Consultancy Services

CULTURAL CLIMATE SURVEYS

Employees in an organisation look towards the leadership for their cues on how to behave. When following a leader, there are some unconscious indicators that individuals home in on, such as “Can I trust you?”, “Can you communicate effectively with me?” or even “Do you look like you know where you are going?”  Employees look to their leadership and expect to see congruence in their ability to develop the trust of the workforce, an ability to communicate congruent and aligned messages and an ability to set a clear direction that meets the stated organisational vision and purpose

To accomplish this, Optimus carries out cultural interviews and surveys to :

  • Elicit the values of the organisation, and how aligned the employees are with the stated values.
  • Look at how the organisation is placed as a player in the wider community and with sub-contracting organisations.
  • Elicit the vision of the organisation and where it wants to be.
  • Clarify the organisation’s mission
  • Examine beliefs at every level
  • Find values that are demonstrated by behaviours
  • Find the capabilities and competence within the organisation – leadership, managerial skills, quality of service and products
  • Get real data on behaviours as they exhibit in the organisation – at all levels
  • Check out the physical environment to search for alignment and congruence

 

The key to the Cultural Climate Survey is finding where incongruence exists between what an organisation says it does and stands for, and the reality that exists in people’s behaviours and attitudes.

We develop bespoke survey questionnaires to canvas all employees and contractors working for the organisation. Our experience has shown that we can achieve a high level of response with the correct communication and the guarantee of anonymity.
BENCHMARKING AND PROFILING


Benchmarking

Internal benchmarks allowing us to ensure we are doing what we need to do to reach our objectives or to compare the performance of separate but still internal organisations or departments. 

During (or even before) a diagnostic we would take steps to define, along with our client, exactly what benchmarks would be most meaningful and establish those early measures. 

One such benchmark which will already have been taken will be the outcomes of any Safety Climate or Cultural Surveys. Because they are statistically validated, they can be used with confidence as a clear benchmark measurement in order to show shift as the culture of the organisation(s) strengthens and improves throughout the life of the change programme

Internal benchmarks provide the means for us to check that we are progressing the way we had originally intended, and that the improvements we are making are actually delivering value for the organisation. Different benchmarking tools provide the means to measure individual change and shift and also the collective impact of that change on the wider organisation. For example, 360 degree feedback reviews can demonstrate shifts made by individuals in key influential roles within the organisation, and a safety climate survey will measure the collective impact of those behavioural shifts higher up within the organisation,  on the entire workforce.

Optimus recommend that, in addition to the Safety Climate Survey, we would define a number of internal benchmark measures based around the behaviours which are seen as supportive of the vision and values. Internal benchmarks deliver a level of value that is specific to the host organisation but greater than more general external benchmark measures. 

We also, where appropriate, benchmark against industry excellence and H&SE data.

Profiling
Using Language and Behaviour Profiling (based on the work done by Roger Bailly):

  • Individual employees can be profiled to establish clearly identified ‘good’ behaviours and ‘poor’ behaviours in line with the organisation’s or project’s stated values. From this exercise one can predict the behaviours of individuals from their language, identifying where resistance to change is likely to take place.

 

  • From the profiling exercise, effective change campaigns and behaviourally-focused  training, management training, coaching, mentoring, recruitment and management communications can be designed.
  • The profiling identifies differences in motivation patterns. In examining the profiles of average performers, it becomes clear where motivation patterns lay and it is therefore possible to identify which motivational patterns are critical for a successful cultural change, and which patterns are contrary to that success. 

 

Profiling best performers and developing competence training to create a culture of care will have a significant impact on HSE performance.

 
VISIONING AND VALUES WORKSHOPS

Most organisations have a vision.  Unfortunately they tend to be full of bland statements such as “Delivering excellent customer service” and lack a defined timeframe.  As a result the vision may have little meaning to the workforce and therefore it fails to motivate or engage them.

Success for any sustainable safety culture improvement requires commitment at all levels within the organisation.  In particular, commitment from the senior leadership team to develop, establish and implement a vision for safety or HSE culture change and displays leadership behaviours that mould the expectations of the rest of the organisation and the wider project environment.   

Using a variety of exciting visioning techniques derived from Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and native American Indian vision quests, our skilled facilitators guide senior management into producing a descriptive vision for a defined point in time. The senior team identifies the enablers that will help their organisation to accelerate through the any short term difficulties and also highlight the blockers that could slow the journey or cause it to fail.  Action plans are developed to optimise the benefit of the enablers and mitigate against the potential negative impact of the blockers. A plan for roll out of this vision is also developed. 

Optimus develops, delivers and facilitates high level senior leadership workshops to include the following:-

  • Definition around what success actually looks like for the senior leadership team
  • Definition of world class leadership behaviours and their impact on the rest of the organisation;
  • Agreement and alignment on the role of the senior leadership team in supporting excellence and how this will be delivered throughout the life of the project
  • Alignment and clarity between team members of what the “vision” means for them including:
    • How to demonstrate congruent behaviours on a consistent basis
    • Recognising when the Values are being challenged and what that means within the context of organisational culture
    • The importance of expectations and their role as leader.

 

The outcome of these workshops are a  Senior Leadership Team which has created a vision for HSE culture success on the project, supported by clear, unequivocal HSE values. All Leadership Team members will be able to clearly demonstrate the enacting of those values on a consistent basis, plus challenge when they see this is not the case in others.

 

 
ON-SITE OBSERVATIONS AND FOCUS GROUPS


A crucial component of our consultancy process involves the collection of observed behavioural data. We do this without a ‘man with a clipboard’ approach. Rather we send experienced coaches to build trust and rapport with the leadership team and workforce who then get involved with work teams, attend meetings, have confidential conversations, and attend task groups carrying out normal operations.

The coaches conduct structured interviews and focus groups with people from right across the organisation to determine the level of safety culture at present.  They spend time with senior and middle leadership tiers to understand how they influence their teams and how their teams actually operate, including interfaces with contractors.
Once the coaches have the right level of trust of the people they engage with, they collect examples of behaviours, for example:

  • How people treat each other
  • What is given priority on a day to day basis
  • How severe issues are dealt with
  • Where and how is excellence demonstrated
  • How compliance is handled, both by the workforce and the leadership teams
  • What skills are demonstrated in tool box talks, risk assessments etc
  • What are relationships like between workgroups
  • How do teams collaborate

 

As part of our diagnostic process, this data is analysed to determine themes and current behaviours, and can be assessed against desired behaviours. This forms the basis of the proposed change programme.
OPTIMUS LEADERSHIP 360° FEEDBACK

We develop bespoke 360° feedback assessments in order to establish individual behaviours at a leadership level, sometimes at a manager or supervisor level. This provides a specific benchmark for identifying particular trouble spots or role models, and charting the progress of individuals or groups towards a desired set of aspirational behaviours.

Optimus have both generic and bespoke options of our 360 feedback survey available for use by our clients. All use a 7 point Likert scale for each statement with an accompanying explanatory comment required. This enables us to provide detailed and insightful analysis and feedback for the reviewee, helping them understand the impact of their own behaviours in the workplace and most importantly, helping them identify strategies for improvement and perhaps other related training and development needs.

The generic option has 7 key leadership factors, each of which have a number of sub-factors. The bespoke version builds on these to add even more depth relating to client specific requirements. For more information on generic and bespoke options, please contact us direct.

360° feedback assessment is a demanding process which requires commitment from a senior level. Outputs should be used for the development of individuals and can be used by coaches as a basis for 1:1 coaching. In order to measure change, it is recommended that a second 360° assessment be carried out at the end of a project.


PUTTING MEASURES IN PLACE THAT ARE BAROMETERS OF HOW PEOPLE FEEL


As a result of cultural climate surveys, LAB profiling, visual observations and the informal network data gathering exercises, it becomes clear which are the key behaviours that need to be monitored. We establish ‘hearts and minds’ measures that are real indicators of progress.

All methods of measurement require some positive (towards) measures as well as negative (away from) measures. 

We have developed a Behaviour Evaluation Measurement System which looks at specific behaviours that we want to change, and quantifies the baseline and subsequent improvements in behaviour through scoring. ­Contact us for more information.

Obviously there are many other areas of performance that will be impacted upon by a change program and these need to be tracked too, whether the indicators are absenteeism, staff retention, plant uptime, plant trip frequency, etc.


DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT OF AN EFFECTIVE RECRUITMENT / SECONDMENT / CONTRACTING PROCESS


Based on the results of the LAB Profiling Exercise, this can be developed for use with parent companies, agencies and subcontractors to ensure the people you recruit or sub-contract to are the best fit for the type of organisation you want to build.

Job Profiles, questionnaires or interview questions can be designed to attract people with a profile that closely matches your corporate values. An added benefit to this is that mismatched individuals can be managed/monitored effectively by the coach to bring performance or attitude in line.