



Leaders can use this worksheet and accompanying questions to determine what kind of culture currently operates in their company. What’s Your Organization’s Cultural Profile? (5) A strong culture can be a significant liability when it is misaligned with strategy. (4) In a dynamic, uncertain environment, in which organizations must be more agile, learning gains importance. (3) In a merger, designing a new culture on the basis of complementary strengths can speed up integration and create more value over time. (2) Selecting or developing leaders for the future requires a forward-looking strategy and culture. Through research and practical experience, the authors have arrived at five insights regarding culture’s effect on companies’ success: (1) When aligned with strategy and leadership, a strong culture drives positive organizational outcomes. They can be used to diagnose and describe highly complex and diverse behavioral patterns in a culture and to model how likely an individual leader is to align with and shape that culture. These eight styles fit into an “integrated culture framework” according to the degree to which they reflect independence or interdependence (people interactions) and flexibility or stability (response to change). The authors have reviewed the literature on culture and distilled eight distinct culture styles: caring, focused on relationships and mutual trust purpose, exemplified by idealism and altruism learning, characterized by exploration, expansiveness, and creativity enjoyment, expressed through fun and excitement results, characterized by achievement and winning authority, defined by strength, decisiveness, and boldness safety, defined by planning, caution, and preparedness and order, focused on respect, structure, and shared norms. This is a mistake, because properly managed, culture can help them achieve change and build organizations that will thrive in even the most trying times. Many leaders either let it go unmanaged or relegate it to HR, where it becomes a secondary concern for the business. Executives are often confounded by culture, because much of it is anchored in unspoken behaviors, mindsets, and social patterns.
