The two most important forces in generating effective leadership are executive values and organization culture. Tartan Consulting created a process for analyzing and measuring key factors of an organization’s culture. These factors include:

 

Organization culture can be compared to the human brain. The brain’s evolution originates in the cerebellum, where motor skills are located. The organization’s cerebellum holds the visible, basic elements: Core operations, organization structure, supply chain, and formal rules, standards, and regulations.

 

The cerebrum gives us our first peek at the organization’s culture. The cerebrum consolidates and categorizes information. The cerebrum is divided in half with a gap down the middle. The left cerebrum stores and organizes data, logic, and facts, driving practical, tactical thinking. The right side of the brain manages abstracts, concepts, and innovation, driving long term thinking.

 

The “left cerebrum” is the home to the more formal, operational portion of the organization. While, the more informal, strategic components of the organization’s culture reside in the “right cerebrum”.

 

Continuing with the culture-as-brain analogy, there is a gap between the two halves that must be bridged in order for the brain to work effectively. The brain spans this gap with a series of fibers (corpus callosum). The gap in organization culture is linked through a series of administrative processes, ie, performance management, conflict resolution, and rewards.

 

In the last portion of the brain’s evolution is the frontal lobe. This where all the pieces come together and decisions are made. Culturally, this is leadership. The cultural frontal lobe is complex, as is leadership. Leaders come to decisions by consciously or unconsciously factoring in the organizations mission, vision, and values. 

 

Tartan Consulting’s Culture Assessment© is designed to identify functional and dysfunctional areas of the cultural brain. This requires a coordinated evaluation of organizational strategies and processes, along with leadership values and behaviors.