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Make sure people understand and embrace your core values.
A second step to manage culture effectively and become a culture champion
is to ensure that people understand and embrace your core values.
People must be trained in what your values are and what they mean in the
context of your business. For example, customer orientation means
something very different at Starbucks, United Airline, Ritz Carlton and Uber.
Translate their core values into behavioral norms.
The next step is to translate your core values into “behavioral norms.”
Specifically, how do you expect people to behave to express your core
values? We facilitated this process of translation of values in to norms a few
years ago at a large bank in Vietnam. Differences in norms were required not
only for different job types of employees, but also in different locations in
Vietnam: The South (Ho Chi Min), Central Vietnam, and in the North (Hanoi).
Monitor behavior to assess consistency vis a vis cultural values and norms.
The next step is to monitor behavior to assess the extent to which actual
behavior (behavioral norms) is consistent with desired behavior (stated
values). This can be done via the performance management system, and by
using custom surveys.42 A discussion of how to design the performance
management system to do this is beyond the scope of this article.
Set specific measurable goals to improve their culture and culture
management.
After monitoring behavior to assess consistency vis a vis cultural values and
norms via the performance management system and by using custom
surveys, the next step is to set specific measurable goals for improvement.
Virtually all of our client’s do this to provide focus for improvement and as a
basis for assessing progress.
42 Ibid.
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