Which side of the balance sheet is your culture?

Often when I first visit new clients their culture is either neutral or a liability. The challenge is to make the culture an asset of the business. You get this by design not default.

Here is how we do it:

1. Clearly state the values you want your business to operate by e.g. treating people with respect, delighting customers, every person a business person, non-negotiable health and safety practices etc.

2. Write a one page policy for each of the values, preferably simple, bullet point rules.

3. Tell all your people this is the way we now do things here - they are non-negotiable.

4. Monitor the application of the rules scoring individuals/departments/units out of 10. The aim is to get consistent 8+ across the business.

5. Consider getting individuals/depts/units to review and score each other.

6. Keep up the discipline for a minimum of 2 years. Celebrate high scores, insist low scores change.

7. After 2 years your culture should be embedded and serving the business.

When you do the above well the culture will be an asset and if you do it really well you will be an industry leader.

There, culture, done!