Successful culture change efforts tend to be results oriented. Establishing meaningful and measurable goals is a first step.

Cultural Data

A first step in culture change is assessing the existing culture to determine existing strengths and opportunities for improvement. Cultures tend to be complex and dynamic. Measurement strategies include:

• Observation, whereby observers watch members of the culture interact and then record their observations. With this approach, observers document how behavior is being influenced by the culture.
• Policy and Program Review, whereby organizational procedures, documents and historical information are examined. For example, such a review might look at mission statements, human resource policies and internal communications. This analysis would determine the extent to which cultural influences support project goals. Typically, lists of strengths and opportunities for improvement would be identified to show what cultural mechanisms should be maintained and which need to be modified.
• Interviews, whereby people are asked about their experience with the culture. Such interviews can flesh out some of the informal realities behind the policy and program review. Interviews are also helpful in identifying subcultures and reference groups. For example, it could be determined through interviews that most work friendships are formed around unhealthy behaviors such as overeating or the excessive drinking of alcohol.
 
• Experiments, whereby the culture is forced to exhibit its influence. For example, a new person could be hired who is committed to desired behavior. Does the culture support this person's positive behavior?
 
• Surveys, whereby members of the culture rate their perceptions of the culture. A sample of a culture survey is available on the attached PDF Survey Document.

Surveys are often best for developing quantitative measures of culture. Other approaches are often better for qualitative assessment and usually lead to specific actions. As a result, a variety of methods should be used to examine the culture.

Collecting Performance

In addition to information about the culture, other forms of data gathering are important to project success. For example, it is important to collect "bottom line" information about the behaviors that have been changed as well as the productivity and financial gains that have been achieved. A program designed to address workplace fatigue, for example, would ask employees about the amount of sleep they are getting as well as about whether employees have adopted behaviors that improve the quality of sleep. The same project would measure fatigue related illness, burnout and accidents. These data would be also expressed in terms of their financial impact on the company.

Programmatic Data

Another important category of information concerns project participation. These data include measures of who and how many people participated. Participant satisfaction is another important programmatic measure. A program that addresses school dropout rates would, for example, assess the percentage of teachers, parents and students that attended an introductory workshop and other follow-up activities. Participants would complete an evaluation to offer feedback on the programs they attended. 

An Effective Feedback Loop

Information is power and your job is to empower members of the culture to bring about change. Therefore, it is essential that useful information is made available at all levels within the organization. Ideally, this information will be organized so that it is useful for planning and evaluation purposes. For example, a manager should have information about the subculture of his or her workgroup. That manager's employees will also need information so that group goals can be set.