How to present an organisational culture project to management
By Deibson Silva · Reviewed on
An organisational culture project is presented to senior management as the answer to a business problem they already recognise, with what will be measured, what they must decide and a plan at 30, 60 and 90 days. The proposal fits on two pages and says who takes part, what each person sees and what happens to the results.
Why does senior management usually say no?
Because the proposal arrives talking about values. A management committee that hears 'working on our culture' pictures workshops, posters on the wall and a report nobody will open.
There is a second reason, less often admitted. Asking staff raises expectations, and senior management is afraid of not knowing what to do with the answers. If the proposal does not say what happens next, the prudent course for them is not to begin.
Both objections are dealt with before the meeting, in the order in which the proposal is written.
Which business problem should open the proposal?
One that senior management has already named in its own words. Cases like these work: two teams that merged a year ago and still work separately; an area where new people leave before twelve months are up; newly appointed managers who each lead in their own way; a second site that does not run like the first.
Write it in one sentence and back it with a figure from the company itself. 'Four of the six people who joined operations this year have left' opens a conversation. 'We want to strengthen our culture' closes it.
If you cannot find a problem like that, the project is not ready to be presented. Go back and talk to two or three heads of area before you ask for the meeting.
What should the proposal contain?
Eight parts, each in one or two paragraphs. The table says what each part answers and the mistake made most often in it.
| Part | What it answers | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Problem | Which decision is stuck and what it means to go on without taking it | Talking about values in the abstract |
| What is measured | The culture people live in each area, and with which instrument | Promising a single truth about the company |
| Who takes part | Which teams, and how much time is asked of each person | Leaving out middle managers |
| What each person will see | What the individual, their manager and senior management receive | Not saying who sees what until the end |
| What senior management decides | The two or three possible decisions at the end | Handing over a report with no decision attached |
| Plan at 30, 60 and 90 days | Actions, the person in charge of each and a date | A plan with no owner |
| Timetable and price | Weeks of work, internal time and what you charge | Hiding the time it asks of staff |
| How it is reviewed | When you measure again, and with what | Never asking again |
What is measured, and what are staff told?
You measure the culture people live, which does not always match the one written down. One way is to start from people's behavioural profiles and aggregate them by area, to see how each team decides and what moves it. Another, which complements it, is anonymous pulse surveys.
The proposal has to say what each person will be told before they answer. Article 13 of the GDPR requires you to tell them who is handling their data and for what purposes, and Article 5 asks for those purposes to be specified and not used later for something else. If the project is presented as a way to understand how teams work, its results should not turn up afterwards in another kind of decision.
Personality and behaviour profiles fall under the first criterion on the Spanish data protection authority's list of processing that may require an impact assessment. Say in the proposal who will review that.
And in Spain, if the decisions that follow may bring relevant changes to how work is organised, Article 64.5 of the Workers' Statute gives the works council the right to be informed and consulted. Mentioning it in the proposal reassures senior management. Other countries have their own consultation rules.
What does senior management have to decide at the end?
Write down the possible decisions before you measure anything. For example: change how newcomers to operations are welcomed, bring the rating criteria of two areas into line, or leave things as they are because the difference between teams turns out to be useful.
This is the part that persuades. What senior management is buying is the ability to decide with more information about something that worries them, and the map is the means of getting there.
Include what the project will not decide as well. It will not say who is surplus or who deserves to move up. Those decisions have their own processes.
How do you answer the usual objections?
'We already know what our culture is like.' Senior management probably does know the culture of head office and of the team closest to it. The proposal offers to see it by area, which is where the differences appear.
'We have no time.' Say exactly how much you are asking for: the minutes the questionnaire takes per person, two meetings with senior management and one with each head of area.
'What if something comes out that we do not like?' Agree beforehand what will be shared with staff and in what form. The usual approach is to give back a summary by area and the actions decided.
'Will it be anonymous?' Explain the rule: no group result is shown unless it reaches a minimum number of responses. With fewer than five, anyone can work out who said what.
What should you not promise?
Business figures. A culture project gives information for deciding; whether turnover falls or sales rise depends on what senior management does with it, and on many other things.
Individual readings with consequences are another promise to leave out. The map describes how a group works. Using it to label one person breaks the trust of everyone who answered.
And keep away from the language of a doctor's surgery. What is described here is ways of working and deciding, and what is proposed is changes to how the company is run.
How do you present the plan at 30, 60 and 90 days?
As a draft that senior management completes. At 30 days, what can be done with no budget: a meeting between two areas, a change in how a task is shared out. At 60, what needs preparation, such as training managers to give feedback. At 90, the second measurement, a short one, to see what changed.
Every action carries a named person and a date. If senior management does not want to put names down, the project has nobody to hold it up, and it is better to say so in the meeting.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
- How long should the presentation last?
- Twenty minutes of presentation and another twenty of questions. If you need more, the proposal still has parts that are undecided.
- Who should be in the meeting?
- Whoever runs the company and the heads of the areas affected. Without them, the 30-day actions are left with no owner.
- Do you have to measure the whole company?
- Not always. Starting with the two or three areas where the problem sits shortens the project and lets you compare. It can be widened later if senior management finds it useful.
- What if senior management does not want to share the results?
- Agree it before you start. Staff need to know in advance what they will receive; promising feedback and not giving it harms the next measurement.
- Does the works council have to be told?
- In Spain, Article 64.5 of the Workers' Statute gives it the right to be informed and consulted on decisions that may bring relevant changes to how work is organised. If the project points that way, put it in the timetable.