How to Move Your Organization Through 3 Phases of Cultural Refinement
Is your organization frustrating and lifeless or is it engaging and inspiring?
For many people, descriptors such as “dreary,” “discouraging,” “fear-based,” or “missed promises” describe their organization’s culture.
Leaders don’t want a dreary or frustrating organizational culture but most don’t know what to do about it. They’ve seen inspiring organizations but have never been taught how to create or maintain one.
How does a leader go about creating something that, on one hand, is so important, but, on the other hand, seems so amorphous?
Leaders can build a high performing, values aligned culture through an organizational constitution.
Your organizational constitution describes exactly how its members will engage with each other, outside stakeholders and guests, as members act to fulfill their team or department’s purpose, values, strategies, and goals.
An organizational constitution:
- outlines your team’s purpose, values, strategies, and goals.
- paints a vivid picture of success, values, and behaviors.
- maps out how to work from that picture each day.
- gives team member’s jobs and roles meaning and clarity.
S. Chris Edmonds, a senior consultant with the Blanchard Group, has a new book entitled The Culture Engine, which answers the question, “How do I fix it?” It provides leaders with a framework for crafting a high performance, values aligned organizational culture. That proven framework is creating, then managing to, an organizational constitution.
Edmonds develops three phases of culture refinement through an organizational constitution – the design phase, the align phase, and the refine phase.
Is an organizational culture right for your team? Evaluate your team’s performance, teamwork, and civility. If they’re not where you’d like them to be, change expectations by looking for more than just performance. Create a work environment built on trust, respect, and dignity for all team leaders and members, and you’ll enjoy greater employee engagement, higher customer service, and higher profits.
>> Download a brief summary of Edmond’s Three Phases here.
For over ten years, Auxano has been delivering to churches the process described above: the Vision Pathway.
The Vision Pathway is a one-of-a-kind process that provides a framework to deliver unique and comprehensive Vision Clarity for your organization.
We believe God is doing something cosmically significant and locally specific in your church. By engaging in a challenging process of praying, listening, and interacting with your team around certain key questions, it is possible to articulate the unique vision God has for your church and take practical steps to align your church to move toward that vision.
>> Learn more about our Vision Pathway Process.
>> Start a conversation with one of our Navigators.
Tags: Align Phase, Design Phase, Refine Phase, S. Chris Edmonds, cultural refinement
