Methodology for Culture Work
Methodology - this has been kept very simple, based on conversations and listening
Methodology
There are a number of
models that can be used to analyse corporate culture; in the end, much of this
depends on talking with people and listening to what they have to say. To this
end, I have run a number of workshops to hear from colleagues, talk about the
importance of culture and to encourage individuals to take on small pieces of
change.
Round One
The first round of
workshops saw groups of staff working through a number of questions:
·
What
are the influences on corporate culture?
·
What
determines corporate culture at Somerset County Council?
·
What
would great culture look like in your team and across Somerset County Council?
How would this impact the services that your team provides?
·
What
do we need to change at Somerset County Council?
In essence, this was
framing what goes on around here, thinking how things would be if the culture
was great and what we need to do to get there. As part of setting the context
for this work, we explored examples of the impact of good and poor culture in
organisations such as Google, John Lewis, BP, Enron, Mid-Staffordshire
Hospitals, Haringey Council. In the cases of poor culture, we discussed how
things weren’t necessarily the action of one person, rather how it would take
dozens if not hundreds of people to be actively or passively complicit in what
is happening. This concept can also be described as ‘Wilful Blindness’.
Participants were
also asked to ‘make a pledge’, so to promise to change one thing that was a) in
their power to change and b) would have a positive impact on culture.
Colleagues were also
asked to take a smaller version of the presentation to their teams and to lead
conversations across the organisation. Approximately 300 people attended the
workshops.
Round 2
Round 2 of the
workshops started in February 2017. These have focused on the themes that came out
of the first sessions, so showing what’s important to colleagues and areas that
they’d like to see developed. There was some feedback on the pledges that
people made in Round One, to see where we’ve got with things. I also presented
a piece of work called the 21st Century Public Servant, examining the role of
the public servant and what skills, attributes and values are needed in the 21st
Century. Finally, we looked at ‘Culture Hacks’, which focus on bringing people
together in teams, to make real improvements in areas across the authority that
they are interested in.
The second round saw
a mixture of general and team-focused sessions, covering all service areas and
locations. At the time of writing this report, there had been over 35 workshops
attended by approximately 500 people.
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