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Drive Culture by Design

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  • Business Innovation

Transform your organization’s culture into one driven by design.

 

“Company culture is the backbone of any successful organization.” — Gary Vaynerchuk
But what culture should an organization espouse?

 

Ultimately, the right culture is one that engenders empathy across all levels of the organization and boosts problem-solving and quick go-to-market. What discipline is the embodiment of these ideas? Design.

The Rationale

Why a Design-Driven Culture?

Design is not an activity. It’s a mindset and a toolset revolving around empathy. Culture is the aura of your organization, the seat of its direction and environment.

Embedding design in an organization’s culture means driving innovation by having services that actually serve, products that actually do, processes that actually work, leadership & employees that are in harmony, and—ultimately—customers whose expectations are systematically exceeded, breeding loyalty and satisfaction.

The Layers

What Is Organizational Culture?

Your organization is your world, your planet.

Our analogy for transforming into a design-driven culture takes the shape of the Earth, with its different layers mapping onto the layers of your organization’s culture, and containing the elements we attack to bring about a design-driven transformation.

1 .

Culture Core

This layer contains elements that form the heart, center, and foundation of your culture.

Purpose, Vision, & Values

Your company’s core tenets should drive your organization’s culture. If they aren’t clearly manifested, or discourage innovation, they will become your first enemy.

Rituals & Traditions

Your organization’s culture is its religion. What rituals are observed? What traditions followed? Having these organizational habits breeds consistency and concreteness.

Recognition

What we reward (or punish) shows what we value and is a huge element of culture. Putting in place systems for recognizing true innovation gets you closer to delivering real returns.

2 .

Culture Mantle

This middle layer encompasses the people and daily operations within the organization.

Leadership

An organization’s culture is ultimately a reaction to its leaders… sometimes by following, others by rebellion! Leaders need to empower their teams, fostering collaboration and creativity.

Communication

Bridging the communication gap throughout the organization ensures that culture is propagated as-is and that everyone is on the same page, allowing the flow of thoughts and innovation.

 

Operations

How we do things is an effect of our culture, but also a cause. Making decisions through a design mindset, challenging ideas, and testing before shipping are the paths to true innovation

Learning & Development

Encouraging people to learn and breeding curiosity and asking questions will shape the ideas and endeavors undertaken, and will affect what people talk about and how they solve problems.

3 .

Culture Crust

Finally, this surface layer represents the manifestation of the 2 deeper layers. It’s a product rather than a target in and of itself.

Perception of Environment

The vibes felt within the organization reflect its spirit and culture. How do people see it internally? Is it fun… or tightly gripping? How is it perceived externally?

 

Safety & Well-being

Are people “well” on physiological, psychological, and social levels? Do you promote that? Or does it happen in spite of you? Do they feel safe voicing opinions and ideas?

 

The Process

How We Create a Design-Driven Culture

Culture change is a long, arduous process that requires a tight roadmap, expert way-finding, and close monitoring to ensure arrival at the destination of design-driven culture.

Our culture designers understand business objectives, observe the workplace & processes, and evaluate the current culture.

 

We devise the strategy for culture transformation, using culture canvases and blueprints, setting KPIs and rollout plans.

 

Next, we lay the groundwork for transformation, preparing by initiating change in people’s mindsets and processes.

 

We tend to the seeds we planted, monitor people’s growth, coach, troubleshoot, and mature processes to stability.

The Tools

What We Use to Transform Your Culture

We have at our disposal an arsenal of tools to assess, evaluate, probe, transform, and cultivate culture on all layers of the organization.

  • webkeyz Problem & Idea Engine (W-PIE)
  • Stakeholder Interviews
  • Agile Work Sprint & Operations Observation
  • Deep Dive into Customer Feedback Channels
  • Measuring Innovation & Empathy KPIs
  • Workplace Observation (Field & Ethnographic Research)
  • Culture Design Canvases & Blueprints
  • Cross-Company Employee Surveys
  • Mentoring & One-On-One Coaching
  • Psychometric Tests
  • Ideation Sessions & Techniques (Silent Circuit)
  • Know-How Transfer (Design Thinking, User Research)
  • Design-Culture Readiness Matrix
  • Workflow Diagrams

A design culture is the only way to breed innovation. Whether an in-house innovation squad or working with consultants, the wrong culture will cause friction and resistance every step of the way.

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“You can have all the right strategy in the world, if you don’t have the right culture, you’re dead.”

Patrick Whitesell

Is the Culture
Killing You?

Reach out and drive it by design!





    @ {year} webkeyz, Inc.