The world of work has shifted, with team members requiring a positive cultural experience and sense of belonging from their employers. Among the many schools of thought that might lend methods to a shifting and aligning a team’s culture, design offers methods that emphasize checking our biases, actively listening to team members, implementing effective cultural change, and measuring its impact. As you plan out your culture shift initiative, consider some of the methods below:
Ground Rules
In areas where the culture needs adjustment, co-create expectations for interpersonal interactions.
Assumptions & Questions
Quickly identify which biases are held and where more information is needed.
Interviews
An excellent way to get in-depth information from team members about their experience on the team.
Surveys
Especially when not everyone in the group has time to participate in the process fully or your unit is large, consider gathering input through a survey.
Empathy Map
Create a visual representation of team member personas to be used as guides in your cultural efforts.
Needs Statement
Leverage the information you’ve gathered to identify team members’ needs, and how they will benefit from addressing them.
How Might We Statement
Convert your challenges into cultural opportunities with statements you can ideate around as a group.
Affinity Mapping
Once many ideas are proposed, build meaning by grouping by common traits and labeling by emergent themes.
Dot Voting
Set the agenda for conversation by separating ideas by popularity around a focused prompt.
Develop a Monitoring System
Before you move to implementation, be sure you can track and measure progress towards the goals you have set.