When you begin your strategic planning journey, remember: culture is not an afterthought; it’s the heartbeat of your organization. Incorporating culture into strategic planning isn’t just a best practice; it’s vital for sustainable success. In the end, a strong culture not only supports your strategy but also reduces turnover and enriches the workplace by cultivating a sense of belonging and purpose among employees.
Fostering a positive and cohesive workplace culture is more important than ever. Employees want to work for organizations that are true to their espoused values and create space for them to contribute, connect, and grow.
Incorporating culture into your strategy is something you’ll want to have front and center in your next plan. Here are some steps to make that happen:
1. Understand Your Current Culture
Before you begin strategizing, it’s essential to assess the existing cultural landscape. Conduct a survey to better understand employee insights and perceptions about your organization’s culture. If you don’t know where to start or have questions, feel free to contact LPA via LinkedIn or our website, and we can point you in the right direction!
2. Know the Culture You Want to Cultivate
Next, it’s important to outline the cultural attributes you aspire to foster. Consider questions like:
- What values do we want to promote?
- How do we want to be perceived among our employees?
- What behaviors do we need to encourage or change to ensure alignment between our work and our values?
As your leadership team answers these questions, be sure to use any insights gathered from step one to inform your answers.
3. Align Strategy with Cultural Goals
Once you understand the culture you’d like to cultivate, develop specific strategic objectives that support it. A good survey of the culture (see step one) can help you identify where the focus of cultural change needs to take place within the organization. Combine these insights with your answers from step two to create a few clearly defined cultural goals.
4. Fold Culture Into Your Operational Plan
Once you’ve identified goals for your workplace culture, develop actionable steps to support these initiatives. A solid plan should include:
- Who in leadership will model behaviors that reinforce the desired culture.
- How you will consistently communicate in a way that inspires employees to align themselves and their work to the culture.
- Changes in systems, policies, or procedures that will align the day-to-day operations to the desired culture.
A Final Thought: Don’t Do It Alone
Assessing and changing your organization’s culture is not easy—especially since you are part of it! It pays to have an independent third party guide you through this process and help you actualize your strategy. A consultant or coach who understands organizational culture and change management can work with you to identify the current culture and help you define where you want to be and how to get there. While engaging a third party might involve a cost, the benefits of clearly identifying and incorporating culture into your strategic plan will be well worth it in the long run.
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