Denison Organizational Culture Survey Coming Next Week: Another Chance for You to Provide Input on Our Agency Culture

At Heartland AEA, we define culture as “the way we do things around here.” It’s about our collective behaviors that are driven by our individual assumptions and beliefs. This matters because our collective behaviors lead to our results. Culture is often confused with climate, which is “the way we feel about the way we do things around here.” Obviously, both culture and climate are important. 

Is it possible to shape our culture (the way we do things around here)? 
Absolutely! And we have been actively working to shape our culture over the past several years. In the spring of 2012, 2013 and 2014, our agency administered the Denison Organizational Culture Survey to a stratified sample of our staff, and in 2016 and 2017 and 2018, the survey was administered to all agency staff. The Denison Survey is designed to assess an organization’s strengths and weaknesses as they apply to organizational performance. In past years we’ve also included various modules in the survey including those that measure trust, commitment and consistency. Dan Denison, author of the Denison Survey, offers this brief video about the culture model. 

What do we know about our results? 
Over the years we’ve administered the Denison Survey, our agency saw what the Denison consultants call “textbook progress.” In other words, our efforts have impacted our assumptions, beliefs and behaviors (the way we do things around here), which in turn is reflected in more positive survey results. This was made possible by our collective input, suggestions and actions. 

What’s next for you? 
It’s time to update our culture survey results once again. 

• The full Denison survey will be administered in even-numbered years, and a portion of the survey that measures specific traits from the Denison circumplex will be administered in odd-numbered years. This schedule was put in place to continue to monitor our culture indicators over time. 
• Three years ago, after analyzing all survey data, APC selected the consistency trait as an area of focus, as scores in that area were lower than scores in the other three areas. 
• As we continue to work toward greater consistency across the Agency, the Consistency module of the Survey will be offered to all staff. 
• The survey is scheduled to launch on April 22 and will close on May 10, 2019.