Is your organisation able to adapt fast enough to changing customer demands and economic conditions?

Do you wish you were more innovative and your teams more co-operative?

Every organisation has opportunity for improvement here. I suspect many who need to improve are wrongly resigned to the fact that change is too hard and painful.

I had coffee this month with a man whose story is proof that there are tools to help organisations make sustained efficiency and productivity improvements. That man is Todd Saunders, Sanitarium’s General Manager Australia and the tool is Human Synergistics.

Todd was a speaker at the 16th Australian Conference on Culture and Leadership held in Sydney in September. Each year the Forsythes Recruitment team invite clients to this event to hear how other organisations are using Human Synergistics’ tools. We also provide regular free seminars on Human Synergistics.

Todd credits the health food company’s ability to get gluten-free Weet Bix on the shelves of supermarkets just six months after it came up with the idea to changes made to culture and leadership. The full story is told well in this article in the Australian Financial Review. Todd is frank that his very old company was dogged with risk aversion and silos that meant until it started using Human Synergistics, a product launch would take years not months.

Over coffee Todd and I agreed that his experience matches mine. Organisations typically use process improvement, utilise new technology and outsource to create productivity and efficiency gains. They often don’t think about culture and team functioning while implementing these changes.

A common denominator for improved efficiency and productivity for most Hunter businesses is still people and culture. Cultural and individual change is crucial. Understanding and defining culture is important but you then need tools to help determine if you are achieving that culture. If your culture is not right, you need to change the behaviour of your people.

Human Synergistics was developed in the United States in the 1970s and is now used around the world. Sanitarium is one of a long list of major organisations using Human Synergistics with great success. The system combines a measurement tool (diagnostic) and consultancy (coaching). It is designed to help individuals, teams and organisations to become more constructive, where leaders provide leadership and individuals see that their personal effort counts.

One of the difficult areas of cultural change is the measurement of human behaviour. The tool includes a 360 degree survey of individuals to give you an important baseline measure.  You can then set goals around the change you want to achieve, linked to business outcomes, and be coached to achieve these goals.  A circumplex is used as a graphical representation that measures 12 distinct cultural styles within an organisation. The general goal is to move your business from a culture dominated by the aggressive/defensive (red) and passive/defensive (green) elements to one dominated by the constructive (blue) style elements (see diagram).

Human Synergistics is particularly relevant in these times of change and restructuring. It is extremely useful during mergers and acquisitions where different cultures and teams are being brought together.  Some organisations use it for specific departments that are not working effectively.

If you’d like to find out more about Human Synergistics please contact me (my details are below)