Power of Organizational Culture

In our Stanford Advanced Project Management (SAPM) program we focus on the significance of culture in executing strategy through project-based work.  Jon Katzenbach has studied organizational culture throughout his career and leads The Katzenbach Center at Booz & Company. They have an excellent presentation with downloadable PDF on evolving organizational culture. Some key learnings from them include:

• culture correlates with business performance
• culture, strategy, and operating model must be in sync (see the IPS Strategic Execution Framework (SEF) Model)
• existing culture can be a powerful source of energy
• change behaviors, not mindsets
• focus a few key behaviors
• don't change culture if you don't need to
• use both rational and emotional forces for reinforcing new behavior patterns
• use formal and informal approaches