Culture‘Creating a culture that is aligned to our values’

Draft Blueprint Design v0.3

Project Manager: Sam OliverProject Champion: Liz Towns-Andrews

Culture

• Blame culture

• Lack of Direction

• Org structure not optimal – where are decisions made?

• Invisible leaders

• Decisions are not made or carried forward

• Opaque decision making frameworks

• Perceived unfairness is one of the greatest sources of dissatisfaction

• Poor communications

• Ineffective reward systems

• ‘Us and them’ attitude - culture work stream has highlighted that the same thoughts and feelings exist at all sites

• Staff taking responsibility and ownership

• Clear direction

• Clear structure and clear roles and responsibilities of Directors and boards

• Strong visible leaders

• Decisions are made and acted upon by all directors

• One set of policies and HR mechanisms for all staff at all sites

• Effective communications to receptive staff

• Effective reward systems and consequences for poor performance

• Proud to be part of STFC and recognise the strengths of other sites

PastWhat we had

PresentWhat we have

Future‘To be’

TO

DA

Y

Director interviews

Results of workstreamcommunicated

to staff

Staff workshops

Senior staff conference

Key Values defined and communicated

to staff

Online questionnaire

Management recognising and backing the issues raised within

this workstream

Powerful advertising of culture change

programme

Powerful Leadership of Culture Change

Programme

Symbolic action

• Many elements from the culture work stream overlap with other work streams. It’s imperative that these actions are picked up from this work stream and acted upon as a part of those projects.

• The three elements requires for implementing culture change are:

• Strong, charismatic leadership of changes

• Symbolic action

• Powerful advertising of changes and actions

• The main aim for the culture change implementation should be in close collaboration with other work streams, Leadership in particular, and also with the communications team to undertake and communicate / advertise the leadership of the proposed changes and subsequent actions effectively

Implementation

• Silo mentality, between sites and departments

• Leaderships behaviours• Apparent distrust between senior managers • Perceived distance of executive from coalface• Top-down controlling• Lack of visibility / confidence in management

• Lack of communication at all levels

• Negative attitudes prevail

• Lack of belief in STFC, still thinking CCLRC vs PPARC

• Decision making paralysis

• Change averse / continual change

• Blame culture / risk averse

• Gradeism

• Overwork

• Knowledge hoarding / lack of willingness to share information (i.e. use of central data repositories)

Behaviours which cause concern

Behaviours which should be encouraged and were deemed to make most difference were:

• Collaboration and knowledge sharing, both internally and externally

• Leaderships behaviours• Visibility, Leading by example• Transparent, open, trusting• Enthusiastic and nurturing

• Innovation and risk taking

• Responsibility, Ownership, Empowerment

• Belief in STFC

• Science and Technology Success

Behaviours to reward

Staff were asked to articulate their 1 wish for STFC

Key responses to this question were:• A strategy and Vision• Collaborative working across sites• A stronger reputation• Stability and security• Empowerment of senior / middle management staff• Access for all staff to all sites, (site passes, IT)• De-merged – previous orgs were great

Also, STFC should feel….• Dynamic and exciting• Valuable, Unified and Proud• Friendly and Can-do

One wish for STFC

Why do you continue to work for STFC?

• At staff workshops, all staff were asked completely confidentially to answer the question “Why do you continue to work for STFC”.

• The most common answers were the same for all sites:

1. For the love of science; it makes my job more interesting2. For the benefits and flexibility; pension, salary and job stability, flexi-time, working

conditions3. For the people; valued colleagues, like minded intelligent people4. For the challenge; being a specialist, this is hard to come by

Other comments:• Don’t want to work for STFC but current economic climate means there aren’t many other

jobs.• Too specialist in my area to work anywhere else / no one else will have me• Local • Frightened of change

STFC as an animal currently

GIRAFFEHead a long way from

its body

OSTRICHBuries its head

in the sand

OCTOPUSTentacles everywhere,

thrashing around

HEADLESS CHICKENLacking direction and

slowly dying

HYDRAFighting itself, many heads going in different directions (also PUSH ME PULL YOU)

CAMELHorse designed by

committee

ELEPHANTSlow moving, thick skinned, never forgets, endangered

At each event staff were asked to describe STFC as they currently see it as an animal, as well as an animal that they would like it to be. This raises the following questions:

Are we involved in too many competing things / diverse?

Are we slow to respond and thick-skinned?

Is our head a long way from our body?

Are we endangered / dying?

• There is lots of loyalty and pride in what we do. People like working for their part of the organisation but not necessarily for STFC

• Staff like terms and conditions in general – especially flexi

• Decisions are opaque and made mostly at top level

• Senior managers are reported as being invisible - distant from everyone else and physically located on a different site (all sites reported this).

• Lots of directors but a lack of direction

• All sites also reported that generally ‘power’ is also at a different site and difference in policies which were / are in place since the merger have created a feeling of ‘us and them,’ with ‘them’ having it better, regardless of site

• There are concerns about the efficacy of our reward systems and finance management system, and about how we choose and allocate projects and also jobs

• We pride ourselves on our service to users

• STFC is described as:

The overall ‘as is’ picture

• Parochial• Gradist and practising favouritism• Non collaborative / silo mentality• Resistant to change• Still two organisations

STFC as an animal – ‘to be’

ANT COLONYWorking to a common goal,

differentiated

CHEETAHFastest in the world, slick,

adaptable

OWLOld, wise, effective,

big eyes

PANTHERLarge, agile, resilient

EAGLESees the bigger picture, soaring

above

• STFC is aligned to a clear vision• The key embedded values that influence staff behaviour are:

• taking responsibility

• taking ownership

• CEO and Directors have a responsibility to show clear, strong leadership and this is reciprocated by staff with behaviour that is underpinned by the above values. Behaviour that does not reflect these values (e.g. aggressive, impolite or inappropriate behaviour) is not tolerated and will be challenged.

• Senior management are visible & approachable, inspire trust and respect, and work as an effective cross site team

• STFC has a clear and balanced structure, with obvious constituent units and all staff are aware of which ones have governance and where to go for a decision.

• What is a Director? This is clearly defined and Directors’ roles and responsibilities on committees / boards, particularly with respect to decision making, are clear to all.

• STFC will be flexible and able to manage change with up front planning and post review.

• Delegate more important decisions (empower stifled middle managers) and give transparent explanations about why key decisions are made. Visible accountability and a higher profile for risk management will be introduced.

The ‘to be’ picture

• Up and coming staff are attracted to STFC, to stay and to excel. Career progression is possible and talent is recognised.

• The tangible actions of valuing staff are universally known. Managers give praise & thanks, achievements are published, person are known and respected

• All sites are equal• STFC is one unified and excellent organisation, with an excellent website and brand(s).• One staff pass that lets us into all sites and excellent videoconferencing which enables

cross-site meeting of people• There are no ‘gradist’ symbols like bosses car park spaces or the use of ‘bands’ in our

language. Practices and terms are common to all staff. • STFC is flexible and has a culture of excellent change management (less knee-jerk and

more up front planning and post review of exercises).• Practice of CRISTAL is embedded and expected everywhere and is rewarded when

done well• STFC is renowned for its customer service management and continued professionalism.• Knowledge is shared and effective

knowledge management is standard practice.

The ‘to be’ picture

• Sort & publish organisational structure, job titles [Organisational Structure]

• Tie in impact on culture/culture change of leadership behaviours & senior group acting as one effective team, [Leadership]

• Prevailing veto power. Even if a decision is reached it can be ignored by some individuals and isn’t carried forward [Core Processes + Leadership]

• Increase delegation to middle managers and raise profile/influence of risk management [Core Processes]

• Improve planning and review of change [Change Capability]

• Finance systems embody and perpetuate our being ‘many-legged girelephant with its head in the sand’ [Financial Model]

• In planning the way ahead, account for the influence over culture of our reward system, align any new design to help create desired culture [Performance Management]

• Reward good people managers [Performance Management]

Blueprint workstream interfaces