When it comes to building culture are your purpose and behaviours in alignment?

In what feels like a lifetime ago now I worked at a mine site where the company I worked for rolled out an employee survey.

The survey went out, the management team encouraged people to participate, the deadline to complete it came and went.

And then there was nothing.  Crickets.

A few people asked about the results at the toolbox meeting.

Eventually people stopped asking.  The results weren’t coming, there was no feedback.

The behaviours were out of alignment with the purpose of the exercise and weren’t consistent with the desired outcome.

Can you think of an example where purpose and behaviours are mismatched in your workplace?

How does this happen?

If we find ourselves so focused on the what and the how the why is lost, and it shows.

Does the planning of new initiatives include the supporting behaviours?  Tuning into and communicating the why or the purpose of every change or initiative you put in place is critical to ensure the right behaviours exist.

The other critical component is two-way consultation.  Have the right stakeholders been consulted and are they invested?  Having buy in will naturally result in the ‘right’ behaviours coming to the forefront.

Often the manager is well versed in the new initiative, what about the frontline leaders?  They can be the main touch point for a majority of your workforce, their messaging is critical to the initiatives success.

What was the Purpose?

Like a lot of initiatives put in place by organisations it was to engage our people, find out directly from them what they see and how they perceive the culture and environment on site.  Do you want to know what is and isn’t working?  Ask the people doing the work, it’s that simple.

The other purpose was to understand; what is missing?  What areas do we need to be targeting.  The survey provided the insights and justification for future people and culture initiatives.

What would the behaviours look like that support the purpose?

A growth mindset from all levels of the organisation. 

The preparedness to ask “what can we learn from the survey results?” A willingness to challenge your own view of the world, openness to see how others view their world and an acceptance that if they are not in alignment that just gives you an area to go to work on.

The ability to start a conversation to understand what is driving the results, whether they are deemed to be good or bad or somewhere in between. Show you are listening and take action. Great results in this survey don’t guarantee great results in the next survey, how can you use where you are now as a foundation to get better?

This is a great reflection point; are you able to embrace this way of leading?

Aligning your purpose with your behaviours takes conscious effort. Here’s some ideas on how you can ensure you are in alignment:

-         Think of one initiative you have put in place, it may be a change to how a meeting is run or engaging people to speak up at daily or weekly meetings. It could be a process you have put in place to recognise or reward your people,

-         Ask, what is the purpose of the initiative? Systems drive behaviour, what behaviours, mindset or engagement are you trying to achieve?

-         Be intentional; set your initiative up for success, communicate clearly to all key stakeholders exactly what you are trying to achieve and why,

-         Observe. Is the initiative doing what it was meant to do?

-         Ask for feedback, is it working for the people it is impacting?

-         Continue to listen and learn, make changes and experiment to get the best practices with maximum impact.