. Part 1 requires a leadership team to share their narrative on their organisation’s culture, along with their view on key culture promoters as well as define what they deem to be ‘necessary endings’ which are activities and behaviours which need to end in order to take their culture to the next level. We also assess a client’s brand DNA and ensure that it is either well defined with a clear purpose, vision and values, along with associated descriptors.
This involves clearly understanding the current state of your culture, which we do through surveys and focus groups. We measure against key dimensions and aside from a core set of questions which form part of our standard analysis, we are able to develop questions relevant to our clients’ needs. Our culture analysis work provides an organisation with a high-level view of their culture data as well as an in-depth ‘heat map’ which clearly highlights key culture inhibitors and promoters. Our analysis work is used as a benchmark to measure the success of ongoing culture work and can also link to onboarding or exit interviews.
Part 2 of the culture conversation is a gathering to unpack the narrative discovered during the culture analysis. This is also an opportunity to include all layers of the leadership structures in defining where to from here following the feedback. Together, we define and agree on the key elements of a culture strategy which will include key focus areas, outcomes and measurables.
A culture strategy includes key focus areas under each dimension of the BILT model as well as defined activities under each focus area. Culture is a broad topic. We assign dates and timelines along with a clear articulation of areas of responsibility for both Appletree and the client as we take intentional daily steps toward shaping good culture.
We pride ourselves in our ability to partner internal stakeholders and in particular, HR, in delivering on the defined culture strategy.
