Culture Hack Deck

7/26/2019 Culture Hack Deck

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CULTURE

HACKINGTHE AGENCYSARAH HERNANDEZ

& RYAN BAUM


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Up until this point, The Agency has done anexcellent job of defining itself externally. Itspurpose, focus and unique value propositionare clear to clients and team members, butthe driving reasons are still unclear to many.

BUT WHY?

Is the primary goal to generate revenue, or toprovide an immersive experience for the stu-dents who work here? Do we have values asan agency that our team needs to live by? Ifso, what are they? Which ones are we fallingshort on?

These are all questions that need answers be-

fore our team can be on the same page.

START WITH WHY

Simon Sinek asserted in a now-famous TEDtalk that the most iconic companies start withwhy they do things, before moving to howthey do things and what those things are. Forexample, Apple doesnt just sell computers,it sells an idea: Think Different. This is a mes-sage that is felt through every product Apple

sells and it unites consumers behind a singleidea that drives them to make decisions.

UNITING THE TWO

We can unite our what with our why byexamining our how: We provide the best mil-lennial insights in the business because theycome straight from millennials themselves

Millennials Engaging Millennials. Well need tokeep the how in mind as we search for thewhy.

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IDENTITY CRISIS

The Agency knows what its up to its anagency built by and for millennials but asit rapidly grows and builds speed, it hasntfound the time to truly reveal its own core val-ues and purpose or the space to instill thesevalues in an authentic and cohesive way.

SYMPTOMS OF THE LARGER ISSUE

There are several other problems that current-ly seem unrelated, but which are symptoms ofthe larger issue. This includes a feeling amongstudents that The Agencys team lacks anoverall unity. These students feel that there isa clique issue in The Agency, as well as favor-itism among some students based on their

project load. Other students feel bored or un-fulfilled with their current workload, becausethey dont see how their work is important toThe Agency or tied to a higher purpose.

ADJACENT ISSUE

The Agency also has an incredibly unique is-sue specific to its team: the constant turnoverof students created by graduation and otherattrition. We want to make sure The Agen-cys core values are ones that survive and arelived through each new class of Agency teammembers, which will also help curb some of

the symptoms of the larger issue.

ISSUE AT HAND

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WHERE WE ARE & WHERE WE WANT TO BE

We want to work with Agency team membersto reveal barriers and motivations at play with-in the work environment - We want to under-stand who and what factors motivate teammembers to work at their best and how thiscan be replicated throughout agency classes.

Once we have a clear idea of where were at,well have a good idea of where we need to goand how we can help The Agency get there.

INSIDE OUT NOT OUTSIDE IN

We want to help The Agency reveal its corevalues - look from the inside out and not theoutside in. The idea is that The Agency already

possesses everyday practices and attitudes,were just helping them extract and identifythese attitudes to help them better commu-nicate them to future clients and team mem-bers.

We also want to make sure that this practiceis acted out the same way The Agency wascreated - by and for its millennial staffersand audiences. The aim is to collaborate withAgency management and influencers to buildsystems that can be operated without us. Wearent just delivering a situational analysis, wewant to deliver a sustainable culture.

EVALUATION

Last step is measurement. Were aiming tocreate real, long-term behavioral changes,but to make sure its actually getting done,we need to set metrics from start to finish tomeasure along the way. Culture is tricky tomeasure, so evaluation needs to be at thecenter of each and every effort for a full-proof

culture plan.

APPROACH

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TOOLS

Were going to be using some good ol fash-ioned primary research to measure initial atti-tudes towards The Agencys perceived culturefor a situational analysis.

This involves conducting an agency-wide sur-vey and interviews with management, exam-

ple-setters and new staffers to figure out howcurrent Agency veterans perceive the repu-tation theyve been dishing out and whetheror not these attitudes align with what new orpotential staffers pick up.

We will also utilize focus groups, which shouldbe strategically segmented to find trendsamong subgroups. We suggest 10 focus

groups, each representative outside of thecharacteristic being grouped: first-year stu-dents, second-year students, third-year stu-dents, Catalyst students, Connector students,Creator students, Strategist students, Adminstudents, and two focus groups that are rep-resentative of The Agency as a whole.

INCLUSIVE RESULTS

The insight phase should be open to each andevery staffer in The Agencys five pillars. Thebest activation ideas emerge when we tapinto everyones different ways of ideation, andwe want all the insight we can get to createthe kind of sustainable, social environmentalchanges we want to see.

INSIGHTS

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SURVEY

37 team members responded to a survey sentout to The Agencys 85 staffers to gage initialinsight into the agencys currently perceivedculture. Only 11 respondents claimed theywere 100% satisfied with the agencys com-pany culture its our goal to see that kind ofresponse across the board.

RESULTS

Here are some elements of The Agencysculture staffers liked:

+

Openness+ Collaboration

+ Comfortable / Relaxed

Here are some elements staffers didnt like:+ Cliquiness / Unwelcoming

+ Uneven distribution of work+ Unorganized deadlines+

Lack of transparency

CRITIQUES

Critiques generally centered around the sameissue: Some newer team members tend to notfeel included because of pre-existing groupsof friends within the agency that can comeoff as exclusive and unwelcoming. Studentsclaim there arent enough opportunities toengage with other team members, making it

hard to make friends - especially if they arentassigned to an account or across differentpillars.

Team members also claim that since theagency seems so wide and segmented, theyarent aware of whats happening across dif-ferent pillars or believe theres a lack of trans-parency on behalf of management.

MOVING FORWARD

We want to be replicating the shining stars the positive experiences of newer teammembers coming into The Agency makingsure were creating an inclusive and unifiedenvironment using team members ideas andrecommendations.

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CULTURE ACTIVATION

Were going to start off with a Culture Hackworkshop. The goal is to tap into everyones dif-ferent ways of thinking and let team membersof all backgrounds build off each others opin-ions to create organic solutions.

What this looks like: We bring together a work-shop of 10-15 staffers representative of man-

agement, student influencers and new staffersin one place for a huge ideas session.

After we identify initial insights into what teammembers see as The Agencys core values, wecreate groups around specific ideas, so theycan build upon what these core values look likeeveryday and long term.

First-step questions can include:+

What do we represent+ How does that look like?+ How doesnt that look like?

TRAINING

Culture training should have its first touch pointfor new members at the annual fall and springretreats. This should be reinforced by an in-depth culture workshop for new employees thathappens twice at the beginning of each semes-ter. When through a culture deck that is distrib-uted to all employees for reference

BUY IN & ROLE MODELING

Leadership of The Agency should be seen con-sistently and authentically modelling its values.Each and every move should be one that ad-vances The Agencys core beliefs and staffersshould be evaluated by their commitment toauthentically embodying each value. Both ap-pointed and organic leaders need to fully be-lieve in what The Agencys values are.

The reason for identifying, communicating andembodying a culture is to create a sense ofunity to help potential staffers understandwhat The Agency is about and to help TheAgency find potential staffers that are a goodfit. Millennials work best doing work they lovein an environment that inspires, and we wantAgency staffers to work at their best.

ACCOUNTABILITY

There needs to be regular reminders and ac-countability to change the culture and sustainthat progress. Once we determine our val-ues and define our culture, they should comethrough in every brief, meeting and presentationwe give they should be obvious, but not nec-essarily stated explicitly. In our employee evalu-ation system, we need to be evaluating for howwell employees embody these values.

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MEASUREMENT

Like we said earlier, measuring culture is alittle tricky. We recommend measuring teammember perceptions of how well The Agencysvalues are being embedded, plus actual teammember behavior, at the beginning, middleand end of this process. This involves settingsaims and metrics. To do that we need to figure

out what kinds of impact we want our cultureto have on the work The Agency produces.

Knowing what we do now, some metrics caninclude:+ Number of successful projects generated

by the end of each semester+ Measuring attitudes towards collaboration

and inclusion

+ Measuring the impact of appraisals,meetings, working patterns, etc. on workethic

FEEDBACK

To date, the only feedback The Agency hasreceived on the perception of its companyculture is via the single survey we referencedearlier... and only 44% of staff responded. Wewant a more representative pool of insights toinform our evaluation, which requires more in-depth forms of measurement.

Measurement should include agency-widedistributed surveys and in-depth, representa-tive focus groups each semester.

Questions we should be asking teammembers:+ How well do you think we embody our

company values as an agency?

+ How many times a month do you see yoursupervisor/director deliver something thatembodies our values?

+ What do you think you can do better as ateam member to embody our values?

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Culture Hack Deck

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