Case Study
Creating change momentum with a culture audit
Northern Midlands Medical Services is a general medical practice that operates out of two locations, both in small regional towns fifteen minutes apart.
They have around thirty team members. As the project commenced, the Practice Manager was acting in the role. She moved in the role permanently during the project.
Northern Midlands Medical Services is a general medical practice that operates out of two locations, both in small regional towns fifteen minutes apart.
They have around thirty team members. As the project commenced, the Practice Manager was acting in the role. She moved in the role permanently during the project.
*Client comments are shown in italics
Our culture wasn’t great. I was the manager previously, but had left the practice for five years. When I came back, the tension was immense. You could feel it as soon as you walked into the building.
We had a lot of conflicts within some teams and also between teams, although some people thought everything was fine. The teams were not working well together. This was the core problem. There were interpersonal issues, personal conflicts, and personality clashes.
*Client comments are shown in italics
Initial discussions focused on the administration team and helping them work together more effectively. It became clear that the broader culture was impacting the admin team and playing a significant role in the issues they were having. The objectives evolved to encompass broader cultural awareness and change.
I wanted the admin team to feel strong enough and confident enough to confront issues. We have lots of strong personalities and I wanted admin to feel empowered, supported and safe to say something.
*Client comments are shown in italics
We saw Simon deliver a keynote presentation and decided we needed to reach out to change things.
After recognising the broader cultural context, we worked with the Practice Manager to implement our proprietary culture change framework, Authenticity. That began with a culture audit that measured the current culture and identified what was preventing improvement.
Critically, every team member had the opportunity to have their say, both through the culture audit and in confidential one-on-one discussions.
We involved the whole practice, instead of band aid fixing certain teams and people. Everyone was involved in it, everyone had to play a role. It was really hard at the start. Some people said, ‘why bother, nothing will ever change.’
When we presented the data to a group meeting “warts and all”, people started seeing and believing things could and would change. When Simon met with the staff one on one, that built trust and was absolutely brilliant. The opportunity with everyone so they could be honest and voice their concerns and feel heard made it feel real for them. Action was happening.
The OCI (culture audit tool we used) was so good, easy to understand, and presented in a way that made sense. There was full transparency in the process. Everyone saw the same report. We agreed to show everyone the full report, and people realised we would not be hiding anything. Team members saw what the Directors saw, which increased the engagement.
Following the culture audit, we:
- Identified specific measures that would lead to cultural improvement
- Project planned and prioritised those that would have the most significant impact
- Supported the Practice Manager and principals as they implemented several projects internally
- Provided leadership development, coaching and facilitation
- Surveyed the team to identify values that define the ideal culture they want to work in
- Launched and helped embed those values in everyday behaviours and workplace systems and processes
*Client comments are shown in italics
It was brilliant, it has given us our values which are just amazing. I have seen team members living the values. They are giving them frameworks for handling situations better and holding other staff members accountable. I never thought I would see this happen. I can see the change, and I can see the growth. I can see language changing and differences in the way people frame conversations and handle situations.
By doing what we did with The Real Learning Experience it has enabled people to speak up with courage. We speak to people, not about people. The team values workshop was amazing for embedding the learning, and the flow on from that was amazing.
The OCI gave us so much direction of where we needed to work towards, in bite-sized pieces with the projects.
The leadership program has given me the tools and confidence to handle poor performing staff in a more accountable way