Culture & OD
Changing Culture
Unicorn will support you to create the culture you require.
We understand what your people need from you to make the shift you are looking for.
A culture for Success
When you create your culture with intent, you can harness the organisational energy to maximise the benefits to your business (and not work against it).
Create the Vision
Unicorn works very closely with you and your people to define the culture that will best serve you. We take time to understand where you are now, and where you want to be in terms of your:
Purpose
Skills & Knowledge
Clients
Resources
Market Position
Systems
Services
Structure
Products
Plans
Values
Understanding all aspects of your business means we can help you create the right culture for you.
Engage Leaders and Managers
Your people experience the organisation through their Leaders and Managers, so we really invest in this group early, assisting them to transition to the 'new world' in terms of their:
Perceptions | Actions | Approaches | Priorities | Focus | Attention | Communication Style | Behaviours | Messages | Engagement
Engage Everyone
It really does need to be everyone. Cultures are highly pervasive, and human beings are very resourceful at resisting change. There are an array of mechanisms and approaches we will show you to inform and involve everyone, ensuring engagement of your whole organisation. Your own change agents are critical in this, and Unicorn likes to work closely with these individuals, passing on our knowledge and skill to energise effective change.
Unicorn will work with you to design events that allow your people to:
To organise a free initial consultation and discussion about how we can help transform your culture, please contact Unicorn today.
Culture Change activities can involve:
Culture Analysis • Merging Cultures • Leadership & Management Development • Team Coaching • Workshops • Team Building • Training • Performance Culture • Team Coaching
One Team
New Team Relationships
If you invest energy in creating One Team at the beginning you really will reap the benefits in the long term. Unicorn has vast experience of complex collaborative relationships and knows what you need to get right on Day One, and where to invest further energy to ensure continued success.
Existing Team Relationships
'We need them to be One Team!' is the challenge many of our clients have brought to us. Unicorn has extensive experience of supporting (what can appear to be) disparate groups and individuals to find common ground and facilitate transition to a more collaborative and integrated approach.
Complex collaborative business arrangements are now common place, and Unicorn knows how to move your Organisations - Teams - Business - Alliance - JV - Project to One Team. This will enable you to realise the benefits you initially intended.
How does it work?
Unicorn will get involved in your business to understand the context, priorities and drivers from every perspective.
From here we will support you to develop a shared
Identity
Approach
Goal Structure
This lays the foundation for you to work as One Team to really deliver outstanding results.
Harnessing the Energy
When everyone is working collaboratively, energy is focussed on delivery, efficiency and quality, bringing you all greater levels of success.
To arrange a free initial consultation to find out how we can help you transition to One Team, contact Unicorn to arrange an appointment.
One Team activities can involve:
Culture Analysis • Culture Change • Merging Cultures • Leadership & Management Development • Team Coaching • Workshops • Team Building • Training • Engagement & Motivation • Performance • Coaching
Performance Culture
Unicorn understands how business cultures are created and established and where to invest effort to achieve significant shifts. We will work closely with you to define what High Performance looks like in your organisation and design an approach to enable the required effective transformation.
We will work with leaders and managers to embed micro behaviours and approaches that make performance focus and drive the norm in your organisation’s day to day. When these behaviours are consistently enacted by this population, it will take your organisation a significant part of the way to the performance level you require.
We work with the broader organisation too to support skill development and further enhancement of the performance culture.
Unicorn can support your transition to a Performance Culture where people:
Take Action to be Better
Know what is Important
Feel Confident
Continuously Improve
Question and Challenge
Take a Constructive Approach
Pull in the Same Direction
Acknowledge High Performance
Are Driven to Achieve Results
Talk about what works
Talk about what does not work
Committed to Shared Goals
Have Energy and Deliver
Are Engaged and Connected
Notice what gets the Best Results
Care about the Client Experience
Have a Great Attitude
Collaborate
Listen to Each Other
Hear Each Other
Performance Culture activities can involve:
High Performing Teams • Culture Change • Culture Analysis • Leadership & Management • Team Coaching • Performance • Workshops • Training • Wellbeing
Merging Cultures
You may know how to merge your systems and processes, and may wonder if a different approach needs to be taken to merging the cultures. There are many similarities, but there are also many differences - Unicorn understands what these are.
Merging organisational cultures is less about choosing ‘the best culture’ and imposing it, and more about deliberately creating a shared way of working that retains the strengths of both organisations while addressing aspects that could undermine the new organisation, or team.
A key to success is the ongoing involvement of team members in the whole journey of cultural evolution.
Our Approach
Our approach to integrating your cultures involves:
The first thing Unicorn will do is hear and explore your organisational stories. We need to know about the history, approaches and ways of being and doing of both your organisations.
We will then work with your Leaders and change agents to ascertain which aspects of this cultural mix you wish to keep and which you wish to let go.
Once your culture for the ‘new world’ is defined we work with you to design mechanisms and approaches to engage the new organisation.
We strongly encourage you to get in touch early as initial experiences lay the foundations for everything that follows. When merging cultures, the ‘when’ is equally important to the ‘how’ making timing critical to your success. It is likely your people will be experiencing a level of apprehension and anxiety, and will be highly sensitive to organisational messages. Unicorn will assist you to get clear on your messages early, easing the transition for your people.
Harnessing the Energy
The awareness of the need for change and desire to engage is never greater than at times of merger. Your people know this change is real and are waiting to hear what you want them to do differently. Unicorn can help you engage this energy at the right time and in the right way.
To organise a free initial consultation and discussion about realising the benefits of your merger, please contact Unicorn to arrange an appointment.
Merging Cultures can involve:
Culture Analysis • Culture Change • Workshops • Team Coaching • Leadership & Management Development • Team Building • Training • Performance • Coaching • Wellbeing
Culture Discovery
Unicorn uses different techniques to understand your culture so we can appreciate what works really well and figure out what would be good to change. We seek to understand it from different perspectives within the organisation (and sometimes from outside) so we can build a clear and thorough picture from all angles.
Areas we explore typically include:
Organisational Purpose
Markets & Clients / Customers
Organisational Energy & Capacity
Resource & Skill
Relationships, Interfaces & Engagement
Organisational Structures
Processes
Values
Outputs (Quality, Quantity etc.)
Attitudes & Behaviours
Our Approach
Unicorn Cultural Discovery can take the form of questionnaires (quantitative analysis) or a combination of focus groups and interviews (qualitative analysis). We can also combine these two methodologies. Each approach has its benefits and we will work with you to determine which will be the most beneficial to your organisation at this time.
Engagement
The process of engaging the organisation with change begins when individuals are first invited to take part in this activity. Unicorn will shape the Cultural Discovery to ensure people feel involved and included, giving them a real opportunity to be heard and understood. This will also raise the expectation that something is happening, laying the foundation for the next steps.
The first thing Unicorn will do is hear and explore your organisational stories. We need to know about the history, approaches and ways of being and doing of both your organisations.
This will be a creation exercise, the purpose of which is to identify activity for the future, continuing what is working well, and making changes in other areas. You are the experts on your organisation, so you are best placed to create the plans for change. Unicorn will create advantageous psychological environments to enable you to do this in the most constructive and engaged way.
We will be happy to meet with you for an informal discussion about how your organisation could benefit from this activity. Please contact Unicorn to make an appointment.
Culture Analysis activities can involve:
Culture Change • Merging Cultures • One Team Culture • Team Building
Engagement & Motivation
Unicorn will engage with you to create activities and approaches to really engage your people with your business and motivate them to achieve your goals.
Leadership
Leadership is the biggest influencing factor here, so we work closely with this group to create activities and approaches with depth and longevity.
It is critical that your leaders feel:
Make it Happen
Unicorn uses an array of tools and techniques to understand where the energy investment is needed.
These may include:
Unicorn often works with the whole organisation. We will explore different approaches with you, so you can discover what works best for you and your colleagues.
This will accelerate your ability to:
Engage with each other and the business
Motivate each other
Energise the business
Create a united approach
Commit to direction and delivery
Agree what brilliant looks like
Organisational Development
Unicorn Consulting is an Organisational Development (OD) Consultancy, and OD is the umbrella term for everything we do. OD can be defined as deliberately planned effort to increase your organisation's relevance and viability.
Our Approach
Unicorn will work in an integrated way with your people to shape the interventions and activities which will bring you success. Our starting point will be your purpose, values, deliverables and goals and exploration of how these are expressed throughout your business. We will want to understand how your business works and how it is experienced by your Stakeholders.
We have an array of approaches available to us, and we will work with you to decide which interventions will get you the biggest impact.
Interventions include :
Performance Culture
Merging Cultures
Culture Analysis
One Team Culture
Vision & Strategy
Communication
Engagement & Motivation
High Performance Teams
Leadership & Management
Team Coaching
Team Building
Workshops
Training
Psychometrics
Coaching
Performance
360
Culture Creation
Development Centres
Talent Management
Collaborative Working
Collaborative Performance
Wellbeing
Competency Frameworks
Benefits
Unicorn's holistic and integrated approach to OD will transform your organisation, harnessing the collective talent with strong Leadership and a Performance Culture.
To organise a free initial consultation and discussion about how we can help develop your organisation, please contact Unicorn.
Associated Links
Culture Change • Performance Culture • Leadership & Management Development • Culture Analysis • Engagement and Motivation • Team Coaching • Workshops • Team Building • Training • Collaborative Working