Denison Organizational Culture Survey Coming Tomorrow: A 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. 

Our Heartland AEA culture is important to us, and even though we are in a pandemic, we continue to want to ensure our agency has a strong culture. We know we have modified the way we do things in response to the pandemic, but surveying you about our practices provides us with a good data source for how our agency is performing.  

Is it possible to shape our culture (the way we do things around here)?  

Absolutely! At Heartland AEA, we’ve been intentional about creating and monitoring a high-performance work culture.  

In the spring of 2012, our agency began administering the Denison Organizational Culture Survey using a stratified sample of staff, and the last time we administered the survey in 2019, all staff were able to provide input on the survey. 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. This brief video provides more information about creating a high-performing culture by using the Denison Model. 

For some of you, the Denison Survey will be new, and for some of you, it will be very familiar. We’re proud of the high percentage of staff participation we’ve had in the past, and we look forward to that kind of engagement in this year’s survey.  

What’s next for you?  

It’s time to update our culture survey results once again.   

• The survey is scheduled to launch tomorrow, March 30 and will close on April 17, 2021. 
 
• All staff will receive an email with a link to the survey. This link will take you to a survey website that has been specifically designed for Heartland AEA. Please be as honest as possible when completing the survey. Your responses are completely confidential and cannot be tracked. 
 

What’s in it for you?  

We are glad to be able to provide all staff with the opportunity to complete the survey. By completing the survey, you will ensure that your voice is heard along with your colleagues about the way we do things at Heartland AEA. This input has and will continue to be very important as we look for themes and points of leverage for advantage in areas such as the impact of our services, our professional relationships and our continuous improvement. We hope each and every one of you will take the time to complete the Denison Survey and provide your input.  

Thank you in advance for your time and feedback!