According to the 2020 14th Annual State of Agile™ Survey, the leading cause of failed Agile transformation is "company culture at odds with core Agile values".

As a result, Madison Henry often incorporates diagnosing and aligning organizational culture when helping organizations realize the benefits of Agile Software Development.

Madison Henry leverages an industry leading framework and instrument for diagnosing your organizational culture, the Competing Values Framework (CVF) and Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) respectively, developed by University of Michigan business professors Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn.

The CVF and OCAI are arguably the most dominant framework and frequently used instrument respectively, for diagnosing organizational culture across the world today, having been used by thousands of organizations and extensively in scholarly research. Similar to Agile, the CVF is empirical, having been utilized and studied for more than 25 years.

 

Organizational Culture Assessment Services

Madison Henry offers the following services related to diagnosing your organizational culture:

  • Consult on your OCAI Survey participants and communication strategy.

  • Administer and provide instructions for your online OCAI Survey.

  • Compile, analyze and present your OCAI Survey quantitative results.

  • Provide insight into your organization's dominant culture and mix of cultural types.

  • Facilitate consensus on your organization's current and preferred culture and desire for change.

  • Identify opportunities to align your preferred culture with Agile transformation.

  • Prepare and present qualitative organizational culture findings and recommendations.

CVF.pngCompeting Values Framework (CVF)

The Competing Values Framework (CVF) was developed to identify the criteria, key factors and indicators of organizational effectiveness. The CVF consists of two cultural dimensions that form four quadrants of cultural types to represent a distinct set of organizational effectiveness indicators and symbolize a way of being, seeing, managing and organizing.

  • The CVF's two cultural dimensions:

    • Vertical Dimension – The vertical cultural dimension differentiates organizational effectiveness criteria such as flexibility and discretion from criteria that emphasizes stability and control. As an example, some organizations are deemed effective if they are adaptable and changing while other organizations are considered effective as being predictable and stable.

    • Horizontal Dimension – The horizontal cultural dimension differentiates organizational effectiveness criteria such as internal focus and integration from criteria that emphasizes external focus and differentiation. As an example, some organizations are deemed effective if they are focused on what's important internally and how they want to work while other organizations are considered effective if they are focused on what's important externally such as clients and competitors.

  • The CVF's four cultural types:

    • Clan (Collaborate) Culture – An organization that focuses on internal maintenance with flexibility, concern for people and sensitivity for others; value drivers include commitment, communication and development.

    • Adhocracy (Create) Culture – An organization that focuses on external positioning with a high degree of flexibility and individuality; value drivers include innovation, transformation, and agility.

    • Hierarchy (Control) Culture – An organization that focuses on internal maintenance with a need for stability and control; value drivers include efficiency, timeliness, consistency and uniformity.

    • Market (Compete) Culture – An organization that focuses on external positioning with an emphasis on competition and fast decision-making; value drivers include market share, goal achievement and profitability.

 

OCAI.pngOrganizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)

Through a comprehensive, 20 minute online survey, the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) measures the mix of the CVF's four cultural types for current and preferred organizational culture along with an organization's desire for change.

Six key aspects of organizational culture are assessed by the OCAI:

  • Dominant characteristics

  • Organizational leadership

  • Management of employees

  • Organizational glue

  • Strategic emphasis

  • Success criteria.

The OCAI produces an organizational culture profile that illustrates the following:

  • The organization's current dominant cultural type(s) with supporting metrics

  • The organization's preferred future cultural type(s) with supporting metrics

  • Discrepancy between current and preferred future cultural types

  • Strength of current dominant cultural type(s)

  • Congruence of the six key aspects of organizational culture

  • Industry and trend comparison.

 

Pursuing Your Organization's Preferred Culture

Upon completion of an OCAI Survey, Madison Henry can facilitate workshops to help pursue your preferred culture and align with your Agile transformation:

  • Develop organizational culture change vision, strategy and plan.

  • Establish priorities.

  • Identify blockages.

  • Brainstorm for solutions.

 
Using Agile Principles to Manage Organizational Culture Change

Moving forward, Madison Henry can help apply Agile practices to manage your organizational culture change and alignment with Agile transformation:

  • Goals: Clearly articulating the cultural and behavioral values and goals is essential to gain alignment across the organization. Identification of intermediate goals can help demonstrate progress and celebrate success!

  • Measures: Identifying well-rounded measures of progress toward your cultural goals and those leading indicators that can help you understand what progress (or lack thereof) you are making. Measures are best reviewed periodically to adapt to your organization’s real situations; we will help you develop an evolving dashboard of relevant leading and lagging metrics oriented toward cultural goals.

  • Change: Changing the culture requires action; people working in different ways that reflect your values in ways they are not used to. Relying on proven agile practices, tools, and techniques across the organization is helpful in gaining credibility and confidence in achieving your organization’s preferred cultural norms.