Culture Assessment Survey Questionnaire

Completed by 638 readers of the Values Coach Spark Plug email newsletter

Joe Tye, CEO and Head CoachValues Coach Inc.

Copyright © 2014, Values Coach Inc.

The Culture Assessment Survey is one of the tools in the Values Coach Cultural Blueprinting Toolkit Workbook.

www.CulturalBlueprint.com

The workbook is available at SparkStore.com for $29.

638 readers of the Spark Plug newsletter respond to the 12 questions in this survey.

This slide deck summarizes those responses with my observations and recommendations.

Why this should matter to you and your organization…

“Culture eats strategy for lunch.”An aphorism coined by the great businessphilosopher Peter Drucker

Not only that, the most brilliant of strategies can be undone by a lousy culture.

For more on this seemy presentation:

12 Reasons Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch

Culture is to your organization what personality and character are to the individual…

Culture does not change unless and until people change

Weak culture is an invisible barrier on the performance potential of your organization!

As you go through the results, ask yourself these questions…

Question #1

How would your response for your organization compare to the collective responses of Spark Plug readers?

Question #2

Is there internal consistency between responses to different questions, or might people be seeing what they want to see or saying what they expect others want to hear?

Question #3

If this survey was given to front-line workers, would the responses be the same?

More positive?

Less positive?

Question #4

How would your results compare to how people at your toughest competitor would respond?

Question #5

How would your results compare to what results would be at Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For?

Question #6

Are you happy with and proud of your responses and how they compare with everyone else?

Question #7

What actions can you take to assure that if this survey is administered again in one year the results will be better?

See my recommendation at the end of this slide deck.

Question #8

What sense of urgency would you have for those actions?

Immediate imperative?

Before the end of the year?

Someday maybe?

Question #9

When you responded are you sure you weren’t wearing…

Here are responses to the 12 questions in the Culture Assessment Survey (638 total)

69% agree or strongly agree; 31% unsure or disagree

So…

Is the fact that 7 out of 10 agree or strongly agree really great – or is the fact that 3 out of 10 either disagree or are uncertain a real problem?

65% agree or strongly agree; 35% unsure or disagree

This is better than average* - but would you be happy with having 1/3 of your people believing that coworkers are not engaged and committed?

* As measured by Gallup, Press Ganey, Avatar, Modern Survey and other companies that study employee engagement.

66% agree or strongly agree; 34% unsure or disagree

Really?

They know your core values by heart?

Are we talking about the core values posted on the wall of the lobby?

Or is it more a vague comment that your people intuitively have good values?

And if that many people really do know, understand, and act upon your organization’s core values, how do you explain responses to the next question?

46% agree or strongly agree; 54% unsure or disagree

Only 8% of respondents strongly agree that their coworkers reflect positive attitudes, treat others with respect, and refrain from the behaviors of toxic emotional negativity! Even worse >>>>>>>>

More than half of respondents either disagree with or are unsure whether their coworkers have positive attitudes, treat others with respect, and refrain from toxic emotional negativity!!!!!!!

I certainly hope that you are not okay with that.

Quick aside: As I was working on this report in a hotel restaurant a man at the next table told me how he’d filed a complaint about a hospital where his wife had been patient. With the exception of the one person who was the subject of his complaint, the nurses were “phenomenal.” But he didn’t talk about them. >>>>>>>

His entire experience – and what he shared with me and no doubt anyone else who would listen – was tainted by the toxic emotional negativity reflected in how he and his wife were treated by just one nurse.

Given a story like that, is anything less

than having 100% “strongly agree” to the

question on emotional attitude in the

workplace an acceptable outcome?

60% agree or strongly agree; 40% unsure or disagree

72% agree or strongly agree; 38% unsure or disagree

Responses to the previous question reflect the fact that we rise to the occasion when people experience adversity – but why can’t we rise to the occasion all the time?

67% agree or strongly agree; 33% unsure or disagree

45% agree or strongly agree; 55% unsure or disagree

54% agree or strongly agree; 46% unsure or disagree

In today’s fast-changing, uncertain, and hypercompetitive world you need to embrace and drive change!

64% agree or strongly agree; 36% unsure or disagree

Out of a possible total of 6,380 opportunities to mark “strongly agree” to one of these 10 questions, 860 (13%) respondents actually did so.

Does that really reflect pride?

For the next two questions we can compare with results of a survey conducted almost one year ago that contained these same two questions >>>

Responses from the current survey

Same Question from Survey of April, 2013

Those responding that fewer than 25% of coworkers are highly-engaged Spark Plugs declined by 12 points (47% to 35%) while those responding that more than 50% are increased by 12 points% (16% to 28%).

Responses from the current survey

Same Question from Survey of April, 2013

Those responding that more than 20% of paid hours are wasted on toxic emotional negativity declined by 23 points (45% to 22%) while those responding that it’s less than 10% increased by 14 points (32% to 18%).

Those are outstanding trends!

Is the improvement due to the fact that many Spark Plug readers are implementing the strategies that are regularly featured in the newsletter?

Paul Utemark thinks so. He says that he got a whole new team and didn’t have to change any of the people, and that >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Our hospital started on a journey to create a culture of ownership with the help of Values Coach over two years ago. Our current survey from the Cultural Blueprinting Toolkit confirms that we have made remarkable progress in reducing toxic emotional negativity from our organization... The ongoing change in our culture is palpable and is being appreciated by our employees and by the entire community.”

Paul Utemark, CEO, Fillmore County HospitalGeneva, Nebraska

As positive as the trend is, however, there is still a HUGE problem!

Even after the improvement, 67% of respondents believe that 10% (or more!) of all paid hours where they work are wasted on toxic emotional negativity!!!

What is the lost productivity – or put another way what is the dollar value of the opportunity cost – of all that whining by all those Pickle-Suckers?

Work sucks then you

die

Let’s do the math (assuming average employee costs are $25 per hour)

2,080 hours X10% wasted on T.E.N.X$25 per hour

=

$5,200 per employee per year wasted on toxic emotional negativity.

If your organization has 50 employees, the direct cost of toxic emotional negativity is $260,000.

If you have 500 employees the direct cost of T.E.N. is $2,600,000.

If you have 5,000 employees the direct cost is $26,000,000.

Do those numbers get your attention?

How much more productive would your organization be, how much more engaged would your people be, and how much better would your customer satisfaction be if…

All those many thousands of paid hours now being wasted on toxic emotional negativity could be transformed into a positive contribution?

Since culture doesn’t change until people change (culture being the collective of their behaviors), what can you do to help your people change their attitudes and behaviors?

Disengaged people, especially disengaged managers, are a

defect

“Whatever the engaged do, the actively disengaged seek to undo, and that includes problem solving, innovation, and creating new customers...”

Jim Clifton: The Coming Jobs War

But what’s even more tragic...

It has a life-diminishing impact on the disengaged.

“Disengagement [is] one of the chief causes of underachievement and depression.”

Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. in HBR, 12-10

The Florence Challenge is the gift to your people that is also an investment in your organization – helping you promote a culture that is >>>

The Florence Challenge

Emotionally Positive

Self Empowered

Fully Engaged

Give everyone where you work The Florence Prescription. At just $5 per book, it’s the gift to your people that’s also an investment in your organization!

With over 200,000 copies in 500+ organizations, The Florence Prescription is a manifesto for a more positive culture.

www.TheFlorenceChallenge.com

Or call the Values Coach office at 319-624-3889

“If we each do our part, we will change our lives for the better.”

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“If we all do our parts, we will change our organizations for the better.”

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“And in changing our organizations, we can change our world for the better.”

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