14 Nov 7 Steps to Cultural Vigilance for Companies Big and Small

When about 30 percent of employees have come to expect a company experiencing some form of cultural crisis in the next two years, companies must look into being cultural vigilant. 

Cultural vigilance has massive bottom-line implications, according to a study by United Minds and Weber Shandwick, in partnership with KRC Research. 

Leveraging findings from its national survey of full-time employees, United Minds provides guidance on how to build a Cultural Vigilance capability within an organization. Below are the seven steps that can help companies and global mobility managers begin to build a Cultural Vigilance capability. 

• Secure explicit commitment from the top. Research has consistently shown that active and visible executive sponsorship is the top contributor to the success of any change effort. Begin by ensuring the Board and CEO understand the business value of Cultural Vigilance and have embraced responsibility for its oversight. 

• Charter a cultural vigilance team. Members typically include the heads of Communications, Legal, HR, Diversity & Inclusion and Risk Management with representation from various business lines and levels of the organization. This group should be directly accountable to the CEO who is directly accountable to the Board on this topic. Culture must not be delegated to HR alone.  

• Define (or refresh) your behavioral expectations. If you have values, assess how well your employees know and live them. Don’t be afraid to change them, refresh them or throw them out (while holding on to those that are core to who you are). If you don’t have values, initiate an inclusive process to define them. Ensure they support not only the culture you’re trying to foster but the business strategy you’re trying to achieve.

• Charter a cultural vigilance team. Members typically include the heads of Communications, Legal, HR, Diversity & Inclusion and Risk Management with representation from various business lines and levels of the organization. This group should be directly accountable to the CEO who is directly accountable to the Board on this topic. Culture must not be delegated to HR alone. 

• Make culture everyone’s concern. Groups such as culture champions (internally) or Customer Advisory Councils (externally) can be your eyes and ears in spotting cultural risks and generating solutions. Communicate your efforts to improve culture to your employees and to the outside world; it serves as a form of accountability, holding you to the values you stand for and the commitments you’ve made. 

• Establish cultural milestones and touchpoints. Keep culture top-of-mind through rituals and events that remind employees why it matters. From “values shares” at the beginning of every meeting to recurring company events designed to reinforce cultural pillars, organizations must find ways to embed the desired culture into organizational DNA. Microsoft’s “One Week,” the brainchild of CEO Satya Nadella, reinforces the culture Nadella has worked to create by bringing together what were once “warring city-states” across the company to experiment, learn and build together.

• Weave culture into strategy development and annual planning processes. Too often leaders develop their business strategy in a vacuum without being guided by core principles or considering whether organizational norms will support or stand in the way of their objectives. Strategy and culture must be evaluated often, and in concert with one another, as symbiotic components of strong business performance. 

Against this backdrop, United Minds invites companies everywhere to become more culturally vigilant. Organizational self-awareness, crisis preparedness and targeted interventions stop issues before they start as well as protect brands, reputations and, most importantly, people. Now more than ever, Boards, CEOs and senior leaders must commit to cultural oversight, creating workplaces where codes of conduct and corporate values guide every decision, every day.