Culture is one of, if not the most significant influence on employee experience. In our recent book, Employee Experience by Design (Bridger and Gannaway), we look at the relationship between your culture and your employee experience. EX only happens within the context of your organizational culture. Or, put it another way: “Culture is the soup within which employee experience swims.” (2019, Wright-Wasson) While a great culture does not guarantee a great EX, it makes it a lot more likely.
But just where do you start when thinking about developing a culture that supports a brilliant EX? Our culture card sort activity outlined here can help you diagnose those aspects of your culture which have an impact on your EX, in either a positive or negative way. The diagnostic uses our MAGIC-CA model of EX as a starting point.
Culture dimensions card sort – a conversation-led diagnostic
What this is: This activity is a diagnostic tool to create insights about the nature of the culture and where it may be most positively or negatively impacting employee experience.
Why use it:
The objective is to identify cultural strengths and weakness that need further attention.
How to use it:
This activity can be run in small groups, or even in multiple groups simultaneously at a large event such as a Town Hall. It can be run multiple times to build a picture across the organisation. And because it is quick and easy to do, it can be repeated frequently to keep a live perspective on what is happening that needs attention. And you can use it online or offline too.
Who to use it with:
This activity can be run with anyone. To get a broad insight into the culture, it would be run with multiple groups in different parts of the organization.
Background:
There are many tools and platforms that offer to analyse your organisational culture. We often find that simply starting a conversation is the best way to learn about the culture.
There are also numerous dimensions to your culture. It can sometimes feel overwhelming knowing where to begin, so we recommend starting with the attributes of what makes a great EX as defined by our MAGIC-CA model of EX. You can then add further culture dimensions you feel are relevant to your organisation.
Facilitator instructions:
- Write the seven MAGIC-CA attributes on post-it notes (online or offline) one per note using the phrase “I have…”
As a reminder they are:
- Meaning
- Appreciation
- Growth
- Impact
- Connection
- Challenge
- Autonomy
- Feel free to add any further culture dimensions that you believe are missing.
- On a wall draw a horizontal line, above the line add a label that says “strongly agree”, on the line label it “neither agree nor disagree”, and below the line add a label saying “strongly disagree”
- Ask each participant to plot their culture dimension post-its in relation to the line – ideally do this in silence to avoid people influencing each other
- Discuss what is there and explore why people have chosen to put the culture dimensions where they have on the axis
- Ask people to give specific examples of where that culture dimension has been strong or absent for them, listen carefully to the words they use and keep asking why to understand more about the experience
- At the end of the share, invite people to move their post-its if they have a better understanding of that culture dimension and have a new perspective on their experience of it
- At the end, invite people to vote on the top two culture dimensions they believe require attention to improve their experience at work, you might do this by giving people two stickers each to add to a post it
Adaptation
You can run multiple sessions focusing on one culture dimension at a time and spend longer exploring that dimension. It is also possible to run this activity using a virtual whiteboard platform.
What next
The weakest areas of your culture that are a priority for your people could inform the beginning of your EX-design process. However, if you want to respond to the insights in a more pragmatic way, a good extension activity is to look at the strengths in your culture (as evidenced on the wall) and ask what exists in the strongest dimensions of your culture that can be used to strengthen the weakest areas.
We hope you enjoy using this tool, we’d love to hear how you get on!
