The Conscious Culture Advantage

Culture is an organization's most competitive advantage. Most leaders want to create intentional conscious cultures that attract, retain and engage the best talent available, and yet, do not know where to start. This 50 page practical workbook provides a path to building YOUR unique culture and developing YOUR competitive edge. The definition of culture can feel nebulous. To some it is about foosball tables while to others it is about posting values on the wall and having quarterly all hands meetings. That is not culture. Only when you understand what culture is can you change it. Simply put, culture is the employee experience. It can be described, seen, observed and measured. It becomes a conscious culture when that experience matches the leadership's intentions. This practical step-by-step workbook provides leaders with the opportunity to build the bridge between the leader's intentions and the employee experience. The conscious culture model covers: Design - vision, mission, values, behaviors Listen - culture survey and plan Develop - conscious manager training, leadership development and HR system culture alignment Share - employment brand This practical step-by-step guide is ideal for all organizational leaders, HR professionals and anyone compelled to understand and influence organizational culture levers under the control and influence of the leadership team.

The simplest and most powerful way of understanding organizational culture is to see it through the lens of the employee experience. Culture is not created through a leadership dictum. If you are intending to create a culture where employees feel empowered, it is not enough to state it. The ultimate test of a value like empowerment in a conscious culture is to ask employees if they feel empowered. Leaders need to set the intention and then listen to employees so that improvements towards a conscious culture can occur. This practical easy to follow 50 page workbook walks you through the Conscious Culture Model providing you with practical systems and tools needed to influence the employee experience consciously and thoughtfully, over time, in the intended direction of the leadership team. Only three in 10 U.S. workers strongly agree that at work, their opinions seem to count. However, if an organization can move the ratio to six in 10 employees, they could realize a 27% reduction in turnover, a 40% reduction in safety incidents and a 12% increase in productivity (Gallop December, 2017). The leader's guide gives you methods to consciously create YOUR competitive advantage by building YOUR unique culture. Nearly 70 percent of business leaders agree that culture provides the greatest source of competitive advantage (Bain & Company). And … "A strong culture can help or hurt performance. Culture can account for up to half of the difference in operating profit between two organizations in the same business. Shaping a culture is one of the leader's most important jobs; it can be ignored, but only for so long and at one's peril." James Haskett from the Harvard Business School. What is the leaders most important job? To create a culture where employees are driven to execute the leader's vision. Culture is critical and impactful leadership work. The step-by-step workbook will help you influence the organizational system of culture. Examples of "unconscious" and "conscious" culture are provided so you can learn from others and not make the same mistakes. Too many organizations have made disastrous mistakes costing them in people and profits. The four stages of conscious culture are shared with practical examples of ways to shift from one stage to the next. Creating and building organizational culture is a journey. The Conscious Culture Model is described with useful actions you can take at each step. Topics and worksheets include vision, mission, values, conscious culture survey and plan, conscious manager training and leadership development, HR system alignment and employment branding. Examples of each step are provided so that you can apply what you are learning. Particularly important to HR professionals is the section on the impact HR systems have on culture. HR systems will override any intention and all buy in so it is critical to make sure the HR systems are aligned with the intended behaviors. The final section of the guide ties it all together and provides a readiness assessment. Achieving a conscious culture is possible with time and intention AND the 10 conscious culture levers are in the control and influence of the leadership team.. Having spent 32 years as a Human Resources practitioner, I understand and appreciate the importance of providing practical tools when implementing any kind of organizational change process. After following the step-by-step conscious culture process in the workbook, you will be more easily be able to build the culture bridge between the leadership's intention and the employee experience.

Russ Elliot, an expert on organizational culture, is the founder of the Conscious Culture Group, a consulting and executive coaching company that partners with forward-thinking organizations to identify and eliminate gaps between the leadership's vision of culture and the employee experience. Working closely with leaders, Russ creates organizational changes that build more effective and intentional cultures tied to increased engagement and performance. Russ brings his 32 years of HR practitioner experience to his consulting and coaching practice. While serving as a SVP HR Director, his organization was recognized as a Best Place to Work in Silicon Valley and nationally as one of the top 40 Best Banks to Work For. Russ, SPHR certified, is on the faculty of UC Berkeley extension, Global Institute of Leadership Development and Women in Leadership. Russ regularly speaks at conferences on culture and leadership and is interviewed as an HR/culture expert. Russ holds a BS in Business at SUNY and an MA in HR from University of Illinois.