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| The Client Perspective |
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NASA: Shifting Gears (and Culture) in Space Amidst
everything going on in the Universe currently, why
is culture top of mind at NASA? 2010 marks the end
of the Space Shuttle program and a decades-long
focus on the safe launching and return of these
unique spacecraft. Their new directive is to go
back to the moon, then Mars and beyond, finding
new ways to sustain human life for extended
periods of time in space. With this new directive
comes the “Constellation Program” – a program that
will rely on a new generation of technology and
equipment for space exploration.
The Marshall Space Flight Center (Marshall) in
Huntsville, Alabama, is one of the 10 key NASA space centers playing a
pivotal role in this new mission. Marshall’s role in Constellation is to
design and develop the propulsion systems that will take us into the next
phase of space exploration as well as those systems that will help support
life in these unique environments. Specifically, Marshall is responsible for
the development of the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares V cargo
launch vehicle, both essential vehicles for space exploration. They are also
responsible for developing the propulsion and life support elements for the
Altair lunar lander.
Changing Directions
During NASA’s transition period over the next few years, one of their
biggest challenges and top priorities is to safely complete the Space
Shuttle program and assembly of the International Space Station, while at
the same time retooling and developing the new systems for the Constellation
program. “In terms of value disciplines, organizations are usually seen as a
product innovator, a customer service leader or an operations leader, a
Google vs. a Nordstroms vs. a FedEx – we have to maintain all three
disciplines and within a regulatory environment since our customers are the
citizens of the United States and Congress – the task is huge,” comments Dr.
Jim Andrews, Manager of Organization and Leadership Development at Marshall.
This is the most dramatic shift in Mission NASA and
Marshall have experienced since the shift from the Apollo Program to the
Space Shuttle Program over 30 years ago. It is a tremendous opportunity for
the organization to focus on creative and innovative new research. It
includes vast changes not only to the facilities, tools and processes in
place in the organization, but more significantly to the skill sets and
mindset of the people who will bring the mission to life. Organizational
culture has been a keen area of concentration at Marshall as they make this
transition. To help them better understand their current culture and how
best to prepare Marshall for this exciting new challenge, they’ve turned to
Denison Consulting and the Denison Organizational Culture Survey. According
to Andrews, “The Denison model and survey offer us an opportunity to
benchmark our culture against one of the most robust databases in the
world.”
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To read the rest of the story, access the
Client Perspective: “NASA: Shifting Gears (and Culture) in Space”. We
also had the honor of hosting Dr. Jim Andrews on our recent webinar
broadcast. To watch the presentation, access the
archived webinar now! |
| If you have a best practice story to tell, we may be able to feature it in an upcoming Denison Newsletter. Contact Karen Luce for details. |
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| Denison Consulting Network |
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Nexum: Partnering to Enable Organizations for
Success in Europe
 Nexum,
with offices in Brussels, Paris and a new office
in Lausanne, Switzerland, was created out of
passion. Passion and conviction for helping
mobilize the whole organization to improve
performance. Having worked for large
organizations,
Luc DeJaeger founder of Nexum, understands
that creating the strategy and putting it on paper
is the easy part, the heavy lifting comes with
implementation. “You can easily create a strategy
or a marketing plan with a couple of good people
in an organization, the difficult thing is to get
the rest of the organization aligned, motivated
and with the right skills to implement that
strategy,” says DeJaeger.
Nexum strives to help organizations by shaping high
performance cultures, developing high-impact leaders, building individual
competencies and skills, and empowering high-energy teams. Nexum’s goal is
to enable people within the organizations they work with to create the
changes that improve their day-to-day lives in the workplace. Their core
philosophy is to develop the organization to commit to and enact change from
within rather than be dependent on outside help.
With 19 consultants and associates in
three countries, Nexum leverages the strong business backgrounds of its team
to really understand the strategic issues within an organization. This
allows them to serve clients based on first hand knowledge and experience
gained from the field. Using the Denison model and surveys in their work has
proven effective in their engagements. “Change is the norm for
organizations,” comments DeJaeger, “You need to change the direction of your
organization often and you need to engage the whole organization. That’s the
key step that’s often forgotten. The Denison model helps us create the
burning platform and create a sense of urgency within an organization to
mobilize them and create change.”
Nexum works with organizations across
Europe to help them increase the commitment and contribution of their
employees and achieve superior business results. Their newest office in
Lausanne, Switzerland this year will host an opening event focusing on
culture change and change management. Dan Denison, CEO and Founding Partner
of Denison Consulting will present the keynote address at the event
September 17th. For more details visit the Nexum's website:
http://www.nexum.eu. |
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| Research & Publications |
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 You’ve
heard the adage, “more color is better,” when receiving your Denison
Organizational Culture Survey results, but that only tells half the story:
balance is equally important. New research by Dr. Aaron Schmidt of the University of Akron and the Denison researchers reveals that if the ONLY color on
your report is yellow (Consistency) you might be in trouble. The Society for
Industrial and Organizational Psychology awarded Denison researchers a grant
to explore how the different traits of the Denison model interact with each
other to predict organizational effectiveness. This study suggests that
scoring high on Consistency can have a negative impact on organizational
performance when scores on the other traits are low. Yet, when scores on the
other traits are high – consistent organizations perform well. To find out
why, access:
The
Consistency Trait: Can Organizations Have Too Much of a Good Thing?
At Denison, we are
continuously working on new products to support
our core diagnostic survey tools so that we can
help to ensure your organization's success. To
this end, our research department is working to
develop a series of question modules that
supplement the information gained from the Denison
Organizational Culture Survey in areas
such as Engagement, Innovation, and Diversity.
Engagement, our first module, was developed out of customer input and many organizations
have taken the opportunity to add these questions to their survey. This
module includes questions to gain insights from an individual's point of
view such as: “My work drives me to go the extra mile,” and “I am proud to
work for this organization.” The newly released Innovation module can help organizations
better understand their capacity for innovation. It includes questions such
as “Employees engage in constructive dialogue to generate new ideas” and
“People are encouraged to be creative.” Adding a module to your survey
project is not only a great way to gain value feedback on topics important
to your organization, but it can also be a great way to help you focus your
change initiative.
The Engagement and Innovation modules are currently
available to add to your upcoming Denison Organizational Culture Survey.
Additional modules, including a new Diversity module, will be available in
the coming months. Contact your Denison Client Manager for more information.
“Surveys of organizational behavior and employee opinion are widely used
in most companies, but organizations that use surveys with normative
databases can reap additional benefits from these efforts.” This is the
main thesis of a recent paper published by Denison Consulting researcher
Dr. Ashley Guidroz. In collaboration with colleagues from Bowling
Green State University, Dr. Guidroz proposes a three-phase model for
creating survey norms. The paper provides guidance to survey developers
who may want to develop norms for their own survey or end-users who want
to learn what features to look for when choosing a survey with a
normative benchmark. “Practical Considerations for Creating and Using
Organizational Survey Norms: Lessons from Two Long-Term Projects” can be
found in Issue 2, Volume 61 of
Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research
For more information contact Denison
TalkToUs@DenisonCulture.com |
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| Denison News & Notes |
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 We are excited to announce our partnership with
UK-based JSB to bring a one-day seminar, “Developing a High Performance
Culture,” September 30, 2009 in London, UK. Led by Bryan Adkins,
President of Denison Consulting, this seminar is designed for directors,
line managers, OD specialists and HR Professionals. Participants will learn
more about how to develop a high performance culture within their own
organizations.
JSB is a leading provider of in-house training,
consulting, coaching and facilitation and public events. They help
organizations shape the skills, behaviors, knowledge and working practices
of their people in meeting corporate objectives. They take a rigorous
approach to understanding what your organization wants to achieve – both in
terms of the learning and development of your people, and of your business
and organizational goals. They bring the same rigour in the design and
development of their high-impact, practical and engaging programs and
workshops. In the past 10 years alone, more than 10,000 people, from support
staff to HR professionals to business leaders, have attended their public
events. Their in-house service and consulting solutions remain an invaluable
source of learning and development for hundreds of organizations – in the UK
and internationally.
For more information or to
register for this event, visit their website
http://www.JSBonline.com. Specify "Denison Consulting" as your referral source at time of booking.
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Recently, Dan Denison joined a panel discussion
sponsored by the
Churchill Club, to discuss the extent to which individual leaders really
influence the bottom-line of an organization. Panelists at the "Executive Leadership and
Business Performance" event included Bill Campbell, Chairman of the Board of
Intuit,
Gordon K. Davidson, Chairman of
Fenwick & West, LLP, and
Kavin Stewart, Co-founder and CEO of LOLapps. "People make the place,"
comments Denison. "They create the organization. The people create the
technology. The people organize the funding. The people develop the markets.
At any one given point in time it's easy to forget that, but over the long
haul that's one of the most distinctive things that a company can do is
create a character or personality that's unique to that a company and
distinguishes itself from its competitors." Moderated by
Rebecca Turner, Professor of Organizational Psychology at
Alliant International University, this lively and spirited discussion
explored the psychology of executive leadership style and corporate culture
and their effects on organizational performance. You can watch this panel
discussion on
YouTube.
The Churchill Club is a leading forum for the
Silicon Valley business and technology community.
They are a non-profit organization supporting over
6000 members with dynamic programs featuring Silicon
Valley CEOs, up-and-coming executives and national
business leaders. |
 Denison researcher Ryan
Smerek, Ph.D. will present his new research on the relationship between
culture and performance at the
annual
Academy of Management meeting in a paper
session titled, “Portfolios, Industry
Evolution and Corporate Performance.” This
research, conducted with
Dan Denison, examines the extent to which
the volatility of an industry impacts the
culture to performance relationship. More
specifically, they used a sample of 137 public
companies in 30 industries to test whether
cultural flexibility more strongly relates to
performance in volatile industries than in
less volatile industries and whether cultural
stability more strongly relates to performance
in less volatile industries vs. volatile ones.
They found regardless of industry volatility,
the measures of cultural flexibility and
stability both have a positive effect on
shareholder value and return-on-assets.
The session will take place on Tuesday,
August 11, 2009 from 9:45 AM - 11:15 AM at the
Hyatt Regency Chicago in room: Skyway 261.
Our webinar series promises to be fast, fun, and friendly discussing issues relevant to your business right now.
August launches a series of webinars related to Mergers and Acquisitions.
In our August webinar, Mergers and Acquisitions Part I : How culture can make or break your M&A strategy
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 - 11am - 12pm EDT, join Bryan Adkins, President of Denison Consulting, as he shares some of the insights we’ve gained from our unique ‘cultural’ vantage point in the M&A integration process. Having a sound due diligence process and a thoughtful culture integration process will help an organization avoid the most common cause of M&A failure…the ‘culture clash.’ Denison Consulting has played a role in a number of mergers and acquisitions, including some of the biggest corporate marriages of the past two decades. We have learned that there are a number of activities that are critical to the culture integration process and we have developed a set of recommendations for addressing culture issues at various stages of M&A’s. In Part II (scheduled for September) we will continue the M&A conversation and share a specific case study and some lessons learned from the client perspective. Learn more about this webinar and register today! Check our Events page to access archived webinars and watch your inbox for invitations to all the events in our series!
Denison announces two more ways to stay connected: Our
Corporate Culture Blog
and Twitter. Check in for monthly blog postings at our new blog spot by visiting
http://corporateculture.wordpress.com. There you can read postings by Dan Denison and others on how culture affects everything from maximizing shareholder value to the role it plays in football team ownership.
You can also stay connected by following us on
Twitter. Be the first to get updates on our upcoming events by following us at
http://www.twitter.com/denisonculture. |
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As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions. If you have a
comment or question about this newsletter, or would like to suggest a story for a
future newsletter, please contact Karen Luce.
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The last race of the season will be:
