Part III – What Kind of Culture Do You Have?
By Blake DuBose and Mike DuBose
In Parts I and II of this series, we defined what culture means and the symptoms of a toxic work environment. This installment will address ways for leaders to capture an accurate picture of their organizations’ culture. As we noted, some leaders are clueless about what is really going on in their businesses. Then, suddenly, profits are spiraling downward, they are in the midst of a major crisis, and it is often too late to regain control. Actually, most businesses will emit faint warning signals when problems are brewing, but they are easily missed by leaders without systems that give them accurate information about successes, mistakes, and failures. Staff and managers often tell senior leaders what they want to hear, when in reality, the house is on fire!
In 2007, we found ourselves in a quagmire. An anonymous survey showed that 75% of employees in two of our companies were unhappy, and many planned to leave within five years. Fortunately, we were able to step back, acknowledge the causes and symptoms of the issue, and develop a new plan to turn our toxic workplaces around. Just four years later, most of our employees look forward to coming to work each day!
There are several things you need to do to take the pulse of your business’ culture. The first step is developing a comprehensive plan for obtaining an accurate snapshot of your organization. The following are suggestions for that plan, which can be developed in-house and/or with the aid of an independent consultant (we recommend utilizing both):
Avoid biased analysis: The leadership team needs to ensure that all feedback on the condition of the business and the culture are accurate and nonbiased. Various people may participate in gathering the information, but once complete, the final results should flow directly to the highest levels possible (preferably, to the company president). This allows the findings to bypass any individuals who might filter, pollute, change, misinterpret, and/or alter the results to inaccurately make them, others, and/or the business look better than they actually are. The fewer people who touch the information the better; we suggest minimizing bias in reporting by hiring a competent, experienced outside consultant to analyze the results.
Clearly communicate your plans to everyone: Let staff at all levels know what you are doing, your goals, and the process that will take place. To attract buy-in and staff participation, invite all employees to review and comment on your plans, surveys, and processes. Stress to them that the results will be confidential so they can express their true thoughts without fear. Leaders must also commit to making changes based on the results; staff will find taking future surveys pointless if they do not feel that actions are being taken to address their concerns. Do not rush this process!
Conduct a confidential survey: We utilized a University of South Carolina doctoral student (one of our graduate assistants) to design our survey with input from leaders and employees. The student also compiled the responses and provided a narrative report to senior leadership. You can contact the associate dean at your local university’s schools of psychology, public health, business, social work, or education to inquire about contracting with a graduate student (preferably a doctoral student in their last two years of study) to conduct your survey. Another option is to use survey software called Zarca (www.zarca.com), which allows employees to anonymously respond to a questionnaire via Internet link. Some employees may still be paranoid about comments being traced back to them, so we suggested that our staff use computers at the public library, friends’ homes, etc. to complete the survey. To further encourage honest responses, ask them not to place their names or any other identifying information on the survey.
When formulating the survey, develop a variety of question types: open-ended, true/false, Likert scale assessments, etc. Ensure that your questions are simple (12th grade reading level or lower), relevant, and reasonable in number. The entire survey should take no longer than 30 minutes to complete; otherwise, response rates may be low. It is also a good idea to provide an incentive to take the assessment, such as allowing employees to leave work a few hours early. Beware: graduate students, university academic staff, consultants, and survey developers tend to ask an excessive number of high-level questions on surveys. Thus, for each survey question, ask yourself, “Do we really need this item? How will we use the information to make our company better?” Grouping your questions by category will also make the survey easier to read. Open-ended questions will generate the most valuable information, so ensure that you allow adequate room for people to express themselves and explain their answers. Here are sample questions you might consider using:
Open-ended Questions
- What do you like most about the company?
- If you could make any changes within the company, what would they be?
- What do you like most about leadership?
- What are leadership’s opportunities for improvement?
- Please describe the five greatest values (if any) within our company.
- What are the five greatest things (if any) you value in a workplace? Please comment on how our company does or does not address them.
- What do you think the greatest problems with our company are?
True-False
- Most days, I look forward to coming to work.
- I can share concerns or disagreements with my supervisor and others without fear.
- My opinions and suggestions are valued.
- My supervisor cares about me.
- I like most of the people with whom I work.
- Decisions within the company are made on a timely basis.
- I know what is expected of me in my job.
Likert Scale
- Rate your level of job-related stress. (1=low-stress and 10=very stressful )
- Please rate your salary. (1=poor and 10=excellent)
- Please rate the fringe benefits you receive from the company. (1=poor and 10=excellent)
- Please rate how well our company executes or gets things done. (1=poor and 10=excellent)
- Please rate the quality of the company’s overall work. (1=poor and 10=excellent)
- Overall, how would you rate your satisfaction with your job? (1=poor and 10=excellent)
- Please rate how ethical the company’s leaders are. (1=very unethical and 10=very ethical)
Seek outside help: Once our survey was completed, we hired an independent leadership consultant to gather his own findings. He conducted one-on-one confidential interviews with our employees to probe deeper into their responses, asked follow-up questions as an outsider, and then developed a confidential report of the results. Between our survey and his report, we had a very clear picture of our companies’ problems and their causes that could be used as we planned a strategy to improve the companies.
Assess customer satisfaction: You should already be assessing client happiness on an ongoing basis (at least once a year; more often is ideal). Again, confidential surveys are the best way to solicit unbiased feedback. At our Columbia Conference Center, we assess customer satisfaction after every encounter with a simple one-page survey. The responses go directly to the conference center’s president via a self-addressed stamped envelope, by fax, or by on-line. They are then shared with all staff to celebrate customer happiness or pinpoint opportunities for improvement.
Of course, there are other options and strategies as well. You may choose to develop and implement a structured survey yourself using software like Zarca, you could interview each employee yourself, or you could ask a trusted employee to conduct the survey. However, if your workplace is truly toxic, employees will most likely not share their true thoughts for fear of punishment. If trust is an issue, you may have to ask an objective outside party to step in and do the work.
The key is to assess the heart of your organization using a variety of methods that will generate the greatest, most truthful returns. We have learned that the more ways you ask for feedback, the higher the chances will be of getting an accurate look at how your organization really functions.
Bottom Line: Be careful about developing new strategies until you accurately understand the issues, problems, and the true causes behind them. Many times, leaders develop pathways to the future based on misperceptions, strengths, or symptoms—not causes—of problems. To build great companies, you must look at the entire picture, however ugly it may be.
Our next article will focus on strategies for changing toxic workplaces into exciting places to work. We did it, and so can you!
You can find other installments from this series of articles at our website, www.duboseweb.com.
