Assessing mindset, culture and the quality of relationships – some considerations
Mindset: assumptions and beliefs
The assumptions people in business make about the purpose of their business and their view of people, in particular, what motivates people, play an important part in how people in business make decisions and how a business shows up in the world. In our work with business, we start by helping them to create a shared understanding of what it means for the business to be purpose-led and exploring the underlying assumptions and beliefs of people in the business is a big part of this. Why we do this and some ways to approach this is explored in: Challenging assumptions & beliefs
This exercise Exploring assumptions and beliefs using the A_F model includes some questions to help you explore the underlying assumptions and beliefs in your organisation. It is of course difficult to assess assumptions and beliefs – but they inform the structures and processes of an organisation and influence the way people behave and how the business shows up in its relationships.
Exploring assumptions and creating a shared understanding is not something that can be done just once – it is continuous. Assessing progress includes continually considering how far the mindset is evidenced by the operational link between purpose and strategy. It also includes good governance and leadership and open and constructive dialogue to explore where limiting assumptions, beliefs and patterns are persisting and how these are impacting on behaviour and decision-taking.
For more on the link between purpose and strategy, and on governance, including questions to consider in assessing these, see courses on: Purpose-led Strategy and Governance
Culture
A purpose-led culture reflects an understanding of both the purpose of the business and a shared mindset about people. Part of this is seeking to inspire people at all levels in a business of the shared aspiration and genuineness of intent of the purpose. The other part is fostering a way of thinking and behaving that treats people as ‘a someone not a something’. For more on different aspects of cultivating a purpose-led culture see: A purpose-led culture
Assessing culture and culture change is not easy. In practice, a blend of different qualitative as well as quantitative measures are required, looked at holistically to help understand what is happening, supplemented by enabling and welcoming constructive dialogue with employees.
Quality of relationships
Another area that companies can assess is the quality of their relationships, for example with customers and suppliers but there may also be other key relationships on which the success of the business depends such as investors, NGOs, local government, trade associations etc.
Our Five Principles map the key relationships a business has and can act as a provocation to help companies think about the quality of their relationships. For a detailed discussion of these relationships see: Understanding the Blueprint Principles
Measuring the quality of relationships is of course not straightforward.
Example:
Below is a quote from an article by personal Investment Managers McInroy and Wood discussing how they think about assessing how their clients feel.
“How could you measure the degree of clients’ satisfaction without reference to hard numbers and a numerical comparison of monetary gains achieved?
Short of a direct survey, it cannot be done. States of the mind are not accessible by numeric comparison. That is not to say they don’t matter. But they are literally immeasurable. Appeal to the science of the mind and the assessment of personal metaphysical states sounds like airy-fairy fantasy. Nevertheless, the consequences of clients’ appreciation or dissatisfaction – their happiness if you like – will determine every firm’s ultimate destiny. The most valuable asset of most investment management firms is their goodwill. That word embodies what clients feel about them. In the current hurly-burly roundabout of the sale and acquisition of investment management firms, most of what is being traded is the ‘goodwill’ of clients. If goodwill disappears a firm is virtually worthless. What is immeasurable matters after all…
But our people understand that their most valuable attribute beyond mere technical competence is their ability to inspire trust among the firm’s clients. It is an immeasurable state of mind yet it shapes a context that nourishes contentment…
From a client’s point of view, a strong value-added factor is the feeling of being personally served, a sense that they truly matter as individuals whatever their circumstances. As a guiding light, we try to establish how we would wish to be treated ourselves in a given client’s circumstances and follow where that leads. That discipline also builds trust and thereby goodwill. It is the goodwill of the firm’s clients which underpins our own prosperity. Their contentment, and our staff’s conviction that they are doing something worthwhile, brings all of us its own reward.”
There are different metrics and measures that organisations can draw on to bring insight through proxy measures, but qualitative assessment is essential in understanding the quality of relationships. There can be a temptation to only look at a specific metric in assessing progress, but sometimes the metric can be deceptive.
Example:
An insurance company was happy to see an increase in its net promoter scores and assumed that this demonstrated that it had a good relationship with its customers. However, when someone in the team went on to scrutinize the data in more detail they found that the increase in the scores was due to the fact that customers that were cancelling their policies were happy with the exit process.
The purpose of seeking to assess the quality of relationships is to understand the pain points in the relationships and so seek to address them. Some information gathering can help highlight issues or assess the success of actions taken to improve relationships, but truly assessing relationships involves listening and effective dialogue. For some considerations on effective dialogue see our blog: Navigating dialogue in business