The document proposes allowing new graduate intakes to dictate and set the organisational culture themselves in order to help them better understand and transition into the culture. It then outlines a prototype to test this idea by interviewing a new graduate, recent graduate, and senior employee about how they would feel about and respond to a hypothetical announcement giving graduates this responsibility. The new graduate feedback indicates excitement about feeling respected and empowered but questions how ideas would be vetted. The recent graduate suggests making it a group effort. The senior employee questions if this would intimidate graduates and suggests limiting the initiatives to just those impacting graduates.

1. Problem Statement
Stakeholder
Overwhelmed, intimidated new
grad
Need
learn basic office skills and
understand organisational
culture before employment
Insight
professional development
courses at Uni teach you how to
get a job, not how to transition
into it.
…needstofinda
wayto…
…because…
Idea being prototyped
Let the grads dictate the culture, themselves, as they think best.
Each new intake of graduates will have responsibility for setting the culture of the whole organisation. The is
to address the problem of new grads not understanding the organisation’s culture, by allowing them to set
it themselves.

2. Prototype design (i)
The prototype will consist of interviews with three people at
different stages of the graduate employment cycle, following a
hypothetical announcement from the CEO, giving grads
control of the company culture.
1. New grad – What works, what doesn’t, questions and suggestions. Also how do they feel
about the announcement and what are they going to implement.
2. Recent grad – What works, what doesn’t, questions and suggestions, based on the idea
and the responses of the New grad. Also how would they have felt if they were a new
grad?
3. Senior employee – What works, what doesn’t, questions and suggestions, based on the
idea and the responses of the New grad.

3. Prototype design (ii)
Hypothetical message from the CEO, ABC Pty Ltd
“Effective immediately, all previous organisational culture
initiatives will be cancelled. Our company’s culture will be
determined by our next intake under our graduate
recruitment program. These young men and women are the
future of our company, and they bring a perspective beyond
the vision of those of us with more experience.
I fully support any initiatives they decide to implement.”

4. Prototype testing (i)
New graduate questions
1.Having read the CEO’s announcement, how do you feel
about the prospect working at ABC Pty Ltd?
2.What changes would you like to effect between now and
when the next intake of graduates arrives?
3.How do you feel about the idea? What works, what doesn’t,
what questions do you have, what ideas do you have?

5. New graduate feedback
What works
• Makes me feel supported and respected
• A lot of pride that the co. has a strong belief and
trust in its grads
• Makes the company look very dynamic
• Appears to be beneficial to co.
• Makes the grads feel empowered – they don’t
feel like they have to “fit in”
What could be improved
• The grads’ suggestions might not work
Questions
• Do we need some vetting of the ideas
from experienced staff?
• How do you vett ideas without killing the
program?
Suggestions
• Needs a vetting or signoff point

6. New graduate feedback
What changes would you like to make?
• Don’t know enough about the company to make changes, but could suggest what
I’d like to see happen.
• Friendly atmosphere towards grads – they can approach anyone, anytime to ask
for assistance and be treated with respect
• More social engagement between employees – especially new ones
• New people need to get proper work, for their development, not menial work.
• Relaxed environment
• Open communication
• No micro-management. Trust people to meet their objectives however they want
to.
• Keep employees happy so they’ll stay.

7. Prototype testing (ii)
Recent graduate questions
1.Having read the CEO’s announcement, how would you have
felt about the prospect working at ABC Pty Ltd?
2.What changes would you have made?
3.How do you feel about the idea? What works, what doesn’t,
what questions do you have, what ideas do you have?

8. Recent graduate feedback
What works
• Attracts attention in the graduate
marketplace
• “Everyone would want to work there”
• New grads would have control over they
want to achieve
• Treats new grads how they want to be
treated
What could be improved
• The grads wouldn’t know what to do without
talking to those who went before them
• New grads would be reluctant to push their
views
• Hard to know where to start
Questions
• What controls are there over it?
Suggestions
• Make it a group responsibility – working
with all the graduate intake together.

9. Recent graduate feedback
How would you have felt and what changes would you have
liked to make?
• Would have attracted attention to ABC Pty Ltd
• More in control over what I wanted to achieve
• Wouldn’t know where to start
• Would have wanted to work with my cohort of grads to
achieve something

10. Prototype testing (iii)
Senior employee questions
1.Having read the CEO’s announcement and the ideas from
some recent graduates, how do you feel about the idea?
What works, what doesn’t, what questions do you have,
what ideas do you have?

11. Senior employee feedback
What works
• The suggestions given seem to show that
the grads are asking questions and are
willing to find out problems to solve,
rather than just impose their view on
things.
What could be improved
• I think this would make grads feel more
intimidated, not less.
Questions
• Does this just apply to the culture
impacting grads, or the whole company’s
culture.
Suggestions
• Limit the range of the initiatives to just
those impacting the grads