Culture Development
TW&A specializes in creating cultures that embed Emotional and Social Intelligence as a Core Competency.
Culture development in an organization is the process of creating, nurturing, and sustaining a culture that aligns with the strategic direction, values, and goals of the organization. Culture is the shared set of beliefs, norms, behaviors, and practices that define how people interact and work together in an organization. Culture influences the performance, engagement, innovation, and satisfaction of employees and customers.
Two Primary Approaches
Grassroots and bottom-up approach
This approach leverages high involvement from all stakeholders. It involves empowering employees at all levels to initiate and participate in cultural change. Grassroots approaches rely on the collective action and input of the people who are most affected by the culture and who have the most knowledge and experience of the organizational realities. Grassroots movements can foster a sense of ownership, commitment, and accountability among employees, as well as generate creative and diverse ideas for improvement.
Top-down or hierarchical approach
This approach involves setting a clear vision and strategy for cultural change from the senior leadership and cascading it down to the rest of the organization. This approach ensures that the culture is aligned with the strategic direction and objectives of the organization, as well as with the external environment and expectations. Top-down movements can provide a consistent and coherent message, direction, and guidance for employees, as well as leverage the authority and influence of the leaders to drive change.
Tim Weitzel & Associates Leverages a Hybrid Approach to Culture Development.
We combine elements of both grassroots and top-down approaches. Recognizing from experience that change in commercial organizations cannot thrive without the courageous, enthusiastic, and continuous support and presence form senior leaders, we combine the best and most useful elements of grassroots and top-down approaches. This approach involves creating a collaborative and participatory process that engages employees at all levels, as well as external stakeholders such as customers, partners, and suppliers where applicable. This approach balances the need for alignment and direction from the top with the need for empowerment and involvement from the bottom. Leveraging strong use of creating internal subject matter experts from all levels in the organization, TW&A provides thought leadership, develops the internal subject matter experts, guides the construction of structures, processes, and practices that support the cultural development goals, and coaches people at all levels on the behaviors and approaches that realize the desired change. This approach fosters a widespread culture of learning, innovation, and adaptation that leverages the subject matter expertise developed within the organization.
Subject Matter Experts
Subject matter expertise is the in-depth knowledge and understanding of a specific topic or domain (in this case change) that is relevant to the organization’s cultural development goals and challenges. Subject matter experts (SMEs) are valuable assets for an organization, as they can provide real-time, embedded, and broadly available insights, solutions, best practices, and recommendations based on their experience and expertise in the identified change. As stated above, SMEs also help to train, mentor, and coach other employees, as well as communicate and collaborate with external stakeholders. Creating and leveraging subject matter expertise within an organization can enhance its cultural development by:
Improving the quality and effectiveness of products, services, processes, and decisions.
Increasing the credibility and reputation of the organization in its field or industry.
Fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement among employees.
Encouraging a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing across teams and departments.
Stimulating a culture of innovation and creativity by generating new ideas and perspectives.
Culture development in an organization is not a one-time event or a fixed state. It is an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring, evaluation, feedback, and adjustment. It also requires a shared vision, commitment, and action from all stakeholders involved. TW&A provides this on-going support. By adopting different approaches to cultural development and leveraging subject matter expertise within the organization, an organization can create a culture that supports its strategic direction and enhances its performance