LEAD CHANGE ENABLE TRANSFORMATION

ADAPTIVE CULTURES

www.adaptivecultures.co

™

THE ADAPTIVE CULTURES™ APPROACHIdentify your unique pathway

Each culture journey is unique and there is no single ideal culture. What works for one organisation might be counterproductive for another.

Evolve rather than change

In the same way that individuals can continue to develop and evolve through their life’s journey so too can collectives, such as cultures.

Develop to achieve aspirations

The culture of an organisation is defined by the beliefs, mindsets, attitudes and behaviours of each individual. Therefore cultural evolution requires the evolution of all people in an organisation.

Cultures are not static. They are living

systems that evolve, sometimes devolve and

rarely stay the same.

Culture ideally should enable the aspirations,

strategy and purpose of an organisation.

As external market disruptions occur and

organisational aspiration and purpose

evolves, culture must also evolve in order for

the organisation to adapt and grow to achieve

its aspirations.

The more adaptive the culture, the more

likely the organisation is to be able to

successfully respond to disruptions and

changes. And, over time, to become the

disruptor rather than the disrupted.

To evolve culture requires evolution of worldviews, ways of working, behaviours and mindsets that enable the organisation to deliver on its strategies and aspirations. These will be different for different organisations, depending on the complexity of their markets and level of disruption they are facing into.

Individual evolutionBuilding deeper awareness and insight at an individual level to increase personal agency, responsibility and capacity to be responsive and adaptive.

Social evolutionTransforming ways of working and communicating to enable better dialogue and respectful challenging of ideas across the organisation, to leverage reflection, innovation and creativity.

Structural evolutionTransforming processes, systems, work design, structures and planning cycles to enable greater adaptivity.

3 LEVERS FOR ENABLING CULTURAL EVOLUTION

Our research and practise across a wide range of organisations reveal that it is essential to address individual, social and structural evolution to be able to achieve sustainable cultural evolution.

Levers for Building Adaptive Capacity

STRUCTURAL

ORGANISATIONAL

INFRASTRUCTURE

STRATEGIES

STRUCTURES

PROCESSES

SOCIALWAYS OF WORKING

RELATIONSHIPS

ORGANISATIONAL STORIES

BELIEFS

EVENTS

STAKEHOLDERS

INDIVIDUAL

LEADERSHIP

MINDSETS

COMPETENCIES

BEHAVIOURS

DECISIONS

ACTIONS

INSIGHTS REPORT

ADAPTIVE CULTURES

COMPANY NAME

AUGUST 2018

The 6 steps of building adaptive capacity is a pathway to cultural evolution. The pathway brings to life a culture that enables the strategic aspirations and purpose of an organisation. It does this through evolving skills, worldviews, beliefs, behaviours and processes. Each step is part of a continual process. Any step can be leveraged at any point along the organisation’s cultural journey where it may generate the greatest impact.

BUILDING ADAPTIVE CAPACITY - 6 STEPS

The Adaptive Cultures Insights Diagnostic™ can help identify the current stage of cultural evolution in an organisation, or the aspirational culture that will be needed if the organisation is to successfully respond to disruption and change.

The Diagnostic measures the capacity for the organisation to:

ADAPTIVE CULTURES DIAGNOSTIC™

align all its parts with a clear and

expansive purpose

grow and achieve in line with its

purpose

self-reflect, learn and adapt

rapidly

envision the future and co-

create alternative possible futures

Grow Adapt Co-createAlign

ORGANISATIONAL FOCUS

DEPENDENT

PRE CULTURE Impulse Oriented

Professionalism

Driven

Co- Achievement

Purpose Driven

Co-Adaptive Leadership

COMPLIANCE RESULTSCAPACITY BUILDING

EVOLVING SYSTEMS

Accelerated Evolution

INDEPENDENT

INTER- DEPENDENT

CO-EVOLVING

Compliant Dependent

Culture

Achievement Culture

Collaborative Growth Culture

Co-Creation Culture

Follow the rules, seek approval from authority, respect the chain of command, do what you are told.

Get the results, seek areas for improvement, encourage a ‘can do’ attitude, do what is necessary to deliver.

Value and leverage diversity, create communities where shared learning occurs.

Constantly adapting, addressing complex issues to achieve sustainable organisations and markets.

WO

RLD

VIE

WS

& W

AYS

OF

WO

RK

ING

The Adaptive Cultures™ framework is based on research into cultural evolution by Adaptive Cultures founders Alison Cameron and Andrew Brown.

Through research, field work, interviews and case studies, Adaptive Cultures identified the aspects of culture that enable an organisation to build greater capacity to adapt through five stages of cultural evolution.

The research draws from many fields, including adaptive leadership, developmental psychology, anthropology, organisational culture and living systems theories.

The Adaptive Cultures™ framework takes us through a culture journey from less adaptive to more adaptive cultures. A greater range of choices means organisations that are more adaptive are also more likely to be able to respond to challenge and disruption and to be able to determine their destiny.

THE ADAPTIVE CULTURES™ FRAMEWORK

This table sets out critical aspects of each stage of evolution including mindsets, beliefs and enacted values.

UNDERSTANDING STAGES OF CULTURAL EVOLUTION

Compliant Dependent

Culture

Achievement Culture

Collaborative Growth Culture

Co-Creation Culture

Impulse Oriented

Management

Style

Highly reactive or

command and control

Hierarchical and

parental

Driving results Collaborative and

developmental

Creative, empowering

and disruptive

Environment Impulsive and

reactionary

Procedure driven and

traditional

Competitive and fast

paced

Inclusive and growth

oriented

Highly adaptive and

future oriented

Expectations

of my people

React quickly, put

out fires and focus on

quick wins

Loyal, compliant and

diplomatic

Pragmatic,

accountable and

responsible

Strategic and

stakeholder oriented

with a focus on

personal growth

Futuristic thinking

to enable continuous

evolution

What is

important?

Survival and

immediate action

Position, stability and

expertise

Professionalism,

outcomes and

resilience

Harnessing collective

insights and purpose

Co-creating a better

future for humanity

through building

adaptive capacity

What is rewarded and

celebrated?

Acting on

opportunities, taking

charge and winning

against others

Experience,

compliance and loyalty

Initiative, difficult

decisions and results

Developing self and

others, strategic

thinking and

sustainable growth

Enlightened insight,

evolutionary milestones

and superior agility

What is not safe? Waiting,

procrastinating or

taking time to reflect

Challenging authority,

challenging the status

quo or non-compliance

Under-achievement or

blaming others

Narrow or short term

thinking or image

management

Not considering

multiple consequences

of actions

The Australian subsidiary of a global financial services organisation was struggling with a legacy compliant dependent culture where people were afraid to challenge, speak up or take responsibility and ownership. This limited how quickly and effectively strategic agenda was enacted.

A large multinational organisation of >300,000 people began a transformation of the global HR function. As part of this, a global Talent Acquisition Leadership Team was brought together to set the vision for transformation of the TA function and lead the global TA community of 300 people through the change.

The team had not worked together before, and most were also

CASE STUDY – LINKING CULTURE AND STRATEGY EXECUTION

CASE STUDY - BUILDING TRUST

For other case studies and background information, refer to the Adaptive Culture whitepaper: www.adaptivecultures.co

Adaptive Cultures partnered with the organisation to enable people to deepen responsibility, expand strategic insight and conduct authentic and transparent conversations with peers and other senior leaders.

unknown to the global TA community. The team needed to build trust across the community, and with each other, in order to successfully lead the transformation.

A two-pronged approach was taken, focussing on the development of the individual leadership team members, as well as building trust and a collaborative adaptive way of working within the team.

TO

Below average alignment scores A 15% uplift in 18 months

A reputation of “not being good at execution”Achieving some significant business milestones that have had clear financial impact

Below average engagement scores An 11% uplift in 18 months

A need to manage the message as well as one’s imageSafe to show ourselves as whole human beings including weaknesses and fears

Fear of having crucial conversations Expectation that leaders address what needs addressing

Decisions made at the top Decision making power distributed down the line

FROM

TO

Low levels of trust amongst the Leadership TeamSafe to show ourselves as whole human beings including weaknesses and fears

Leadership Team focused on their own area of responsibilityShared accountability for the transformation of the entire Talent Acquisition function

Leadership Team meetings focussed on operational topicsUnderstanding that culture supports business strategy and operations

Fear of speaking up among employeesEmployees proactively raise concerns and opinions in person and openly on the company ESN

Low engagement scores for “my opinion counts” and “encouraged to try new things”

Uplift of 16% for “my opinion counts” and 40% for “encouraged to try new things” over 2 years

FROM

CONTACT US:info@adaptivecultures.co+61 488 014 573

PO Box 217CurrumbinQld 4223

Follow us on Twitter@cultureadaptive

www.adaptivecultures.co

“In these unpredictable times characterised

by ambiguity and uncertainty, there is

no question that we as individuals and

organisations’ must increase our adaptability

in order to survive. The Adaptive Cultures

approach is the best one I know to help us

get there.”

Dr. Nandani Lynton, Chief Transformation

Officer, Power Generation Services, Siemens

“As we transform our organisation to adapt

to a rapidly evolving and dynamic market

we knew we needed to enhance our

culture if we were going to be successful.

The Adaptive Cultures cultural evolution

framework provided us with a much-needed

framework from which we could target our

culture change efforts. It provided us with

the structure and rigor we needed to tailor

leadership development programs that would

have the most impact on the culture change

we were seeking. Everyone will tell you that

culture change takes time, and it does, but

I believe we have been able to accelerate

our progress using the Adaptive Cultures

approach.”

CHRO, Financial Services