Exploring assumptions and beliefs in your organisation
By paying attention to how decisions are made, meetings are managed, how work gets done and how people relate to each other you can begin to notice what shared assumptions your organisation may have. Our work focuses on assumptions about people’s motivation and organisational purpose, but there will be other assumptions that form the culture of an organisation.
Exercise:
Observe what is going on around you:
- Listen to the stories shared, the common narratives, language and symbols used
- Observe what gets prioritised in meeting agendas, in particular, all staff meetings
- Notice what people pay attention to
- Observe how different groups work across the organisation. When is it competitive or collaborative?
- Observe the reaction to a crisis or issue. What assumptions are made about the people involved? What happens when something goes wrong?
- Notice the behaviours that are rewarded or ignored
- Notice how people talk about success
Explore the operative purpose of the organisation:
- What measurements does your organisation use to define success – are these purely financial?
- If you asked a selection of people linked to but not employed by the organisation (e.g. suppliers, customers, and governing body), what its purpose was – what would their answers be?
Explore what your organisation believes motivates people:
- How do leaders appeal to people? What gets said at town hall meetings?
- What measures do you use in performance reviews, what targets do you set, and how do you set remuneration levels?
- Review a sample set of policies e.g. expenses policy. What beliefs about people underpin these policies?
- What do people need to do to get promoted?
Explore what your organisation believes about its role in society:
- What beliefs do you have about the role of business, and of your business in society, which set the direction and help you navigate? What guides you?
- What macro socio-economic challenges does your company care about? Are there any blind spots?
- What influence or agency does your business have to address some of the social, economic and environmental challenges we are facing? What is it not currently doing and what more could it do?
You can download and use this worksheet to record your thoughts: Worksheet – Exploring assumptions and beliefs in your organisation
Once you have explored the implicit assumptions and beliefs by which your organisation operates, start to consider where you think the organisation might be on the purpose journey.
