This course is designed to help create and maintain a sustainable organisational culture.

“Why should I care about future generations? What have they ever done for me?” – attributed to acting icon Woody Allan.

The notion of sustainability has been with us for some time. Management thinkers such as Drucker, Deming, Handy, Weisbord, McGregor, Senge, Pratt and many others have written great works on this topic.

The need for humans to seek ways to make our lives, our institutions and our planet sustainable for future generations is paramount, and the role of the organisation in achieving sustainability is crucial.

It is time now to make sustainability a serious focus in organisations. At the very least the notion of sustainability must be supported, reinforced, rewarded and, above all, measured.

Rationale
So what is the bottom line of creating and maintaining a sustainable organisational culture?

In fact there are three bottom lines. Steven Covey urged us to think win/win, however having a sustainable organisational culture is about win/win/win.

  • It is good for the individual, particularly for those who believe that human beings are on a lifelong quest for meaning.
  • It is good for the organisation. We know that when people are engaged, they will strive to be more productive and aligned to the achievement of the vision, mission and values of the organisation (meaning and purpose).
  • It is good for society. The more organisations pursue improvements in their culture by becoming more socially responsible, the more they will contribute to sustainability for current and future generations.

Measuring sustainability

By sustainability, we simply mean leaving the place better than you found it – any place! So for organisations to measure such seemingly esoteric notions of sustainability, meaning and purpose they will need a quantifiable mechanism. The sustainable organisational culture survey attempts to do that. It is time to put the lofty ideals of the vision, mission and values of the organisation to the test.
Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall (Spiritual Capital) have compiled a list of eight issues that organisations need to address and twelve behaviours to develop in order to attain sustainability. With their permission, these factors can be used to measure an organisation’s culture and the contribution of individuals to that culture.
The sustainable organisational culture survey is in two parts:
  • Measuring the culture of the organisation
  • Measuring the contribution made by the key people in the organisation towards the achievement of a sustainable culture.
It is recommended that the sustainable organisational culture survey is conducted annually and that the results are incorporated into the organisation’s performance management system and the reward and recognition system.
Contact Leadership At Work for more information about the survey