Author – Kirsty Bashforth

Book discussed – 14 July 2020

Review by – Mae Keary

In this practical guide, Kirsty Bashforth defines culture as being the amassed behaviour of people around a similar core set of values and beliefs.  From this base she applies it to organizations in the form of a culture shift or doing things differently.

To embed a cultural shift in an organization takes time, but it is critical for the long term health of a business.  Recognising what it is and how to go about putting it into place is the main thrust of this book.

It is structured into four working chapters:

Part 1 describes how to properly recognise what your culture is, in order to give it due consideration as part of performance.  Additionally, it looks at how to align your culture to underpin the delivery of your business purpose and strategy.

Part 2 deals with “setting it up”.  The importance of everyone being on the same page around the overall task, starting with a common view of the issue.  Basically, it is working out the requirements to carry out the project.

Part 3 examines the intrinsic needs of today’s situation, with a detailed look of the internal structure, to understand what you have and gathering the necessary data.  Analysing the resulting data and creating a valuable resource for putting into place the desired culture the organization needs is described in Part 4.

For those about to embark on managing the culture of their organization, this handbook is a practical tool that contains a mix of personal experience and hard advice.