Who would have thought it….
I rate the Barrett Values Centre (BVC) organisation highly. In fact, I became a Barrett Culture Transformation Practitioner because the tools enable me to help clients understand their current culture, and what colleagues are asking as a collective to peak perform as an organisation in the future.
The results and diagnostics give invaluable insights and open up fascinating conversations to help guide leaders to identify the desired culture that will help the company to thrive. The culture values assessment also acts as a benchmark to measure the success of the team/company culture change as it journeys through its culture change programme.
Just in case you didn’t read them when they launched, I wanted to share the high level findings which are an interesting read. The assessment was created to understand the impact of the pandemic on cultures of organisations from pre-Covid to current times. The assessment also asked people what they felt was required for their organisation to thrive in the future.
Just over 2500 employees around the global took part and the high-level findings were:
Culture transformation that we’d normally see over a number of years, has happened in six weeks!
Organisational cultures are actually healthier. Culture dysfunction has declined from 20% to 17% even though we are in a very uncertain world.
There’s been a shift in personal values. Making a difference, adaptability, caring and well-being are now what’s valued by people in the new world.
Having a clear and inspiring shared vision to collectively go after is much more important to colleagues (from no 93 to no 16).
Organisational concerns have shifted from predominantly being bureaucracy, control and hierarchy to caution, confusion and job insecurity.
Personal values reflect what matters most to us as an individual which shapes the way we behave. When personal values are aligned with those of the company, colleagues feel a sense of connection and are able to bring their full selves to work.
It’s important to be aware that personal values are fairly consistent over time, however, when life conditions change, this can cause people to re-evaluate and there can be a shift in their values and what they prioritise.
In this area, here are what the results are telling us:
Four new priority values emerge from pre-Covid to #newnorm: making a difference, adaptability, well-being, and caring.
The values of continuous learning and family were already present Pre-Covid and have since increased in priority. This shift in values reflects the need that people are feeling to take care of one another amidst the changes and uncertainty in the current culture.
There’s a huge shift in importance of well-being which has moved from number 26 to number 5 during Covid-19.
Questions to ask yourself as an organisation:
How people-centred are you being as an organisation as you move forward?
What priority are you giving to well-being?
Do your leaders know how to emotionally support their team members?
In the midst of the rush to adapt to the pandemic, there have been dramatic changes in the way employees experience their culture.
A powerful way to assess a company culture is to measure where the focus of energy is concentrated. When we look at the values before and during Covid-19 and categorise them into key business focus areas, a clear shift in focus is revealed.
The traditional “process” focus of finance and effectiveness has been replaced by a focus on people, agility, and communication.
During Covid-19, results-focused as an organisational value has shifted from priority no 2 to no 25.
Achievement has shifted from no 6 to no 50.
Agility has moved up from no 43 to no 8.
Most companies have shown unprecedented levels of adaptability and agility, in response to the business disruption caused by the pandemic.
Rigid structures and red tape have been cleared away so companies can respond quickly to remain relevant and effective.
Is your company really listening to its customers and colleagues in response to this huge change, and how supportive has it been?
How open and effective has your communication approach been?
What red tape can you lose forever to keep the agile and innovative culture alive?
When the survey asked participants to describe the values and behaviours that would best help their organisation recover and thrive in the future, a strong alignment was found between what people were currently experiencing during Covid-19 and what they wanted to see in the future.
A metric that Barrett use for analysing how confident employees are in the future direction of their company, is the number of matching values between their current culture and the desired culture. This number of matching values has, in fact, tripled since before the pandemic. This means that many of the values within organisations currently are what employees are asking for going forward.
There seems to be a desire to continue to be responsive and find better ways of working together. Participants highlighted they’d like to see continued emphasis on the values of adaptability, agility, digital connectivity, information sharing, and work/life balance as we look to the post-Covid recovery.
Do you know what your colleagues are collectively asking for in the new world, so that you can act, and they and the company can flourish together?
Covid-19 has brought about a new and improved way of working together and a positive shift in organisational values, but the transformation is not complete. To enhance the recovery, employees are asking for even more communication, innovation, and collaborative ways of working together. They want a shared vision and to working together to go after it.
Do you have a compelling purpose, vision and values that your colleagues find meaningful and are united in making happen?
Is your company set up to thrive?
What’s been fantastic to witness on the whole is that people have come together to support each other as they’ve had to deal with this big unknown. I found that was mirrored during a team culture workshop I facilitated recently.
The results of the Global Covid-19 Culture Assessment also point to a similar positive trajectory happening inside companies as colleagues are being prioritised over process and adaptability outshines control. The degree of transformation we have seen in the last six weeks would normally have required a number of years to take place.
As organisations continue to respond to changing economic, market, and regulatory conditions, the decisions you make affecting your business setup, purpose, vision, strategy and the well-being of colleagues, are directly tied to culture and values.
Understanding the shifts in your unique culture, and what is being called for, offers a great advantage to merge what you do with how you do it.
As research continuously shows us, healthy organisational cultures are more resilient and lead to both more engaged and productive employees, as well as greater financial performance in the long-term.
If you want to talk more about how I can help you as an organisation or your team, please get in touch. To find out even more about the Covid culture results, do listen into the BVC webinar here.