Agile culture

Agile methods work. If your corporate culture allows it.

Agile culture

Companies that want to benefit from the advantages of agile methods often find that their corporate culture is at odds with agile values. Often, the cultural change is initially limited to the mere presence of the usual suspect artifacts: a foosball table, often a Kanban board in a colorful environment, decorated with many colorful post-items. We all experience such a different environment on a regular basis at the moment, and it radiates a different, more pleasant atmosphere. However, in order to achieve more creative collaboration, a faster time to market, better product quality, lower risk or greater transparency, it is not enough to change the working environment, “prescribe” design thinking or scrum processes to employees. The basis for the use of agile frameworks or methods is an agile corporate culture that keeps the purpose, the “what for?” in mind. The question of meaning should be asked again and again. Otherwise, an “agile transformation” will remain the famous “next pig to be driven through the village”. The organizational culture must be shaped and challenged in order to accept the new approaches and agile ways of thinking. Managers and teams must be supported in order to truly live agility. The agile transformation will only succeed if companies and employees are ready for the new, are guided by shared values and have a strong inner foundation. The corporate culture acts as a compass pointing the way. But how does a company capture its own culture and – more importantly – how does it change it? We will help you to find out.

Agile Kultur

What constitutes corporate culture and how it manifests itself.

Defining corporate culture is no easy task. It can best be described as a network of beliefs and behaviors that is perceived and experienced by outsiders such as customers and partners as well as by a company’s employees. In principle, culture manifests itself in an organization in three ways: through visible behaviour and symbols (“artefacts”), through the values represented and through the organizational form. Behaviors and symbols provide a visible indication of what seems important to a company. These include routines and habits in dealing with each other, the design of the workplace, the dress code, status symbols such as company iPhones or the quality of the coffee machine. Today, the values practiced in a company are often made public, e.g. on a company’s website. They influence many areas of the organization and are reflected, among other things, in the understanding of leadership and the way it is practiced,
how official and unofficial communication takes place, in dealing with performance, mistakes and rules, or even in the character of the stories and legends that are spread within the company or about the company. Last but not least, the organizational form with its established structures and processes has a hidden impact on corporate culture. We will be happy to guide you through the analysis of your corporate culture with the right questions. And also help you to draw the right conclusions from the answers.

A helpful corporate culture is based on the We.

Unfortunately, most older, conservative companies have a rather paralyzing corporate culture: employees are encouraged to follow rules, maintain order, secure success for themselves and avoid mistakes. Senior management sets guidelines and at the same time acts as a supervisory body. In such a regimented environment, a person naturally feels controlled by others – and acts more out of necessity than motivation. The counter-design is a corporate culture in which employees feel that what they do is meaningful because they see themselves as belonging, have common goals and enjoy what they do. A culture that looks for positive solutions for everyone involved: For “we” solutions. We believe that we-solutions and we-oriented action are the basis of a positive, productive corporate culture. What’s more, we believe that We solutions, which we call Welutions, are the prerequisite for acting agilely and surviving in our Vuca world in the long term. Talk to us!
Agile Unternehmenskultur