What is Culture By Choice?

Culture By Choice is, and I hesitate to use this term, a consulting company. I hesitate to use the term consulting because we are different from what most people think of when they hear “consulting company.” We help our clients discover the best culture for what they are trying to accomplish. We pride ourselves in our ability to help our clients build dynamic teams by coaching their leaders, managers and employees to help everyone
achieve their fullest potential.

We realize that we must always focus on the people first. All the best systems, processes, strategies, tactics, and techniques will never help a company succeed if the people lack the capacity for success. Our most fundamental concept is that an organization’s culture will determine its opportunity for success and the culture is always a reflection of the people in the organization. To generate success means we must create a success culture and that can only happen when the people of the organization believe and behave in a way that promotes that business’s success.

Our efforts with our clients always begins by analyzing the existing culture. We do this through individual assessments, interviews, observations, questionnaires, and town-hall style meetings. Once we know what the existing culture is, we can help our clients visualize what they want their culture to be. In most cases, there is a discrepancy between what is desired and what is. This leads to a cultural development plan that focuses on a few critical behaviors at a time. These behaviors become company expectations for what members of the organization will and will not do. Failure to do what is expected or doing what will not be tolerated, whether intentional or not, means an individual cannot be part of the organization. Too often, many organizations are not crystal clear as to what these behaviors are. Culture By Choice helps it’s clients create that clarity.

Once we know what behaviors are desired, and we have an idea as to how much change will be required for key people to be able to implement these behaviors, we can create the support mechanisms that promote these behaviors and link them to business objectives. Just wanting everyone to behave in a certain way will not make it happen. There must be incentives for people to make the change. People will do what they are most comfortable doing unless there is a significant incentive for doing things differently. Even with incentives there will need to be an accountability system in place that holds everyone, even leadership, accountable for meeting expectations. It’s not about punishing those who fall short. It’s about figuring out what is needed to increase the chances for success.

Every organization also has informal leaders. Culture By Choice helps our clients identify who those informal leaders are and provides coaching to make sure that those leaders are working towards the same goals as the company. These informal leaders are too often a seriously underutilized asset for many companies. Success cultures nurture and encourage these leaders based on their own desires for growth and development. These informal leaders are frequently the people you will need to help manage the positive culture you create. When executive level leaders allow these informal leaders to hold them, the executive leadership, accountable for the same expectations placed on everyone else, the pace of positive change accelerates. Once this cultural transformation begins, the mindsets of all team members begin to change in a very positive way.

Culture By Choice has been helping our clients create the culture they want for over 10 years. Our success is our best sales pitch. Spend some time with anyone we’ve worked with and you’ll see what developing a positive organizational culture can do. Feel free to message me if you’d like to learn more or if you’re interested in finding out how you can do what we do. I’m always interested in having a conversation about the possibilities.