case study (education): Purdue Northwest College of Business
A multi-phased and multi-year strategic culture evolution and transformation partnership grounded in assessment, culture development, structure realignment, and strategic planning. We assessed the current state of the culture, aligned with a newly formed leadership team (and Dean) around what the evolution needed to look like and developed road mapping, action planning, and learning to build on strengths and address areas of opportunity.
WHY CULTURE CHANGE? (2022)
With a new Dean, leadership team, and vision, the college was looking to set aside relics, norms, and behaviors that no longer served. This means re-setting and realigning the college to a new strategic plan, developing common language and behavioral expectations around the college’s culture and ways of working together, and assessing progress along the way.
High-level overview of the multi-year journey
WHAT WE DID
A multi-phased and multi-year strategic culture evolution and transformation partnership grounded in assessment, culture development, structure realignment, and strategic planning. We assessed the current state of the culture, aligned with a newly formed leadership team (and Dean) around what the evolution needed to look like and developed road mapping, action planning, and learning to build on strengths and address areas of opportunity.
Mental-map around the “WHY” behind the culture change
CURRENT STATE ASSESSMENT
To assess the current culture, we developed a multi-year assessment strategy starting with the formation of a cross- representative Culture Team. This group helped weighed in on the assessment strategy and providing feedback along the way. We then worked alongside the Dean to develop a connected and inclusive messaging and communications plan kicking off the transformation work and assessment. For this client we conducted interviews to start and planned for a survey later in the process. This was pivotal to build trust, rapport, and confidence in the process for the team.
The initial interview results revealed several strengths including responsibility, care, and knowledge of the impact of work on students; signs of strong inter-team bonds, support, and functioning; mindset of resourcefulness; and shared recognition of need for culture change. We also recognized several growth opportunities such as re-channeling the “why” and “how,” bridging the gap between people and equitable human-centered process, and improving trust and relationship quality to build psychological safety
In accordance with the discoveries from the surveys and interviews, we developed a 10-point Culture Roadmap that highlighted the largest areas of impact.
Overview of initial assessment results and areas of action and focus
Call for Culture partnered with the College of Business to implement tactical actions like a values activation plan (Culture Charter) that aligns with their current strategic plan and the remaining components of their Roadmap. The Culture Charter was co-designed with the leadership and full college via a series of workshops to codify the college’s Mission, Vision, Values, and Behaviors.
“We felt confident in where our values were landing but didn’t know how to articulate them. Call for Culture helped us confirm those were our values and gave us language on how we share them.”
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE CULTURE CHARTER
Attracting Talent: The Culture Charter is used to craft job postings that resonate with candidates that align with the University and College’s Mission, Vision, and Values. This includes developing questions that assess candidates’ alignment with the core values.
On-Boarding & Orientation: Introduce new hires and students to the College’s mission, vision, and values as an early experience to interacting with the College.
Coaching and Mentoring: Incorporation of the Culture Charter into leadership development and career development to reinforce the College’s values and principles.
Recognition Programs: Creation of incentives that reward employees for living the organization’s values.
Feedback Mechanisms: Using the values as benchmarks in the Culture Survey assessment to gauge progress.
Interdependence and Individual Goal Setting: Leverage the Culture Charter and Strategic Plan to organize people around the work and interdependent goals of the College. It also provides a common goal and “North Star” for determining which initiatives to pursue or eliminate.
Brand Messaging and Student Experience: Communication of the mission, vision, values consistently in marketing to current and potential students.
Community and Societal Impact: Aligned to community outreach initiatives and reinforce the College’s commitment to a higher purpose.
CULTURE SURVEY (2024)
After an initial 18 months of assessment and building structural scaffolding critical for success, Call for Culture worked with the College of Business to implement a data-driven baseline for culture within the College. This was the right time to implement the Culture survey because trust had been built, results were being seen across the College, and trust had been developed over time.
The purpose of the Culture Survey was to measure a baseline of how the College was currently doing with our aspirational culture (in alignment with validated measures and the developed Culture Charter). Call for Culture partnered with their assessment partners, Talmetrix to design and develop a fit for purpose baseline measurement that included the measurement of constructs such as (1) Career Experience (2) Collaboration (3) Communications (4) Confidence and Commitment (5) Core Values (6) Employee Engagement (7) Employee Well-being (8) Intent to Stay (9) Leadership Lens (10) Manager Lens (11) Organizational Climate (12) Rewards and Recognition.
The survey results yielded a 69% response rate.
KEY TAKEAWAYS AND ACTION FROM THE SURVEY
Under development!