Now is the time to get a grip on your organizational culture. No matter how uncertain the future, understanding your organization right now can help you navigate through this crisis and come out stronger on the other side.
Why? Because a crisis brings out the best and the worst in our companies. And what we learn as we monitor culture now will be invaluable as we plan for a time beyond our current circumstances.
Under the right lens, unrecognized strengths will show up as your team leans into the challenges. And, also, problematic patterns that have lurked below the surface may emerge.
Armed with evidence about your culture’s current strengths and weaknesses, you can design a path forward in these uncertain times. Build on where you are now for where you want to be when the crises are behind us.
Don’t Wait for the New Normal
Do not wait for a new normal to shore up your cultural foundation. The stakes are high, both short and longer-term. Undeniably, our new reality is testing all of us.
Emotions tend to take over as we face an uncertain future. Some companies may not survive. Yet others will make it through this mess and come out more durable and resilient.
We are a few weeks into the crisis. Now is time to assess what is working and what is not in our teams and organizations.
Take Your Cultural Temperature
One way or another, everyone can assess the current organization or team culture. Choose the approach that meets your own circumstances best.
Here are some suggestions:
Take a cultural pulse check.
Your process can be as simple as reaching out to individuals and asking them to share their concerns. Or, perhaps you might choose to convene your team for collective conversations about what is working and what is not in the current work from home environment.
Avoid the temptation to gather input solely through emails or texts. Our virtual context makes human interaction more important than ever.
Whatever your preferred method, do these pulse checks repeatedly and often.
Carry out a poll or survey assessment.
With the many technologies available, you can always supplement your virtual conversations and meetings with short polls or surveys. You can send out a couple of quick questions that your team can answer on their phones, at a minimum.
Or, if you are convening a group in a web meeting, you can set up a poll that the participants can respond to on the spot. The results show up in real-time and provide your group with immediate information that can stimulate valuable discussions.
Some of you may choose to administer a more formal survey. Undoubtedly many already conduct a culture assessment on at least an annual basis. You don’t need to throw out an active process.
However, any evaluation you carry out now should address some of the unique aspects of the current moment.
Example: Rather than asking whether the company’s purpose is clear, ask how your team judges the current efforts to live it during these trying times. Instead of inquiring whether your employees feel valued by their managers overall, ask if they believe the company has treated them with respect so far during the crisis.
And provide them with a means for clarifying their answers in their own words.
Employees’ perceptions of the company, the team, and the leaders during these tough times provide a clear indication of the state of the culture in general. How the organization is functioning through this crisis will give you an indication of how it will emerge when more stable circumstances prevail.
Beware of Cultural Landmines
Cultural weaknesses can escalate and spiral out of control quickly when fear and anxiety are high. By looking for the signs, you can catch any pending problems early before the culture becomes toxic.
Look for signs of distress.
Some of the signs of distress include:
- Increase in rumors and gossiping
- Silence in meetings
- Abrupt or confusing communications among team members
- Passive-aggressive behaviors or bullying
- Resistance to dealing directly with conflict
- Exaggerated sarcasm
Address problems before they grow toxic.
Stay alert to the signs of distress. And upon discovery, confront them immediately.
In the case of bullying, act swiftly and decisively to stop it.
Handle the other signals more gently. Have a conversation with the individuals who exhibit these behaviors. Avoid taking an accusatory tone. Instead, adopt an inquiring style to gather more information about what might be going on.
What You Can Learn About Culture from Stressful Times
While stress can certainly lead to behaviors that otherwise might not occur, both positive and negative, don’t assume that the crisis explains the entire picture.
Most likely, the attitudes and behaviors existed in a less visible form all along. Difficult times do tend to bring out both the best and the worst in an organization or team.
Case: Lurking Problems Come to the Forefront
The culture among a small team of people working in a medium-sized professional services firm began to show some cracks over the past few weeks. Like so many others, they are working from home.
A conflict arose among the team members who tried to resolve it via an email thread. The arguments grew heated, and finally, communications broke down completely.
The team leader could have attributed the conflict to stressful times. However, instead, she decided to do a more in-depth assessment of the team culture in looking for possible causes before jumping in with solutions.
She found that the varying styles of the team members had been an unrecognized challenge to their productivity and relationships all along. The crisis-related anxiety and the retreat to virtual work had merely magnified the issues that, if not addressed, would eventually undermine the success of the organization. The current circumstances merely brought the problem to the forefront.
The team leader chose to address the issues within the context of both the short-term and longer-term implications.
Carry Cultural Knowledge into the Future
Probably nobody welcomes our current condition. We would gladly go back to business as usual if given the opportunity. However, by taking a closer look at our organization during the crisis, we can learn much that will enable us to strengthen it.
While none of us knows the future, all of us can learn from our present circumstances. We can prepare for a time ahead when we won’t go back to business as usual. Instead, we can choose to move forward into the unknown, healthier, and more resilient.
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