Are you prioritising your organisational culture?
As we begin the second quarter of 2024, we are reminded of an article that we shared at the start of Q1, where we encouraged the prioritisation of culture this year. How is this going? Have you been privy to conversations about culture, or values, or behaviours, or direction of travel over the last few months?
One organisation that we have worked with for the past couple of years has worked diligently to develop, strengthen and embed their company culture, making it a priority in all conversations, and we want to share their story with you today.
Stage Electrics has been working across all forms of entertainment, including the arts, broadcast and theatre, for more than 40 years. Its purpose is to make performance possible: from selling technical products and delivering multimillion-pound installation projects to manufacturing, inspecting and testing specialist equipment.
Following changes in its executive leadership team in 2020, Stage Electrics worked hard to identify and agree a set of operational principles that resonated with everyone, and that will serve as a guide as it navigates the future. This culminated in introducing five Core Values in the late spring of 2022 and working to ensure these were embedded across all aspects of business, from meetings with customers and procurement processes, to recruitment decisions and staff appraisals.
In late 2022, Stage Electrics commissioned ICC to facilitate our Cultural Analysis, allowing staff to share their thoughts on the company values and culture anonymously, and providing some important feedback on progress of the work Stage Electrics has done on culture.
The findings from the ICC Cultural Analysis provided valuable insight into the ‘why’ behind many elements of the Stage Electrics performance culture, making it easy to identify where it was achieving (areas to defend) and where improvements were crucial (areas to develop). ICC presented the findings to the leadership team, provided ample opportunity for questions, and led a group discussion to generate immediate strategies for actioning the ICC recommendations.
After gaining robust clarity from the ICC Cultural Analysis, Stage Electrics implemented a straightforward strategy to achieve performance improvements in specific areas. The success of this was proven in late 2023 when we facilitated the Cultural Analysis for a second time, and the overall ratings were higher than in 2022. Interestingly some of the comments provided by staff in 2023 indicated a shift in mindset since 2022, with many team members now believing that there are always improvements that can be made, and although the culture at Stage Electrics is very good, they are invested in helping to make it even better.
Stage Electrics recognises that investing in cultural initiatives will not only benefit its bottom line, but also result in further improving employee engagement and performance in its values-based business.
Would your organisation benefit from a Cultural Analysis? What would the results show? Contact us today to start the conversation.
