The People First® Cultural Health Assessment in Action

Pitting Gallup’s Q12 Against the People First® Cultural Health Assessment

 

Who Comes Out on Top?

Before you can determine which of these organizational initiatives comes out ahead, it helps to know what each program was designed to do in the first place.

 

The People First® Cultural Health Assessment is a systematic process that provides clear, comprehensive insight into what is (and isn’t) working enterprise-wide.

 

The Q12 program, in comparison, wasn’t designed to access the systematic nature of your organizational culture. Instead, it goes in at the middle and only captures a fragment of the "big picture" organizational reality. Incidentally, the Q12 Assessment simply isn’t equipped to clue you in to the level of balance or alignment that exists at EVERY level in your organization.

 

But why are balance and alignment so essential?

Think about what happens when balance between the overall needs of your business isn’t measured against those of your employees...

Without that balance measured and achieved, organizational change can’t ever truly take affect. When one side of the scale is targeted, and the other is ignored, you’ll keep squandering resources on the next program in a "Flavor of the Month" never-ending cycle. The Q12 system (and a slew of other similar "solutions") waste a tremendous amount of energy and resources fixing the SYMPTOMS of a problem, instead of zeroing in on the root causes of why your organization isn’t achieving the business goals you’ve set.

 

The issue of organizational alignment is of equal importance...

If your values and (more importantly) how you put those values into practice aren’t aligned throughout EVERY level of your organization... or if they don’t line up with who YOU are – the end result is still the same. You’ll still be scrambling to treat symptoms while the REAL culprit is left unaddressed and free to wreak havoc throughout your organization.

 

At Lannom Worldwide, we don’t have a "problem" with the Q12 or other similar programs. We don’t want to say that Q12 isn’t a valuable tool – because it certainly can be!

 

The point we want to make is that the key to success using ANY system is to understand the intent and purpose behind implementing these initiatives.

 

It’s not enough to have a "popular" program. Instead of wondering if it worked for some other business – even a LOT of other business – you need to ask yourself the ONLY question that really matters:

Does this program fit into WHO you are and WHAT you’re striving to achieve as a business?

 

Trying to measure how well your business is performing by taking a look at the middle only provides a snapshot – a microcosm of what’s going on right now.

 

Wouldn’t you be better off with an in-depth, comprehensive panoramic view?! Focusing on the core of your business at the expense of the bottom and the top sets the stage for a number of problems that could have been identified and solved otherwise.

 

Just think about an apple...

When an apple begins to rot, it begins on the outside and works its way in until the core winds up rotten, too. In business, just like apples, ALL layers need to be healthy in order for complete organizational alignment to occur.

 

Unfortunately, the Q12 doesn’t take the overall culture into consideration. Nor does it determine how your corporate culture impacts the middle managers that are being rated on the Q12.

 

That said, the Q12 CAN be an effective tool, but only once your leadership team has decided what you value and what will be rewarded.

Furthermore, if your company’s middle management is not having the same experiences outlined in the Q12 questions and your TOP leadership isn’t "walking the walk" in regards to the Q12, then ultimately you’ll be sending your middle managers mixed messages and encouraging them to do things that senior management either can’t or doesn’t embrace.

 

The end result: distrust and dissatisfaction, not to mention a negative impact on your middle management’s morale and engagement. Worse still, these issues will trickle down to the line employees who are being surveyed, and have an organization-wide impact. The ONLY way to truly tell whether or not this vicious cycle is being perpetuated in your business is to conduct a holistic assessment like that provided in our People First® Cultural Health Assessment.

The Q12 Quandary
The Q12 process involves having each employee answer each question with a rating of 1-5. On this scale, a 5 is the best score, while a 1 is the worst.

 

In theory, managers who receive lower scores are expected to bring those numbers up. Ideally, this would guarantee that anyone with direct reports should be actively communicating with their employees.

 

Of course, all theories like this look good on paper... Reality is the testing ground. And, in reality, many times the culture that the middle managers operate in doesn’t actually support the concepts and values contained in the Q12.

 

Ultimately, this means that the program won’t offer long-term success, only a short-term, "feel good" solution. Eventually, everyone winds up feeling frustrated, while morale and engagement levels take a nose dive!

 

But that isn’t the only drawback of the Q12 Assessment...

 

After one company concluded their Q12 survey, employees were asked for their opinions. An administrative assistant stood up and said, "Just circle five to survive, baby... Mark five to survive!"

 

The assistant in question went on to explain that she’d been told that unless she wanted to suffer through a ton of extra meetings and a great deal of other work, she’d be better off just putting down 5s across the board, so that her department would be left alone.

Seems like an incredible waste of time and money, doesn’t it?

 

If employees don’t (or can’t) understand the intent behind a program like Q12... if they don’t "get" how it will help them in their work, or how it fits into the big picture, then engagement and the integrity of their program will be at risk.

 

The FIRST priority of the leadership within an organization of ANY size is to define their corporate culture and to determine what their values are. Then it’s time to determine how to go about governing the members of their organization.

 

Far too often, leaders ask the levels below them to take the "do as I say, not as I do" approach. Many times, the result of this hypocrisy is that you get the "buy in" and raise the engagement of your front-line employees, while middle management becomes discouraged and disillusioned because they’re not getting the same treatment.

 

This is what’s known as an unsustainable situation or system. Over time, middle managers become increasingly frustrated and this frustration finds an outlet in how they treat and relate with their employees.

 

Why should middle management get singled out and blamed when it’s really the corporate CULTURE that’s at fault?

Organizational leaders have to take the time to define who they are and to evaluate and understand their current state of affairs. The best way to determine this is to conduct an overall assessment that involves employees at EVERY level, from the bottom to the top. That’s because "reality" doesn’t come from the eyes of the leaders, but from the eyes and actions of the employees.

 

Before a decision can be made to institute the Q12 (or ANY other program) it is absolutely critical that you first understand WHY you’re doing it and HOW the program will feed or play into the panoramic picture of your corporate culture and the overall success of your business.

 

After a decade of using our Cultural Health Assessment tool, we’ve discovered that many of the items contained in the Q12 are issues of great importance to employees. However, the Q12 doesn’t dig deep enough or cover enough breadth. Leaders must pay attention and listen to all levels in order to uncover where potential breakdowns are complicating communication, values, and expectations. This requires quantitive, definitive information.

 

One of the biggest pet peeves with the Gallup program is the frequent use of the word "seems." When you’re soliciting input and feedback from your employees, it’s important to know – unequivocally – is it happening or not! Vague and noncommittal words like "seems" leaves something to be desired. Without a clear yes or no, fact-based response, how can you ever hope to discover what’s REALLY going on?

 

The Solution Starts HERE
The purpose behind the People First® Cultural Health Assessment is to provide clarity regarding the current reality for every employee involved – including top leadership.

 

Ask yourself "Is everyone being treated the same?" To answer this question, you’ve got to look at EVERY level, not just your front-line faces. The People First® Cultural Health Assessment works to clearly define the "How:"

 

• How effective are leaders at every level?
• How effective are your corporate communication systems – not just internal, but external as well?
• How effective is your organization’s decision making process?
• Do your employees have access to all of the tools required to be successful?
• How effective are your relationships – across the board, inside and outside of your business?
• Do leaders at all levels effectively treat everyone with honor and respect?

 

Over the years, we’ve found that employee engagement can’t be accurately measured just by finding out if an employee has the tools they need, whether they feel cared about, or if they have a best friend at the office. In the end, it all comes down to how they feel inside, about WHO they are.

 

...They want to know that they have a purpose.

 

...They want to be involved in making the decisions that impact their work.

 

In fact, this is – by far – one of the most frequently addressed themes we’ve seen across the last 10 years!

 

People have a deep-seated need to know that who they are and what they do makes an impact, a difference. They need to feel that their opinions aren’t just sought, but actually considered and respected.

 

Employees don’t wish to resign themselves to being rodents in a race – they want to be Purpose Partners®!

And if YOU want to become a People First® culture, then you have to come to terms with how close you are to achieving your desired reality TODAY! By obtaining an overall "base line" of your cultural state, you’ll gain invaluable information that will steer you towards WHAT you need to focus on. Our Assessment provides you with powerful data that will aid you in your quest to make the BEST decisions when it comes to creating the ultimate state you desire to achieve and what it will take to get there.

 

Or, in other words, which programs will be the most effective.

 

Once you’ve completed this process, it may wind up that the Q12 will be a great fit. However, the key here is that now you will know how and why it fits in, allowing you to leverage ALL that the program has to offer.

 

The People First® Cultural Health Assessment provides you with everything that you’ll need in order to put together a solid plan by working together as a leadership group and effectively measuring it over time. Then you can implement programs like Gallup’s Q12 and truly understand the role that it is playing in achieving your enterprise’s overall goals. All too often, leaders are tempted to dash off and move on to the next program WITHOUT understanding how (or even if) it falls in line with the big picture of the entire organizational structure and systems.

 

Organizations ARE systems, and all of the pieces impact each other. Before you can ensure that a program like Q12 will work in the long-term, offering the results you WANT, you need to first understand what it is that you’re working toward.

 

Now you can. The People First® Cultural Health Assessment was specifically designed to support you in gaining that essential insight.

Initiating it in your organization means that it:

 

• Replaces the need to conduct those "traditional" employee satisfaction surveys.
  
• Aids you in understanding which programs (such as the Q12) will be most beneficial in achieving your overall results.
  
• Goes straight to the core of any successful/healthy culture and calculates the level of trust, fear, and bureaucracy in your organization.
  
• Focuses on the relationship between an organization’s people and its business and organizational processes in order to ensure successful attainment of organizational goals across the board.
  
• Doesn’t use jargon - we call it what it is.
  
• Helps you gain insight into the destructive and constructive behaviors that are going on within your business.
  
• Integrates results obtained from the survey into a post-survey action plan that provides you with very specific steps to improve operations and attitudes.
  
• Takes a look at the "soft" and "hard" business issues, takes longitudinal data, and creates links.
  
• Determines alignment.  Do you have all the right elements necessary in order to change your marketing strategy, create teams, etc.
  
• Identifies which areas require you to focus your resources and energy on.
  
• Allows you to see specific results that have an immediate impact on your business, meaning that organization-wide buy-in of the process is immediate.
  
• Gets to the heart of the issues and key points of healthiness – we do an MRI, NOT an X-ray.
  
• Is a different tool, using different measurements, giving you a different diagnosis, which generates a different prescription. Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results...
  
• Is a second level diagnosis that tells you why you have a temperature – unlike a traditional employee satisfaction survey, which just tells you that you’re running a fever. 
  
• Is user friendly – we have a high desire to engage you in learning our process so you can conduct the assessment on your own if you so desire.
  
• Identifies duplication of effort, gaps, and re-work loops, saving you time, effort, and resources.
  
• Seeks to identify all the incongruencies that exist in your organization. There can be no preconceived notions that the objective is to "find something wrong." If that is the mind-set at the beginning of the analysis, it is likely to dictate the outcome.
  

 

For additional information about the differences between the People First® Cultural Health Assessment and the Gallup Q12, read the rest of our in-depth analysis.