Cultural maturity
The steps towards a lively and future-proof company culture
A truly mature company culture is co-owned, adaptable and scales as the team grows, without losing its core cultural strength.
Innovative
We break new grounds
Every team
has a culture.
But does your culture drive your team towards your business goal?
WE BELIEVE
Culture is the sum of all behavior
Great cultures follow when your entire team applies your cultural values in their daily behavior. Getting there always starts with defining your goal, and the supporting values and behaviors. And embedding your cultural values in the repeating rituals that solidify your culture. So you can involve your entire team in applying your values and strengthen your culture together.
The path towards
cultural maturity.
Each team is unique, yet the path to true cultural maturity
is made up of the same five stages for all of us.
The Culture is undefined & implicit
Every team has a culture. But within a lot the team culture is implicit and not clearly linked to the company's mission and not expressed in clear principles. Team culture is typically driven by the actions and behaviors of one or a few leaders rather than a defined organizational identity.
Define: make culture explicit
At this stage the group has grown beyond the original team and so the team needs clarity to achieve its goals. To maintain the cultural DNA and prepare for further growth, the company has its ambition and cultural values and behaviors clearly defined and articulated. The cultural values are clearly linked as the pillars of the company mission and are consistently communicated, both to the team and to potential future team members.
Embed: make your culture workable
The cultural values are not only clearly formulated, they are also anchored in the structure, growth paths and the different roles within the organization. The team has a clear & practical working method to embed cultural values in growth paths, roles and recurring rituals such as talent recruitment, onboarding, feedback, growth & assessment and employee involvement.
Apply: culture made real
From this stage cultural values are lived together in daily practice. At every step of the employee journey and throughout the entire team. From the first contact to the last working day: the entire team is enabled to actively contribute to continuous culture reinforcement. The cultural values guide all team-building decisions and team members are actively involved in all recurring team rituals. Cultural involvement is made measurable and the team is supported to contribute to the continuous feedback loop between leadership and team.
A lively and future-proof culture
A team achieves this by continuously working together to strengthen culture 'cultural maturity' and the culture is part of the DNA of the organization. Cultural insights guide decision-making, the cultural values are owned by all employees, and the culture can welcome and include new team members without losing strength. There is an ongoing ability to develop and/or adapt culture in service of the company's purpose and strategy.