 October 2007
Cultural Analysis and Attitude Welcome to the HPS newsletter. Welcome to the October edition of our newsletter. We at HPS Behaviour Change want to provide you with a light read, on easy to use initiatives to immediately increase your teams' performance and profit. This Edition:
Next Edition: An inspirational story from Hunter Dean, the founder and Director of HPS Behaviour Change It's been a great month with HPS. We are now working with CommInsure across Australia and along with all of our clients, Comminsure have embraced the use of one of our tools described in more detail below. This methodology will assist CommInsure to understand their specific Company culture even better, so they can replicate the best of the best. eChoice, another of our valued clients continues to enjoy the rewards of working with our systems and their teams are doing some extraordinary work to replicate those things their best people do. It's a pleasure as we continue to work with more and more leading organisations to see the incredible results being achieved. Some of these case studies have now been published on the web access via http://www.behaviourchange.com.au/articles/ Note: that for confidentiality we have not included any identification of these clients however we are more than happy to give you more client details on enquiry. Have a great November and we look forward to continuing to work with you!  This month's book is by Stephen Covey's son, The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything - Stephen M.R. Covey  Cultural Analysis In today's ever changing career market we are aware that people are staying in roles for shorter and shorter periods of time and are continually looking for alternate places to work that provide more of what they value as individuals. Leading companies today are realising this trend and are placing greater and greater importance on the ability to identify the most effective organisational culture that best serves their organisational outcomes. HPS assists in this process through the use of a newly introduced diagnostic which runs a statistical Cultural Analysis across an Organisation. Through this process we are able to build a 'model' culture that enables you to attract highly skilled applicants driven by the attributes identified for the model culture. Over time the organisation becomes an employer of choice where all employees embody the company's cultural values. To remain current with these strategies in this period of such short supply of labour, it is essential your business knows: What defines your specific Organisational culture What typifies the specific culture you need to build to get their business outcomes The difference between the existing and the desired culture What is required by your company and your individual employees, in facilitation with HPS, to effect these critical changes to create and then embed the desired culture How to implement this new knowledge to attract the staff you need to solidify this culture One way to do this Cultural Analysis is to use an unbiased, quantitative instrument that measures the particular attributes of a given population of the country the Organisation is based in. In this case, Australia or New Zealand. Then the attributes of the company's team or organisation can be statistically compared to the national workforce norms of the Country. In this exercise, statistical differences between any of the measured parameters of the two populations are automatically highlighted graphically as areas where the Organisation's culture differs from the Country culture. Management is presented with a map of the Company Culture and the differences between the two cultures acts as the catalyst for recognising and pinpointing the desired Company culture. The choice in selection of these critical values is determined by the organisation in assessing what work is needed within individual teams or on an organisational wide basis, in alignment with the company's identified strategic direction. For example after analysing your culture you may find that all your staff prefer to be involved in the decision making process but currently it is the state manager who signs off on all 'day to day' decisions. Further analysis done on high performance cultures may uncover that the staff performing at high levels within an organisation, will often have the autonomy to make their own decisions. Accordingly, as a Manager, you now have the opportunity to choose between increasing their involvement in decision making or maintaining the `status quo' both in decision making, and possibly around sub standard results. Further, after analysing your culture, you may also find most staff prefer to set their own hours but you've been upholding a strict 9-5 regime. Further analysis done on high performance cultures may uncover that they also like to work hours that best suit their personal needs while still effectively producing at high performance levels. Similarly you now have an option to consider flexible rotating working hours for these staff whilst ensuring the office also remains staffed over core business hours. 'So what does this mean to your organisation?' Well the results show clearly that it is those organisations who are using this cultural analysis process who are demonstrating empowerment within their teams, leading directly to verifiable performance increases in output. Knowing that your particular team is driven by measurable parameters like empowerment, inclusion in decision making, compliance and problem solving will assist you in this goal of performance improvement within the new organisational culture.  Understanding People's Motivation and Attitude Drivers HPS Behaviour Change has conducted extensive research and development in understanding people's motivational and attitudinal drivers. Globally, there are only a few tools that provide an organisation with the ability to understand large groups and what drives them. Few tools have a validity of 0.9 or greater like the iWAM instrument. If you are an HPS client you will know about Marilyn Powell, who is completing her final PhD year in Behavioural Science, validating the iWAM tool by choosing the best applicants for the medical Program, at the University of Newcastle, NSW. Having stood in front of the Medical Board at Newcastle University she knows only too well the incredible potential of iWAM to not only transform organisations but that its validity means that the results you get are also robustly academically tested. When these motivations and drivers are discovered in organisations and shared amongst management, there are significant and consistent benefits for attracting and keeping talented and experienced individuals. We don't consider iWAM, or the Inventory of Work Attitudes and Motivations, a Psychometric tool. It is an extraordinary coaching tool to be used by CEOs, Managers and team members to gain business outcomes like increased productivity, sales and greater customer service results fast. When using iWAM, you need to first look at 'What is the business outcome you need to move?' then look at `What is driving you or the person you are working with?'. iWAM is a tool for empowering all users, it is not about one person being right or wrong, or better or worse than another. Key attributes of top performers may include things like: � Goal focus � Problem solving � Initiation � Reflection & Patience � Always raising bar � Compliance � Getting out and doing it � Convinced by consistency or a number of examples � Sameness � Difference � Convinced Automatically � Convinced by a number of examples You will notice there are some things that seem to be opposites here and it is essential to note that in different work environments different things are of significant importance. For example in a sales environment being comfortable with change or difference may be of use and in other environments sameness may be essential and those who always want differences may be a risk to the organisation. In the months to come we will outline some of the things our clients are finding with their teams and how they have used these tools to significantly change the way they operate to achieve major change and consistency of performance with their teams. We trust you’ve gained valuably from this newsletter and shared in the value of knowing your staff's attitudes and motivations when building your high performance culture, increasing performance and profit, to win in your market. HPS Behaviour Change thanks you for the opportunity to share this information with you, our clients, and we look forward to when we next speak. Email us at HPS@behaviourchange.com.au Web www.behaviourchange.com.au Phone: +61 (3) 9397 3821 or: +61 (2) 9908 2179 |  |
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