Programme overview
Technical depth: Practitioner · Practical mode: Case study
Introduction
Strategies, restructures and performance systems regularly underdeliver because the behaviours they depend on never take hold. Leaders describe the culture they want in value statements, yet the real culture is set by what gets rewarded, tolerated and measured every day. This Core Concept course equips managers to diagnose the culture they actually have, define the behaviours high performance requires and align the systems that shape them. Participants work through case material from several sectors and leave with a Culture Roadmap for their own organisation or unit.
Course Objectives
- Diagnose an organisation's current culture using Schein's three levels, the Cultural Web and structured employee listening data
- Profile current and preferred culture with the Competing Values Framework and the Denison Organizational Culture Model
- Translate strategy and values into observable behaviour standards that managers can coach and assess
- Align performance, recognition and people processes so that they reinforce the target culture
- Measure culture and engagement with defined indicators, including ISO 30414 human capital metrics, and act on the results
- Produce a Culture Roadmap that can be presented to senior leadership for approval
Target Audience
- Managers accountable for the performance and working climate of a department or business unit
- HR and organisational development managers responsible for culture, engagement and values programmes
- Strategy and transformation managers aligning culture with a new strategy or operating model
- Performance and quality managers who own performance systems and people engagement practices
- Internal communication and employee experience managers who shape how values are expressed and reinforced
Course Outline
Day 1: Culture, Performance and the Current State
- Schein's Three Levels of Culture: Artefacts, Espoused Values and Basic Assumptions
- Culture and Performance Evidence Using the McKinsey Organisational Health Index
- Current-State Mapping with the Johnson and Scholes Cultural Web
- Employee Listening Inputs: Engagement Surveys, Exit Data and Focus Group Protocols
- Culture Artefact Audit: Policies, Rituals, Symbols and Decision Records
Day 2: Culture Models and Standards
- Competing Values Framework and OCAI Current-Preferred Profiling
- Denison Organizational Culture Model: Mission, Adaptability, Involvement and Consistency
- ISO 10018 Guidance for People Engagement
- Edmondson's Psychological Safety Framework and Team Climate Survey Items
- ISO 30414 Human Capital Metrics for Culture and Engagement Reporting
Day 3: Defining and Embedding the Target Culture
- Strategy-to-Behaviour Translation Using a Values-Behaviours Matrix
- Behavioural Standards Charter with Observable Indicators
- Performance Management Alignment: OKRs and Behaviour-Based Appraisal Criteria
- Recognition and Consequence Mapping Against Target Behaviours
- Leader Standard Work and Role-Modelling Commitments
Day 4: Culture Risk, Resistance and Sustainment
- Subculture and Counterculture Analysis Across Functions and Sites
- Culture Risk Indicator Dashboard: Conduct, Speak-Up and Deviance Signals
- Culture Clash Diagnosis in Mergers Using Hofstede's Organisational Culture Dimensions
- Culture Measurement with Balanced Scorecard Learning and Growth Indicators
- Culture Sustainment Review Cycle Using Plan-Do-Check-Act
Day 5: Case Work and the Culture Roadmap
- Service Organisation Case Study: Diagnosing a Compliance-Driven Culture
- Technology Scale-Up Case Study: Protecting Performance Culture During Rapid Growth
- Culture Gap Analysis Build for an Own Unit
- Culture Roadmap Drafting: Priorities, Levers, Owners and Measures
- Senior Leadership Review Panel and Roadmap Defence
Skills You Will Gain
- Culture Diagnosis
- Culture Survey Interpretation
- Behavioural Standards Design
- Performance System Alignment
- Engagement Measurement
- Culture Risk Assessment
- Leadership Role Modelling
- Culture Change Planning
Why Attend This Course
- Return to work with a Culture Roadmap for a named unit, already tested before a review panel
- Replace general value statements with behaviour standards that managers can observe, coach and assess
- Spot the systems and routines that quietly reward the wrong behaviour, and know how to realign them
- Compare culture practice with managers from other sectors and countries facing similar performance pressures
Conclusion
A high-performance culture is built through the daily decisions, routines and rewards that tell people what really counts. This course moves from diagnosing the culture an organisation actually has, through the principal culture models and engagement standards, to translating strategy into behaviours and aligning the systems that sustain them. The final day turns that work into a Culture Roadmap that participants take back to senior leadership, giving them a structured and measurable basis for shaping how their organisation performs.