Author: Hugo Messer

The culture Map

Alexander Osterwalder recently created a new tool called 'the culture canvas'. The culture map is a good variant of the above canvas. The map is made to design corporate culture. But it's generic enough to apply it to intercultural collaboration. It works like this:

Start by mapping behaviors: In this box you have to map out how your team acts or conducts itself within the company. What do you do or say? How do you interact? What patterns do you notice. Some examples: “although we are self organizing teams, not everybody takes up work equally” or “not everyone is openly saying 'no' if they don't understand something'.

Next, map your outcomes: What are the concrete positive or negative consequences because of the behavior you’ve mapped out? An example: the behavior of not taking up work autonomously by some team members leads to unproductive teams and sprint commitments are not made. Because not everyone is open about not understanding certain user stories, time is lost during the sprint for clarification. And often things are built that were not completely what the product owner had in mind.

Finish by mapping your enablers & blockers: This is where The Culture Map gets really interesting. In enablers and blockers you have to map out all of the things that lead to the positive or negative behaviors inside your company. What policies, actions, or rules are influencing employees behaviors, and ultimately influencing your company’s outcomes? Some examples of blockers: a poor bonus system or no budget for sticky notes. Some examples of enablers: smart management team or a well made metrics dashboard.

You can ask your team members to all fill this map individually and then discuss the results. Or you can do it as a facilitated group exercise (maybe hire Alexander?). Once you've mapped out all the 'negatives', you can start re-shaping the culture. You could come up with behaviors that will have the outcomes you're after. You could re-organize work, policies, salary systems, tools, etc that enable the behaviors you want, which result in the outcomes you're after.