Taking Apart Your Cube: Analyzing Organizational Culture Hierarchy

Building strong and adaptive organizational cultures is imperative.

There's no doubt about it anymore. Whether we like it or not, we spend more time at work than we do at home. Why would you want to spend most of your life in a place you don't like? You wouldn't. Not if you can go someplace else.

Many academics will tell you that great organizations are stimulated and energized by great leaders, and that is absolutely true. But I am more and more convinced that the lasting performance of an enterprise also depends on the performance of each of the subcultures of the organization - whether it’s a branch office, a division or a department.
Therefore, each subculture must become an organization that is itself an outstanding example of cultural excellence.

Let's assume you're the CEO of your company and I come to you and ask, "Are you sure John Espinoza down in manufacturing and Gail Jones over in sales and marketing have a consistent understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your overall organization or even their own subcultures, for that matter?" The vast majority of leaders would probably respond, "I don't know what our culture is myself. So I’m sure they don’t have a consistent view."
This type of response is my cue to pull out my handy Visionomics Cube and begin taking it apart. My focus is first on the stakeholder at the center of the cube, that is, every individual who is impacted by the actions of the organization—employee, customer, supplier, etc. It is those individuals' beliefs and assumptions about what is going on around them that determines how desirable that place is to be a part of. To build an organization, or any part of one, capable of reaching its true potential, we need to create an environment in which each stakeholder’s four critical needs are met:

1. A clear sense of focus as to where the organization is going
2. A deep sense of personal involvement in helping the organization reach its goals
3. Reinforcement for desired behaviors and outcomes
4. Pride in the organization and the individual

As we continue our discussion, I go on to describe the six critical elements of high-performance organizations and emphasize how they interact with each other in a synergistic way to dramatically impact workplace culture.
In most cases, leaders agree that the model is indeed a unique and effective way to understand the dynamics oforganizational culture.