The secret is out and the research is clear - strong company cultures are huge multipliers of success. Your company may have the best strategy and the best product or service around but if your culture is weak your business will only achieve a fraction of the success it’s capable of reaching. Every company has a culture and our cultures will either end up helping or hindering our bottom line. So why aren’t we talking more about it? In this presentation you will learn our approach for managing the complexities of cultural transformations by employing an Agile mindset, a focus on the elephant, and viewing people through the Tribal Leadership lens.

1. Culture Eats Everything For
Breakfast
© 2017 beLithe LLC

2. What is CULTURE?

3. Five Monkeys in a Cage
It’s just the way we do
things around here.

4. The Social Glue
Unwritten
Rules
Basic
Assumptions
Explicit
Values
Real
Values

5. Good Culture = Better Business Performance
Resilient Workforce
Better Quality, Faster
Talent MagnetSelf-Healing
“Culture is to recruiting as
product is to marketing”
– Hubspot

6. Decision to make:
Run the culture or let it run you.

7. The Basics of Changing Culture
• Clear standards
• Behavior modeling
• Constant tending
• Alignment efforts
• Celebration of traction

8. Understand the Science of Tribes.

9. Stages of Culture
Relationship to Values Behavior Language
Stage 1 Undermining Despairing hostility Life sucks
Stage 2 Ineffective Apathetic victim My life sucks
Stage 3 Useful Lone warrior I’m great
Stage 4 Important Tribal pride We’re great
Stage 5 Vital Innocent wonderment Life is great
© 2017 beLithe LLC

10. Keys to Upgrading Your Culture to the Next Level
Leaders must understand all levels
Each level can only relate to one
level above or one level below
Leaders must be able to
listen and speak to any level
Leaders should try to
“nudge” a tribe up one level

11. © 2017 beLithe LLC

12. Assess the Current State
• Walk around, sit around
• Listen to what is important to teammates
• Observe the quality of interactions between leaders, followers, and customers
• Pay attention to what you pay attention to
• De-insulate yourself
– Genuinely connect with teammates
– Seek out truth-tellers
• Share your assumptions and learning

13. Define Purpose and Values
• Clarify purpose – humans are drawn to and inspired by great purpose, seeking a cause
greater than themselves
• Define values in behavioral terms – What does a good citizen at this company look, act,
and sound like?

14. Leaders
go first.
Notice a trend of sharing?
Transparency is key.
Survey teams
on leadership
behaviors and
values
alignment.
Make a plan for
addressing
gaps. Share the
plan.
Share results.
Openly
discuss gaps.

15. Let’s Try Some Experiments to
Change Our Culture

16. We’ll Start With the Easy Stuff
• Align systems, policies, and procedures to the new culture vision
© 2017 beLithe LLC 16
… There’s not a lot of easy stuff

17. The Elephant and the Rider
© 2017 beLithe LLC 17

18. Not Everything Works for Everyone – Experiment
• 1:1s
• Advice Cards
• Moving Motivators
• MBTI, DISC
• Personal Maps

19. Leadership Assessments
Q1: This leader doesn’t let team issues fester. S/he promptly facilitates team
problem solving to address issues.
Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree
Q2: This leader inspires my best efforts each day.
Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree
Q3: This leader “calls us on our crap,” coaching team members on behaviors
that erode performance, trust, or respect.
Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree

20. Include Values Alignment Assessments
Performance
Lo
w
Values Match
High
High
In Performance Management
Teammate
Culture
Fit
Skills
Fit
I can see
myself
working
with this
person.
#1 4 2 4
#2 3 4 4
#3 3 3 4
In Hiring

21. Dedicate Time and Space to Culture
• Hold all team meetings at least monthly, feature and celebrate stories and examples of
values alignment at the beginning of the meeting
• Team discussions, storytelling, visual snapshots
• AMA series, beer Fridays, team roadshows, professional/hobby/cultural showcase

22. Avoid These Traps
• Delegating culture responsibility
• The MbA plague
• Hiding or ignoring gaps in culture

23. Study What the Pros Do
• Understand the good practices of high-
performing, good culture companies
• Pros don’t just have to be the big guys that
everyone knows about, look around your
community to see for signs of strong
company cultures in organizations near you
• Get a free zappos culture book!

24. Measure It: Culture Index
01 02 03 04
Satisfaction
Trends HR Metrics Values
Measured
Behaviors
Surveys
Mobile apps
Gallup 12
Turnover
Time-to-fill
Knowledge of stated values
Vs
Perceptions of real
values
Activity participation
levels
© 2017 beLithe LLC

25. You are the culture. Model the
behavior you want to see.

26. Some Favorites
© 2017 beLithe LLC 26

27. Stay in Touch
Chris Daily
cdaily@beLithe.com
m: (317) 979-8630
© 2017 beLithe LLC
Tana Linback
tlinback@beLithe.com
m: (317) 385-6994
www.beLithe.com