Overview
Culture is the set of customs, traditions, and values of a society, ethnic group, or nation. Culture encompasses food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we behave, etc. Within an organization, culture is identified as the identity and personality of an organization. It consists of the employees' and stakeholders' shared thoughts, assumptions, behaviors, and values. Culture is dynamic and ever-changing and evolves with time. Culture drives or impedes the success of any organization. It can impact the talent, products, clients, and revenue. Hence, an organization's culture should be carefully nurtured and developed in the right direction. Here are a few pointers to impact organizational culture:
- Culture starts with the organization's leaders. Employees model the behaviors of their leaders. Hence, the company's leaders and managers should focus on having the most influence.
- Create alignment between the values and behaviors. Successful cultures assimilate the organization's mission, vision, and core values.
- Rewarding and celebrating achievement will drive others to success and reinforce the company's culture by celebrating those who live out the company's values.
The culture map model uses a simple model to evaluate the culture of any organization using a standard set of measurements. You can document and review the current state and determine which areas align with what you expect and which areas need improvement. Once the gap areas are identified, you can come up with some recommended actions to help mold the culture of the organization.
Inputs
This tool can be added to your active workbook by clicking on Change and then selecting Culture Map.Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.
Setup
A sample screenshot of the setup menu is shown below.
1 | Analysis Type: Specify the tool format for this analysis. This selection is not enabled since there is only one format available. | ||||||
2 | Plot Orientation: Specify the orientation for the plot.
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3 | View Example: Click on this button to add an example worksheet. You can use the example to understand how others have filled out the tool or use the example as a starting point and modify it to meet your needs better. | ||||||
4 | Help Button: Click on this button to open the help file for this topic. | ||||||
5 | Cancel Button: Click on this button to cancel all changes to the settings and exit this dialog box. | ||||||
6a | Create Button: Click on this button to save all changes and update the worksheet layout (if any). | ||||||
6b | OK Button: Click on this button to save all changes and compute the outputs for this analysis. |
The worksheet consists of a set of questions to help you identify the current culture of the organization. It asks you to document:
- What does a great day at work look like? This question helps you identify those elements of the culture working great.
- The next question is about a terrible day. This question helps you identify those elements of the culture that are not working great.
- Document examples of behavior that is impacting outcome. Here, the focus is on specific behaviors.
- Finally, document the desired changes for the current culture and the specific action plan you plan to deploy to enable these changes in the company.
At the bottom of the worksheet is a generic culture assessment using eight dimensions. You are asked to evaluate your culture concerning Communicating, Evaluating, Persuading, Leading, Deciding, Trusting, Disagreeing, and Scheduling. For each of these areas, two extremes are described. You must rate your company to determine where it falls on this scale. For example, if we are talking about Communication, one extreme may be low-context communication, where communication is precise, simple, and straightforward within the organization, and messages are expressed and understood at face value. The other extreme is high-context communication, which is sophisticated, nuanced, and layered. Messages are spoken and read between the lines. If your company is most closely represented by low context, you can score a 10 for the low context; the high context automatically gets a 0. If you believe your company communication is high context, enter a score of 0 for low context, and high context automatically receives a 10. You can, of course, enter any value in between and share the 10 points between low-context and high-context. The higher the value for a selection, the more your company represents that way of working. Complete this assessment for each dimension.
Charts
You will see the following dialog box if you click the Charts button. 
1 | Title: The system will automatically pick a title for your chart. However, if you want to override that with your title, you can specify a title for your chart here. Note that this input is optional. |
2 | Sub Title: The system will automatically pick a subtitle for your chart. However, if you want to override that with your subtitle, specify a subtitle for your chart here. Note that this input is optional. |
3 | X Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your label for the x-axis, you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional. |
4 | Y Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your label for the y-axis, you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional. |
5 | X Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the x-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to specify the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20, the minimum x-axis scale is set at 10, and the maximum x-axis scale is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the x-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is currently disabled, and you cannot change this setting. |
6 | Y Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the y-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to specify the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20, the minimum y-axis scale is set at 10, and the maximum y-axis is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the y-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is optional. |
7 | Horizontal Lines: You can specify the values here if you want to add a few extra horizontal reference lines on top of your chart. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 12;15, two horizontal lines are plotted at Y = 12 and Y = 15, respectively. Note that this input is optional. |
8 | Vertical Lines: You can specify the values here if you want to add a few extra vertical reference lines on top of your chart. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 2;5, two vertical lines are plotted at X = 2 and X = 5, respectively. Note that this input is optional. |
Checklist
You will see the following dialog box if you click the Checklist button. 
The checklist contains a few pointers on things you must pay particular attention to while performing this analysis. The checklist has been derived from experience working on past projects. Not all the checklist items need to apply to you. However, you should carefully review the checklist and apply any recommendations that make sense for your project. Make sure to read each checklist item and mark it as completed after you have read and taken actions as appropriate for your project.
1 | Item: The items on the checklist are listed on the left |
2 | Status: The status of whether the checklist has been answered is listed on the right. |
Ideally, all items on the checklist should be marked as reviewed/completed.
Verify
If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below.
The software checks if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, they are shown as green-colored checkmarks. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red-colored cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange exclamation mark. Finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.
1 | Item: The left-hand side shows the major tabs and the items checked within each section |
2 | Status: The right-hand side shows the status of the checks. |
3 | Overall Status: The overall status of all the checks for the given analysis is shown here. The overall status check shows a green thumps-up sign if everything is okay and a red thumps-down sign if any checks have not passed. Note that you cannot proceed with generating analysis results for some analyses if the overall status is not okay. |
Outputs
Once you have answered all the data on the worksheet, click on Compute Outputs to create a bar graph of your selections. A sample screenshot of the culture map outputs is shown below. 
There are no specific graphical outputs to interpret for this analysis. If all the template elements have been filled out, you will get the following message when you click the Compute Outputs button.
You can review the current selections and determine what parts of the culture need improvement, document the desired changes to your culture, and develop an action plan to achieve the new organizational culture.
Notes
Here are a few pointers regarding this analysis:
- You can add or change questions for each phase by opening the tools folder and editing the questions that are asked so that the next time around, these questions will be displayed when you select the coaching model.
Examples
The following examples are in the Examples folder.
- Assess the organizational culture and document any changes you would like to make and how you plan to accomplish the changes (Culture Map 1.xlsx).
References
For more information on this topic, please refer to the following articles. Do note that if any external links are mentioned below, they are for reference purposes only.
- Effective Communication Plans: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/10-Principles-of-Organizational-Culture?gko=71d2f
