by Jonathan Jones
To rebuild your culture, you need to understand it. If you want to understand your culture, there is no better time than in the middle of a crisis. That is when your true colors show up: the good, the bad, and the ugly. How your organization acts is a reflection of your culture – planned or unplanned.
Here are a few questions to review:
- What happened that made you the proudest? What happened that you wish had not?
- Did your company values show up during the crisis? Which values were violated? What values showed up that were unexpected or undefined?
- Who showed up as a leader? Did they make people feel safe? Did their employees follow them?
- Did the organization come together or fall apart? What standard processes worked? Did you have to create new methods for this unexpected situation?
- How did relationships with your customers show up? What would they say about you? Consider asking them. How would you rate your organization’s relationship with suppliers and service providers?
- Where would you rate your level of trust with all your relationships?
There are more questions you can ask, but this is a starting point. Review your list with your team. Focus on thriving and transforming your culture over the next few months. Celebrate what went well. Put a plan together to reinforce the positive in your culture, then initiate a plan in place to fix or eliminate the negative items. If you don’t do that now, you will miss the strongest opportunity to create the culture you desire and prepare for a future where you can thrive!
Jonathan Jones (Jonathan.jones@vistagechair.com or 314-608-0783) is a CEO peer group chair/coach for Vistage International.
Submitted 4 years 208 days ago