Culture & Values

Cultural Capital is the new frontier of competitive advantage - In an age of increasing global competition, the ability of an organisation to build a strong corporate culture that attracts and retains talented people is rapidly emerging as the most important criterion for financial success.

At Cecara Consulting we will serve you in assessing your current culture and creating your desired corporate culture that aligns with the values of all stakeholders, the employees, customers, shareholders and society. This is the critical issue for business in the 21st century as Cultural Capital is rapidly becoming the new frontier of competitive advantage.

Our holistic approach can include a review or creation of vision, mission and values. In addition we can facilitate the development of a Balanced Needs Scorecard that reflects the vision, mission and values and leads to long term sustainability. Please refer to the Tools & Models section for further information.

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Change

'Nothing is permanent but change...' - Heraclitus. Many change efforts fail despite the best intentions because the key mechanisms that impact human dynamics in the first place, are missed. Cecara Consulting can support you in your change programmes by identifying:

The SIX necessary conditions for change more...

The FIVE stepping stones along the path to transformation more...

The SEVEN variations of the degree of change more...

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Leadership

Organisations don't transform. People do - If the leadership teams are not committed or willing to embrace new values and behaviour, then no one else in the organisation will. Therefore, cultural change begins with personal transformation of the leadership teams. At Cecara Consulting, we have proven approaches and are committed to supporting leaders in creating the desired improvement in performance at organisation, team and individual level. These approaches can be made with teams or through individual executive coaching.

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How We Can Help / Our Services

Every client is unique and we create solely for each. Every intervention will be aimed at evolving consciousness and serving leaders to master culture, values, leadership, and change.

Leadership - Organisation don't transform. People do more...

Change - 'Nothing is permanent but change...' - Heraclitus more...

Measurement - Measurement Matters more...

For more information on how we can help please click to download (PDF)
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Measurement

Measurement Matters - It could be said that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Historically people have not been able to measure intangibles as culture, values and behaviour. At Cecara Consulting we provide comprehensive, affordable methods of measuring and mapping personal values, current and desired cultural values for leaders, teams and organisations through the Corporate Transformation Tools®.

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Advantages

The Corporate Transformation Tools have been used in 22 countries by corporations, municipal and central governments and not-for-profit organisation. Modified versions of the tools are also being used by communities, schools, classrooms, and nations.

There are currently eight assessment instruments

Corporate Values Assessment
The Corporate Values Assessment is used whenever there is a need to measure the consciousness and map the values of different staff levels, departments, locations, regions or determine demographic differences. The Corporate Culture Assessment can be used in small, medium and large organisation. The results are plotted against the framework of the Seven Levels of Personal and Organisational Consciousness. This assessment can also be used for mergers ands acquisitions (make it a link to description below) Team Values Assessment.

The Team Values
Assessment is used to measure the consciousness and map the values of teams. The degree of alignment between current and desired values, and between current and espoused values can be measured. The results are plotted against the framework of the Seven Levels of Personal and Organisational Consciousness. Individual plots of results are also provided.

Leadership Values Assessment
The Leadership Values Assessment is a 360-degree feedback instrument that compares the individual's perception of his or her operating values and behaviour against the perception of his or her superior, peers and subordinates. The results are plotted using the framework of the Seven Levels of Leadership Consciousness. This assessment is followed up by a feedback session and the development of a personal action plan.

Individual Values Assessment
The Individual Assessment instrument is frequently used by coaches to measure the degree of alignment between an individual's Personal and Desired Culture Values, and the individual's perception of the Current Culture Values. The results are plotted against the framework of the Seven Levels of Personal and Organisational Consciousness.

Merger and Acquisition Compatibility Assessment
The Corporate Values Assessment can be used to prepare a Cultural Due Diligence report. Culture Assessments are carried out for each company involved in a merger or acquisition using a common template of values. The Personal Values, Current Culture and Desired Culture values of the two organisation are compared to determine the similarities and differences between the two cultures. A compatibility assessment report is produced to highlight the key issues that should be addressed in implementing the cultural aspect of the merger.

Employee Entry Assessment
This instrument allows organisation to evaluate potential employees with regard to their suitability for a particular position and their compatibility with the organisation's current culture, or the culture it is trying to develop. Rather than just recruiting for skills and capability it enables recruitment of cultural fit as well. This is fundamental for senior and executive recruitment.

Employee Exit Assessment
This instrument can be used to measure exiting employees' perceptions of the organisational culture. This is useful for monitoring the reasons for departure, especially when there is a high turnover of employees.

Client 360 degree Assessment of Corporate Values
This instrument can be used to identify client, customer or other interested parties (Board of Trustees) perceptions of an organisation's culture.

The Corporate Transformation Tools® were created in 1997 by Richard Barrett, formerly Values-Coordinator at the World Bank. A full description of the Tools and Richard's approach to Cultural Transformation can be found in Richard's best-selling book, Liberating the Corporate Soul: Building a Visionary Organisation, published by Butterworth-Heinemann, in 1998. CorpTools is a business unit of Richard Barrett & Associates.

The Survey Process

Personal, Current Culture and Desired Culture Values
The Survey Instruments consist of three templates of values & behaviours:-

Personal: Values & Behaviours: from which individuals choose ones that most represent who they are now and not what they aspire to be.

Current Culture: the values and behaviours that best describe how their organisation operates.

Desired Culture: the values and behaviours they believe are most essential for a high performance organisation. Each value & behaviour on the Personal Template is associated with one of the Seven Levels of Personal Consciousness and each value on the Organisational Template is associated with one of the Seven Levels of Organisational Consciousness.

The survey instrument is usually administered through the world-wide web. Paper surveys can be used for those who do not have access to computers. The survey takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.

Customisation: The templates of values and behaviours are customised for each organisation and its operating environment. The customisation consists of adding values that are a) included in the organisation's vision, mission and values statements; b) values that relate to their sector of activity and predominant professional disciplines (retail, manufacturing, media, education, banking, etc.); and c) values particular to the national culture and language.

Analysis The results of the Values Assessments can be dis-aggregated horizontally by group, such as the leadership team, middle managers and staff; vertically by department, such as Operations, Sales, and Administration; by factory or store location; and by demographic factors such as gender, length of service, age and ethnicity. These breakdowns provide significant insights into the workings of culture. They help change agents identify the leverage points, issues and areas needing the greatest attention.

1. The Team and Corporate Culture Assessments provide the following results:
2. A map of the current culture plotted against the seven levels of consciousness.
3. A map of the desired culture plotted against the seven levels of consciousness.
4. A map of the personal values plotted against the seven levels of consciousness
5. The degree of alignment between Personal, Current Culture and Desired Culture values.
6. The degree of alignment between both the Current and Desired Culture values and the espoused values of the team or organisation.
7. The top ten Personal, Current and Desired Culture values.
8. The number of positive and the potentially limiting values in Personal, Current and Desired culture.
9. The balance between Individual, Relationship, Organisational and Societal values.
10. The distribution of values relative to the Seven Levels of Personal and Organisational Consciousness
11. The focus of the culture relative to the six-part Balanced Needs Scorecard.
12. The number of demographics that can be captured is limitless

Corporate Transformation Tools & Models
The Corporate Transformation Tools are based on the following models:

Seven Levels of Personal Consciousness - click here to download

Seven Levels of Organisational Consciousness - click here to download

Seven Levels of Leadership Consciousness - click here to download

Balanced Needs Scorecard - click here to download
This model is an adaptation and extension of Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard. It contains two new categories - Corporate Culture, and Society and Community Contribution. It is used in the Individual, Team and Corporate Culture Assessments to provide a diagnostic of the business focus of the Current and Desired Cultures of the organisation.

The Seven Levels of Consciousness model is an adaptation and extension of Maslow's model of the hierarchy of human needs. A full account of the development of the Seven Levels of Consciousness model can be found in Richard Barrett's best-selling book, Liberating the Corporate Soul: Building a Visionary Organisation - available from Amazon.com.

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The SIX necessary conditions for change

1. Potential in mind and brain capacity
2. Solutions to current problems
3. Dissonance and uncertainty
4. Insights and alternatives
5. Barriers identified and resolved
6. Consolidation and support

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The FIVE stepping stones along the path to transformation
One must assess where you are before heading off on the course for where you wish to be. The five stages of the Change State Indicator are:

1. ALPHA - stable and balanced stage
2. BETA - is a time of uncertainty and questioning
3. GAMMA - is full of anger and confusion
4. DELTA - is inspired enthusiasm
5. New ALPHA - stability in the new system

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The SEVEN variations of the degree of change
We must make sure we are applying the appropriate change solution to the specific change problem we have. The 7 variations are:

1. Fine -TUNE (horizontal change)
2. Expand - OUT (horizontal change)
3. Stretch-DOWN (oblique change)
4. Stretch- UP (oblique change)
5. Break -OUT (vertical change)
6. UP - shift (vertical change)
7. Quantum (vertical change)