2016 AAL Culture Survey

All American LeadershipResearch Study Report

InfoBlastUNDERSTANDING WHAT MAKES A GREAT CULTURE

With this study, we sought to delve further into the the drive towards elite organizational culture and the factors standing in organizations’ ways. We found that while 94.5% of respondents aspired to achieve great or elite cultures, 76.9% of them believed that their organization had average or below average culture, again underscoring the importance of these studies.

QUANTIFYING CHALLENGES

Top 4 Challenges to Cultural

Development

Developing our next generation of leaders

Recruiting, challenging, & engaging high performers

Establishing & maintaining a culture of empowerment & leadership

Promoting cooperation & sharing between and among individuals & departments

42%

36%

36%

30%

KEY FINDINGS

Respondents who rated their organization's current culture as being weak were asked to rate how weak it was from different points of view.

Respondents who rated their organization's current culture as being strong were asked to rate how strong it was fromdifferent points of view.

ExecutiveTeam Rating

4.5%

ExecutiveTeam Rating44.0%

Your Rating

27.0%

Your Rating

22.5%

Key to Success: Again, we see a gap between respondents’ views of their culture and their perception of executive teams’ views of their culture. This must be addressed if all parties are to remain on the same page when attempting to improve or change culture. Organizations should startby diagnosing thisissue.


Understanding What Makes a Great Culture: Defining Measurable Best Practices

© 2016 All American Leadership. Page 1

Understanding What Makes a Great Culture: Introduction

People are the heart of most organizations and provide the energy, initiative, and commitment necessary for organizations to achieve their business objectives. To achieve the highest performance from people, a great culture is essential.

At All American Leadership, we do not simply strive to create a great culture. We strive for an ELITE culture. Our purpose is to inspire, empower, and challenge leaders to build and sustain elite cultures.

The purpose of the survey on culture is the same. The survey was designed to:

The culture survey builds upon the findings of an earlier survey commissioned by All American Leadership that focused on quantifying the general impressions executive, HR professionals, and mainline staffs have of their organization’s culture.

Striving to Achieve an ELITE Culture

• Identify and quantify the critical factors that limit an organization’s ability toimprove its culture.

• Develop actionable steps to overcome these hurdles.• Stimulate meaningful dialog among Executive Leaders and HR Professionals.

Key Findings

56% of respondents report that culture and leadership are mission critical to achieving their business objectives.

The development of next generation leaders is the most commonly reported factor that impairs an organizations ability to develop and sustain a great culture.

72% of respondents report the pace of change within their industry is a contributing factor preventing the organization’s ability to foster the leadership dynamic and culture needed to achieve their five year plan.

Executives are perceived as overvaluing the strength of their organization’s culture and underestimating its weaknesses.

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Mission CriticalEssentialImportantSomewhat ImportantNot Important

Good (Better than Average)Great (Top 10% culture in your industryElite (Top 10% culture in your industry)To

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Figures 1 & 2: Measuring the Importance of Culture

93.4% of all respondents view culture and leadership as not simply important but essential or mission critical to achieving an organization’s business objectives. Not surprisingly, 94.5% of respondents aspire to achieve a Great or Elite with over half striving to develop an Elite culture.

What we found surprising from the 2015 survey on culture and is once again confirmed in this survey, is that most companies are striving to create a great culture but failing with 76.9% of respondents evaluating their organization’s culture as average or less than average.

6.6%

56.0%37.4%

5.5%

51.6%42.9%

How do you rate your organization's current culture?

<= Average

Good or Great

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%




Figure 3: Quantifying the Cultural Development Challenges

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Given the number of organizations struggling to improve their cultures beyond average, the heart of the survey focused on quantifying the challenges executives and HR professionals are facing that impair their ability to advance an organization’s culture.

Developing the Next Generation of Leaders was rated as the most significant challenge with 42% of respondents rating the topic as a significant or highly significant challenge.

Rounding out the top five most reported challenges are Recruiting and Engaging High Performers and Establishing and Maintaining a Culture of Empowerment and Ownership, with 36% of all respondents ranking them as the #2 and #3 hurdles.

Overcoming “Turf Wars” and the “Silo Mentality” and Managing / Leading Change were #4 and #5 with 30% and 26% of respondents rating the issues as significant challenges.

Developing our next generation of leaders

Recruiting, challenging, & engaging high performers

Establishing & maintaining a culture of empowerment & leadership

Promoting cooperation and sharing between & among individuals & departments

Managing, leading, & championing change (& transcending barriers to change)

Maintaining the quality of our culture (through growing pains or organizational structure changes)

Developing, maintaining, or restoring trust with your organization

Developing, communicating, & getting your people to embrace a common sense of purpose

Conquering lethargy, indifference, & ambivalence

Cultivating commitment & loyalty

Surmounting generational differences to get employees of all ages to work together cohesively



Figure 4: Identifying the Contributing Factors

The commonality among the top five most reported challenges is delegation and communication. “Silo Mentalities,” a lack of empowerment and engagement, and underdeveloped leaders all related to organizational weakness in providing people the opportunity to make decisions, work with limited supervision, respond to change, and fail without punishment.

This situation is not uncommon; and based upon the findings from the survey, the ever increasing pace of change and growing complexities within today’s business environments are contributing factors.

In today’s fast paced business environment, it is difficult to find the time to communicate and collaborate. Delegating projects to less experienced staff and keeping people properly trained becomes a secondary priority compared to just trying to keep up and getting things done.

The only ones able to break the cycle and place a priority on people development are the executive leaders. Executives are in a place of power and influence that provides the managers, supervisors, and staff the permission and mandate to delegate and communicate.

Unfortunately, a blind spot among executives appears to be keeping the critical leaders from fully appreciating and engaging the cultural challenges that exist within their organizations.

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?Little Change Moderate ChangeSubstantial ChangeDramatic Change

Little Impact (It’s relatively easy)Moderate Impact (Requires some effort)Substantial Impact (Requires a lot of effort)Dramatic Impact (It’s REALLY hard, and we are being compelled to find new ways to lead, engage, and sustain our culture)

2.5%

3.7%

22.2%

58.0%

16.1%

44.4%

38.3%

14.8%






Figures 5 & 6: Identifying the Contributing Factors (continued)

For the second time, the research is showing a significant perception gap among executives who are viewed as overstating the strength of their organizations’ cultures and understating weakness.

Looking at the two charts above, the charts summarize how respondents view their culture and how they think others within their organizations view the culture.

Only 23% view their culture as great but 44% report that they believe their executive teams view the culture as strong. The inverse is even more telling with again roughly 27% viewing their culture as weak but only 4% report that they believe their executives view the culture as weak.

Without a clear understanding of where a culture stands, executive leaders will not be in a position to act and actively move an organization’s culture forward.

Respondents who believed their organization had strong culture were asked to assign a score to how strong it was from their own view, then do the same from the perspective of others in their organization.

Respondents who believed their organization had weak culture were asked to assign a score to how weak it was from their own view, then do the same from the perspective of others in their organization.

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

Yourself Your Staff Your Human Resources Team

Your Executive Team

Yourself Your Staff Your Human Resources Team

Your Executive Team




Conclusion

Awareness, desire, and commitment to build and sustain an Elite Culture are mission critical to success. Equally important is the ability to monitor, measure, and diagnose progress.

Throughout every department within an organization, the tools to analyze and report on an aspect of the business are commonplace. Accounting, Finance, Operations, Logistics, Marketing, and Sales departments all have the tools to measure and identify weaknesses and strengths.

However, when it comes to developing an Elite culture, the ability to measure a simple baseline to know where your organization’s culture stands isn’t readily available. Without the ability to measure, organizations do not have the tools to improve.

As a result of the findings, All American Leadership is commissioning a team of experienced leaders, executive coaches, and retired military officers to develop a framework and easy-to-use diagnostic tool that can be utilized to measure and report on culture.




About All American Leadership

All American Leadership is a powerful intersection of supporting interests.

In the years immediately before the economic collapse of 2008, I found myself at a crossroads. I was making a very comfortable living at a highly successful company where I was respected and making a direct contribution to a significant growth trajectory. At the same time, I was experiencing a growing frustration with the way many businesses and business leaders operated. How they looked at their people as mere supporting cast in the quest for profit, with little or no regard for the wellbeing, growth or support of those that made their success possible.

For a long while, I believed that by demonstrating positive leadership in my own organization, I would set a positive example, and that should be good enough… but it wasn’t. In the back of my mind I knew that just wasn’t NEARLY enough. I wasn’t being the father or leader that I wanted to be or felt I was capable of being. I was nagged by a growing belief that I was capable of, no, RESPONSIBLE for, doing more… much, much more.

– Rob Nielsen, Founder of All American Leadership

For more information, please contact:R.L. [email protected]

2016 AAL Culture Survey

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