You need a culture audit to determine your organisational culture disposition. What is your most dominant culture type? What is the desired culture type given your kind of business?

Culture influences organizational performance, innovation, agility, engagement, and competitiveness. Research shows that a toxic culture decreases productivity by 40%, while an effective culture increases productivity by 20%, and a positive culture even with 30-40%.

Your culture profiles are an insightful start to developing your organizational culture. There are four different culture types, namely:

1. Collaboration (Clan)
2. Creation (Adhocracy)
3. Competition (Market)
4. Control (Hierarchy)

What is the best culture type for your organization? It depends.

A culture type works best in the activities domain that aligns with its values. In the health care sector, for instance, we often see Collaborate or Clan culture. However: there is no ultimate “best” organizational culture.

Take note of the following:

1. A culture audit helps determine the values, beliefs, and practices that are dominant in the organisation – particularly when you start to focus on encouraging innovation, winning attitude, agility and implementing change initiatives for improved performance. However, it can be hard to clarify which values and sub-cultures are strongest without a culture audit.
2. A culture audit helps to identify the predominant culture type – the desired culture type to find ways to win. Is your current culture toxic or productive? You cannot improve something that you do not know. A culture audit is a sign of great leadership for their willingness to transform the organization through identifying the ideal culture.
3. Not money, Not machinery, Not buildings. The single most critical resource that separates great companies from average ones is the staff working as a team focused on a common agenda.
4. A company may have a well-documented strategy, work plans, and budgets, but if the prevailing culture is that of individualism, sluggishness, laid back attitude, victim mentality, no great results may be attained. In addition to specific and clear KPIs for each staff, a high-performance culture drives result.

The fact is a culture of performance takes time.

It calls for sacrifice and change in how things are done. For that reason, some people must change to new ways and habits to align to the predominant winning culture given the dynamic business environment. Some staff, unfortunately, may fight new interventions and tools. That is expected in any change initiative.

To grow, one must be willing to let go! When one is promoted to a new senior role, they must change by letting go of their previous role. The results of these tools shall help reveal who is on your team and whether they have the passion and the right attitude to grow in these changing times.