Organizations are devoting more and more of their resources to measuring their cultures and cultural transformation because there is an emerging consensus that:
a) Cultural capital is the new frontier of competitive advantage – it is the key differentiator between a good company and a great company, and between success and failure.
b) The culture of an organization is a reflection of the consciousness of the leaders. Thus, cultural transformation begins with the personal transformation of the leaders.
c) Measurement matters – whatever you focus your intention on, and set targets for, gets done.
The CTT values assessment instrument measures:
a) The personal consciousness of the individuals who make up the organization.
b) The current culture of the organization as perceived by the members of the organization.
c) The desired culture of the organization as expressed by the members of the organization.
Measures of the personal consciousness, current culture and desired culture are obtained for the organization as a whole, and for specified demographic categories. Typical demographic categories include: position (leaders, managers, staff), business unit, location, gender, age, length of service etc.
The results allow us to measure the alignment of personal consciousness with the current culture, and the alignment of the current culture with the desired culture. We can also measure the cultural entropy within any specific demographic grouping. I define cultural entropy as the amount of energy in an organization that is unavailable for useful work. It is a measure of the friction and pent up frustration that exists within an organization. This topic is explored in greater depth in the following chapters.
