Culture Management

Creating the Environment for Change

Unlike an organization's product portfolio, brand name, or process capabilities, culture is not typically viewed as an element of the business that can be managed and deployed as a competitive weapon. While few executives deny the power of culture, most fail to proactively address cultural issues—and create a corporate environment that fosters involvement, innovation, and far-reaching change.

While many consulting firms also avoid cultural issues, GMT has helped dozens of clients to achieve a new level of collaboration and energy through proactive culture management. With all employees committed to the same goals and values, these organizations have realized dramatic cultural change—and, as a result, rapid growth.

Although culture management is often overlooked, GMT's approach helps to ensure that cultural values are integrated into the fabric of the organization, forming the context for key strategic decisions, as well as evaluations of individuals' management effectiveness.

Facing Difficult Cultural Issues
GMT's Disciplined Approach
Empowerment Through Teamwork
Reinforcing Enterprise Values

Facing Difficult Cultural Issues

GMT helps client organizations to undertake a candid assessment of their business culture, posing such difficult questions as:

	Have we shared our goals and values with employees at all levels?
	Do we reward managers for championing our values—or only for financial results?
	Have we delegated enough responsibility to create true ownership at lower levels?
	Are employees rewarded for the candor and risk-taking that lead to innovation and change?
	Do employees feel accountability to the entire organization—or only to their functional group?

GMT can provide an objective perspective on how well cultural values are actually being adopted, communicated, and reinforced—as well as improve the organization's effectiveness.

GMT's Disciplined Approach

Unlike improvements in strategy or work processes, the bottom-line effect of cultural change is nearly impossible to quantify. It is much more difficult to manage and measure changes in behavior than cost savings or revenue increases. For these reasons, most organizations are reluctant to address cultural obstacles.

GMT's disciplined approach to culture management is based on achieving bottom-line results by communicating the following throughout the business:

	Strategically important facts—about internal costs, market needs, and competitive position
	Critical issues, based on this information
	Top-level strategies that respond to these issues
	Specific initiatives targeted toward revenue increases, cost savings, or other quantifiable improvements
	Implementation plans that link individual actions and long-term goals
	Bottom-line growth targets, based on these plans

While many senior management teams may be reluctant to share this kind of strategic insight, doing so creates a powerful context for employees' everyday work—so that they understand and are motivated by overall company goals.

Empowerment Through Teamwork

In addition to sharing insight that fosters employee involvement, GMT helps its clients to delegate real decision-making responsibility to employee teams—creating an environment in which individuals really do make a difference, working collectively toward shared goals.

After working with senior executives to agree on the most pressing issues, GMT helps to form crossfunctional employee teams to formulate strategies and initiatives for overcoming these challenges. Not only does this process leverage the functional and specialized expertise of employees—who, after all, are closest to customers, suppliers, and work processes—but it creates a sense of excitement and ownership.

Reinforcing Enterprise Values

GMT also assists clients in emphasizing the importance of culture by creating an environment in which employees are evaluated and rewarded for practicing teamwork and other important cultural values.

Top-level executives are usually evaluated based on their ability to achieve financial goals and meet strategic objectives, which are of obvious importance. But of equal importance is their everyday ability to demonstrate effective leadership practices, cultural values, and strong communication skills.