Knowing your organization’s culture is essential. It molds your workplace’s values, attitudes, and behaviors and can significantly impact your team’s efficiency and overall success. In addition, identifying the predominant culture type can provide insights into your company’s strengths and potential areas for improvement. 

The four types of organizational cultures are:

Clan Culture: This is a people-oriented, highly collaborative work environment where everyone is valued and communication is prioritized. Clan cultures emphasize solid relationships and foster a sense of belonging. They promote open dialogue, teamwork, and mentorship opportunities.

Adhocracy Culture: This culture thrives on adaptability and innovation. It is an environment that promotes risk-taking, individuality, and creativity. Adhocracy cultures value flexibility and focus on converting innovative ideas into business growth and success.

Market Culture: This is a results-oriented work environment where success is measured by external factors rather than internal satisfaction. Market cultures are competitive and goal-driven, emphasizing meeting quotas, reaching targets, and achieving measurable outcomes. 

Hierarchy Culture: This traditional, risk-averse work environment values stability and uniformity. Hierarchy cultures prioritize following established rules and guidelines, minimizing adaptability and change. 

We’ve developed a questionnaire containing eight comprehensive questions to assess your organizational culture. These questions cover various aspects of your company’s values, communication style, approach to innovation, leadership dynamics, and response to change. Once you’ve completed the questionnaire and tallied your responses, you’ll be able to gain valuable insights into your company’s culture type.

1. How would you describe the communication style within your company?

   a) Open, frequent, and collaborative

   b) Informal and flexible

   c) Goal-oriented and focused on results

   d) Formal and structured

2. Does your company encourage mentorship and learning opportunities?

   a) Yes, mentorship programs are actively promoted

   b) There are some opportunities for mentorship, but not a strong focus

   c) Limited mentorship opportunities are available

   d) Mentorship is not a priority within the company

3. How does your company approach innovation and new ideas?

   a) Encourages and rewards risk-taking and creativity

   b) Values new ideas, but implementation is limited

   c) Innovation is not a top priority but is occasionally considered

   d) Innovation and new ideas are discouraged or ignored

4. What is the primary focus of your company’s culture?

   a) Building solid relationships and collaboration

   b) Driving innovation and breakthroughs

   c) Achieving market success and meeting targets

   d) Maintaining stability and following established processes

5. How would you describe your company’s hierarchy and decision-making level?

   a) Flat hierarchy, decisions are made collaboratively

   b) Some hierarchy, but decision-making is decentralized

   c) Clear hierarchy and decision-making authority

   d) Highly hierarchical with limited employee involvement in decision-making

6. How does your company respond to change and adaptability?

   a) Embraces change and encourages flexibility

   b) Adapts to change when necessary but prefers stability

   c) Resists change and prefers to maintain the status quo

   d) Change is rarely considered or implemented

7. What is the relationship between executives and employees in your company?

   a) Executives are accessible and engage with employees regularly

   b) Executives have some interaction with employees

   c) Limited interaction between executives and employees

   d) Executives are distant and have minimal contact with employees

8. How important is achieving internal satisfaction and employee well-being in your company?

   a) High priority, with emphasis on employee happiness and well-being

   b) Moderately significant, but external success takes precedence

   c) Not a significant focus. Results are the primary concern

   d) Not a priority. Employee well-being is primarily overlooked

How to Score and Interpret Your Results: 

For every question, assign points as follows:

• For each “a” response, give 4 points.
• For each “b” response, give 3 points.
• For each “c” response, give 2 points.
• Finally, for each “d” response, assign 1 point.

Add up your total score. The maximum score you can achieve is 32, and the minimum is 8. 

The higher your score, the more your company leans toward a Clan or Adhocracy Culture – focused on collaboration, innovation, and adaptability. Conversely, if your score is lower, your organization is more likely to align with a Market or Hierarchy Culture, focusing more on results, structure, and stability.

By understanding these four types of organizational cultures, you can better assess the present culture within your company and make informed decisions about whether you want to maintain or change it. In addition, this awareness will allow you to create an environment that best supports your organization’s goals, values, and team success.

Culture is the lifeblood of every organization. It sets the tone for how your employees work, interact, and contribute to your company’s success. When building a robust, resilient, and people-centric company culture, it might be surprising to learn that small interventions or ‘nudges’ can create meaningful change. This technique leverages behavioral economics and cognitive psychology to influence decisions subtly and encourage actions in the right direction.

The Power of Nudging

Nudging has shown effectiveness in various fields, from promoting healthy habits to environmental conservation. A famous example of nudging was Volkswagen’s “The Fun Theory” initiative, where a set of stairs was transformed into giant piano keys next to an escalator. The stairs-piano saw a 66% increase in usage over the escalator, proving that a fun and engaging nudge could encourage healthier choices.

Similarly, Copenhagen Airport introduced singing dustbins to encourage passengers to dispose of their trash correctly. These playful nudges were successful in significantly reducing littering in the airport.

Nudging in Action: The Home Depot’s Success Story

Even in a corporate setting, nudging has shown remarkable results. A prime example is The Home Depot’s leadership development strategy. The Home Depot faced a significant challenge in scaling its high-touch, highly customized “High-Potential Program” to its more extensive “New Director Program.” The success of the High-Potential Program was based on “action learning,” a method that facilitates behavior change through practice and habit-building. The high-touch coaching approach worked as a nudge, promoting active learning.

Michael Cabe, Senior Manager of Learning Strategy at The Home Depot, and his team used email nudges to deliver action learning directly to the learners’ inboxes to scale this approach. These nudges served three primary purposes: action learning delivery, reminders for mandatory work, and follow-ups after peer meetings.

By nudging new directors to engage with action learning, The Home Depot saw an increase in attendance at peer meetings and in-person sessions and significantly improved engagement with content and the quality of discussions in peer meetings. This success story underscores the potential of well-designed nudges in driving behavior change at scale.

Applying Nudging to Your Company Culture
According to Daniel Kahneman’s dual-process theory, nudging appeals to our intuitive, automatic thinking, subtly influencing our choices without consciously realizing it. Developing a successful nudging strategy requires deeply understanding your organization’s objectives, employees’ behaviors, and the overall work environment. As leaders, here are some questions you can ask yourselves to help formulate an effective nudging strategy:

1. What are our organizational objectives? Understanding your objectives, including a nudging strategy, is the first step in any strategy. The goals will guide the direction of your nudges.
2. What behaviors do we want to encourage or discourage? Identify the specific actions you want your employees to take or avoid. These could range from encouraging more sustainable behaviors (like using less paper) to promoting healthy habits (such as taking regular breaks from the computer).
3. What are the current behaviors? To design effective nudges, you need to understand the existing behavior patterns of your employees. Use surveys, observations, or data analysis to understand how things currently work in your organization.
4. What obstacles are preventing the desired behaviors? Once you know what you want to achieve and the status quo, identify the barriers that prevent your employees from behaving in the desired way. These could be a lack of knowledge, motivation, or structural barriers such as inconvenient processes.
5. Where and when can we best deliver the nudges? Timing and location are crucial for effective nudges. Consider the context in which your employees decide about the behavior you want to change.
6. How can we make the desired behavior the path of least resistance? Nudges work best when they make the desired behavior easy and frictionless.

By answering these questions, you’ll be well on your way to creating a nudging strategy that can positively influence behavior and contribute to a more productive, engaged, and positive company culture—nudging works by tapping into how our brains make decisions.

The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley is a classic self-help book that outlines the mindset necessary to achieve success in all areas of life. Although the book is primarily focused on personal achievement, the insights it offers can be applied to creating a strong company culture. 

Focus on the Positive

One of the main themes of The Psychology of Winning is the importance of focusing on the positive. According to Waitley, success is not just about achieving goals, but also about developing a positive attitude and mindset. In the workplace, this means creating a culture that celebrates successes and encourages employees to focus on what is going well rather than what is going wrong. This can be achieved through regular recognition and rewards for outstanding performance, as well as creating a culture of gratitude and appreciation.

Embrace Change

Another key principle of The Psychology of Winning is the importance of embracing change. Waitley argues that success requires a willingness to adapt and change course when necessary. This principle is particularly relevant in today’s rapidly changing business landscape, where companies must be agile and adaptable in order to survive. Creating a culture of innovation and experimentation can help foster this willingness to embrace change and help employees feel comfortable taking risks and trying new things.

Build Resilience

Resilience is another important characteristic outlined in The Psychology of Winning. According to Waitley, successful people are able to bounce back from setbacks and failures, and use these experiences as opportunities for growth and learning. In the workplace, building resilience means creating a culture that encourages risk-taking and experimentation, while also providing support and resources to help employees overcome obstacles and challenges.

Develop a Growth Mindset

The concept of a growth mindset, popularized by psychologist Carol Dweck, is also relevant to creating a strong company culture. A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication. This mindset is in contrast to a fixed mindset, which assumes that abilities are fixed and cannot be changed. Creating a culture of learning and development can help foster a growth mindset among employees, and encourage them to continuously improve their skills and abilities.

Foster a Sense of Purpose

Finally, The Psychology of Winning emphasizes the importance of having a sense of purpose in life. According to Waitley, successful people are driven by a sense of purpose and meaning, and are motivated by a desire to make a positive impact on the world. In the workplace, this means creating a culture that values and supports employees’ personal and professional goals, and aligning these goals with the company’s mission and values. This can help employees feel a sense of purpose and fulfillment in their work, and ultimately lead to a more engaged and motivated workforce.

By focusing on the positive, embracing change, building resilience, developing a growth mindset, and fostering a sense of purpose, your organization can create a culture that supports employee success and drives business results.

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